SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF
EDUCATION
Role of the School
1. To educate citizens to fit into the society
2. To educate citizens to change the society
Specific purpose of the School
A. Cognitive – teaching the basic cognitive skills such as
reading, writing and speaking
B. Political – inculcation of patriotism or loyalty to the
existing political order
C. Social – concerns with the socialization of citizens
into their various roles in society
D. Economic – training and preparation of citizens for
the world of work
Theories
1. The Functionalist Theory (equilibrium theory)
interdependence and consensus.
Consensus – normal state of the society
Talcott Parson – conceptualized society as a
collection of systems within system
2. Conflict Theory – assumes a tension in society and
its parts due to competing interest of individuals and
groups
(Key: competition, structural analysis, inequality,
revolution and war)
Karl Marx – founder of the school of thought
Max Weber – father of Bureaucratic thought
3. Interaction Theory – communication and the
relationship that exists among and between groups
in education-peers, teachers- students, teacher-
principal, teacher-parent
Culture – complex whole which includes the customs, beliefs,
mores, folkways of a certain group of people
Characteristics of Culture:
 Learned
 Diverse
 A group conduct
 Is transmitted from generation to generation
 adaptive
Subculture – specialized form of culture practiced by a small
group of people which shows uniqueness compared to other
groups
Norm – what is considered “normal” is basically based on the
number of people practicing a certain behavior
Folkways – actions that have some moral significance and
become competitive.
Types of Groups
Integrated group – have shared meanings and action
Crowd – have shared emotion and feelings, (ex. Religious
revival meetings, revolutionary mob or a panic)
Audience or mass – have common attitudes without
interaction among members (ex. People at film showing)
Public – a number of people in some form of communication
with each other who have common interest but do not
necessarily come to a common agreement
Social Institutions Characteristics:
1. Social purpose
2. Permanence
3. Enforcing rules and regulations
4. Promotes values
Major Social Institutions
1. Family – group of people affiliated by consanguinity,
affinity and co-residence. Smallest social institution
a. Conjugal family – husband, wife, children
b. Consanguineal Family – parents, children and
other people
c. Matrilocal Family – mother and her children
2. Education – purpose: transmission of knowledge
3. Religion – socially defined patterns of beliefs
concerning the ultimate meaning of life; it assumes
the existence of the supernatural
Characteristics:
a. belief in the higher being (Deity)
b. Doctrine of salvation
c. a code of conduct
d. Religious rituals
4. Government – institution entrusted with making and
enforcing the rules of a society as well as with
regulating relations with other societies.
Social Process Classification
a. Competition – impersonal attempt to gain scarce and
valued resources of wealth, land, etc.
b. Conflict – involves the use of deliberate power
c. Accommodation – consensus of adjustment and
compromise among conflicting to live without
conflict
d. Assimilation – the learning and acceptance by one
group of the beliefs and values of other groups so
that they gradually become virtually
indistinguishable
 Philippine Cultural Values SEX vs. GENDER
Strength Weakness Sex Gender
Pakikipag-kapwa-tao Extreme personalism Categorized as male of Masculinity and femininity
Family orientation Extreme family female
centeredness Biological Socially, culturally, and
Joy and humor Lack of discipline historically determined
Flexibility, adaptability, Passivity and lack of Fixed at birth Learned through
creativity initiative socialization
Hard work and industry Colonial mentality Does not change across Varies overtime and space
Faith and religiosity Kanya-kanya syndrome time and space
Ability to survive Lack f self-analysis and self- Equally valued Unequally valued
reflection (Masculinity as the norm)
Pillars of Learning (Published by UNESCO)
UNESCO – United Nations educational, Scientific and Cultural
Socialization – is a process by which social norms, roles and
Organization
expectations are learned and internalize.
“Learning the Treasures Within” reported by Jacques Delors
Gender Socialization – is a process by which norms, roles and
1. Learning to KNOW
expectations in relation to gender are learned by men and
- Learning how to learn by developing one’s
women
concentration, memory skills, and ability to think,
acquiring the instrument of understanding Gender stereotype – a form of prejudgment, bias, or
- Skills to develop reading with comprehension, limitations given to roles and expectations of males and
listening, observing, asking questions, data females
gathering, note-taking and accessing, processing,
selecting and using information
- Role of teacher: facilitator, catalyst, monitor, Multicultural education – a field of study and an emerging
evaluator of learning discipline whose major aim is to create equal educational
2. Learning to DO opportunities from diverse racial, ethnic, social class, and
- the skillful, creative and discerning application of cultural groups.
knowledge
- occupational learning (concerned on the material Holistic Education - its purpose is to prepare students to
development rather than human development) meet the challenges of living as well as schooling
3. Learning to LIVE TOGETHER
Cognitive development – cognition represents how a human
- Can be achieved by developing an understanding of
being acquires, stores, processed and uses information about
others and their history traditions, and spiritual
the internal and external environment
values, and appreciations of interdependence
- Vital in building a genuine and lasting culture of
peace in the world
4. Learning to BE Historical Development of the Philippine Education
- Pertains to the overall development of the human
1. Pre-Hispanic Period
person as an individual and as a member of the
S informal and unstructured
society
S More vocational trainings, less academics
- aims for the wholistic development and complete
S taught by parents and tribal tutors
fulfillment of a man
2. Spanish Period
Humanization – man's ultimate vocation and destiny S Tribal tutors were replaced by Spanish Missionaries
according to Paulo Freire S Religion-oriented
Paulo Freire – against the “banking concept of education S for the elite
S Educational Decree of 1863: 1 school for boys, 1
Banking Concept in Education – viewed student as Clear school for girls in every town. Established the FIRST
account to be filled up by the teacher Public School System in PH
S Primary instruction: free
S Education: inadequate, suppressed and controlled
S Leyes de Indias (Law of the Indies) was mandated by
 king Philip II and instructed friars in PH to teach Spanish
Language.
S Ateneo de Manila University was founded
S Medium of Instruction: Spanish
3. American Period
S The school maintained by Spain for more than 3
centuries were closed for the time being but were
reopened on August 29, 1898 by the Secretary of
Interior.
S Malolos Constitution established a system of free
and compulsory elementary education
S Schurman Commission – adequate, secularized and
public school system
S English – Medium of Instruction
S Philippine commission Act no. 74 of 1901 – Public
school system
S The implementation of this Act created a heavy
shortage of teachers do the Phil. Commission authorized
the Secretary of Public Instruction to bring 600 teachers
from USA to PH. They were the Thomasites.
S Focus: Democracy
4. Japanese Period
S Love for work and dignity of labor was emphasized
S English was terminated. Nihonngo & Filipino became
the medium of instruction
5. New Society / Bagong Lipunan
S Initial campaign: promulgation of national pride
S1936 Constitution main purpose of education:
Roman Education
develop students into responsible, thinking citizen
Historical Dimension of Education
Great Greek Educational Theorists
1. Socrates - “know thyself”
- accepted the fundamental principle of
Protagoras that man is the measure of all things
- known for Socratic Dialogue
(question-and-answer method)
2. Plato – Wrote “Republic, advocated a
government which he termed Aristocratic Socialism
(Philosophical king, warrior, artisan)
- Idea of higher education: helps the soul to
search the truth which illuminated it
3. Aristotle – father of modern Sciences
- Practical and Theoretical Aspects must
be given emphasis in the subjects being taught
 Greek Universities
I. Rhetorical Schools (founded by Sophists)
II. Philosophical Schools
a. Academy – founded by Plato
b. Lyceum – founded by Aristotle
c. School of Stoic – by Zeno
d. Epicurean – by Epicurus (“Pleasure is the
greatest good but man has to achieve pleasure
with the standards of morals”)
 St. Thomas Aquinas – wrote “Summa
Theolagiae” (official doctrine of Catholic
Church)

Chinese education Medieval Education

- Believed that government has Curriculum Approaches

responsibility to provide education
1. Behavioral Approach
- Confucius. First teacher in China 2. Managerial Approach
- Analects. The most revered Chinese 3. Systems Approach – value of the community
classical literature which contains the 4. Humanistic Approach
sayings of Confucius
- Philosophy Of Confucius: Humanistic

Egyptian Education

 Hieroglyphics – System of picture writing

Greek Education

Spartan Education

Athenian Education

 Protagoras – Chief of the Sophist