Sociological Perspective On Education
Sociological Perspective On Education
Sociological Perspective On Education
How do schools contribute to the unequal distribution of people On the issue of the role of schools in maintaining the dominance
into jobs in society so that more powerful members of society of the powerful over the powerless, Max Weber argued that
maintain the best positions and the less powerful groups are schools teach and maintain particular “status cultures” through
allocated to lower ranks in society? which groups in society with similar interests and positions in the
What is the role of education in maintaining the prestige, social- status hierarchy are able to maintain their status, their power,
political-economic power and position of the dominant group their dominance. Schools are often seen as rather homogenous
while maintaining the lower social position and status of the in their composition of students and they teach to those students
dominated-subservient group? thus perpetuating that “status culture”.
Points for Reflection: 2. Goal Attainment. A system must define and achieve its
1. Schools for the Rich and Schools for the Poor and how it primary goals.
perpetuates and even farther the gap between the rich 3. Integration. A system must regulate the interrelationship
and the poor of its component parts. It must also manage the
relationship among the other 3 functional imperatives
2. How can education address the class divide? (adaptation, goal attainment, and latency).
4. Latency or Pattern Maintenance. A system must furnish,
maintain and renew both the motivation of individuals
3. Examine the Philippine Society:
and the cultural patterns that create and sustain the
motivation.
a. Using the lens of Conflict Theory and identify
issues and concerns resulting from conflicts; The General Structure of Action System by George Ritz, (2000 in
i. What knowledge, skills, values and Vega, et al. 2015, p.5) is presented below.
attitudes must be integrated in school
curriculum or program to address those
concerns?
b. Using the lens of Consensus Theory, identify the Cultural Social
shared beliefs and values of people that provide
System System
stability and order in society and therefore must
be strengthened in schools.
Structural Functionalism
Structural Functionalism states that society is made up of various Action Personality
institutions that work together in cooperation. Institutions are System System
viewed as Action Systems.
Talcott Parsons’ Structural Functionalism includes 4 Functional Action System is the behavioral organism that handles the
Imperatives for all action systems. Those imperatives are: adaptation function by adjusting to and transforming the
1. Adaptation. A system must cope with external situational external world.
exigencies. It must adapt to its environment and adapt
environment to its needs.
Personality System performs the goal-attainment function by 2. Interaction
defining system goals and mobilizing resources to attain them. 3. Physical or environmental aspect
4. Motivation towards the optimization of
Social System copes with the integration function by controlling gratification
its component parts. 5. Relation to situation and each other is defined and
mediated by a system of culturally-structured and
Cultural System performs the latency function by providing shared symbols.
actors with the norms and values that motivate them for action.
Parson was not only interested in the structural components of
Assumptions of Structural Functionalism the social system, but he was also interested in examining the
1. Systems have the property of order and interdependence function of social systems. It is believed that systems exist
of parts. because they are able to meet the needs of society in its
2. Systems tend toward self-maintaining order, or particular situations. Parsons listed the Functional Requisites of a
equilibrium. Social System:
3. The system may be static or involved in an ordered 1. Social system must be structured so that they operate
process of change. compatibly with other systems.
4. The nature of one part of the system has an impact on 2. To survive, the social system must have the requisites from
the form that the other parts can take. other systems.
5. Systems maintain boundaries with their environments. 3. The system must meet a significant proportion of the needs
6. Allocation and integration are two fundamental processes of its actors.
necessary for a given state of equilibrium of a system. 4. The system must elicit adequate participation from its
7. Systems tend toward self-maintenance involving the members.
maintenance of the relationships of parts to the whole, 5. It must have at least a minimum of control over potentially
control of environmental variations, and control of disruptive behavior.
tendencies to change the system from within. 6. If conflict becomes sufficiently disruptive, it must be
controlled.
Parson’s conception of the social system begins at the micro- 7. A social system requires a language in order to survive.
level with the interaction between the ego and alter ego which
he identified as the most elementary form of the social system. A Functionalist explains that a society assumes a particular form
social system consists of the following: because that form works well for the society and develops
1. Individual actors certain characteristics because those characteristics meets the
needs of
that society. The key principles of the functionalist perspective
as identified by Farley (in Vega et al. 2015, p.6): The structural functional model addresses the question of social
1. Interdependence. This is one of the most important organization and how it is maintained, (Durkheim & Spencer in
principles of the functionalist theory – society is made up Vega, et al., 2015, p.8). It has its roots in Natural Science and the
of interdependent parts and that every part of society is analogy between a society and an organization. In the analysis of
dependent to some extent on other parts of society. living organisms, the task of the scientists is to identify the
What happens in one affects the other parts. various parts (structures) and determine how they work
(function). In the study of society, a sociologist tries to identify
2. Functions of Social Structure and Culture. It is assumed the structures of society and how they function, thus the name,
that each part of the social system exists because it STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM.
serves some function. This idea is applied to both the The component parts of social structure are:
social structure and culture. 1. Families
a. Social Structure refers to the organization of society, 2. Neighborhood
including its institutions, its social positions, and its 3. Associations
distribution of resources. 4. Schools
b. Culture refers to a set of beliefs, language, rules, values, 5. churches
and knowledge held in common by members of a 6. banks
society. 7. countries, etc.