MODULE 1: Introduction to the Social Dimensions of Education

The social dimension of education goes far beyond interpersonal relationships and developing the social skills which will support students throughout their lives. Education itself supports the social system; it supports its citizens' collective ideals and goals. On one hand, education advocates consensus in social thought and cooperation. On the other hand, education encourages people to examine the places where a society may need improvement. Social science theories related to education provide a helpful framework for examining the social dimension and its meaning.

Lesson 1: Society and Education

According to sociologists, a society is a group of people with common territory, interaction, and culture. Social groups consist of two or more people who interact and identify with one another.

Territory: Most countries have formal boundaries and territory that the world recognizes as theirs. However, a society's boundaries don't have to be geopolitical borders, such as the one between the United States and Canada. Instead, members of a society, as well as nonmembers, must recognize particular land as belonging to that society.

Interaction: Members of a society must come in contact with one another. If a group of people within a country has no regular contact with another group, those groups cannot be considered part of the same society. Geographic distance and language barriers can separate societies within a country.

Culture: People of the same society share aspects of their culture, such as language or beliefs. Culture refers to the language, values, beliefs, behavior, and material objects that constitute a people's way of life. It is a defining element of society.

Society may be viewed as a system of interrelated mutually dependent parts which cooperate (more or less) to preserve a recognizable whole and to satisfy some purpose or goal. To perform its functions every society sets up various institutions. Five major complexes of institutions are identified: familial institutions, religious institutions, educational institutions, economic institutions and political institutions. These institutions form sub-systems within social system or larger society.

Education and society both are inter-related or inter-dependent because both mutually influence each other i.e. complimentary. Without education, how we can build an ideal society and without society how we can organize education system systematically that means both are needed to understand.

Lesson 2: Sociological theories

A sociological theory is a set of ideas that provides an explanation for human society.Theories are selective in terms of their priorities and perspectives and the data they define as significant. As a result they provide a particular and partial view of reality. Sociological theories can be grouped together according to a variety of criteria. The most important of these is the distinction between Structural and Social action theories

In sociology, a few theories provide broad perspectives that help explain many different aspects of social life, and these are called paradigms. Paradigms are philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them. Three paradigms have come to dominate sociological thinking, because they provide useful explanations: structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism.

1. Structural Functionalism Theory

Structural Functionalism is a macro theory that looks at how all structures or institutions in society work together. Examples of structures or institutions of society include: education, health care, family, legal system, economy, and religion.

Example: The government provides education for the children of the family, which in turn pays taxes on which the state depends to keep itself running.

Key Concepts:

• Society is seen as an integrated whole, where all parts are interconnected.
• Every structure in society works together to play a vital function to maintain stability and the well-being of its members.
• This theory focuses on the roles people perform and the idea that behaviour follows established norms, which helps to maintain social order.
• Institutions and people are interconnected; when something shifts, either in the institutions or in the people, the other has to change or compensate to restore the equilibrium.
• It can help to think of it this way: functionalists compare society to the human body; each part of society serves a function, just like our organs do.

Key Figure:

Emile Durkheim:1858-1917

As a researcher and a theorist, Emile Durkheimis credited as the one who made studying sociology a science. He did this through systematic examination of the ways in which social institutions and human beings interact with each other and influence each other. Because he looked at the ways in which social institutions or structures function, this theory became known as structural functionalism.

1. Conflict Theory

Conflict Theory is a macro approach that examines the role that power plays in society and how it can be used to have control over others.

Example:

Part of the backlash following the 2008 economic crisis, Occupy Wall Street was a two-month political protest on Wall Street, New York. Its slogan, "We Are the 99%," referred to the increasing wealth and income discrepancy between the wealthiest 1% of the population and the rest of the country.

Key Concepts:

• Society is organized into two groups: those with and those without power.
• Those with the most power have the most wealth, prestige, and privileges, and therefore are able to limit the less powerful. Exploitation can result.
• There is constant tension between the classes of society. Conflict theorists ask for whom is society functioning? For whom is it not?
• Society is constantly experiencing change due to competition over resources, as observed during the Industrial Revolution, where the small number of wealthy factory and business owners were referred to as the bourgeoisie. The working class were known as the proletariat. Because they did not have wealth nor power, the proletariat were really at the mercy of the bourgeoisie who were maintaining their own position of power. For more information, check outWikipedia.

Key Figure:

Karl Marx:1818-1883. Marx observed power structures in society. He saw the distribution of power as being top heavy; that is, power was tightly controlled by the few individuals at the top who had money and influence. They constructed society to keep themselves in power and to minimize the influence of the masses, creating class conflict.

1. Symbolic Interaction

Symbolic Interactionism is a micro theory that concentrates on how individuals attach meaning to situations and how it influences behaviour.

Example: The American flag to some is a symbol of freedom, hope, and pride. However, for others, the American flag can be seen as a symbol of oppression. Depending on your interaction with the American flag, the meaning behind it will be different.

Key Concepts:

• This theory focuses on how the human mind intervenes between what we observe and how we act.
• The human mind is impacted by life experiences and personal events.
• Behaviour is based on people's thoughts of themselves and of others.

Key Figure:

George Herbert Mead: 1863 - 1931.

George Mead believed that individuals create meaning through their interactions with the world around them. Specifically, a person develops a self-concept based on the ways in which he or she has interacted with others. This self-concept then also defines how the individual acts and behaves in society.

Lesson 3: Social Theories and Education

The functionalist theory focuses on the ways that universal education serves the needs of society. Functionalists first see education in its manifest role: conveying basic knowledge and skills to the next generation. Durkheim (the founder of functionalist theory) identified the latent role of education as one of socializing people into society's mainstream and the transmission of core values and social control.

Conflict theory sees the purpose of education as maintaining social inequality and preserving the power of those who dominate society. Conflict theorists examine the same functions of education as functionalists. Functionalists see education as a beneficial contribution to an ordered society; however, conflict theorists see the educational system as perpetuating the status quo by dulling the lower classes into being obedient workers.

symbolic interactionists limit their analysis of education to what they directly observe happening in the classroom. They focus on how teacher expectations influence student performance, perceptions, and attitudes.

Summary:

The overarching purpose of social foundations study is to bring intellectual insights to develop interpretive, normative and critical perspectives on education, both inside and outside ofEducation does not only transmit the past cultural heritage ,it is meant to help in the reconstruction of our modes of living .It may help in developing new social patterns in the areas of health, leisure, vocation and family life.

Module reference please see the above.

Research on the three social theories covered in this Module then do

the following:

Question

Opinion on Philippine politics using each of the three theories.

( A paragraph for structural functionalism, conflict and symbolic interactionism

theories).