essay on relationship between sociology and education

15 Relation between Sociology and Education – Best B.Ed Notes

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In a previous article, we have Discussed about the “ Meaning, Nature and Scope of Sociology ” you can read that after reading this article.

Table of Contents

• 1.1 Definition of Sociology and Education
• 1.2 Education as a Social Institution
• 1.3 The Functionalist Perspective
• 1.4 The Conflict Perspective
• 1.5 The Interactionist Perspective
• 1.6 Impact of Education on Society
• 1.7 Educational Systems and Societal Norms
• 1.8 Education and Social Change
• 1.9 Research Methods in the Sociology of Education
• 1.10 Education and Globalization
• 1.11 Critical Pedagogy
• 1.12 Role of Teachers and Educators
• 1.13 Education and Technology
• 1.14 Societal Expectations and Educational Goals
• 1.15 Educational Policy and Social Change
• 1.16 Share with your friends :

Relation between Sociology and Education

Relation between Sociology and Education : Sociology and education are two interconnected fields that deeply influence each other. The study of this relationship sheds light on the dynamics of educational systems, the impact of societal norms on learning, and the role of education in shaping society. Here, we present a comprehensive set of point-wise notes exploring the key aspects of the relation between sociology and education:

Definition of Sociology and Education

• Sociology : Sociology is the scientific study of human society, social relationships, and the various factors that shape human behavior within a community or group.
• Education : Education refers to the process of imparting knowledge, skills, and values from one generation to another through formal institutions like schools, colleges, and universities.

Education as a Social Institution

• Education as a Reflective Institution : Education reflects the values, beliefs, and norms of a society. It transmits cultural heritage, social norms, and the accumulated knowledge of a community from one generation to another.
• Social Reproduction Theory : Sociologists argue that education perpetuates social inequalities by passing down advantages and disadvantages to successive generations. It reproduces existing social structures and reinforces the status quo.

The Functionalist Perspective

• Role of Education in Social Stability : According to functionalists, education plays a crucial role in maintaining social stability and cohesion. It provides a sense of common identity, shared values, and a collective conscience.
• Education as a Means of Socialization : Schools are primary agents of socialization, where students learn societal norms, values, and behaviors necessary for successful integration into society.

The Conflict Perspective

• Education and Social Inequality : Conflict theorists emphasize that educational institutions perpetuate social inequalities by favoring the dominant social and economic classes. Unequal access to resources and opportunities reinforces the divide between the privileged and the marginalized.
• Hidden Curriculum : Conflict theorists argue that schools promote the hidden curriculum, which includes implicit messages that reinforce societal norms and the status quo, often at the expense of critical thinking and questioning authority.

The Interactionist Perspective

• Micro-level Analysis of Education : Interactionists focus on the everyday interactions within educational settings. They study how teachers, students, and administrators shape the learning process and how individual experiences influence educational outcomes.
• Labeling Theory : Interactionists explore how labeling students, such as “gifted” or “troubled,” can impact their self-perception and subsequent academic performance.

Impact of Education on Society

This is one of the Important Relation Between Sociology and Education.

• Economic Impact : Education is a significant determinant of a nation’s economic growth. A well-educated workforce fosters innovation, productivity, and overall development.
• Social Mobility : Education can act as a catalyst for social mobility, enabling individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds to improve their social and economic status.

Educational Systems and Societal Norms

• Cultural Factors in Education : Educational systems vary across cultures, reflecting diverse societal norms, values, and expectations. The emphasis on collectivism vs. individualism, for instance, influences teaching methods and curriculum design.
• Gender and Education : Societal gender norms often shape educational opportunities and career choices. Gender biases may lead to the underrepresentation of certain genders in specific fields of study.

Education and Social Change

• Educational Reforms : Societal changes often prompt reforms in education. For instance, the civil rights movement led to desegregation and inclusive education policies.
• Education for Social Transformation : Education can be a powerful tool for fostering social change, promoting values like tolerance, equality, and environmental consciousness.

Research Methods in the Sociology of Education

• Quantitative Research : Researchers use statistical data and surveys to examine broad trends and patterns in educational systems and outcomes.
• Qualitative Research : Qualitative methods, such as ethnographic studies and interviews, provide in-depth insights into the experiences and perceptions of students, teachers, and administrators.

Education and Globalization

• Globalization of Education : The exchange of ideas, knowledge, and educational practices across borders has become more prevalent, shaping educational systems on a global scale.
• Challenges of Cultural Integration : Globalization in education raises challenges related to cultural integration and the preservation of local identities and traditions.

Critical Pedagogy

• Empowering Students : Critical pedagogy encourages students to question and challenge social norms, fostering critical thinking and active citizenship.
• Addressing Social Injustices : This educational approach aims to address social injustices and inequalities by promoting empathy and social responsibility.

Role of Teachers and Educators

• Agents of Socialization : Teachers and educators play a vital role as agents of socialization, influencing students’ values, attitudes, and behaviors.
• Cultural Transmission : Educators transmit cultural values and knowledge to students, shaping their understanding of the world.

Education and Technology

• Digital Divide : The advent of technology in education has raised concerns about access disparities, creating a digital divide between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Technology as a Teaching Tool : Technology enhances the learning experience and provides new opportunities for personalized and interactive learning.

Societal Expectations and Educational Goals

• Workforce Preparation : Societal demands influence educational goals, with a focus on preparing individuals for the job market and economic productivity.
• Holistic Education : Some educational philosophies advocate for a more holistic approach, emphasizing the development of well-rounded individuals with a broader perspective on life.

Educational Policy and Social Change

• Policy Formulation : Educational policies are often crafted to address societal needs and challenges, aiming to bring about positive social change.
• Measuring Educational Impact : Sociologists analyze the effectiveness of educational policies in achieving their intended outcomes and their broader social implications.

Conclusion :

The intricate relationship between sociology and education reveals that educational systems are not isolated entities but are deeply influenced by societal norms, values, and power structures. Understanding this connection is essential for crafting inclusive and effective educational policies that promote social equity and prepare individuals to be active and responsible members of society. By recognizing the interplay between sociology and education, we can foster positive social change and work towards creating a more equitable and prosperous future for all.

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16.2 Sociological Perspectives on Education

Learning objectives.

• List the major functions of education.
• Explain the problems that conflict theory sees in education.
• Describe how symbolic interactionism understands education.

The major sociological perspectives on education fall nicely into the functional, conflict, and symbolic interactionist approaches (Ballantine & Hammack, 2009). Table 16.1 “Theory Snapshot” summarizes what these approaches say.

Table 16.1 Theory Snapshot

The Functions of Education

Functional theory stresses the functions that education serves in fulfilling a society’s various needs. Perhaps the most important function of education is socialization . If children need to learn the norms, values, and skills they need to function in society, then education is a primary vehicle for such learning. Schools teach the three Rs, as we all know, but they also teach many of the society’s norms and values. In the United States, these norms and values include respect for authority, patriotism (remember the Pledge of Allegiance?), punctuality, individualism, and competition. Regarding these last two values, American students from an early age compete as individuals over grades and other rewards. The situation is quite the opposite in Japan, where, as we saw in Chapter 4 “Socialization” , children learn the traditional Japanese values of harmony and group belonging from their schooling (Schneider & Silverman, 2010). They learn to value their membership in their homeroom, or kumi , and are evaluated more on their kumi ’s performance than on their own individual performance. How well a Japanese child’s kumi does is more important than how well the child does as an individual.

A second function of education is social integration . For a society to work, functionalists say, people must subscribe to a common set of beliefs and values. As we saw, the development of such common views was a goal of the system of free, compulsory education that developed in the 19th century. Thousands of immigrant children in the United States today are learning English, U.S. history, and other subjects that help prepare them for the workforce and integrate them into American life. Such integration is a major goal of the English-only movement, whose advocates say that only English should be used to teach children whose native tongue is Spanish, Vietnamese, or whatever other language their parents speak at home. Critics of this movement say it slows down these children’s education and weakens their ethnic identity (Schildkraut, 2005).

A third function of education is social placement . Beginning in grade school, students are identified by teachers and other school officials either as bright and motivated or as less bright and even educationally challenged. Depending on how they are identified, children are taught at the level that is thought to suit them best. In this way they are prepared in the most appropriate way possible for their later station in life. Whether this process works as well as it should is an important issue, and we explore it further when we discuss school tracking shortly.

Social and cultural innovation is a fourth function of education. Our scientists cannot make important scientific discoveries and our artists and thinkers cannot come up with great works of art, poetry, and prose unless they have first been educated in the many subjects they need to know for their chosen path.

Figure 16.1 The Functions of Education

Schools ideally perform many important functions in modern society. These include socialization, social integration, social placement, and social and cultural innovation.

Education also involves several latent functions, functions that are by-products of going to school and receiving an education rather than a direct effect of the education itself. One of these is child care . Once a child starts kindergarten and then first grade, for several hours a day the child is taken care of for free. The establishment of peer relationships is another latent function of schooling. Most of us met many of our friends while we were in school at whatever grade level, and some of those friendships endure the rest of our lives. A final latent function of education is that it keeps millions of high school students out of the full-time labor force . This fact keeps the unemployment rate lower than it would be if they were in the labor force.

Education and Inequality

Conflict theory does not dispute most of the functions just described. However, it does give some of them a different slant and talks about various ways in which education perpetuates social inequality (Hill, Macrine, & Gabbard, 2010; Liston, 1990). One example involves the function of social placement. As most schools track their students starting in grade school, the students thought by their teachers to be bright are placed in the faster tracks (especially in reading and arithmetic), while the slower students are placed in the slower tracks; in high school, three common tracks are the college track, vocational track, and general track.

Such tracking does have its advantages; it helps ensure that bright students learn as much as their abilities allow them, and it helps ensure that slower students are not taught over their heads. But, conflict theorists say, tracking also helps perpetuate social inequality by locking students into faster and lower tracks. Worse yet, several studies show that students’ social class and race and ethnicity affect the track into which they are placed, even though their intellectual abilities and potential should be the only things that matter: white, middle-class students are more likely to be tracked “up,” while poorer students and students of color are more likely to be tracked “down.” Once they are tracked, students learn more if they are tracked up and less if they are tracked down. The latter tend to lose self-esteem and begin to think they have little academic ability and thus do worse in school because they were tracked down. In this way, tracking is thought to be good for those tracked up and bad for those tracked down. Conflict theorists thus say that tracking perpetuates social inequality based on social class and race and ethnicity (Ansalone, 2006; Oakes, 2005).

Social inequality is also perpetuated through the widespread use of standardized tests. Critics say these tests continue to be culturally biased, as they include questions whose answers are most likely to be known by white, middle-class students, whose backgrounds have afforded them various experiences that help them answer the questions. They also say that scores on standardized tests reflect students’ socioeconomic status and experiences in addition to their academic abilities. To the extent this critique is true, standardized tests perpetuate social inequality (Grodsky, Warren, & Felts, 2008).

As we will see, schools in the United States also differ mightily in their resources, learning conditions, and other aspects, all of which affect how much students can learn in them. Simply put, schools are unequal, and their very inequality helps perpetuate inequality in the larger society. Children going to the worst schools in urban areas face many more obstacles to their learning than those going to well-funded schools in suburban areas. Their lack of learning helps ensure they remain trapped in poverty and its related problems.

Conflict theorists also say that schooling teaches a hidden curriculum , by which they mean a set of values and beliefs that support the status quo, including the existing social hierarchy (Booher-Jennings, 2008) (see Chapter 4 “Socialization” ). Although no one plots this behind closed doors, our schoolchildren learn patriotic values and respect for authority from the books they read and from various classroom activities.

Symbolic Interactionism and School Behavior

Symbolic interactionist studies of education examine social interaction in the classroom, on the playground, and in other school venues. These studies help us understand what happens in the schools themselves, but they also help us understand how what occurs in school is relevant for the larger society. Some studies, for example, show how children’s playground activities reinforce gender-role socialization. Girls tend to play more cooperative games, while boys play more competitive sports (Thorne, 1993) (see Chapter 11 “Gender and Gender Inequality” ).

Another body of research shows that teachers’ views about students can affect how much the students learn. When teachers think students are smart, they tend to spend more time with them, to call on them, and to praise them when they give the right answer. Not surprisingly these students learn more because of their teachers’ behavior. But when teachers think students are less bright, they tend to spend less time with them and act in a way that leads the students to learn less. One of the first studies to find this example of a self-fulfilling prophecy was conducted by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968). They tested a group of students at the beginning of the school year and told their teachers which students were bright and which were not. They tested the students again at the end of the school year; not surprisingly the bright students had learned more during the year than the less bright ones. But it turned out that the researchers had randomly decided which students would be designated bright and less bright. Because the “bright” students learned more during the school year without actually being brighter at the beginning, their teachers’ behavior must have been the reason. In fact, their teachers did spend more time with them and praised them more often than was true for the “less bright” students. To the extent this type of self-fulfilling prophecy occurs, it helps us understand why tracking is bad for the students tracked down.

Research guided by the symbolic interactionist perspective suggests that teachers’ expectations may influence how much their students learn. When teachers expect little of their students, their students tend to learn less.

ijiwaru jimbo – Pre-school colour pack – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Other research focuses on how teachers treat girls and boys. Several studies from the 1970s through the 1990s found that teachers call on boys more often and praise them more often (American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, 1998; Jones & Dindia, 2004). Teachers did not do this consciously, but their behavior nonetheless sent an implicit message to girls that math and science are not for girls and that they are not suited to do well in these subjects. This body of research stimulated efforts to educate teachers about the ways in which they may unwittingly send these messages and about strategies they could use to promote greater interest and achievement by girls in math and science (Battey, Kafai, Nixon, & Kao, 2007).

Key Takeaways

• According to the functional perspective, education helps socialize children and prepare them for their eventual entrance into the larger society as adults.
• The conflict perspective emphasizes that education reinforces inequality in the larger society.
• The symbolic interactionist perspective focuses on social interaction in the classroom, on school playgrounds, and at other school-related venues. Social interaction contributes to gender-role socialization, and teachers’ expectations may affect their students’ performance.

For Your Review

• Review how the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives understand and explain education. Which of these three approaches do you most prefer? Why?

American Association of University Women Educational Foundation. (1998). Gender gaps: Where schools still fail our children . Washington, DC: American Association of University Women Educational Foundation.

Ansalone, G. (2006). Tracking: A return to Jim Crow. Race, Gender & Class, 13 , 1–2.

Ballantine, J. H., & Hammack, F. M. (2009). The sociology of education: A systematic analysis (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Battey, D., Kafai, Y., Nixon, A. S., & Kao, L. L. (2007). Professional development for teachers on gender equity in the sciences: Initiating the conversation. Teachers College Record, 109 (1), 221–243.

Booher-Jennings, J. (2008). Learning to label: Socialisation, gender, and the hidden curriculum of high-stakes testing. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29 , 149–160.

Grodsky, E., Warren, J. R., & Felts, E. (2008). Testing and social stratification in American education. Annual Review of Sociology, 34 (1), 385–404.

Hill, D., Macrine, S., & Gabbard, D. (Eds.). (2010). Capitalist education: Globalisation and the politics of inequality . New York, NY: Routledge; Liston, D. P. (1990). Capitalist schools: Explanation and ethics in radical studies of schooling . New York, NY: Routledge.

Jones, S. M., & Dindia, K. (2004). A meta-analystic perspective on sex equity in the classroom. Review of Educational Research, 74 , 443–471.

Oakes, J. (2005). Keeping track: How schools structure inequality (2nd ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom . New York, NY: Holt.

Schildkraut, D. J. (2005). Press “one” for English: Language policy, public opinion, and American identity . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Schneider, L., & Silverman, A. (2010). Global sociology: Introducing five contemporary societies (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Thorne, B. (1993). Gender play: Girls and boys in school . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Sociology Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

21 Education and Sociology (1922)

“Liberty is the daughter of Authority.”

NOTE ON SOURCE: This passage is from Durkheim’s  ducation et Sociologie,  published posthumously in 1922 in Paris by Alcan Press. It was first translated as Education and Sociology in 1956 by Sherwood T. Fox and published by the Free Press, with a foreword by Talcott Parsons. There have been no other translations since then. The passages you have here are all taken from the first essay in the work.  There are four essays in the original.

Introduction – Why this is important and what to look for

This work, originally pulled from a series of lectures Durkheim gave in the early twentieth century, is not widely known today, although it certainly made a major impact on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, an important contemporary theorist whose work you will encounter time and again.  Pay attention to the socializing role of education, and its overall role in creating and maintaining solidarity across generations.

The Nature and Role of Education

Part 1: Different Definitions of Education (a critical examination)

[ Durkheim begins this work by examining various definitions of education.  He criticizes all of these for assuming a perfect ideal “education” when each society has its own system of education which accords with its particular needs and understandings.]

Every society, considered at a particular moment in its development, has an educational system which it imposes upon its people with an irresistible general force.  It is in vain to believe that we can raise our children exactly how we want.  There are customs to which we must conform; if we deviate too much from these, they will avenge themselves on our children.  Once adults, they will not be able to live in harmony with their peers. It doesn’t matter whether they were raised with ideas too old-fashioned or ahead of their times; in either case, they are not part of  their times  and therefore they are outside the norm.

It is not we, as individuals, who have created the customs and ideas of the education of our times. They are the product of our common life and they express its needs. In large part, they are the work of preceding generations.  All of our human past has contributed to making the ensemble of maxims which guide our education today; all our history has left traces of the history of the people which have preceded us.  It is as the most evolved organisms carry within them the echo of their biological evolution.  When one studies the history of the manner in which educational systems were formed, one realizes they depend upon the development of religion, political organization, scientific progress, and the state of the industrial arts, etc.  If we look at education without examining these historic causes, we do not really understand what is going on.  How can one single person pretend to know and reconstruct what is not the result of individual thought?  He is not faced with a blank slate but with existing realities which he cannot change or destroy by his individual will.  He can act only to the extent that he understands; that he knows the nature and conditions on which systems such as education depend. He can only arrive at this knowledge by study, through observation, like a physicist who observes inanimate matter or the biologist who observes living matter.

Part 2. Defining Education

To define education, we must first consider all the educational systems that have ever existed and see what they have in common.  These common characteristics will then form the definition we seek.

We have already seen two elements.   For there to be an educational system, there must be a generation of adults and a generation of young people, and an action of the former on the latter.  We now have to define that action.

In one sense, one could say that there are as many different educational systems as there are different social groups in society.  Even today, do we not see education vary by social class or place?  The education in the city is not the same as education in the country; that of the wealthy not the same as that of the worker.  Is this destined to disappear, though?   It is evident that the education of our children should not depend upon the chance of where they were born, or to which parents. But even if we think this is the case, and all children should have an equal education, occupational specialization would still produce different kinds of education.  Each profession constitutes its own milieu and requires particular skills and special knowledge, in which certain customs and certain ways of seeing the world prevail.  Because each child must be prepared for a job, at a certain age education cannot be the same for everyone.  That is why we see in all advanced societies today, which tend to become more diverse, more specialization, and this specialization becomes more advanced every day. This diversity may not rest on inequality of birth as before, but it remains nevertheless.  To find an absolutely homogenous and egalitarian education one must go back to prehistoric times when there was no differentiation between people.

But, whatever may be the importance of these specialized educations, they are not the entire education. One could say that all such systems everywhere rest on a common base.  There is not a people anywhere that doesn’t share a certain number of ideas and practical sentiments which they must impart to their children, regardless of class or place or social group.

Each society sets up a certain ideal of being human, of what its people should be, from an intellectual and physical and moral point of view.  This idea is, to some degree, the same for all people.  It is this ideal which is the central point of its educational system. Thus, education’s function is to stir up among its children (1) a certain number of physical and mental states which the society considers should not be absent in any of its members; and, at the same time, (2) certain physical and mental states which the particular social group to which the child belongs (class, family, profession) considers necessary to find among its members.  So, it is society, both as a whole and each social group within it, that determines the ideal to be realized by education.  Society can exist only if there is a sufficient amount of homogeneity amongst its members: education perpetuates and reinforces this homogeneity by fixing in the character of the child the essential similarities which the collective life demands.  But, on the other hand, full cooperation would not be possible without a certain amount of diversity; education assures the persistence of this diversity by itself being diverse and specialized.  Education is thus the means by which society prepares for its existence through its children.

We have arrived at the following definition:  Education is the influence exercised by its adult generations on those not yet ripe for social life.  It has as its object the awakening and development among each child certain number of physical, intellectual, and moral states which are demanded of her by the political society in which she finds herself and the special groups for which she is particularly destined.

Part 3. Consequences of the preceding definition: the social character of education

Following from our definition, education consists in a methodical socialization of the young. Among each of us, one can say, there exists two beings which are inseparable but distinct.  One is made up of all the mental states which apply only to ourselves and the events of our personal life; this is our individual being. The other is a system of ideas, sentiments, and habits which express not our own personality, but that of the group or groups of which we form a part; these are religious beliefs, moral beliefs and practices, national traditions, professional traditions, collective opinions of all kinds.  Together they form the social being.  To create this being in each of us is the goal of education.

Putting aside the vague and uncertain tendencies attributable to heredity, the infant, when she enters life, brings only her individual being.  Society finds in each new generation a blank slate upon which it must build itself anew.  Society creates a new social being from each individual person.

This recreating force is the special privilege of human education.  Anything else is what animals receive when trained by their parents. This training may develop certain instincts, but it does not initiate an entirely new life.  Among human beings, the sort of aptitudes necessary for social life cannot be transmitted through heredity.  It is only though education that these aptitudes are transmitted across generations.

[ Let us take the case of science .] People do not have an instinctive appetite for science.  They only desire science to the extent that their experience has shown them its importance. We never would have discovered the ways of science if we stuck to our individual lives, because we would not have needed it.  As Rousseau has said, sensation, experience and instinct alone would be necessary to satisfy the basic wants and needs of human animals.   If people have come to have other needs than these very simple ones, they are not rooted in their individual lives, but their social ones, or else they would not have searched for science through arduous and laborious efforts.  We have the thirst for science because society has awakened it in us, and it has done so out of a real need.  We have come to need science because social life has become much too complex and complicated to operate without the cooperation of reflective thought, without, indeed “science.”  But, at our beginnings, when social organization was quite simple and not at all diverse, when everything was pretty much the same, simple traditions sufficed, working in a way similar to the instincts of animals.  In those times, thoughts and free inquiry are not only useless but actually dangerous, for they threaten tradition.  That is why they are forbidden.

We are now able to answer a question raised by the preceding discussion.  As we have shown society fashioning us, individually, according to its own needs, it could seem that we are submitting to a tyrant!  But in reality, we are ourselves desirous of this submission, for the new social being built up in each of us collectively through education represents the best of us.  We are who we are only because we live in society.

Morality itself results from collective life.  It is society that draws us out of ourselves, that makes us consider interests other than our own, that teaches us to control our passions and our instincts, to make law, to keep ourselves in check, to go without, to make sacrifices, to subordinate our personal goals to higher ends.  This is how we have gained the power to control ourselves and our inclinations, which is one of the things that make us distinctly human, and which is developed more and more as we become more fully human, rather than merely animal.

Science is the product of collective life as well.  It rests upon a vast cooperation of all scientists, not just at the same time, but across time as well, stretching back generations.  Before the establishment of the sciences we had religion doing the same job.  Both science and religion are social institutions.

Or a final example – language.  When we learn a language we also learn an entire system of ideas, neatly classified, and we inherit from all previous generations this system with its classifications.  Even more. Without language we could not have general ideas at all.  Language has allowed us to raise ourselves above pure sensations.  And it is obvious that language is a social thing.

So, we can see from these examples what we would be reduced to if society did not exist.  We would be mere animals.  If we are more than that it is not through our personal efforts but because we regularly cooperate with each other, and the products of this cooperation are available to us across generations.  What an animal learns during his or her lifetime ends there. But for us, the results of our experiences are preserved almost entirely and in great detail, thanks to books, monuments, tools, and all the other instruments with which one generation transmits its culture to the next generation.  The soil of nature is covered with a rich topsoil that continues to grow.  Instead of dying with each generation, human wisdom accumulates without limit.  This accumulation is possible only with and through society.  For, in order for the work of one generation to be preserved and passed down to the next, there must be a moral personality which lasts beyond the passing generations and binds them together;  this moral personality is society!

Part 4. The role of the state in the matter of education

The rights of the family are opposed to the rights of the state with respect to education.  It is said that the child belongs first of all to her parents, and it is their responsibility to oversee her moral and intellectual development.  In this sense, education is essentially private.  If one looks at it this way, then one tends to reduce to a minimum any state intervention.  The state should, in this view, serve as a supplement to, or substitute for, families. If they are unable to oversee things, the state can then and only then intervene.  In this view, we can also make a case for the state stepping into help parents, by providing schools of various sorts that parents can choose to send their children to. Any action beyond this is out-of-bounds.

But if education has a collective function, if its object is to adapt the child to the social context in which she is to live, this view of the disinterested bystander state makes little sense.  How could society not play a part here?  It is then up to the state to remind teachers of the ideas and beliefs that must be instilled in the child to adjust her to the social context in which she must live. If the state were not always there to guarantee that education be exercised in a social way, education would break down into an incoherent babble of conflicting fragments.  One could not contradict more completely the basic end of all education.  Education must ensure a sufficient community of ideas and beliefs, without which any society is impossible.  To do that, it is necessary that education not be abandoned to the arbitrariness of private individuals.

Since education is an essentially social function, the state cannot be disinterested in it. Everything that pertains to education must be submitted to the state’s influence.  That is not to say that the state should monopolize all instruction. A certain margin should be left for individual initiative, because individuals innovate more readily than the state.  But from the fact that it is in the public interest for the state to allow private schools to exist alongside public schools, it does not follow that the state must remain aloof from what is going on in them.  The education given in those private schools must remain under state control.  Only teachers certified by the state should be able to teach, in any school.  There is no school which can claim the right to give an antisocial education.

We are not all in agreement on every point.  The state cannot and should not establish the community of ideas and beliefs, but rather should maintain and consecrate those that exist.  In spite of all of our differences of opinion, there are presently, at the basis of our civilization, a certain number of principles we all share (or at least that no one defies openly).  These are: respect for reason, science, and ideas and beliefs supporting democratic morality.  The role of the state is to outline these essential principles, to have them taught in schools, to make sure that no child is ignorant of them, and that everywhere they should be spoken of with respect.

Part 5. The power of education and the means of its influence

We have determined the goal of education, and we must now determine how and to what extent it is possible to achieve this end.  This question has always been controversial.  The solution often depends on how much one ascribes to nature or nurture.  Education does not make a person out of nothing but rather is applied to predispositions that it finds already made.  These predispositions are very strong and very difficult to destroy or transform.  But, fortunately one of the characteristics of human beings is that our innate predispositions are very general and very vague.  To say that innate characteristics are for the most part very general is to say that they are very malleable, very flexible, and they can take on quite different forms.  There is a considerable distance between the vague potentialities which constitute us at our birth and the well-defined character that we must become in order to play a useful role in society.  It is this distance that education has to make us travel.  A vast field is thus open to its influence.

But by what means can education exert this influence?  [ the sense of duty towards the moral authority of the teacher ]

Liberty and authority have sometimes been opposed, as if these two factors contradicted and limited each other.  But this is a false opposition.  In reality these two terms imply each other, rather than exclude each other.  Liberty is the daughter of authority.  For to be free is not to do as one pleases but rather to be master of oneself, to know how to act reasonably and to do one’s duty. It is exactly to endow the child with this self-mastery that the teacher’s authority should be employed.  The authority of the teacher is only one aspect of the authority of duty and reason.  The child should be trained to recognize it in the speech of the educator and to submit to it; it is only on this condition that she will later know how to find it again in her own conscience and to defer to it herself.

Questions for Contemplation and Discussion

• Durkheim begins this book on education and sociology by defining education. Why is this an important first step? What is Durkheim’s definition of education?
• Explain the individual and plural function of education.
• What is the “ideal human” of your  society? Did your education inculcate physical, intellectual and moral states which prepared you to embody this ideal?
• What are some particular physical, intellectual and moral states that your college education is inculcating in you to prepare you for your chosen career?
• What does Durkheim think about the opposition between the individual and society? Does society tyrannize the individual?  Is it possible to live “free” outside of society?
• When Durkheim claims that society is a “moral personality,” what does he mean?
• What would Durkheim say about the movement to provide vouchers to parents to send their children to the schools of their choice? What if the effect was to diminish public education in favor of a multitude of private schools (some teaching the theory of evolution while others teach against the theory of evolution, for example)?
• Where does Durkheim come down on the nature/nurture debate? What role does education play here?
• Do you agree that “liberty is the daughter of authority”? Explain and defend Durkheim’s argument, and then counter it.

Classical Sociological Theory and Foundations of American Sociology Copyright © 2018 by Allison L. Hurst is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Sociological perspectives on the relationship between education and work

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Last Updated on September 25, 2019 by Karl Thompson

Functionalism

Main post on the functionalist perspective on education.

Education teaches us specialist skills for work – At school, individuals learn the diverse skills necessary for this to take place. For example, we may all start off learning the same subjects, but later on we specialize when we do GCSEs. This allows for a complex division of labour to take place.

Role Allocation and meritocracy – Education allocates people to the most appropriate job for their talents using examinations and qualifications. This ensures that the most talented are allocated to the occupations that are most important for society. This is seen to be fair because there is equality of opportunity – everyone has a chance of success and it is the most able who succeed through their own efforts – this is known as meritocracy

Main post on the marxist perspective on education.

The reproduction of class inequality and the myth of meritocracy – In school, the middle classes use their material and cultural capital to ensure that their children get into the best schools and the top sets. This means that the wealthier pupils tend to get the best education and then go onto to get middle class jobs. Meanwhile working class children are more likely to get a poorer standard of education and end up in working class jobs. In this way class inequality is reproduced

School teaches the skills future capitalist employers need through the ‘Hidden Curriculum (e.g. pupils Learn to accept authority; they learn to accept hierarchy, and motivation by external rewards)

Paul Willis

Willis described the friendship between the 12 boys (or the lads) he studied as a counter-school culture. Their value system was opposed to that of the school. They looked forward to paid manual work after leaving school and identified all non-school activities (smoking, going out) with this adult world, and valued such activities far more than school work. The lads believed that manual work was proper work, and the type of jobs that hard working pupils would get were all the same and generally pointless.

Stereotypical views of teachers and careers advisors as well as peer group pressure means that subject choices are still shaped by traditional gender norms – which limits the kind of jobs boys and girls go onto do in later life.

Even though girls do better at school, they still get paid less than men, so qualifications do not necessarily result in more pay!

The New Right

Main post on the new right and education

The mid 1970s was a time of rising unemployment in Britain, particularly among the young.  It was argued that the education system was not producing a skilled enough workforce and that the needs of the economy were not being met. From the mid 1970s both the Conservative and Labour governments agreed that education should be more focussed on improving the state of the economy by providing training courses for young people in different areas of work.

This emphasis on meeting the needs of industry became known as ‘New Vocationalism’ which first took off in the 1980s.

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Education and Society

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• Emmanuel Jean Francois  

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T he relationship of antecedence between the concepts “education” and “society” is one that can be a challenge for social scientists. Anthropologists, sociologists, or other social scientists may be on conflicting sides of the argument. Some may argue there is no society without education. Therefore, education comes first, and is more important than society. Others may argue that a society must exist before there can be education. Furthermore, education is a reflection of a society, or is influenced by society. Therefore, the society comes first and is more important. Regardless of the side of the argument supported by one group of scholars or another, there is an evident consensus that education and society are interconnected. This chapter will not argue over the philosophical viewpoints about whether education comes before society or whether society comes first. Instead, the chapter emphasizes on the nature of the interconnectedness between education and society. This chapter focuses on the development of educational systems through various sociological theories, the political, social, and economic conditions that shape the mission, structures, curriculum, and instructional practices of educational institutions at the national and global levels. The chapter examines the relationships between education and society through various theories and concepts related to social mobility and stratification, social reproduction, social change, education and development, as well as differences in educational outcomes based on gender, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

• Social Mobility
• Cultural Capital
• Restorative Justice
• Social Reproduction
• Education Education

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Francois, E.J. (2015). Education and Society. In: Building Global Education with a Local Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137386779_1

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Sociology of Education: Meaning, Scope, Importance, Perspectives

Synopsis : This article explores the discipline of Sociology of Education, a branch of the broader subject of Sociology, through its meaning, history of development, significance, differences with Educational Sociology, and scope. It also portrays how education can be examined using the three main theoretical perspectives in sociology.

What is Sociology of Education ?

To understand what Sociology of Education comprises, it is, first and foremost, imperative to define education from a sociological understanding. In sociology, education is held to be a social institution that serves the objective of socializing an individual from their very birth into the systems of society. Henslin (2017) defines education as “a formal system” which engages in imparting knowledge to individuals, instilling morals and beliefs (which are at par with those of the culture and society), and providing formal training for skill development. In non-industrial, simple societies, the specific institution of education did not exist in society.

For quite a long period after it was established as a formal means of knowledge development, education was available only to those privileged enough to afford it. Requirements under industrialization to have literate workers for some jobs reshaped the structure of the education system to a great extent. Even in today’s world, the education system varies from one country to another due to various factors, ranging from cultural values to the availability of proper resources.

Sociology of Education is the discipline or field of study which deals with the institution of education, and all the other factors related to it, in society. Sociology of education is also defined as the academic discipline which “examines the ways in which individuals’ experiences affect their educational achievement and outcomes” (Williams, 2011). Scott (2014) states that the subject is “mostly concerned with schooling, and especially the mass schooling systems of modern industrial societies, including the expansion of higher, further, adult, and continuing education.”

In simple words, the discipline studies education as a social institution, and examines its functions, roles, and other behaviors within the broader social context, as well as how it influences individuals and is influenced reciprocally by them. It highlights the significance of education within the different cultures and other social groups, as well as assesses factors (such as economic, political, etc.) associated with the individuals which might affect their access to education. Some themes discussed within the field are modules or curriculum, testing methods (such as standardized testing), etc.

Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Lancelot Hogben, Talcott Parsons , Pierre Bourdieu, James Coleman, John Wilfred Meyer, etc., are some scholars associated with the Sociology of Education. The discipline was made popular in India by scholars such as Madhav Sadashiv Gore, Akshay Ramanlal Desai, Yogendra Singh, and Shyama Charan Dube, among others (Pathania, 2013). 

Historical Background:

French sociologist Emile Durkheim was the person who helped establish Sociology as a formal educational discipline. Durkheim also became the first professor of sociology, the first individual to pursue a sociological understanding of the functioning of societies, and the foremost person to initiate a discussion on the sociology of education (Boronski & Hassan, 2020). He identified that the base of organic solidarity is moral education, in which self-discipline and keeping one’s desires in check are the essential principles of moral development.

However, even before sociology emerged as a formal academic discipline or pursued interest in the West, Arab philosopher and historian Ibn Khaldun has been designated the position of being one of the pioneer thinkers in Sociology, and in the sociology of education in particular. Khaldun understood education as a tool of significance, the advancement of which is crucial to the growth and development of society and economy (Boronski & Hassan, 2020).

With the advent of the Fabian Society, which was originally established in 1884, during the middle of the twentieth century, sociology of education began in its early stage in Britain.

Boronski & Hassan (2020) describe the Fabian society and its activities as the “political foundation” of the sociology of education in Britain. The methodology followed during this time was ‘political arithmetic’: examining the capability of education to result in a society that was more supportive of and characterized by democracy, and its related principles.

The intellectual roots of sociology of education in Britain lie in the influence of structural functionalism, strongly visible in both Britain and America. The British sociology of education saw a drastic shift to a more critical view of education during the 1970s and 1980s. This was termed as “New Sociology of Education (NSOE)”, which consisted of not one, but several different approaches to education, all of which, however, had a similar base: the system or institution of education was considered as fundamentally adverse to those belonging from the working class (Boronski & Hassan, 2020).

The feminist perspective of sociology grew apace in the education scenario, providing a bolder and enhanced voice to the agenda of the women’s movement, and literature on the same, such as those of Dale Spencer and Judy Samuel, also expanded. Today, the field of Sociology itself, and in particular, the sub-field of Sociology of Education faces a continuous and increasing demand to make the discipline more embracive by facilitating and encouraging the incorporation of involvement of the global South.

Theoretical Perspectives on Education :

The social institution of education can be examined using the three main theoretical perspectives in Sociology:

• Structural Functionalism : This perspective views education as a crucial and integral institution that provides several benefits to society (Henslin, 2017). The first manifest function of education is providing a source of knowledge and teaching essential aptitude, required both for social survival and economic necessities. Standardized testing scores help employers discern and select the ‘good’ potential workers from the ‘bad’ wherever there is a lack of prior knowledge about each of them. 

The second function is facilitating distribution or passing on of core cultural values, norms, beliefs, ideals, as well as patriotic feelings towards one’s country, and harmony towards fellow citizens. These are passed on from generation to generation to ensure that these values are kept intact.

“Social integration”, that is, feelings of solidarity towards other people due to sharing the same nationality as them, the inclusion of people with special needs, etc., is the third manifest function of education (Henslin, 2017). At the same time, it also serves the function of separating people into ‘appropriate’ groups based on differences in their characteristics (such as merit, skills, etc.).

Other functions vary from place to place and include providing childcare, providing nutrition (free midday meal systems), facilitating sex education and proper healthcare, diminishing the rate of unemployment, as well as ensuring security in society by keeping individuals in schools and away from corrupt activities (Henslin, 2017).

• Symbolic Interactionism : This perspective focuses on the interaction taking place in schools–in classrooms, playgrounds, etc., between students and teachers, and among students themselves, and how these can affect the individuals involved in the interactions. Socialization into gender roles is a primary example of the influence of in-school interaction upon individuals. Teachers’ expectations, type of peer groups, etc., have an impact on the performance of students (higher the teacher’s expectations, the better the students will perform, and vice versa) (Henslin, 2017). Expectations of students oneself based on their life situations (such as financial conditions) also affect an individual’s educational performance. 
• Conflict Theory : This theoretical perspective is inherently skeptical and critical of the education system. According to conflict theorists, education serves the purpose of introducing, reiterating, and maintaining the class division which is present in society. They posit the presence of a “hidden curriculum” which instills values such as submission to power or authority, adherence to social or cultural rules (such as maintenance of racial discrimination, treating students from different social classes differently), etc. (Henslin, 2017). 

Also Read: Maxist Perspective on Education

By implementing some latent and some visible rules, schools also promote the current social structures (such as capitalism: by encouraging competitive behavior and pitting students against one another based on test scores, social stratification: regions having lower-class students have poorly funded schools, etc.), thereby facilitating their existence rather than working towards their removal from society. 

Other theoretical perspectives which have had a significant impact on how education, and the system around it, is analyzed are feminist approaches, which highlight the gender differences in education, with the third wave of feminism also incorporating race and class-based discriminations into the gender imbalance; and critical race theory which focuses on all matters concerning race (mainly the obstacles which people have to encounter due to race) in education (Robson, 2019).

Scope of Sociology of Education :

Sociology of Education covers a wide range of topics. Society and all other components within it, such as culture, class, race, gender, etc., the ongoing processes of socialization, acculturation, social organization, etc., and other factors such as status, roles, values, morals, etc., all fall under the inspection of this field of study (Satapathy, n.d.). Aligning the design of education according to geographical, ethnic, and linguistic necessities, and requirements of other population subgroups also falls under Sociology of Education. How economic background and situations, family structures and relations, friends, peer groups and teachers, and other more overarching social issues affect the personality, quality of education, and accessibility of opportunities to students is an integral point of consideration under Sociology of Education.

Significance of Studying Sociology of Education :

Dynamic nature of culture, the fact that culture varies from one place to another and sometimes even within the same region, and because education, culture, and society affect each other drastically, it is important to have an understanding of the relationship between these so that education can be used effectively as a tool for human advancement (Satapathy, n.d.). Sociology of Education helps in facilitating that.

Teachers are able to learn cultural differences, practice cultural relativism , understand how differences in culture translate into the educational sphere as well, and work towards providing individuals equitable opportunities for education through the Sociology of Education (Ogechi, 2011). They can also motivate the same knowledge among students. As a discipline, Sociology of Education instills cultural appreciation, respect, and admiration towards diversity, and more in-depth knowledge about different cultures and other social groups through the patterns in education within them.

Sociology of Education also provides greater knowledge about human behavior, clarity on how people organize themselves in society and helps unravel and simplify the complexities within human society (Ogechi, 2011). Because education, whether in the formal, institutionalized form or otherwise, is one of the few components in human society which more or less remains constant across cultures, it becomes an important tool to analyze and interpret human societies.

The discipline also enhances one’s understanding of the position education occupies in society, and the roles it plays in the lives of humans (Ogechi, 2011). At the same time, it helps develop knowledge about the benefits as well as the shortcomings of education and devise policies to make the institution more beneficial for society by facilitating an analytical examination.

Due to its focus on studying one of the most vital parts of human lives today, the academic field of Sociology of Education holds a position of great importance among the several branches and sub-branches of sociology. The discipline is constantly evolving, and undergoing improvement and changes as the society, and the values held by it change.

Differences between Educational Sociology and Sociology of Education :

Although the two are related, Sociology of Education is distinctly different from Educational Sociology in certain factors. Sociology of education is the process of scientifically investigating the institution of education within the society–how the society affects it, how education influences people in the society in return, and the problems which might occur as a result of the interaction between the two (Chathu, 2017). Educational Sociology also deals with these, but where Sociology of Education is a more theory-based study, Educational Sociology focuses on applying principles in sociology to the entire system of education and how it operates within the society. In other words, Sociology of Education studies the practices within the social institution of education using sociological concepts, while Educational Sociology engages in the practical application of understandings developed through sociological research into education (Bhat, 2016).

In the same context, Sociology of Education views education as a part of the larger society, and hence the institution is analyzed both as a separate unit, as well as by considering it alongside other factors in society (Bhat, 2016). Therefore, the discipline tries to form a relationship between education and other facets of society and seeks to understand how education affects these different components of the society, and vice versa (for example, how education ingrains gender roles, as well as how pre-existing gender roles affect the quality, quantity, availability, and access to education). Educational Sociology, on the other hand, aims to provide solutions to the problems which occur in education (Bhat, 2016). In doing so, the discipline views education as a separate entity within society.

Sociology of Education tends to strive towards developing an understanding of how the education system affects individuals, and what outcomes are visible in people as a result of education (Chathu, 2017). Educational Sociology, on the other hand, strives to find ways of improving the institution and system of education so that its potentials can be more advantageously harnessed for the greater interest of all in the future.

Bhat, M. S. (2016). EDU-C-Sociological foundations of education-I . https://www.cukashmir.ac.in/departmentdocs_16/Education%20&%20Sociology%20-%20Dr.%20Mohd%20Sayid%20Bhat.pdf

Boronski, T., & Hassan, N. (2020). Sociology of education (2nd ed.). Editorial: Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington Dc, Melbourne Sage.

Chathu. (2017, January 30). Difference between educational sociology and sociology of education | definition, features, characteristics . Pediaa.com. https://pediaa.com/difference-between-educational

Ogechi, R. (2011). QUESTION: Discuss the importance of sociology of education to both teachers and students. Academia . https://www.academia.edu/37732576/QUESTION_Discuss_the_importance_

Pathania, G. J. (2013). Sociology of Education. Economic and Political Weekly , 48 (50), 29–31. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24479041

Robson, K. L. (2019). Theories in the sociology of education. In Sociology of Education in Canada . Pressbooks. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/robsonsoced/chapter/__unknown__-2/

Satapathy, S. S. (n.d.). Sociology of education . https://ddceutkal.ac.in/Syllabus/MA_SOCIOLOGY/Paper-16.pdf

Scott, J. (2014). A dictionary of sociology (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Williams, S. M. (2011). Sociology of education. Education . https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0065

Soumili is currently pursuing her studies in Social Sciences at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, focusing on core subjects such as Sociology, Psychology, and Economics. She possesses a deep passion for exploring various cultures, traditions, and languages, demonstrating a particular fascination with scholarship related to intersectional feminism and environmentalism, gender and sexuality, as well as clinical psychology and counseling. In addition to her academic pursuits, her interests extend to reading, fine arts, and engaging in volunteer work.

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Sociology, social class and education

The relationship between the educational system and social class inequalities is one of the most fundamental issues in the sociology of education. Schools have been held up as both the means of achieving equality in society but also as centrally implicated in the reproduction of inequalities. So we are confronted with a conundrum. How is schooling to be understood in relation to social class?

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Pedagogy, Culture and Society

Carole Leathwood

Aina Tarabini

Socialization and selection are agreed within the sociology of education to be the two main functions of the school as a social institution. On the one hand, schools inculcate values and norms that are key to constructing students' identities. On the other, schools transmit knowledge and skills that are critical to explaining individuals' social positions. The main question addressed in this chapter is the following: what shapes how children and young people engage with school and the perceived purpose of education? This question includes both the socialization and the selection function of the school and it interrogates the role of education in learning and human development in broad terms. The chapter aims to provide an overview of how the sociology of education has engaged with this topic. To this end, the chapter identifies five principal mechanisms stressed by the discipline to explain the role of schooling in 'producing' human beings, mediating their school experience and guaranteeing their learning and educational success, namely: structural mechanisms; systemic mechanisms; institutional mechanisms; relational mechanisms; and subjective mechanisms. For each of these, the main theoretical, conceptual and empirical contributions of classical and contemporary sociological research are shared. These mechanisms work in concert, resulting in processes of learning and human development that are profoundly shaped by, and in turn themselves extend social-class inequalities in education.

Tania Saeed

The education system is both a source of perpetuating socio-economic inequalities, and a tool for challenging the status quo. Educational institutions, especially schools are an integral part of the socialization process, preparing the next generation to take on their role as “social” actors. The course examines how and why the education system perpetuates or challenges existing inequalities within society. It introduces students to sociological theories of education, examining the intersection between education, class, culture, gender, resistance and democracy. The first part provides a macro level analysis of education and its place within society by introducing students to grand theories of education with a particular emphasis on functionalism, pragmatism, and critical pedagogy. The second part focuses on the formalized education system, in particular the school, examining the structure and organization of the school, teaching and pedagogy, classroom inequalities, and the politics of language and curriculum. The readings therefore move from a macro level analysis to the micro unit of the school, highlighting both the potential and the limitation of modern day schooling in challenging existing inequalities within society.

Interchange

Gary Dowsett

Eris Roncancio

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

Stephen Ball

Gabriela Iordachita

The studies on inequalities in educational opportunities have been conducted along studies on social mobility, social class stratification and forming or studies concerned with the evolution of modern democracies. Our theoretical approach represents a critical analysis of the education system in order to identify state policies or common practices which do not lead to a better operation of the state itself. Our goal is that of identifying such aspects and introduce them on the public agenda in order to create remedial public policies. Conclusions show that a decrease of income inequality distribution among social classes and a democratic, merit-based political system which is not subjected to legislation or procedure changes at short times would increase equity and social cohesion of a society, thus creating better work and life opportunities for a larger number of people.

Joshua B . Gardiner

Ella-Louise Hart

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