ntroduction to social dimensions of education

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I. INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIAL DIMENSIONS

OF EDUCATION



1. Consensus Theory

• Shared norms and values are fundamental tosociety, focus on social order based on tacitagreements, and view social change as

occurring in a slow and orderly fashion.• It emphasizes social order, stability, and social

regulation.

•

It examines value integration in society. – Consensus - is a general agreement among all

members of a particular society.



2. Conflict Theory

• Conflict is a clash between ideas, principles, andpeople.

• Conflict Theory focuses on the struggle of socialclasses to maintain dominance and power insocial systems

• Emphasize the dominance of some social groupsby others , see social order as based onmanipulation and control by dominant groups ,

and view social change as occurring rapidly and ina disorderly fashion as subordinate groupsoverthrow dominant groups (Ritzer, 2000)



• It focuses on the heterogenous nature of societyand the differential distribution of political andsocial power. There is a struggle between socialclasses and class conflicts between the powerful

and less powerful groups. (Horton & Hunt, 1984)• Assumes that social behavior is best understood

in terms of conflict or tensions betweencompeting groups.

• It grew out of the work of Karl Marx and focuseson struggle of social classes to maintaindominance and power social system



• Conflict Theorists are interested in how

society’s institutions- the family, government,

religion, education, and media – may help to

maintain the privileges of some groups and

keep others in a subservient position. Their

emphasis on social change and redistribution

of resources makes conflict theorists moreradical and activist than functionalists

(Scaefer, 2003)



• The consensus and conflict sociological theories arereflected in the works of certain dominant and otherprominent social theorists such as;

– Karl Marx

– Emile Durkheim – Max Weber

– Talcott Parsons

– Robert Merton

– Louis Althusser

– Ralph Dahrendorf

– Herbert Mead

– Herbert Blumer



• The works of Marx in his early years wasinterpreted by some social theorists asemphasizing the role of human beings in

social conflict. They explained change asemerging from the crisis between humanbeings and their society. They argued thatMarx’s theory was a theory characterized by

class conflicts or the conflict between thebourgeoisie (rich owners) and the proletariate(poor workers).



• Max Weber argues that schools teach and maintainparticular (status culture) that is, groups in society withsimilar interests and positions in the status ofhierarchy.

•Education systems may train individuals in specialitiesto fill needed positions or prepare “cultivatedindividuals” those who stand above others because oftheir superior knowledge and reasoning abilities.Individuals who had access to this type of education in

early China were from the educated elite, thusperpetuating their family status culture (Sadovnik etal,1994).



3. Structural Functionalism• A dominant sociological theory for many years according to Talcott

Parsons and Robert Merton. However in the last three decades ithas declined dramatically in importance (Chriss,1995)

• Parsons’ structural functionalism has four functional imperativesembodied in his AGIL scheme:

– Adaptation: a system must cope with external situational

exigencies. It must adapt to its environment and adaptenvironment to its needs.

– Goal attainment – a system must define and achieve its primarygoals.

– Integration – a system must regulate the interrelationship of itscomponent parts. It must also manage the relationship amongthe other three functional imperatives (AGL).

– Latency (pattern maintenance) – a system must furnish,maintain, and renew both the motivation of individuals & thecultural patterns.



• Parsons designed the AGIL scheme to be used atall levels in this theoretical system – Action system – handles the adaptation function by

adjusting to and transforming the external world.

– Personality system – performs the goal attainmentfunction by defining system goals and mobilizingresources to attain them.

– Social system – copes with the integration function bycontrolling its component parts.

– Cultural system – performs the latency function byproviding actors with the norms and values thatmotivate them for action (Ritzer, 2000)



Structure of the General Action System

Cultural system Social system

Action system Personality

system



Parsons sets of assumptions re-

problem of order

• Systems have the property of order and interdependenceof parts.

• System tends toward self-maintaining order, or equilibrium

• The system may be static or involved in an ordered process

of change• The nature of one part of the system has an impact on the

form that the order parts can take

• Systems maintain boundaries with their environments

• Allocation and integration are two fundamental processes

necessary for a given state of equilibrium.• Systems tend toward self-maintenance of the relationships

of parts to the whole, control of environmental variations,& control of tendencies to change the system from within.



Parsons conception of the social

system

• Social system begins at the micro level withinteraction between ego and alter ego,defined as the most elementary form of the

social system.• He described a social system as something

which consists of a plurality of individualactors interacting with each other in asituation which has at least a physical orenvironmental aspect.



Functional requisites of a social system

1. Social system must be structured so that they operate

compatibly with other systems.

2. To survive, the social system must have the requisite from

other systems

3. The system must meet a significant proportion of the needs

of its actors.

4. The system must elicit adequate participation from its

members.

5. It must have at least a minimum of control over potentially

disruptive behavior.

6. If conflict becomes sufficiently disruptive, it must be

controlled.

7. Finally, a social system requires a language in order to

survive.



Component parts of a social structure

families

associations

countries

neighborschurches

schools

banks



Key principles

of the

functionalist

theory

Interdependency

Functions ofsocial

structure &

culture

Equilibrium

Consensus &cooperation



• Interdependency – one of the most important principlesof functionalist theory is that society is made up ofinterdependent parts.

• Functions of structure and control – Closely related to interdependency is the idea that

each part of the social system exists because it servessome function. This principle is applied byfunctionalists to both social structure and culture.• Social structure – refers to the organization of society

including its institution, its social positions, and itsdistribution of resources.

• Culture – refers to a set of beliefs, language, rules, values,and knowledge held in common by members of a society



• Consensus and cooperation

– Its key principle is that “societies have a tendency

toward consensus”; that is a certain basic values

that nearly everyone in the society agrees upon.• Equilibrium

– This view holds that once a society has achievedthe form that is best adapted to its institution, it

has reach a state of balance, and it will remain inthat condition until it is force to change by somenew condition.



Social structure provide

preset patterns which

evolve to meet human

needs

Maintenance

of society

Stability, order,

& harmony



• Structural functionalism

– Puts emphasis on social order and social stability not onconflict.

– It claims that society is made up of different institutions ororganizations that work together in cooperation to achievetheir orderly relationship and to maintain social order andsocial stability.

– Parsons believed that education is a vital part of a modernsociety, a society that differs considerably from all previoussocieties. From this perspective, SCHOOLING performs an

important function in the development and maintenance ofmodern democratic society, especially with regard to equalityof opportunity for all citizens. Thus, in modern societies,education becomes the key institution in a meritocraticselection process.



3. INTERACTIONIST THEORY

• Are critiques and extensions of the functionalist andconflict perspectives.

• Two Basic forms of Social Interaction1. Symbolic interactionism views the self as socially

constructed in relation to social forces and socialstructures and the product of ongoing negotiations ofmeanings. Thus, the social self is an active product ofhuman agency rather than a deterministic product ofsocial structure. It requires mental processes.

2. Non-Symbolic Interactionism – it does not involvethinking.

– The basic is a result of interaction between individualsmediated by symbols in particular, language.



Principles of Symbolic Interactionism

• Human beings unlike lower animals are endowed

with a capacity for thought.

• The capacity for thought is shaped by social

interaction.

• In social interaction, people learn the meanings

and the symbols that allow them to exercise their

distinctively human capacity for thought.• Meanings and symbols allow people to carry on

distinctively human action & interaction



• People are able to modify or alter meanings andsymbols that they use in action and interaction on thebasis of their interpretation of the situation.

• People are able to make this modifications andalterations because in part of their ability to interactwith themselves, which allow them to examinepossible courses of action, assess their relativeadvantages and disadvantages, and then choose one.

• The intertwined patterns of action and interactionmake up groups and societies.



Mead’s approach to symbolic interaction rested on threebasic premises

1. People act toward the things they encounter on thebasis of what those things mean to them.

2. We learn what things are by observing how otherpeople respond to them, that is through socialinteraction.

3. As a result of ongoing interaction, the sounds (orwords), gestures, facial expressions, & body postureswe use in dealing with others acquire symbolicmeanings that are shared by people who belong tothe same culture.



• The importance of thinking to symbolicinteractionists is reflected in their views onobjects.

•Objects are seen simply as things “out there” inthe real world. What is significant is, the way theyare defined by actors.

• Three types of objects: (Blumer)

– Physical objects ( chair, tree)

– Social objects ( mother, child)

– Abstract objects ( ideas, moral principles)



• Looking- glass Self

– means we see ourselves as others see

us. –This concept was developed by the

early symbolic interactionist theorist:

Charles Horton Cooley.



SUMMARY:

• Education is one of the major institutions that constitutesociety. There are various social science theories that relateto education – consensus, conflict, structural functionalism,and interaction theories.

• Conflict theory deals with the emergence of conflict withina particular human society.

• Consensus is a concept of society in which the absence ofconflict is seen as the equilibrium state of society based ona general or widespread agreement among all members ofa particular society.

• Consensus and conflict theories are reflected in the worksof certain dominant social theorists: Karl Marx, EmileDurkheim, Max Weber, and other social theorists.



• Structural functionalism is concerned with thefunctions of schooling in the maintenance of socialorder. It asserts that society is made up of differentinstitutions or organizations that work together in

cooperation to achieve orderly relationship and tomaintain social order and social stability.

• Symbolic interactionists are interested not simply insocialization but in interactions between students and

students and between students and teachers. All typesof interactions refine our ability to think.

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