TEMA 3

ESCUELA Y SOCIEDAD. EL SISTEMA EDUCATIVO EN

UNA SOCIEDAD CAMBIANTE Y PLURAL.
EL CONTEXTO SOCIAL EN EL QUE SE PRETENDE
EDUCAR. FACTORES CULTURALES Y LINGÜÍSTICOS.

GUIÓN.

INTRODUCTION.

1. School and society.

2. The Educational system in a changing and plural society.

3. The social context in which we want to educate.

4. Cultural and linguistic factors

CONCLUSIONS.
INTRODUCTION.

In a plural and changing society, the school has to prepare students to understand the context in
which they live and develop abilities of social interaction: the changes society experiments will
demand an opened curriculum and with a range baggage of contents. In this topic I will develop the
concepts of school and society, the educational system in a changing and plural society, the social
context in which we want to educate and the cultural and linguistic factors.

1. School and society

Education process is a complex reality that can be analysed from different perspectives. One of
these perspectives, maybe the most important one, is the dimension of education.

A) Relationship between education and society.

- The educational process takes place within the scope of social life and it is carried out through an
intense range of social influences on the individual. Education is an interaction and communication
process, so it implies a social situation unavoidably.
- Social culture is the specific content of education. The aim of education is to assimilate the
beliefs, values and behaviour rules.
- Most of the goals education intends to reach are social goals: training, skilled labour, economic
development of the country, etc. Education satisfies individual functions too (complete
development of the individual, providing knowledge, culture, abilities, etc.)

B) Social functions of education

- Socialisation of the individual. Through this function the individual becomes a member of the
society in such a way that assimilation of models and social rules are good for the individual to
satisfy his necessity to join the group.
- Historical continuity of society. Education is the transmission of the cultural tradition between
generations, and through it, social cohesion, a condition for the historical continuity of society, is
tried to be guaranteed.
- Economy and education. The economic function is based in two principles:
I. Every economic organisation wants to be reproduced.
II. We should consider professional training of the individuals in a double way: as a means to
train human resources to deal with the requirements of economic development, and as means to
provide the subjects with a clear conscience of the role of productive relationships and of the
meaning of economic life.

C) Politics and education.

Education constitutes a political fact consisting of programming community life to generate a
political action orienting the existence of social life.

D) Education and social progress.

Through individual development, education also promotes the community progress.

School is one of the most important formal institutions and it performs the role of bridge between
the family and the civil and political society within the field of social activities, School is the social
institution meant to satisfy the collective need to transfer culture between generations and to
socialise them.

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School has subjected to deep changes, determined mainly by specific historical circumstances or by
the prevailing pedagogical ideas in a given time.

Nowadays, there are other sectors involved in schoolwork. Through their associations, parents can
explain their points of view and make use of pressure so that they can be taken into account. As
well pupils have taken an active position to defend their viewpoints and rights.

School provides means and solving procedures to certain social problems. School has different
social functions. Quintana Cabanas -> the goals of schools have been pressed by three kinds of
factors:
- Economic pressures done in professional needs that have introduce school to train skilled labour.
This has created types of education devoted to change and leisure time.
- Ideological pressures defending education equality. School has been forced to establish equality
of opportunities, shared management and the creation of a common culture.
- Pressures coming out from the progressive rationalisation of life that questions tradition and
authority. Basically, this has generated schools devoted to the community.

There must be a perfect and reciprocal exchange between society and school. The 1 st one gives the
2nd the environment and the means for its perfect functioning, and the 2 nd gives the 1st the whole set
of cultural means to improve community life, by keeping positive aspects and avoiding unnecessary
aspects.

School reflects society; this does not imply that school does not influence society considerably
through education. Such influence is what we call social control, which is the activity devoted to
maintain and perpetuate the interests of the dominant groups of that society. That social control is
done through the social functions of education.

Very often school cannot adapt itself to the new social realities and then, it means a restraint for
social evolution. We can summarise the basic functions of education and school: to facilitate the
adaptation of the individuals, to the environment and to give them autonomy and critical ability.

2. The educational system in a changing and plural society.

As specific and objective way, in which a community plans and exercises its education in a given
time, is organised in two ways:
- Vertical: different levels, the aim is to reach the higher one.
- Horizontal: pass from one to another, which is equivalent.

Every social system is in constant change, which is realised in cultural and structural changes. The
most relevant changes in education are those affecting: the structure of production in the
professional and labour world, the social rules, the social class system, changes in consumption
habits.

The educational planning is to anticipate the goals and the adequate means to reach them. It implies
choosing concise orientations to reach those goals and to have the technical means that fitting those
orientations allow reaching those goals. Anticipate implies a previous analysis, which must
consider some factors: population, political system, economic system, etc. TO BE efficient
requires: to take into account educational needs of a community and being coherent.

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Characteristics of the Educational System:
A) Flexible: the social change is fast; Educational System must be modified.
B) Continuity: changes can only be provoked by new requirements.
C) Adapted: each social reality has its own particularities to adapt to them.
D) Functionality: Educational System has to be connected to life.

3. The social context in which we want to educate.

Factors intervening in the development of character: congenital and environmental => physical and
social. Most part of the development of individuals has a social origin. The social context
constitutes the social environment in which education takes place.

Every society originates and transmits education, because it consists of a set of institutions in which
relationships take place and that transmit cultural patterns to the subjects. Education depends in
society, on the social context that shapes it. The factors operating in the social context are very
numerous and complex and they have a different meaning depending on:
• Population: knowledge of collective human factors is basic to consider most of the social
aspects.
• Social and economic structure: it refers to the way in which society is organised to satisfy its
needs, production, changes and consumption. The social structure refers to the way in which groups
and social classes are conformed and related and also to their features.
• Social institutions: refers to organisations, associations and organised groups with determined
goals and procedures. AIM: regulate human behaviour.
• History and culture: historical and cultural evolution of a country.

4. Cultural and linguistic factors

Culture IS the set of products or results, material or spiritual of human behaviour. Examination of
culture as context of education and it's conformed by:
• Institutions: are the rules that shape our behaviour. Including popular uses and costumes, habits
and laws.
• Beliefs and values: are what human beings believe about them and the biological, physical and
social world in which they live. Including relationships o the others.
• Material culture: is the set of material tools that the individuals create and uses

Education as a process: transmission of a specific culture and the process of assimilation of culture
by individuals and implies the integration of each subject in his own culture and the assumption of
cultural patterns. Education as a cultural system: because it's a conscious synthesis of the historical
culture of a society.

Is an unavoidable condition for learning. Language is a necessary condition for every interaction
thanks to it it's possible culture transmission and training.

levels -> coexistence of 2 or more languages, coexistence of numerous languages superimposed

among them because of the complexity of social relationships, coexistence of numerous languages
considered as means of social communication.