an introduction to the sociology of

education everyone has an opinion on

education politicians often talk about
education as a solution to social
problems others blame persistent
inequality and poverty on substandard
education our education system is hotly
debated every few years or so we ask
ourselves our schools failing our
children what can be done to fix it with
education everyone is an expert everyone
has had direct prolonged experience with
the education system over the course of
their lives and has a perspective on
what is wrong or right with our current
educational system educational issues
whether over teacher pay school funding
or curriculum standards quickly become
personal and are often ideological and
divisive in nature the sociology of
education takes all these questions and
issues about education and looks to
social systems and the structure of
society to find answers by studying
education sociologically we can attempt
to view our own personal experiences
with education in a broader context by
understanding the ways in which larger
social structures have shaped and
impacted our educational experience the
sociology of Education is the study of
educational structures processes and
practices from a sociological
perspective meaning that the theories
and methods common to sociology are
applied to educational issues sociology
of education focuses on the interactions
between broader structures in society
and what happens in schools it works to
understand schooling by analyzing how
social forces like families poverty
inequality the economy or discrimination
impact education emile durkheim
a renowned sociologist in the late 1800s
and early 1900s laid the foundations for
a sociology of education in his texts
education in society moral education and
the evolution of educational thought
Durkheim was one of the first
sociologists to explicitly examine the
role schools play in educating students
to participate in social systems
Durkheim was interested in the ways in
which schools
socialize students to become productive
members of society his work on moral
education in particular highlights his
interest in the socializing function of
schools since durkheim's texts were
published the field of sociology of
education has grown rapidly and has
taught in departments of sociology and
departments of Education across the
world while Durkheim is one of the first
to examine schools through a
sociological lens others have critiqued
and transformed the ways that we use
sociology to look at education the field
of sociology of Education can be broken
into four main theoretical perspectives
functionalism conflict theory critical
theory and interpretivism each of these
perspectives analyzes education through
a different sociological lens and come
to very different conclusions about the
role of Education in our society first
functionalism Durkheim one of the
founders of the sociology of education
was a functionalist meaning that he
believed education served a crucial role
in training students to become
productive members of broader society
functionalist are concerned above all
with maintaining social order they view
education as a way to maintain
equilibrium and stability in society it
is important to note that functionalism
takes a macro lens - education by
studying groups and social structures
not individuals above all else
functionalist value stability in society
they view changes pathological and seek
to reduce conflict functionalist such as
Durkheim in the early 1900's and later
Talcott Parsons in the 1960s
conceptualized society using metaphors
of the body functionalism as an ideology
draws its ideas from the field of
biology viewing society as a body
functionalism uses the analogy that
societal institutions such as schools
families and churches are all organs in
the body that must function properly in
order for the success of society as a
whole
think of schools like an arm if the arm
stops working the body cannot function
similarly as schools do not work
correctly
society ceases to function properly
schools are tasked with socializing
students to fulfill society's needs
schools train students accordingly and
allocate them to specific jobs based on
their performance functionalist theory
stresses transmission how generations
pass on culture knowledge and rules to
future generations
this transmission can be done
effectively through schools for example
take cultural customs in schools
concerning patriotism reciting the
Pledge of Allegiance learning about the
founding fathers or celebrating national
holidays functionalist love these
activities because they work to transmit
cultural values through generations and
assimilate children to dominant cultural
forms functionalism transmits values of
Independence you're responsible for your
own actions and achievement you should
work hard and succeed to better yourself
in society it also rests firmly upon the
notion of meritocracy that if you work
hard you will succeed this transmission
process rate rests on latent and
manifest functions of schooling
basically the manifest function of
schooling is what we assume and believe
schools to do they recognize an intended
purpose to teach our children so they
can succeed latent functions however are
the functions that serve the needs of
society but are not recognized or
acknowledged by its members schools
serve the latent function of socializing
workers to fulfill particular roles in
the labor force schools create CEOs
teachers and the unemployed the central
tenants of functionalist theory
maintaining equilibrium preaching
meritocracy and transmitting rules and
customs open it up to major critique
many scholars thought functionalist
thinking for maintaining the status quo
social change in conflict are regarded
as aberrations not essential tools in
advancing society functionalism
reinforces the existing ruling social
and political order regardless of how
just or unjust that order may be because
of its insistence on order and stability
theory can be viewed as overly concerned
with maintaining equilibrium at the
expense of social justice John Dewey a
progressive educator was criticized for
his functionalist perspective on
vocational training for african-american
students he argued that it made sense to
encourage these students to attend
vocational schools in light of their
economic situations this training would
ensure they would become productive
members of society
however others push back against this
arguing that to be pigeonholed students
of particular races into jobs and that
this was unjust and biased even if it
did lead to stability and social
equilibrium functionalism can also be
critiqued for forcing assimilation at
the expense of diverse cultures and
beliefs by forcing immigrants to
assimilate to dominant cultural values
and beliefs in the name of social
cohesion and equilibrium functionalism
erases diversity and forces compliance
to the dominant culture and finally
functional isms firm faith and a
meritocratic society can be seen as at
odds with lived realities of
discrimination and unequal opportunity
so let's go over some key terms in
functionalism we start off with the
metaphorical body and functionalism
sneed for equilibrium we also need to
consider that functionalism is taking a
macro lens to society not an individual
or micro lens then there's the
transmission of cultural values through
its manifest and latent functions and
finally there's the critique on
functional isms emphasis on stability
and social order at the expense of
social change
conflict theory rejects the
functionalist viewpoint of a meritocracy
at its heart conflict theory is
concerned with structural inequality and
argues that the driving force in society
is class conflict schools are
instrumental in this struggle conflict
theorists tend to draw their ideas from
Marx who argued that society is made up
of two classes the oppressed and the
oppressors and that these divisions in
society are drawn on primarily
socio-economic lines conflict theory
rests on a class-based analysis of
social issues it views socioeconomic
status not race gender ability sexual
orientation etc as the primary
determinant of social outcomes some
conflict theorists have been criticised
for failing to consider
intersectionalities of oppression like
gender but we'll get to that later Paulo
Freire II one of the founders of
conflict theory was a liberation
theologian in Brazil in the 1900s and
employs Marxism to critique capitalist
society he urges oppressed classes to
liberate themselves from the dominant
class he argues that oppressed peoples
must gain critical consciousness of
their own oppression before there can be
a revolution until then oppression
dehumanizes both the oppressed and the
oppressor this is inevitable under a
capitalist system to clarify how both
groups are dehumanized think of a man in
a patriarchal society he is dehumanized
and prevented from becoming his true
self for example by crying publicly
because of patriarchal constructs that
reinforce a particular form of
masculinity in the same way oppressors
are dehumanized in Ferries theories
because oppressors cannot truly be free
when others are oppressed as well only
the oppressed have the power and ability
to liberate themselves and their
oppressors from these destructive
relationships any attempt by the
dominant or oppressor class to liberate
the oppressed is what Ferry calls false
generosity it is disingenuous and only
serves to reinforce power relationships
this is where education comes in Frary
articulates the need for a true pedagogy
of the oppressed where oppressed peoples
learn about oppression in its classes
and work to liberate themselves from
oppression in order to achieve this
liberation faerie speaks of the
importance of praxis and education
praxis is a combination of action and
reflection without reflection activism
is often too hasty and thoughtless
however without sustained action
reflection is useless
another major concept that Ferry
highlights that is critical to conflict
theory is the idea of banking education
banking education is an instrument of
oppression it basically entails a
teacher filling a student up with
knowledge while the student passively
receives it students are not active
agents but receptacles to be filled up
banking education works to socialize
students to accept inequalities and in
justices and not question Authority
Frary harshly critiques the model of
baking education which he views as
ubiquitous in public schools and are
used for a critical problem posing
pedagogy while education has the
potential to liberate minds and work for
social change as Frary
articulates conflict theory also argues
that the educational system of an
unequal unjust country can never be just
conflict theory is applied to education
primarily when looking at the ways in
which schools prepare students to
participate in a capitalist labor force
bowls and gINT is's seminal text
schooling in capitalist America outline
how schools socialize students to
reproduce unequal labor relationships
their theory of economic reproduction
boils down to working-class kids go to
working-class schools and then are
trained to fill working-class jobs
labor relationships are produced through
schooling your outcome in school is not
dependent on how hard you try or even
how smart you are it is based on your
social class just like in functionalism
schools work to socialize students the
difference
theory is that schools are socializing
students to replicate unjust
relationships and power dynamics bowls
and gINT is also outlined correspondence
theory schools at least schools for
primarily working class or students of
color eerily resemble factory life from
the strict schedules to harsh punishment
for breaking rules to the often dull and
dreary nature of everyday school life in
this way schools train students to
occupy the jobs their parents did the
greatest predictor of college attendance
is not IQ high school GPA or ambition it
is most heavily correlated with your
parents socioeconomic status conflict
theory underscores this relationship
between class and educational success
conflict theory also draws upon ideas of
the hidden curriculum and explaining
educational issues the hidden curriculum
is what is not taught but still
transmitted the implicit messages used
to convey what is appropriate or right
in a capitalist economy the hidden
curriculum is used to transmit values
and beliefs that legitimize inequality
where an explicit curriculum would be
something like a math textbook the
hidden curriculum is a less explicit
disguised form of instruction an example
of the hidden curriculum is how students
learn to compete with one another in
order to gain the teachers approval from
an early age students are taught to
compete in order to succeed this is a
belief that isn't explicitly taught but
is nonetheless ingrained from an early
age in this way the hidden curriculum
trains students to adopt capitalist ways
of thinking students are socialized to
compete with each other to get jobs once
they leave school just like
functionalist theorists conflict
theorists focus on how society transmits
values the main difference between these
two theories however is that
functionalist think this transmission is
benign and essential to societal
functioning conflict theorists disagree
arguing that this hidden curriculum
works to legitimize inequality bourdieu
extends the idea
the hidden curriculum by focused on
focusing on cultural capital which is
defined as a non-financial asset that
contributes to success in school and in
life
he argues that schools value a very
particular type of cultural capital
white upper-middle class well-educated
and those that do not possess that kind
of cultural capital are unintentionally
or perhaps intentionally punished for
example schools value a certain way of
speaking and dressing if you deviate
from that pattern you will run into
problems with teachers and
administrators correcting and
disciplining you from a very early age
cultural reproduction occurs as schools
privileged culturally specific ways of
acting whether it's through linguistic
practices that are embedded in the
curriculum proper ways of speaking or
grammar rules or through cultural
practices that may not be familiar to
all students students from different
cultures or socio-economic statuses are
at an inherent disadvantage in this
environment because their specific
cultural forms of knowledge are not
valuable in the school setting they lack
cultural capital extending off of
Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory is his
idea of the habitus schools have very
deep-seated socialized norms of
understanding and doing called the
habitus the habitus allows subordinate
groups to be reproduced and the dominant
class to maintain its status without
resorting to physical repression the
socialized attitudes and beliefs that
the habitus teaches us particularly in
schools guide and constrain our behavior
in this way power is symbolically
and culturally created by our actions
and thoughts through the habitus
dominant groups can oppress subordinate
ones without explicitly punishing them
this is called symbolic violence and
works to effectively legitimize
inequality habitus can be a very
ambiguous concept so here's a concrete
example of the habitus at work in
schools basically think of habitus as
your common sense it's something that
you've learned unconsciously but see
to be almost natural to you now in
schools part of your habit is is to
respond to the sounds of bells ringing
to signal the end of class you stand up
pack up your things and leave at the
sound of the Bell this seems to be
common sense but is actually our habitus
this shows us how our habit is shapes
and directs our actions for bows and
gINT s and other conflict theorists this
habitus reflects the socialization of
students to reproduce labor
relationships students learn to follow
the sound of the school bell and obey
orders just like they will learn to
follow similar signs and symbols in the
factory or workplace a major theme in
conflict theory is how the state can
control ideas and behavior the state can
control behavior through the repressive
state apparatus the RSA or more commonly
through the ideological state apparatus
is a the repressive state apparatus is
basically overt forms of control
for example during slavery whipping
slaves or using overt military force it
is an explicit form of discipline and
control in contrast many societies use
more covert forms of control in the form
of the ideological state apparatus the
ISA reinforces the power of the dominant
class through ideologies and cultural
forces all through a Marxist theorist
view schools as the primary tool of the
ISA because schools reproduce labor
relationships by training students to
become productive workers he argues that
the education is a conceals and masks
the ruling class ideology behind its
liberating qualities so that it's hidden
agendas become inconspicuous to the
parents of the students in summary
conflict theory is inherently a
revolutionary perspective it believes
that educational equality cannot be
achieved without a fundamental
transformation of economic structures
schools are not the great equalizers
that functionalist theory makes them out
to be in fact they are ideal instruments
in a capitalist economy and work to
reproduce unequally
ships both functionalism and conflict
theory are macro perspectives and both
focus on how values are transmitted
these two theories however ultimately
come to very different conclusions about
the kind of society we live in conflict
theory has been criticized for being
overly deterministic and not allowing
room for individuality and human agency
in conflict theories social class is
your destiny
this obscures the ways in which students
to resist Authority and try to disrupt
unjust systems conflict Theory also does
not engage with other forms of
oppression besides class how were women
treated differently under a capitalist
system what about people of color
critical theory another major
theoretical perspective in the sociology
of education can be thought of as an
offshoot of conflict theory that
actually addresses concerns about
intersectionality and agency now let's
go over some key terms in conflict
theory we start with class conflict and
Marxism conflict theory ultimately is
based on a Marxist view of society that
emphasizes class struggle
we have fairies work around critical
consciousness and praxis and how
education is the key to liberation we
also have various critique of banking
education and his desire for a problem
posing pedagogy and then we have bowls
and guinnesses social reproduction
theory where working-class kids go to
working-class schools etc as well as
their correspondence theory schools are
a factory then there's the hidden
curriculum and it's transmission of
values and boards use cultural capital
Theory where certain forms of being and
thinking are privileged and then there's
the ideological state apparatus function
and how it subtly reinforces inequality
and finally there's the critique of
conflict theory it's too deterministic
it's not based in reality and it's not
intersectional enough
next let's move to critical theory the
main goal of critical theory is to
unmask sources of oppression to prevail
understanding of the causes and
consequences of oppression and to
encourage participation and liberation
critical theory assumes that
conventional social theories are a tool
of ruling elites we want to perpetuate
oppression it argues that humans are
oppressed because power is hidden or
disguised people are unfree because of
this drawn on conflict theories of
injustice and oppression critical theory
acknowledges how social class
perpetuates inequality
however critical theory also points
toward the ways in which individuals can
be oppressed by other identities besides
class for example once raised gender
nationality ability or sexual
orientation can be targets for
oppression nuoc society has divided
solely by class is much too simplistic
in critical theory online conflict and
functionalist theory which are macro
perspectives critical theory draws on
more micro frameworks as well it values
human agency and individual
circumstances it is not as overly
deterministic and broad as either of the
other two theories in critical theory
there is interaction between individuals
and structures individuals are not by
any means free to do whatever they want
in an unequal Society but at the same
time they are not doomed by birth to
occupy irreversible roles critical
Theory also works to fundamentally
deconstruct social structures it wants
to deconstruct knowledge and complicate
how social science in the Academy
produce knowledge it wants to complicate
discourses around privileged and
critically examine how schools reproduce
privilege and inequality like conflict
theory critical theory argues that the
hidden curriculum shaped schooling and
that schools play a major role in social
reproduction critical theory differs
from conflict theory and that it leaves
room for agency in critical theory while
inequality
justice may never disappear there is
space and power for individuals to
create social change because of critical
theories faith and individuals ability
to resist hegemonic structures it has a
valuable application in the field of
education
critical theory as a perspective that
moves beyond a solely class-based
analysis
considers how race gender ability and
other identities play into oppressive
structures critical multiculturalism is
a growing field in the sociology of
Education that seeks to understand
different cultures in a more nuanced way
than the predominant model of food
folklore and festivals this perspective
emphasizes intersectionality and gets
away from essentialist forms of thinking
and explicitly Marxist perspective is
often employed in critical theory as
well in order to analyze much like
conflict theory how social class often
dictate outcome critical Theory also
utilizes critical race Theory CRT in
brief critical race theory which is an
offshoot of critical legal studies as a
theory based on the assumption that we
live in a white supremacist society that
rewards certain individuals based on
their race racism is systemic and
institutionalized whiteness carries
intrinsic benefits CRT uses storytelling
and an emphasis on lived experiences to
disrupt dominant narratives around race
CRT attempts to rewrite the white
supremacist master script in contrast to
identity based perspectives and critical
theory post structuralism another major
theoretical framework in critical theory
attempts to move the discussion away
from categories and large structures and
more towards discourse and language and
how behavior is shaped through these
institutions this comes up again and
again in education particularly in
curriculum studies when we examine the
kinds of knowledge that are privileged
in textbooks and on exams an extremely
recent example of how knowledge and
language shape our understanding and
work to give power to dominant groups
is the controversy over a mcgraw-hill
history textbook that inaccurately
describes enslaved Africans in the
United States as workers and immigrants
instead of as slaves this highlights how
language can construct meanings and warp
understandings of history post
structuralism also emphasizes
deconstructing binaries
post-structuralist similarly believed in
unequal Society and believed that this
inequality is due to how we construct
knowledge working from the viewpoint
that knowledge is socially constructed
post-structuralist view binaries as a
form of oppression for example the
binary between male and female
inherently sets up a power dynamic this
dichotomy will inevitably lead to
oppression in fact even discussing male
and female on these terms creates a
socially constructed view of reality
that places men and women in separate
often unequal spheres another dangerous
binary is the black/white binary which
necessarily essential eise's individuals
down to their race by viewing society in
these strict terms you oppress
alternative voices who feel as though
they do not fit neatly into this binary
for example gay black people are
silenced by this binary because they do
not have a way to express the
intersectionality and multiple
oppressions of race and sexual
orientation that they face
post-structuralist view the socially
constructed nature of knowledge as a
method to perpetuate harmful binaries
that oppressive silence alternate
alternate voices because of this post
structuralism advocates for a
dismantling of social constructions in
order to achieve equality
critical theory acknowledges and
reaffirms much a conflict theory however
its major contribution is that it
problematizes and expands on many of
conflict theories tenants it focuses on
knowledge production in education and on
decolonizing ways of thinking and
knowing it also emphasizes individual
agency and the power of counter
narratives and oppressed peoples to
liberate themselves from large social
structure
so some major concepts to keep in mind
with critical theory starting out
critical theory builds and shares a lot
of frameworks with conflict theory it
looks at different forms of oppression
such as race gender and ability and
sexual orientation and it ultimately
works to deconstruct knowledge
particularly in schools and finally
interpretivism unlike functionalists and
conflict theories which take a
large-scale approach to social
structures interpretivism focuses on
micro interactions interpretivism
focuses on the social construction of
meaning basically interpretivism
believes that meaning is created through
interaction therefore it studies
individuals and the meanings they create
in their daily lives in education
interpretive is critique how
functionalist conflict and even
sometimes critical theorists can claim
to know exactly what's going on in a
school without even stepping foot in it
generally interpret events don't like to
offer large theories explaining social
actions instead they look to the
specific cultures in each school and
interpret us would go into a school and
spent hours studying and observing
students interact a conflict theorists
would not undertake these steps in
interpretivism the focus is on the
meaning we can struck through language
there are three basic types of meaning
that interpret ism identifies first the
propositional content of a sentence the
verbal substance then the relational
content referring to the relative
positions of the speaker and the one who
receives the speaking and finally the
attitudinal content the tone of the
message ultimately in interpretivism we
read the world like a social text we
must develop a shared structure and
intelligibility in order to make
connections and communicate
you've just learned about the four main
theories in the sociology of education
English (auto-generated)

In lieu
Sociology of education reminded me of the sad reality that our
education is currently shaping Filipinos to be skilled and unskilled
workers who will be shipped to the world's more developed regions.
If education is one of the solutions to our social problems, why are we
using it to export Filipinos so that other countries can benefit from
them rather than creating more jobs so that these Filipinos can stay and
not be forced to go abroad? We need Filipinos to develop our country,
but the government has instead focused on institutionalizing OFWs by
establishing a separate department for them.