Social Dimensions of Education (Introduction)

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SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF EDUCATION

JOSEPHINE PINEDA DASIG


Introduction to the Social Dimensions of Education

A. Y. 2012-2013

Second Semester


Opening Prayer :C:\Users\

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Learning Objectives:

• Differentiate the various social science theories

• Explain the relationship of the various social theories- the conflict, consensus, functionalism and interactionist theories- and educational systems

• Discuss how the various social theories affect the functions of schools


Introduction:

• Sociology, the scientific

study of human social behavior.

As the study of humans in their

collective aspect, sociology is concerned with all group activities: economic, social, political, and religious.

• Sociologists see education as one major institutions that constitutes society.


While theories guide research and policy formulation in the sociology of education, they also provide logical explanations for why things happen the way they do.

• These theories help sociologists understand educational systems.


Discussion:

Consensus and Conflict Theory• Consensus is a general or widespread

agreement among all members of a particular society.

• Conflict is a clash between ideas and principles and people.

Dahrendorf (1968 ) Ritzer (2000)


CONSENSUS

• Shared norms and values as fundamental to society

• Focus on social order based on tacit agreement

• Social change occurs in slow and orderly fashion

CONFLICT

• Emphasize the dominance of some social groups

• See social order as manipulation and control by dominant groups

• Social change occurs rapidly and in disorderly fashion as subordinate groups overthrow dominant groups

Discussion:


CONSENSUS

• Examine value integration in society

• Absence of conflict is seen as the equilibrium sets on a society based on a general or widespread agreement among all members of a particular society

CONFLICT

• Examine conflicts of interest and coercion that holds society together

• Can be COVERT or OVERT

• Focus on the heterogeneous nature of society and the differential distribution of political and social power

Discussion:


Discussion:• Schools contribute to the

unequal distribution of people into jobs in society.

• Powerful members-best positions

• Less powerful groups (minority, ethnic, racial, women) - lowest rank

What is the impact of conflict theory in the Philippine education system?


Discussion:• Education plays in

maintaining the prestige, power, and economic and social position of the dominant group in society.

What is the role of education in assuming the conflict theory?


Discussion:• Max Weber- schools

teach and maintain particular “status cultures”

• Schools are homogenous in their student bodies.

• Education system trains individuals in specialties to fill needed positions or prepare “cultivated individuals”

Status cultures refer to groups in society with similar interests and positions in the status hierarchy.


Discussion:• Conflict theory assumes

that social behavior is best understood in terms of conflict or tensions between competing group.

• Conflicts need not be violent; it can take the form of labor negotiations, party politics, competition between religious groups

How do people or an organization settle a conflict ?


Discussion:

• The conflict theorists are interested in how society’s institutions-the family, government, religion, education, and the media-may help o maintain the privileges of some groups and keep others in subservient position.

• Emphasis on social change and redistribution of resources makes conflict theories more “radical” and “activist”

» (Schaefer, 2003)


Discussion:

• The consensus theory is a sociological perspective or collection of theories, in which social order and stability/social regulation form the base of emphasis.

• It is concerned with the maintenance or continuation of social order of society, in relation to accepted norms, values, rules, and regulations of society

»


Discussion:The Conflict Model


Discussion:

The proponents of consensus and conflict sociological and social theories are:

Karl Marx Emile Durkheim Max Weber Talcott Parsons & Robert Merton Louis Althusser & Ralph Dahrendorf herbert Mead & Herbert Blumer


Discussion:Structural Functionalism

Structural Functionalism states that society is made up of various institutions that work together in cooperation.

Parsons’ structural functionalism has four functional imperatives

also known

as AGIL

scheme.



1. Adaptation – a system must cope with external situational exigencies. It must adapt to its environment and adapt environment to its needs.

2. Goal attainment- a system must define and achieve its primary goals.



3. Integration- a system must regulate the interrelationship of its component parts. It must also manage the relationship among the other three functional imperatives (A,G,L)

4, Latency (pattern maintenance)- a system must furnish, maintain and renew both the motivation of individuals and the cultural patterns that create and sustain the motivation.


Discussion:Structure of the General Action System (Ritzer 2000)

Cultural system(Latency Function) providing actors with the norms and values that motivate them for action

Social system(Integration Function) controlling its components parts

Action system(Adaptation Function) adjusting to and transforming to the external world

Personality system(Goal Attainment) defining system goals and mobilizing resources to attain them



Parson’s answer to the problem of order in Structural Functionalism

1. Property of order and interdependence of parts

2. Self-maintaining order or equilibrium

3. Maybe static or involved

4. Nature of one part has an impact on the forms that the other parts can take.



Parson’s answer to the problem of order in Structural Functionalism

5. Maintain boundaries with their environments.

6. Allocation and integration are two fundamental process necessary for a given equilibrium

7. Self-maintenance involving the maintenance of relationships of parts to whole



Parson’s social system begins at the micro level with interaction between the ego and alter – ego, defined as the most elementary form of the social system. He was interested in such a large-scale components of social systems as collectiveness, norms and values. Parsons was not simply a structuralist but also a FUNCTIONALIST.



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 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.



Functional Requisites of a social system

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.

-Talcott Parsons



The functionalist perspective is primarily concerned with why society assumes a particular form.

It assumes that any society takes its particular form because that form works well for the society given its particular situation.

Societies exist under a wide range of environmental situations.



Key principles of the functionalist theory by Farley 1990.

1.Interdependency

2.Functions of social structure and culture

3.Consensus and cooperation

4.Equilibrium




1.Interdependency – every part of society is dependent to some extent on the other parts of the society, so that what happens at one place in society has important effects elsewhere.




2. Functions of Social Structure and Culture

Social Structure refers to the organization of society, including its institutions, its social positions and distribution of resources.

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




3. Consensus and Cooperation – societies have a tendency toward consensus; that is to have certain basic values that nearly everyone in the society agrees upon. Society tends toward consensus to achieve cooperation.




4. Equilibrium is a characteristic of a society when it has achieved the form that is best adapted to its situation.

New technology, a change in climate, or contact with an outside society are all conditions to which a society might have to adapt.



The Structural- Functional Model ( Ritzer, 2000)



• In the analysis of living organism, the scientist’s task is to identify the various parts (structures) and determine how they work (function).

• In sociology, sociologist tries to identify the structure of society and how they function, hence the name structural functio-nalism.

(Javier, et al., 1994)



• The component parts of social structure:• Families• Neighbors• Associations• Schools• Churches• Banks• Countries



• Functionalist sociologists stress

• interdependence of the social system

• View society as a kind of machine

• Maintain social order by stressing consensus and agreement

• Understand that change is inevitable

• Argue that without a common bond to unite groups, society will disintegrate



• Parsons believes that education is a vital part of modern society, a society that differs considerably from all previous societies.

• Schooling performs an important function in the development and maintenance of a modern, democratic society, especially with regard to equality of opportunity for all citizens.



• Thus, in modern societies education becomes the key institution in a meritocratic selection process.

• Education also plays a significant function in the maintenance of the modern democratic and technocratic society.

• Schools teach work skills and teach students how to learn so they may adapt to new work roles and requirements.


Discussion:Interactionist Theories

• Interactionist theories are critiques and extensions of the functionalist and conflict perspectives.

• This level of analysis helps us to understand education in the “ big picture”.

• Interactionist theories attempt to make the “commonplace strange” by turning on their heads everyday taken-for-granted behaviors and interactions in schools.



• Symbolic Interactionism views the self as socially constructed in relation to social forces and social structures and the product of ongoing negotiations of meanings.

• Thus, the social self is an active product of human agency rather than a deterministic product of social structure



• Symbolic Interactionists are not only interested in socialization but also in interaction in general which is of “vital importance in its own right”.

• Interaction is the process in which the ability to think is both developed and expressed.



Principles of Symbolic Interactionism

1.Human beings are endowed with the capacity for thought.

2.The capacity for thought us shaped by social interaction

3.In social interaction, people learn the meanings and the symbols that allow them to exercise their distinctively human capacity for thought.




4. Meanings and symbols allow people to carry on distinctively human action and intercation.

5. People are able to modify or alter meanings and symbols that they use in action and interaction on the basis of their interpretation of the situation.




6. People are able to make these modifications and alterations because, in part, of their ability to interact with themselves, which allows them ton examine possible courses of action, assess their relative advantages and disadvantages, and then choose one.

7. The intertwined patterns of action and interaction make up groups and societies.



Mead’s differentiation between the basic forms of Social Interaction are:

Non-Symbolic Interactionism does not involve thinking.

Symbolic Interactionism requires mental processes



Mead’s approach to symbolic interaction rested on three basic premises.

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

2.We learn what things are by observing how other people respond to them through social interaction.

3.The result of ongoing interaction we use in dealing with others acquire symbolic meanings that are shared by the people who belong to the same culture.



The importance of thinking to symbolic interactionists is reflected in their views on objects.

Blumer differentiates among thee types of objects:

1.Physical objects- chairs, trees

2.Social objects- student, mother, teacher

3.Abstract objects- idea or a moral principle

Objects are seen simply as things, the greatest significance is the way they are defined by actors.



Charles Horton Cooley developed a concept that has long been used by symbolic interactionist and it is the LOOKING- GLASS-SELF it means “that we see ourselves as others see us”

We come to develop a self – image on the basis of the messages we get from others, as we understand them.


REFLECTION

Schools play a significant role in educating the Filipino citizens . It is our duty as teachers to really inculcate the value of fairness and honesty to our students. We also need to teach them how to learn, so they may be able to adapt in any situations/events that they will be presented. The looking –glass-self simply tells us that we must be cautious in giving remarks to others. Let us all be generous in giving positive comments and lessen the words that will hurt others.


LEARNING TASKS 1

1. Use a Venn diagram in comparing consensus and conflict theories.

2. Define the following terms:

structure, structural, structuralism ,function, functional and functionalism.

3. Interview a teacher or a friendon the influence of the conflict and consensus theories on his/her work as a teacher. Submit a write up of the interview


REFERENCES

1. Social Dimensions of Education, Violeta A.Vega

2. Social Dimensions of Philippine Education, Dr. Adelaida Bago

3. www.google.com.

4. www.wikipedia.com

Social Dimensions of Education (Introduction)

Technology

structural

structural

structural

interactionist

structural

social dimensions

social system

social structure