SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES

OF EDUCATION
Bacay, Christian Mark

De Leus, Krisna Claire

Digo, Margaret
 Sociology Theory
The study of social Exist to help people
life, social change, explain how and why
and the social causes particular
and consequences of phenomena occur as
human behavior they do.
Sociological Theories of
Education
arisen to explain everything from why some
people fail and others succeed to problems of
educational finance and everyday classroom
interaction.
STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

Theory that attempts to explain social

institutions as collective means to meet
individual biological needs and focuses its study
on the way social institutions meet social needs.
 A society is conceived of as a system of
interrelated parts in which no part can be
understood in isolation from the whole and
change in any part is seen as leading to a
certain degree of imbalance, which in turn
results in changes in other parts of the system.
In the analysis of social systems, for instance school, functionalists
emphasize 3 elements:

a. The general interrelatedness or interdependence of the

system's parts

The existence of a "normal" state of affairs or state of

b. equilibrium comparable to the normal or healthy state of
an organism.

c. The way that all parts of the system reorganize to bring

things back to normal.
Proponents of this theory are Comye, Spencer
and Pareto emphasized the interrelatedness of
the parts, while Durkheim emphasized the
integration or solidarity which inspired
Radeliffe-broen and Mahnowski to study the
function of social institutions.
 Education as an Institutional System

Every education system is trying to attain

some goals and this directs our concerns to
what purpose is this education to the
individual society.

Education has the meaning of socialization.

Education also aims at creating independent
and even revolutionary patters of thoughts
among the educated.

Manifest Functions and Latent Functions of

Education. - Merton (1968)
 Social Education Issues on Institutional
Education

1. Administrative and fiscal policies of

school system
2. The method and content of institutional
education.
3. Who to be educated
 Strengths
and
Weaknesses
 Strengths

Overemphasis of social equilibrium.

Human beings are driven by values which aim

at the social equilibrium
 Weakness

Overemphasis of social stability limits the

theorists to see the many diverse aspects in
the school that have widened gaps of social
classes.
 CONFLICT THEORY

Theory that works on the assumption that the

school is not striving for equilibrium at all —
giving rise to the inequalities
 Education and Social Class

Social class is a determinant in the way, who

and how one receives formal education since it
can dictate the ability to fund the education
and even access it when it is in far places
Urban and rural set up influences in education:

distinct dialects can be accessed by a child

socialized in town, Nairobi as compared to a
child raised in Makhukhuni village in Kakamega
County. Their colloquial vocabularies are
different
Disability divisions:

In 1944, the Universal Education act and the

EFA (2000) encouraged every child to get
universal and basic education but what about
the physically impaired?In practice, different
states adopted a special schools approach and
others integrated them in the school system.
Ethnic or racial differences:

Racial and ethnic segregations were once

practiced during the colonial era. In South
Africa, the white had a curriculum, classrooms,
schools and privileges different from the half
caste, Indian and black counterparts.
Gender differences:

The education system has created single sex

schools and in some places mixed schools
primary, secondary and colleges. In addition,
some subjects are majorly masculine i.e.
sciences and mathematics while others
feminine.
Streaming and Teaching:

In Kenya, the selection of university and college

students is done by KUCCPS. Students are assigned
different types of educational
programmes.Bearing in mind learners differ in
ability, interests and economic backgrounds, some
learners are given what they can’t manage or
sometimes streaming is done with favouritism.
Streaming and Teaching:

Girls have been given Grade B – for university

entry, while male students B. this strategy
perpetuates privilege and segregates learners in
taking some courses due to academic, social or
gender factors.
 Strengths
and
Weaknesses
Conflict theorists aren’t convinced that providing equal
opportunities and upward mobility for the poor have
ever been goals of our educational system. Education
system has widened the gap between the rich and the
poor and thus championed a dominant culture and thus
suppressing the minority groups. For social change to
come, the minorities are to wake up from slumber and
revolt to make the very education system offer equal
opportunities.
 Strengths
Emphasizes the aspect that man is creative by
nature

Explain the social change and how it’s brought

about by the minority groups within the school set
up to effect change
 Weakness

Education system has widened the gap

between the rich and the poor and thus
champion a dominant culture and thus
suppressing the minority groups.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

Theory that seeks to uncover the ways

“meanings” are deployed within interactions and
embedded within larger social structures.
3 Main Principles

a. Human beings act toward things on the basis of the

meanings that thing have for them

b. These meanings arise from ongoing process of social

interaction and interpretation

c.
Social action results from a “joint action” or the fitting
together of individual lines of action
According to Symbolic Interactionism, Humans
and mere Infrahumans differ greatly in
responding to stimulus.

Infrahumans - Simply responds to stimulus

Humans - Has the ability to interrupt the process and seek
alternative responses to the stimulus
 Classroom Interactions

The classroom serves as the primary grounds

of interaction between learners and teachers.
Systems, roles, and cultures that manifest in
the classroom impact every learner.
 The teacher’s evaluation of learners,
through labeling and sorting, influences their
performance in class and their future acquired
attitude
 The best performers are termed “first
learners”, middle performers are “average”
whereas the failures are termed “slow learners.
The first learners are always deemed more
capable and are given with special attention,
unlike the slow learners.
 Learner to learner influences each other.

The way learners define their interactions with

other other also molds their perspectives and
behaviors towards events and ideas.
 Strengths
and
Weaknesses
 Strengths
Acknowledges that the motivation for human
action is the values acquired in the classroom and
the label given has an effect in their life

Explains the social change within the school set up

and accounts for the social equilibrium
 Weakness

Is a microsociology theory that is inductive

in nature
FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF
EDUCATION
 School class can be treated as an agent of
socialization. - Development of an individual's
commitments and capacities.

School class as an agency of "manpower"

allocation.
 Specified functions of schooling include the tasks of
sorting and socializing individuals and contributing to
common values.

Link between schooling and socio-economic needs was

enhanced by policy concerns to produce a scientifically
and technically sophisticated workforce.
 EDUCATION EXPANSION

TECHNOLOGICAL FUNCTIONALISM
AND HUMAN CAPITAL THEORY
view education as an investment to stimulate
productivity and economic growth
Education's ability to promote social progress
and democratic opportunities.
 EDUCATIONAL PROGRESSIVISM

Another influential strand of liberal analysis

which offers a critique of existing social
arrangements but retains faith in the ability of
schools fo improve those conditions.
 JOHN DEWEY

The best-known advocate of educational

progressivism—influenced by Marx as well as by
liberal theory. He advocated the creation of more
meaningful connections between school and
practical experience.

Shift from traditional to progressive educational

philosophies.
STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM is highly
significant for its formative impact on the
development of sociology of education.
INTERPRETATIVE PERSPECTIVE
OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF
EDUCATION
 Interpretative analysis emphasizes the
meanings and interactions within schools and
other social settings, highlighting their
implications for social actors themselves.
This perspective stresses that schooling is not
predictable, but rather constructed.

Learners decipher and share meanings with

each other, as well as shape their
personalities and lives.
 W.I. THOMPSON
“Definition of the situation” - The powerful role
that perceptions and shared meanings play in
guiding social action

C.H. COOLEY
“The looking-glass self” - Our behavior and
identity are shaped by our awareness of the
reactions of others
 Education is part of an ongoing process of human
development in which the individual learns and shares
social meanings with other people

Schooling remains a fluid process marked by changing,

sometimes conflicting, definitions of the situation.
 SELF-FULFILLED PROPHECY

Teachers' expectations contribute to the social

construction of different categories of
students, thereby affecting students'
educational experiences and chances of school
success.
 Teachers' presuppositions about pupils'
learning potentials, even if false, tended to
have more impact on student performance
than did actual ability, and the labeling
eventually affects the educational and career
paths of learners.
Ultimately, like much structural functionalist
analysis, INTERPRETATIVE SOCIOLOGY
makes its strongest contribution in the
description of social life but falls short in its
explanatory powers.
NEO-MAXIST PERSPECTIVE OF
THE SOCIOLOGY OF
EDUCATION
 A main proposition in Schooling in Capitalist
America held that a major objective of capital,
in its interventions into the formation and
evolution of the educational system, was
precisely the preparation of students to be
future workers on the various levels in the
hierarchy of capitalist production.
 CULTURAL REPRODUCTION

Offer possibilities to link detailed examination

of specific educational practices, to
interpretative studies, with processes that
contribute to the maintenance of social
structures.
 RESISTANCE THEORY

Unlike the more one-dimensional accounts of

social reproduction that tend to be conveyed
by structural functionalist and orthodox Marxist
analysis.
 FEMINIST THEORY

Also advanced considerably our ability to

understand education, in particular its
divergent forms and interests.
FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE OF THE
SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
 Feminist analysis has become increasingly
concerned not only with questions related to
gender-based differences in social positions
and identities, but also with a social world that
has been transformed, in part, through
previous feminist struggles for equity and voice
 RADICALIZATION

Describes racial characteristics varying forms

of significance in the context of power
relations.
 CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

A related form of analysis that has emerged in

an attempt to link educational theory with
practice.
 CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
PERSPECTIVE OF THE
SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
Critical pedagogy must play in a complex world
by linking people's lived experiences with an
analysis of social structures and power
relations in order to work towards social
transformation through the empowerment of
both teachers and students. - Joe L. Kinchelou
(2007:16-17)
 In order to develop a critical pedagogy as a
form of cultural politics, it is imperative that
proponents of a complex critical pedagogy
appreciate the fact that all educational spaces
are unique and politically contested.
Critical pedagogical teacher education and
leadership involve more than learning
pedagogical techniques and the knowledge
required by the mandated curriculum.
 Education, as presented within critical
pedagogy, contributes to the perpetuation of
knowledge and power structures.
Critical pedagogy aims to overcome the gap
between understanding educational
reproduction and taking action to provide
social and educational transformation.
 Critical pedagogy has forced educators and
analysts to clarify the nature and significance
of educational practices while they maintain
awareness of the social context that shape
educational possibilities and limitations
RECAP
3 MAIN SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF
EDUCATION
STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM - Social institutions as
collective means to meet biological and social needs

CONFLICT THEORY - The school is not striving for

equilibrium, rather promotes inequality

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM - Uncovering

“meanings” within interactions
 OTHER PERSPECTIVES
FUNCTIONALIST - School class can be treated as an
agent of socialization

INTERPRETATIVE - Meanings and interactions within

schools and other social settings

NEO-MARXISM - Objective of capital was the

preparation of students to be future workers
 OTHER PERSPECTIVES
FEMINISM - Gender-based differences in social
positions and identities, and feminist struggle

CRITICAL PEDAGOGY - Linking people's lived

experiences with an analysis of social structures and
power relations
THANK YOU!