Sociological theories of education
Monica Kochar
Creative Strategist for Education | Curriculum Design | Assessment Frameworks | Learning Innovation | EdTech Strategy | Humane Math Expert
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Sociological theories of education and views of the purpose of education are different than the educational philosophies studied in previous units.?Which sociological theory of education, and view of the purpose and function of education,?aligns with your own philosophy of education?
Education?is a social institution through which children are taught academic knowledge, skills, and cultural norms. While formal education is taken care of through academics, informal education includes cultural transmission for which social interaction is mandatory (Education around the world, n.d.). Hence education leads to development of skills that enhance employment and therefore happiness and a sense of wellbeing. That reversely helps in development of a well balanced society (OECD, 2013).
There are 3 sociological theories of education namely (a) functionalism, (b) conflict theory and (c) symbolic interactionism (Theoretical perspectives on education, 2010). I relate to functionalism most, that is education as fulfilling a function for social growth and development. This is rooted in theories of Plato with the early functionalist thinkers describing society as biology calling societies as analogous to organisms (Nancy, 2020).?Biologically, all the parts of our body are interconnected and each part affects the other. Hence a certain level of integration around an integrating value is needed for the society to run effectively. This is the function of social integration (Theoretical perspectives on education, 2010).
Education helps socialize children. I relate to this most as it resonates with the IB philosophy of preparing children for the world. I relate all tasks in the class to life skills with the students. Each time they ask, ‘why should I work in a group?’ or ‘why should I work alone?’ I answer the questions based on the life that they would lead in the social set up post schooling. Education as a space to develop skills of living an intelligent life is the norm around which the sociological set up in the class is based on.
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Around the world, many children do not have access to education for a variety of reasons including race, gender, and economic status.?
●????????Explain the diversity of educational experiences children have in your context.
●????????How does that fit with the idea of schooling having a sociological function??
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●????????What should the function and purpose of school and education be??
Submit a paper which is 2-3 pages in length, exclusive of the reference page.
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A girl walks through the agriculture lands in a village in the north of India to her school. Happily she sings as she walks. Little does she know about the men lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce on her? They do, and as the helpless girl battles the men four times a strong than her, one of them films the struggle and her defeat as she is raped again and again. The film is then edited and sold with some men earning millions through it for there are thousands of men around the world who love to watch school going girls being raped in uniform. One rape and a whole village would stop the girls from school. The access to education is dead for the girls. They have no choice. Often personal abuse is heaped on people from minorities by other pupils and even teachers (Hannum, Park, & Butler, 2010).?Another space is an urban set up where the girls are dropped to the schools in expensive cars by parents. They have security in the form of parents, money and reputed schools that they go into. They have access to all that they need and can go anywhere in the world to study and live. They have?choice.
A child in southern part of India, born and brought up in native language, struggles to understand the math textbook written in English. The child speaks and writes only the native language, Tamil. But the textbook by the state government is the one used nationally, irrespective of the native language spoken or the issues within the state. Books ignore the history or culture of minority groups. Schooling is often only available in the dominant, official language rather than in mother tongues spoken by minorities (Curtis, 2009).?While children studying in the English dominant urban set up can move through the English language textbooks freely and move on to a self sustained lives, those in native speaking spaces struggle as they try to bridge the language they speak and the language considered privileged in India.
Caste system is abundant in my country. There is low, middle and upper caste. The upper caste is free to move around while the lower caste is bound by rules. They are the minorities, protected by the government but not safe in the social milieu.???Educational discrimination against minorities perpetuates poverty, depriving people of playing a meaningful role in society??(Curtis, 2009). In India, around 41 per cent of those out of school are from the minorities (Curtis, 2009).
Education in my set up hence, is Marxian, fulfilling the legacy of conflict theory, which is a view of society in a state of conflict due to competition for limited resources?(Barnier, 2020). The social structures are not equal for all. Education as a basic human right is not available to all (Curtis, 2009).?It is restricted to those who can afford to buy the best.
The backbone of a society is education, that is, "bring out potential". Education is an experience that has a formative effect on the?mind,?character?or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated?knowledge,?skills?and?values?from one to another (Sikhauli, n.d.). Keeping this in mind, what else can bring about a change in society than education? An education that makes one aware of and draws out the best in a person, one that forces us to look at our own hidden conditioning is what would make us question the age old help views that do nothing but bring out the worst in us. It would also equip individual with skills that would help them be empowered financially and face the world with confidence.
But this is not Is Education as transmission of knowledge. This is education as the fostering of inquiry and reasoning skills to develop individual autonomy (Sikhauli, n.d.). The aim is to use education as a tool for social integration (Theoretical perspectives on education, 2010). If we say that the aim of life is to develop in oneself a state of autonomy, then education is the vehicle for it. By crafting carefully experiences that build harmony among the children, education can be the crucible into which a new India can emerge.
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