1. INTRODUCTION
A society is a group of organized
individuals. This organization helps the people in maintaining themselves and
provides them security. It has been pointed out by Linton that “ Societies are
functional, operative units. In spite of the fact that they are made up of
individuals they work as wholes. The interest of each of their component
members are subordinated to those of the entire group. Societies do not
hesitate to eliminate some of these members when this is to the advantage of
the society as a whole.
Education as a social science has
assumed importance in modern times because it not only helps in understanding
the status quo but also can serve the state and society by its power to change
human behavior. Education at the individual level tried to make patent what is
latent. The function of education is to develop all the powers of an
individual. Education aims at physical, mental, emotional, social, and moral
development of an individual. But when we try to know whether the moral
development of a person has been satisfactory we have to examine it in a social
context.
We have to determine the
development of an individual on the basis of social standards. Thus the purpose
of education is twofold. It has to develop and modify individual personality
behavior in terms of the culture and society in which that individual has to
live.
2. MEANING AND DEFINITION OF
EDUCATION
Education is a processes which
draws out the best in man with the aim of producing a well – balanced personality, culturally
refined emotionally stable, ethically sound, logically correct, mentally
alert., intellectually competent, technically advanced, morally upright,
physically strong, socially efficient, spiritually mature, vocationally self
sufficient and internationally liberal.
According to Dr. Radhakrishnan,
Education as the training of the
intellect , refinement of the heart and discipline of the spirit.
Gandhiji said, By Education I
mean an all – around drawing out of the best in child and man- body , mind. And
spirit.
3.MEANING AND DEFINITION OF
SOCIOLOGY
Sociology is the science of the
social life of man and his society. These are central object of all
sociological studies. The nature and characteristic of the object of study cast
their reflections on the science of sociology. The complexities of human inter-
relationship is based, by some mysterious law of nature, upon some very simple
and unchanging foundations. It is the study of behavior of the people in groups
and of the influence of the groups on people. The subject of sociology is
concerned with social problems, collective behaviour, social institutions, and
the socialization of human wants and the means of their satisfaction. However
this it must not be understood that sociology only concerns itself with the
major question of human society. In fact each and every however minor and the
human social problem may be sociology tries o find a way out.
According to Max Weber: Sociology
is an attempt to account for the origin, growth, structure and activities of
society by the operation of physical causes working together in the process of
evolution.
Emile Durkheim: Sociology is the
science of collective representation.
4. SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
Sociology of education looks at
education as evolving from and altering the social environment. From a
sociological point of view, education is the organized and regulated process by
which society transfers knowledge and values to groom young people for adult
social roles. Sociology of education is part of social science largely
concerned with the mass educational systems of modern societies. It covers
sociological issues such as social stratification, socialization, economic
development and culture.
French scholar Emile Durkheim
(1858 to 1917), is regarded as the father of modern social science. In his
view, educational systems are mirrors of society, which has an in-built
tendency to reproduce commonly accepted sets of values, norms and beliefs. A
system of education is a product of collective thought and follows the changes
of social values. As teachers instill knowledge and ideals of society into the
students, changes in both the content and form of teaching reflects underlying
changes in the wider social and cultural context. Durkheim also believed
society was the source of morality and that society could be reformed through
moral education. He viewed morality as comprised of three elements: discipline,
attachment (commitment to social groups) and autonomy (individual responsibility).
According to Durkheim, education provides children with these moral tools
needed to function in society.
Basic theories and research in
sociology of education have explicitly or implicitly focused on the role of
education in modern society. In practical terms, studies examine how much
education has fulfilled its major goal of creating productive and adaptive
citizens and, in a wider context, has contributed to positive change in
society.
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5.
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RELATION BETWEEN SOCIOLOGY AND
EDUCATION
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The
relation between sociology and education has always been a subject of debate.
One concept says education is meant to overcome the inequalities of society
whereas the other says the prime function of education is to promote the
equilibrium status of the society, i.e. It
tries to maintain equality/inequality whatever state is prevalent in the
society.
Both the theory has a role to
play in defining the relation between sociology and education. This relation
plays a great role in learning outcome. So it is a matter of great interest for
the people like you; who is directly linked to educational institutions.
6.
BASIC CONCEPTS AND THEORIES OF SOCIOLOGY AND
SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
6.1 Interactionsit theory
Theory
is based on the assumption that society is involved in interaction by which
individuals actively construct reality in everyday life.
6.2
Major characteristics of the theory are:
1. Focuses on how people
interact in their everyday lives and how they make sense of this interaction.
2.Focuses on individuals’
interaction with one another.
3. Interactionist is concerned with the nature of daily interaction on the
society and how this interaction is perceived by people
4. They study individuals and small groups rather than large scale social
structures. They observe human behavior at such close range; interactionists
tend to see people as having more freedom of actions –more freedom from the
constraints of society.
6.3
Important principles of this theory are:
Individual’s interaction
enables him to think. Individual’s action and interaction develop into groups
and societies. Individuals with similar culture and background will define and
interpret social situations in similar ways because of their similar
socialization, experiences and expectations. In education, this theory focuses
on the common, ordinary interactions between members in a school such as among
peer groups, teachers and students, teachers and principals to explain the
following aspects, namely:
(a). student’s achievement (b). students’s attitudes (c). student’s values (d).
student’s self concept and aspirations,(e). socioeconomic status,(f). grouping
of students
7.
FUNCTIONALIST THEORY
Fucntionalist
theory (Emile Durkhiem) This
theory is based on the assumption that a society is a complex system which
works together to promote stability. It emphasizes the way in which each part
of a society contributes to the whole so as to maintain stability. According to
this approach:
Society and institutions in society (such as education) are interdependent. Society
is much like the human body. Like parts of body, the parts of society work
together in a systematic way that is usually good for the whole. Society is
represented by six major units/institutions namely, family, religion,
education, politics, economics and health.
Every unit must work and contribute to the functioning of the whole society.
7.1
Important aspects of this theory are
1. It consists of functions and structures –
which contribute to the stability of society.
2. Integration – between all
units and institutions in the society.
3. Maintain the stability in
society.
4. Encourages changes to
promote progress in society.
5. Importance of formal and non
formal education in the socialization process of educating children; to uphold
values and norms of the society. As for the functionalist perspective, the
school serves very similar functions and the five main social functions of
education have been identified as (a) socialization, (b) social control, (c)
selection and allocation, (d) assimilation of newcomers and (e) social
innovation and change.
8. CONFLICT THEORY (MAX, WEBER )
This theory is based
on the assumption that society is a complex system characterized by inequality
and conflicts that generate social change. According to this theory, there are
3 important elements: conflict, change and force. The conflict theory
emphasizes on the struggle over limited resources, power and prestige as a
permanent aspect of societies and a major source of social change. Based on the
assumption that the parts of sociology, far from being smoothly functioning
units of a whole, actually are in conflict with one another.
8.1
Characteristics of the theory
1.Change is always
inevitable . Existence of different social class in society results inconstant conflict
amongst the different social groups. Each tries to champion its own cause. The
most powerful group will try to force its values on others. This conflict of
interest will lead to changes in society.
2. Constant state of
tension results in struggle that finally cause change in the society.
3. Existence of
tension and conflict in society and its parts created by the competing interest
of individuals and groups.
9.
ISSUES OF SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
Educational institution is a
good sample of society. It is a miniature form of society. We can find various
groups like group of learners (boys and girls), group of teacher (male and
female), and group of non teaching staff. Various roles are played in
educational institutions like Evaluation (peer evaluation, tutor evaluation,
evaluation of teacher by learner etc).
Teacher play role of
Judge(evaluation),helper (help learner in achieving objective ),detective(find
out the law breaker),Idol(promoting values).The environment of educational
institution is a complex one and various issues like gender, Social background,
language technology, ideology interplay in a complex social milieu at
micro(within institution) and macro (broad perspective) level. Let us go
through these issues in brief. This will be useful in arranging effective
learning experience.
9.1
Language
A language is a set of visual,
auditory, symbols (gesture and posture) of communication. We know that learning
is a process resulting from the communication between learner and teacher. So
we can understand what importance language have in education. We can see hues
and cry over the language issue in schools. In India we opt to put our children
in English medium schools though our mother tongue is not English. Non English
speaking student need extra effort to get the better results.
9.2
Technology
Technology is the use of
science. This means communication plays a vital role in education. Various
teaching strategies need electronics gadgets, electricity. Print material,
educational CDs, audio and video learning materials are used for teaching.
Libraries in institutions are getting digital having access to web. Evaluation
of learners can be done in Computers.
But what is the sociological
aspect of technology. The access to these technologies is not equal in the
society. Very few percentage of people in India have access to these
technological advancement. In India most of the government primary schools even
do not have electricity. 9.3
9.3
Family structure
The concept of nuclear Family
is prevalent now days in India. The concept of combined family is loosing its
identity. The percent of family having both parents working is getting higher.
They also work in shifts. Parents have very little time for their children. In
this case the self study at home is not done well. As a teacher you can
identify the family structure of the learner and plan learning activities
accordingly.
9.
4 Ideologies
The term ideology of education
is a complex one. This can be defined as the set of common agreed ideas and
beliefs based on which the formal arrangement for education is made. Ideology
is deciding factor at every level of educational activities. Ideology affects
curriculum, flow of order in institution, teaching methods. Curriculum have the
strong impression of idealism pragmatism , Essentialism, reconstructions,
Existentialism. Generally no single philosophy provides the curriculum mixture
of philosophies guides the curriculum. Any educational institution can have any
Teaching learning strategies or the mixture of them.
Teacher
centered strategy
(word of mouth, demonstration)
Learner centered strategy (open
school/university, Computer assisted learning, individual project, Blended learning,
flexi-study)
Group learning strategy Experiential learning strategy (play
and learn, discovery learning, role play, simulation method).
9.5
Gender
Gender differs from sex. Sex is
a biological state that defines being male or female. Gender is the social
difference a person face due to his sex. Ours is a male dominated society and
this reflects in educational institutions also. We have some of the indexes
which indicate the social bases in all sphere of education in the language and
literature texts male female ratio of learners’ teachers.
9.6
Cultural diversity
India is a multicultural society
as a teacher and administrator we must think for our action with this
perspectives. Recently we have seen lot of turmoil on the issue of text books
having matters hurting some section of society. We must think every action for
its social consequences. Dress code (veil, skirts, saaries), ornaments (bindi,
ear rings, nose rings, mehndi) etc may be the concerns of cultural diversity in
educational institutions. Best practice should be to hurt no one.
10. SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS AND
ACHIEVEMENT
Given the centrality of
educational attainment in the general attainment process, researchers have
focused on the substantial relationship between socioeconomic status and
educational attainment. The best predictor of educational attainment is
academic achievement the school system consistently rewards academic
performance and in that sense is meritocratic. Regardless of academic
performance, children from socially advantaged families have somewhat
disproportionate success in moving through the educational system, but the main
reason higher-status students have this success is that they achieve better in
schools.
The question here is, why do
higher-status students achieve better in schools? Clearly, there is no simple
answer. Research has pointed to the following family-related factors, among
others:
(1) Material resources. Richer
families can purchase the materials (e.g., books) and experiences that foster
intellectual development.
(2) Parental expectations
and/or encouragement. Well-educated parents more actively stress the importance
of academic achievement, and their own success through schooling encourages
their children to accept that value.
(3) Direct parental involvement
in home learning activities. Higher-status parents are more willing and able to
teach academic lessons at home and help with homework.
(4) Verbal and analytic
stimulation. In higher- status families, interactions between parents and
children are more likely to promote verbal sophistication and reasoning.
(5) Family structure and
parenting style. The presence of two parents and parenting styles involving
warm interactions favor academic achievement, and both factors are related to
socioeconomic status (SES).
(6) Parental involvement in
schools. Higher status parents are better able to interact effectively with
teachers and administrators to secure favorable treatment and understand
expectations.
(7) Cultural ‘‘fit’’ with
schools. The cultural styles of higher-status students are more compatible with
the prevailing norms and values in schools.
(8) Social capital. Initially
Coleman’s (1988) idea, this refers to the extent and nature of the connections
between parents and children as well as the connections with other family and
community members. By providing informational, emotional, and other resources,
these connections facilitate adaptations to the demands of schools.
(9) Social context.
Higher-status families are likely to live in communities where other families
promote achievement and their children’s peers are committed to academic
achievement.
(10) Genetic advantage. Early
IQ is related to SES, and intelligence is related to academic performance.
11.
EDUCATIONAL SOCIOLOGY
Educational
sociology is a branch of sociology. It is the sociological study of educational
institutions and processes. It centers on the study of social institutions and
their role in education. It is the study of relationship between education and
social system. The main concern of educational sociology is also to study the
social interaction. Educational sociology emphasizes the progress of the
society through the medium of education.
12.
MEANING AND CONCEPTS OF EDUCATIONAL
SOCIOLOGY
According to
Professor W.B Brookover, an eminent sociologist of education, seven different
concepts of educational sociology flourished between 1883 and 1945 . They may
be summarized as under:
1. Educational
sociology as means of social progress;
2. Educational
sociology as a basis for deciding the objectives of education.
3. Educational sociology as applied sociology:
4. Educational
sociology as an analysis of the socializing process:
5. Educational
sociology as training for educational workers:
6. Educational sociology as a analysis of social
interaction with in the school and between the school and the community:
7. Educational sociology as an analysis of the
place of education in society.
13. SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
Educational
sociology as the name indicates is the sociological study of educational
institutions and processes. It centers upon the study of social institutions
and their role in education. It includes the inter – relationships of education
with kinship, social stratification, attitude to knowledge, interactional
relationship besides the organizational pattern of educational institutions,
the teacher pupil relationships, the teacher – teacher relationships and
finally student- student relationships.
The scope of
sociology of education, as clear it includes all the elements of general
sociology with particular reference to education. It is also includes the study
of relationship of education to other aspects of social system particularly
kinship, social stratification, political organization, knowledge and attitudes
to knowledge.
14.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EDUCATIONAL SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION.
Mercer and Carr have
brought significant difference between the approaches of the two areas thus:
The sociologist of
education, it should be emphasized defines education in much broader terms than
other specialists in the field of education are likely to use Education for the former involves all
subjects of the process of transmitting culture from individual to individual.
The educational
sociologists on the other hand consider his field a sub- division of a
developing science of education. Perhaps the educational sociologists have been
some what more practical minded than n those scholars we have characterized as
sociologist of education. This is merely another way of saying that the
sociologists of education starts his analysis from the point of view of the
society as a whole, while the educational sociologists starts with the school
and expands his analysis outward.
15.
CONCLUSION
We have seen that sociology of
education is the scientific analysis of the social processes and social
patterns involved in the educational system. The essential feature of its
approach is that it studies education as a social institution. It lays much
stress on the theoretical or purist type of sociological research in the field
of education rather than on the applied utilitarian aspects of sociology.
However sociologists of education in developing countries are not averse to the
idea of helping educational personnel’s in dealing with their practical
problems; they wish to help them by their independently carried out and
sophisticated researchers and not by superficial advices. As a growing field of
knowledge it draws its nourishment from different social sciences and sub
–fields of sociology in order to tackle the vital problems of the existing as
well as changing social order effectively. The scope of such field of study
must therefore , necessarily, continue to expand and cover more and more of new
research dimensions.
REFERENCES
1.Kubir
Humayan (1961), Indian Philosophy of education,
Printed in India.
2.Fitzpatrick
A, Edward (1955) Philosophy of Education, The
Bruce publishing company Milwaukee
3.
Aggarwal J. C. (1995), Teacher and Education in a
Developing society, Vikas publications
House PVT LTD
New Delhi.
4.
Narayan Das Biranchi (1994), Foundation of Educational
Thought and Practice, kalayani Publications
Ludhinal
5.
Mathur s.s (1985) , A Sociological Approach to Indian
Education, Vinod pustak Mandir,
Agra.
6.Antony
A (2004) Philosophical and Sociological Bases of
Education, Printed at Catholic
Press kollam.
7.
Thankchan T.C. (2007),Philosophical and Sociological Bases
of Education, V. Publishers,
kottayam.
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