Edmgt 307: Educational Sociology Phil.

Setting
Edgar L. Guanzon

Reaction Paper
PART TWO : EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ACTION: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
Social bond, Order and Action

Sociology and education helps understand the respective logics behind the
various sociological approaches to education, their assumptions and their limits. It
clarifies the links between psychology, microsociology and macrosociology, and the role
ascribed to human reason in social action. It develops ideas and concepts in sociology
of education that explains the theoretical grounding of contemporary approaches. The
work enables the reader to grasp the viewpoint and assumptions of the various
theoretical foundations. This deals with the role of social factors in the development of
the human mind and with the role of reason in social action. It is based on a selection of
significant approaches, from Marx to the interactionist and actionist perspectives
(Schütz, Boudon), via functional approaches (Durkheim, Parsons). Functionalism is an
approach which aims to discover the roles these institutions and processes play in
maintaining a social order.

The Conflict theory, which grew out of the work of Karl Marx focuses on the struggle of
social classes to maintain dominance and power in social systems. The interaction
theory attempts to understand the deeper meanings individuals give to their
participation in and relationships with schools.

Emile Durkheim's Principles of Sociology

Durkheim has made such monumental and foundational contributions through study
and research that would take volumes to thoroughly discuss his Traditions. Durkheim is
best known for his development of an holistic and functionalist approach in sociology.
Holism is an approach which stresses that sociology should focus on and study large
social processes and institutions.

This is where Durkheim took the concept one step farther. He believed that the function
of Religion was the worship not of 'god', but of "society" itself. Individuals were said to
be using rituals and religion in their own unique collective experiences and activities,
whereas for Durkheim, `god' was simply a metaphor/emblem/symbol for society.
(www.sociologyonline.com). This entire concept appears to be in direct opposition to the
way he was raised. Nonetheless, these basic principles form the foundation and the
function of collective consciousness and group solidarity.

This demonstrates Durkheim's ability to look at the extreme of perspectives, instead of

merely focusing on the single issue presented; as he did again with anomie and
solidarity. Another example of extreme thought was equating the concept of Religion to
Society. For most people, this concept is too difficult to get a hold of, and I personally
don't think it is possible to accept the concept in its entirety because if we did, then his
ideologies of the sacred and the profane would become null and void because all would
be sacred if religion was equal or a symbol for society.

Mead's Theory Of The Self:

George Herbert Mead is well-know for his theory of the social self, which is based on
the central argument that the self is a social emergent. The social conception of the self
entails that individual selves

Mead’s concept of the “generalized other” is also essential to his theory, which he
defines as an organized and generalized attitude of a social group. The individual
defines his or her own behavior with reference to the generalized attitude of the social
group(s) they occupy. When the individual can view himself or herself from the
standpoint of the generalized other, self-consciousness in the full sense of the term is
attained. http://highered.mcgraw-
hill.com/sites/007234962x/student_view0/chapter3/chapter_overview.html
The mind is simply the interplay of such gestures in the form of significant symbols. We
must remember that the gesture is there only in its relationship to the response, to the
attitude. One would not have words unless there were such responses. Language
would never have arisen as a set of bare arbitrary terms which were attached to certain
stimuli. Words have arisen out of a social interrelationship. One of Gulliver's tales was of
a community in which a machine was created into which the letters of the alphabet
could be mechanically fed in an endless number of combinations, and then the
members of the community gathered around to see how the letters arranged after each
rotation, on the theory that they might come in the form of an Iliad or one of
Shakespeare's plays, or some other great work. The assumption back of this would be
that symbols are entirely independent of what we term their meaning. The assumption is
baseless: there cannot be symbols unless there are responses. There would not be a
call for assistance if there was not a tendency to respond to the cry of distress. It is such
significant symbols, in the sense of a sub-set of social stimuli initiating a co-operative
response, that do in a certain sense constitute our mind, provided that not only the
symbol but also the responses are in our own nature. What the human being has
succeeded in doing is in organizing the response to a certain symbol which is a part of
the social act, so that he takes the attitude of the other person who co-operates with
him. It is that which gives him a mind.

According to this view, conscious communication develops out of unconscious

communication within the social process, conversation in terms of significant gestures
out of conversation in terms of non-significant gestures; and the development in such
fashion of conscious communication is coincident with the development of minds and
selves within the social process.

Action theory in Talcott Parsons

Parsons shared positivism's desire for a general unified theory, not only for the social
science but for the whole realm of action systems (in which Parsons included the
concept of "living systems"). Where Parsons departed from the positivists was on the
criteria for science. Thus, at least for the social sciences, Parsons maintained that a full
and meaningful theory had to include the question of "ultimate values," [2] which by their
very nature and definition, included questions of metaphysics and for this and for other
reasons, Parsons theory stands at least with one foot in the sphere of hermeneutics and
similar spheres of thinking, which somehow become relevant when the question of
"ends" need to be considered within systems of action-orientation.
Parsons maintained that a full and meaningful theory had to include the question of
"ultimate values,"[2] which by their very nature and definition, included questions of
metaphysics and for this and for other reasons, Parsons theory stands at least with one
foot in the sphere of hermeneutics and similar spheres of thinking, which somehow
become relevant when the question of "ends" need to be considered within systems of
action-orientation.
http://highered.mcgraw-
hill.com/sites/007234962x/student_view0/chapter3/chapter_overview.html
Whether there exists a high level of integration in a culture or not, is an historical
question; but the typical cultural system has generally a comparatively low level of
harmony and "order." Parsons was not a functionalist but an action theorist (he never
used the term functionalism about this own theory); his use of the term "structural
functionalism" has generally been misunderstood. It does not describe Parsons' theory
in any way but was used in a special context to describe a particular stage in the
methodological development of the social sciences. [5]Parsons action theory is
characterized by a system-theoretical approach, which integrated a meta-structural
analysis with a voluntary theory. Therefore, to discuss action theory under the concept
of "functionalism," as so often has been done, is to fail to understand Parsons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_theory_(sociology)
 
Parsons developed a sophisticated theoretical model that appears to provide a
reasonable explanation for social action on the basis of subjective consciousness and
rationality.  While focused on instrumental forms of action, it avoids some of the
difficulties of the more narrowly utilitarian explanations of social action.  Through the
definition of the unit act, considering the viewpoint of the actor, through chains of action,
and through some of the systems and structures that form part of the analysis of
Parsons, the theory is social and reasonably all-encompassing.  That is, Parsons begins
with the unit act and builds an overall model of the systems and structures of society, at
the same time keeping in mind the actor and his or her motivation and interests.

Schutz postulated that it is subjective meanings that give rise to an apparently objective
social world. He argued that people depend upon language and the “stock of
knowledge” they have accumulated to enable social interaction. All social interaction
requires that individuals characterize others in their world, and their stock of knowledge
helps them with this task

The central task in social phenomenology is to explain the reciprocal interactions that
take place during human action, situational structuring, and reality construction. That it,
phenomenologists seek to make sense of the relationships between action, situation,
and reality that take place in society. Phenomenology does not view any aspect as
causal, but rather views all dimensions as fundamental to all others.

http://sociology.about.com/od/Sociological-Theory/a/Social-Phenomenology.htm
Raymond Boudon has argued that "middle-range theory" is the same concept that most
other sciences simply call 'theory'.[3] The analytical sociology movement has as its aim
the unification of such theories into a coherent paradigm at a greater level of
abstraction.
The term "middle-range theory" does not refer to a specific theory, but is rather an
approach to theory construction. Raymond Boudon defines middle-range theory as a
commitment to two ideas. The first is positive, and describes what such theories should
do: sociological theories, like all scientific theories, should aim to consolidate otherwise
segregated hypotheses and empirical regularities; "if a 'theory' is valid, it 'explains' and
in other words 'consolidates' and federates empirical regularities which on their side
would appear otherwise segregated." The other is negative, and it relates to what theory
cannot do: "it is hopeless and quixotic to try to determine the overarching independent
variable that would operate in all social processes, or to determine the essentialfeature
of social structure, or to find out the two, three, or four couples of concepts ... that would
be sufficient to analyze all social phenomena". [3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_range_theory_(sociology)

Raymond Boudon has also made critically important contributions across a wide range
of intellectual domains with important work on values and beliefs, methodology and
social theory, the role of intellectuals, rationality, relativism, and science, political theory,
and the future of sociology and the other social sciences.

http://www.sv.uio.no/iss/forskning/publikasjoner/boker/2010/raymond-boudon.html

References:

http://highered.mcgraw-
hill.com/sites/007234962x/student_view0/chapter3/chapter_overview.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_theory_(sociology)
http://www.sv.uio.no/iss/forskning/publikasjoner/boker/2010/raymond-boudon.html