Personal Assignment- 1

Topic: Education and Social Change

1. Education and Christian Education
2. Christian Education and Social change
Subject: Christian Education for Social Change

Submitted By: Duanchuingam Gonmei – B.D IV (B)

Unit-1. Education and Social Change

1. Meaning of Education:
The term “education” is looked at with different notions by different people and so, there is no single
definition of ‘education’ which can be used comprehensively in all settings. Scholars define it from
different perspective due to complex nature of human personality, environment and philosophies of
life. For example, education refers to the highly structured and formalized process; some understand it
as personal development. Education is also defined as a preparation for vocation and for some; it is for
the purpose of moral or character development.
The root word of education is ‘educare’ which means ‘to bring out’ that which id dormant and hidden.
It is known to be loose it used as; meaning ‘to instruct’ as well as ‘to train’. The three meaning of
educare can be defined as follows:

1) To educare is to develop and bring out the full potential of the individual.
2) To instruct is strictly to give information and is mostly a one-way communication between the
instructor and the student.
3) To train is to mould the student according to the plan of the teacher so that the student does little in
the way of excising individual thinking.

2. Meaning of Social Change

Social is a way human interactions and relationship transform culture and social institution over time.
Social change refers to an alteration in the social structure of a social group or society which,
according to, International Encyclopaedia of Social Science (IESS. 1972), are the change in the nature,
social institutions, social behaviours or social relations of a society. The alteration may occur in
norms, values, cultural products and symbols in a society. This alteration in the structure and function
of a social system, institutions and patterns of interaction, work, leisure activities, roles and other
aspects of society can be altered over the time as a result of the process of social change.

1. Education and Christian Education

1.1. Meaning of Christian Education: Vimala Paulus has defined Christian education as a process of
education that harmonizes all round development of the individual stressing the means of helping
persons grow in the pattern of Jesus Christ. 

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Thus Vimala defines Christian education as the effort taken to help people get a knowledge and
understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ, so as to enable them to make a commitment to him and
grow and develop in Christian faith, and to witness to the power and guidance of Jesus in their lives. In
this sense transformation of an individual into the likeness of Christ (Col 1:28) is the goal of Christian
education; and this distinguishes from other kinds of education. This definition is to be understood in a
narrower sense and an exclusive education of Christian faith. Christian education is the harmonious,
all-round development of the individual stressing the means of helping person grow in the pattern of
Jesus Christ.

Being completely human and divine, Jesus Christ is by nature the greatest teacher-He imitated His
Kingdom walk for His disciples in an authentic, simple, and unpretentious manner, while questioning
and rebuilding the lives of his disciples. His mission for educating His disciples is summarized in the
sermon of the mount: to equip them to showcase God’s goodness in society and point them towards
God’s Kingdom (Mt. 5:13-16). Through His teaching, Jesus challenged his disciples in all of life to
live out their imago Die for the sake of engage the culture. Therefore, a Christian Educator seeks to
reveal the glory of God in everything, so that the need of the Gospel is recognized that should spread
the glory of God in everything, so that the need of the Gospel is recognized that should spread into
engaging moral development for the sake of cultural engagement as the believer is sanctified.

1.2. Aims and Objective of Christian Education: the aims and objectives of education are to impart
and nurture Christian faith and help the people to reflect their faith in their daily living. It is not
concerned with dumping the sets of dogmas and doctrines to be recited without understand but to teach
the learners how to think, understand, and integrate the meaning in their lives rather than teaching what
to think and loading their memory with the thoughts of other people. Central task of education should
be “learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together, and learning to be. The aim is also to
learned people, teaching them how to live a life by developing the whole person and equipping them to
deal with reality. It is education the people to shape their way of life in relation to God, self, others and
the world. Therefore, the aim and purpose of Christian education is to bring transformation in
individual’s life as well as in community living through Jesus Christ.

2. Christian education and social change

Christian Education is an integral part of Christian ministry which is grounded in divine involvement
in the world. The Christian education takes place in the Christian communities. Christian education
involves two movements- the movement of grounding and the movement of out-flowing. In others
words, Christian education involves the deliberate activities of faith formation and transformation. The
movement of grounding involves providing systematic grounding in the teaching, history and
traditions of faith-community and to facilitate participation and involvement in the holistic ministry,
the role of Christian education in bringing transformation will be briefly discussed in the following:

2.1. Christian Education: An activity of faith formation and social change: Christian education takes
place in the family, school and in the church. The main thrust of Christian education is for faith
formation of an individual as well as to bring changes in the the society in the social, economic,
political and religious lives of the people.

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2.2. Christian education: An Activity of empowerment of people: Empowerment is defined as a multi-
dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their lives. It is a process that foster
power in people for use in their own lives, their communities and in their society, by acting on issues
they find as important. One essential dimensions of the overall aim of Christian education is the
appropriation of the gospel of the reign of God by empowering and promoting social transformation
for increase of freedom, justice, and peace.

2.3.Christian education: An activity of mutual-critical enrichment: Christian education is faith

education for transformation and without concern for the empowermenr of social it becomes partial
and similarly these two becomes partial without the concern for mutual-critical- enrichment. The
Indian context is of pluralistic contexts with plurality of religions, cultures, ethnicity, histories and
ideologies. The changes that are taking place because of the communication explosion, technological
advancement and liberal economic policies are challenging to our narrow identities. Plurality whether
we like it or not poses certain challenges to our faith-life in a community.

As we have discussed earlier, Social change is the “changes in the social structure and functions of the
various units which forms society.” It includes those changes that occur in the family, institutions and
other related social spheres. Changes in the society come as an impact of education. Education helps a
person find a place in the society where there is suitability and comfort. John Dewey asserted that
“education is a process of social reconstruction which makes for increased social efficiency… the
development of all such capacities in individual which enables them to construct their environment and
realize their potential.” This change may be gradual or sudden, evolutionary or revolutionary, and
constructive or destructive.

Conclusion:

Christian Education has become one of the influential instruments of social change in the world. It has
led to the mobilization of people’s aspirations for development and change. Thus in modern complex
national societies, Christian education can neither be regarded as a controlling force conserving
cultural heritage, nor could it be viewed as an agent social change. It can only be regarded as a
cooperative force in bringing about social changes decided by the forces possessing more pervasive
power in society. In sum we can say that education and social change relate with another as education
is an agent of social change and on the other hand brings change in the society brings education  vice
versa.