UNIT-3-SOCIOLOGY-ENGLISH.

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Sociología de la Educación y de la Familia

1º Grado en Educación Primaria

Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación

Universidad de Almería

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No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
 No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
UNIT 3: THE FAMILY AS A SOCIALISING AGENT AND ITS
RELATIONSHIP WITH SCHOOL

INTRODUCTION

The family is a social group in which its members maintain a symbiotic relationship
(they form a unit). The term family can be replaced by “family group”, “domestic
group” or “family unit”. The family is not chosen. For better or worse, we are children
of our parents just as we will (would) be the parents of our children. We can define
family as a social group of two or more people related to each other by blood ties,
marriage or adoption, which has an essential function of the reproduction and care of

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their offspring.

HISTORICAL REFERENCES

With the shift from traditional societies (based on agriculture) to industrialised

societies, there are enormous changes in the family group. In traditional agricultural
societies, an extended family predominates, characterised by several generations
(at least three) living together (under the same roof). In these societies, children
socialised in the family and in the neighbourhood . These were mainly patriarchal
family groups, where authority resided with the older man (the patriarch). All
members of the family had to participate in agricultural work and not much
importance was attached to hygiene and care of the domestic space. Women were
in charge of bringing children into the world, taking care of them and cooking, while
men were responsible of tasks that required more physical strength. Both men and
women participated in many tasks together, since the family was a unit of production
and consumption.

Industrialisation brought social changes that would affect the family groups.
Migratory movements from the countryside to the city increased, and family groups
began to concentrate around factories. As industries and cities developed, the place
of residence and the place of work began to be separated. As a result, the nuclear
family, composed of the father, mother and children, began to spread. Men were in
charge of working and women were in charge of reproductive work (having children
and taking care of them). The housewives were born. At the end of 1960s, women
began to express discomfort and disagreement with this model of family that
prevented them from developing as a person in the same way that men did.

Nowadays, nuclear families with a strict division of labour between partners

(housewives and paid male workers) are no longer a model wanted by most people.

CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE ON THE FAMILY

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 The patriarchy is based on two principles: The male must dominate the female and
the older male must dominate the younger male.

The first feminists to show their discomfort with the family would be the “liberal
feminists”. In addition to changing diapers and cooking for when their husband
arrived, these women wanted to be able to develop as people in all social settings.
They demanded equal access to the education system, the labour market and the

No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
political sphere. Betty Friedan (Mystique of Femininity) co-founded NOW (National
organisation of women) in 1966. An organisation that campaigned for the abortion
law, women’s work and women’s social and political rights.

For “radical feminists”, the family was a particularly problematic social group.
Relationships between family members were considered an intimate and private
matter. In short, they were the territory where the head of the family ruled. For
example, violence against the children or women by the head of the family was a
private matter in which society should not intervene.

For “marxist and socialist feminists”, societies were not only patriarchal but also

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capitalists. From this point of view, capitalist societies had two spheres: production
(organised goods and services) and reproduction (life and labour). The sphere of
production is led by men and that of reproduction is led by women. The sphere of
production has the greatest social recognition while the sphere of reproduction has
no social value. One of the demands of these feminists was wages for housewives
(as they have to both work outside the house to earn money and also take care of
the children and the house).
Finally, “feminist psychoanalyst and poststructuralists” will emphasise aspects of
identification with gender role and culture. They emphasise that we live in
phallocratic societies where masculinity is the model that has social value.As a
consequence, a gender socialisation occurs, which imposes gender mandates on
girls and prevents them from developing as people. Culture ends this reproduction of
gender inequality since men and women have difficulties finding books, movies and
works of art told from an egalitarian point of view.

FAMILY-RELATED SOCIAL CHANGES

The family has been undergoing profound changes in terms of its structure, functions
or social meaning for 50 years. In 1985, De Miguel and Díez Nicolás summarised
these changes (Europe):

● Decrease in the number of marriages.

● Increase in premarital relationships.
● Delay in the age of marriage.

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 ● Increase in the number of divorce.
● Increase in the number of single-parent and single-person’s households.
● Increase in the number of children raised by one parent.
● Reduction in the number of children.
● Increase in the number of abortions.

INCREASING WOMEN’S SKILLS AND EMPLOYMENT

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The process of incorporation of women into the education system began in 1970 with
the general education act, which established:

● Free and compulsory basic education to all girls and boys aged 6 to 14 years
old.
● Mixed education. Boys and girls were located in the same classroom.

Access to the education system has resulted in women’s incorporation into the
labour market, especially those with a medium or high education level. The
employment rate of women increases as the level of qualification rises.

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DROP IN BIRTH RATE AND BREAK IN THE SEXUALITY-REPRODUCTION
EQUATION

The second important change concerns the number of children couples have. The
drop in the birth rate was very drastic from 1976 until the end of the millennium,
when there was a relative recovery until the year 2009, after which the trend
changed again, reaching the present day.

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 No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
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The reasons why the birth rate has decreased so much are numerous, and have to
do with factors such as:

● The decriminalisation of contraceptives in October 1978.

● The increase of sexual information since then.
● The increase of the time women spend in the education system and in their
level of qualification.
● Economic crises.
● The rise in the average age at first marriage.
● The increase in the cost of raising children.
● The increase of individualism.

The formula of sexuality= reproduction (descent) has been broken. Children do not
have to be biological and are mostly desired. Artificial insemination and in vitro
fertilisation are making it possible to separate reproduction from sexuality even more.

The number of children per woman has decreased since 1975. In the future, we can
expect that the Spanish population will decrease unless we incorporate people born
outside our territory. The more women’s education level increases, the fewer children
they have and later. They also have the possibility of abortion if they don’t want
them. Also, children can not be biological as you can adopt them. Also, as people
desire to have children (the ones who want), they will constitute the centre of a family
(puerocentric society).

REDUCTION IN THE SIZE OF HOUSEHOLDS

The third major change has been the reduction in household size. In 1970, the
average family size in Spain was 3.75 members, and today’s average family size is
2.5 members maximum. In fact, couples with children are decreasing, and
households with a single person under 65 years old, households of couples without

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 children, and households with children and a single parent (father or mother) are
increasing.

The level of satisfaction with one’s life increases the more one’s income increases.
However, among the richest, it tends to decrease. Those who are most satisfied with
their life live alone. The most dissatisfied are those in households where two adults
live, both under 65 years old. Those living in poor households, where there are two
or more adults with dependent children, are the most dissatisfied (Children produce

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satisfaction but only in households with high income).

DECREASE IN THE NUMBER OF MARRIAGES AND INCREASE IN FAMILY

BREAK-UPS

The decrease in family size is accompanied by the decrease in the number of

marriages and an increase in the number of divorces. People are getting married
less and less (most marriages are between heterosexual partners although fewer
occur than in the previous year). However same-sex marriages and heterosexual
marriages between foreigners tend to grow (mixed marriages). The marriage rate in

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Europe has been declining since 1965 while the divorce rate has been increasing.

PROGRESSIVE VIRTUALISATION OF RELATIONS

Personal relationships are being virtualized at a dizzying rate. 39 percent of

heterosexual couples and 60 percent of homosexual couples met through the
internet. By 2017, the most common way to meet other people was by mobile phone.
A percentage that has increased.

Today, the nuclear family, composed of married parents and children, is the most
common in Spain, but many others have emerged. People who live alone have
grown enormously. Common-law couples are becoming more and more frequent,

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 and for these couples, marriage is not a condition to form a family. Families formed
by same-sex couples have appeared, and mixed marriages have grown. Also,
adoptions have been spreading in our society.

CHANGES IN THE SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE FAMILY

1. LIMITATION FUNCTION OF WHO YOU HAVE SEX WITH: The family begins

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when there is a sexual partner with some affective bonds (love). The
commitment that seals that relationship is marriage, although nowadays there
are more and more people who decide not to marry.

2. PROCREATION FUNCTION OF NEW MEMBERS OF SOCIETY: Until

recently, one could not think of a family without children. Although there are
families without children, children arrive in families. They don’t have to be
biological (can be adopted). The function of economic solidarity will last a
lifetime, even when those children leave the mother’s house. For example, in
times of crisis, those children may return to their parents’ house (if they lose
their house).

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3. SOCIALISATION FUNCTION OF NEW MEMBERS: The family is in charge of
carrying out the primary socialisation. It is responsible for transmitting the
basic elements of culture (signs, symbols, language and norms) and providing
learning opportunities for children.

4. FUNCTION OF TRANSMISSION OF STATUS TO NEW MEMBERS: We are

born in families, which means that the family is in charge of transmitting the
social position the child is part of (social status, ethnicity…) The social status
can change throughout life.

5. FUNCTIONS OF CARE AND EMOTIONAL SUPPORT TO ITS MEMBERS:

The family is the social group to which we turn for affective support and care,
not only in our childhood, but throughout all our lives. However, the rise of
individualism may be reducing the care and support provided by family
members.

6. THE FAMILY CONSTITUTES A UNIT OF CONSUMPTION: The family in our

societies is no longer a unit of production but of consumption. This means that
the family members earn income outside the family nucleus which is then
consumed within the household.

THE FAMILY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE SCHOOL: SOME TENSIONS

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 Changes in the family and in its functions have important consequences in the

No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
school.

We live in puerocentric societies, which means that children are the centre of the
family (parents’ schedules revolve about their children’s activities). If children are the
centre of the family, parents sometimes do not understand that in school, their son is
just “another child”.

In addition, couples with children lack time. If women enter the labour market and
men do not change their working hours full-time, someone has to look after their
children. As a result, nurseries have become widespread, primary schools have
opened nursery schools, morning classrooms, canteen…etc This means that the
school system is beginning to be in charge of the socialisation of children (children

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learn to speak in the nursery, how to pick up the spoon…)
The school takes care of the guard and custody of the child during a good part of the
day (Monday to Friday) and the family takes care of the child’s socialisation the rest
of the time.

Schools are becoming increasingly bureaucratic. Schedules must be adjusted,

student absences must be monitored and programs to integrate diversity into the
classroom and co-education must be developed. It is to be expected that the
family-school relationship will be at least a little tense. Also, the dissolution of
marriage (divorce) brings conflicts that can affect the relationship with the school (the
school may have to address the parents separately).

The type of authority that teachers develop, due to a puerocentric society, is less and
less traditional and more related to affectivity. Authority is increasingly instrumental
and rational. Also, in many cases, children are better at using information and
communication technologies than their teachers.

FORMS OF PARTICIPATION OF MOTHERS AND FATHERS: TUTORIALS,

PARENTS’ ASSOCIATIONS AND SCHOOL COUNCIL

Despite the tensions mentioned before, the relationship between parents and school
is more or less satisfactory. Mentoring and guidance are an essential part of the
teaching function. Parents’ associations make it possible to tackle problems
collectively and organise solutions and activities to achieve common goals. School
councils make it possible to make decisions and give opinions and advice to
administration. They are composed of the school director, head of studies, town
council, teachers, parents, representatives of the PAS, The secretary and the
students. Their functions include approving and evaluating the projects, rules and
annual programming of the centre, knowing the candidacies to the management and

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 participating in its selection. Deciding on the admission of students, knowing the
resolution of disciplinary conflicts, proposing measures to improve the co-existence
of the centre, promoting the conservation and renovation of the facilities and setting
the guidelines for collaboration with other local administrations.

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