Republic of the Philippines

NUEVA ECIJA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND

Off-Campus Program - San Leonardo
Tambo Adorable, San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija

PROF ED 10

UNIT II: The School as a Social Institution

THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIALIZING AGENT

The school is one social organization designed to improve the socialization and education process. Socialization is the
process of developing a social self , discovering one's own culture and understanding the culture rules and
expectations.

The school is an artificial structure developed for social interaction and cultural transmission purposes. Unlike
shared societies , the school can be seen as a formally constituted group.

The school is among the most significant socializing agencies;i.e. the most important organization in which
socialization takes place is the school rather than family. Biddle described schooling as the " appearance of
structured educational activity in which the teaching positions are distinguished from other positions in the system
and given the specific task of socializing neophytes.

In terms of socialization ,in recent years the school has come to take over some of the, family and group roles of
the forms, i.e. the school has become a primary socialization entity.The school is the first large-scale organization
the child is becoming a part of.

One way to understand the socialization potential of the school is by actually measuring how many hours the
youngsters spend in school and in school related activities.

The youngsters spend most of their productive hours of the day in school,staying for around nine months in a year
from morning to evening in the case of a day school and boarding schools.

The school is said to be significant in terms of socialization ,next to the home.Through it's socialization role,the
school incorporates formal approaches and informal approaches.

How the School performs the function of socialization

1. Through the curriculum, the school in a formal way provides the child with:
i. Knowledge of basic intellectual skills such as reading, writing, verbal expression, quantitative and other
cognitive abilities, Education teaches languages and allows people communicate with each other
according to positions in society.
ii. Cultural achievements of one’s society.
iii. Opportunities to acquire social and vocational abilities which are necessary in order to make one a
social, useful and economically productive member of the society.
iv. Gender roles as perceived as suitable roles by the society.
2. Educational systems socialize students to become members of society, to play meaningful roles in the
complex network of independent positions.
3. Education helps in shaping values and attitudes to the needs of the contemporary society.
4. Education offers young people opportunities for intellectual, emotional and social growth. Thus, education
can be influential in promoting new values and stimulating adaptation of changing conditions.
5. Informally and especially through social clubs, the school enables the child to learn a number of other social
roles and skills which are also important for his/her overall development as a member of society. For
example.
i. Education teaches the laws, traditions and norms of the community, the rights that individuals will
enjoy and the responsibilities that they will undertake.

“Keep excellence burning”

Transforming Communities through Science and Technology

 ii. Education teaches how one is to behave toward his/ her play- mates and adults.
iii. Education teaches how to share things and ideas.
iv. Education teaches how to compete responsibly.
v. Schooling teaches how to cooperate.
vi. Schooling instills the community's pattern of respect; thus how to relate to others well and obey
rules.
vii. Schooling enables one to intendize the culture of one's society.
viii. Education leads toward tolerant and humanitarian attitudes. For example, college graduates are
expected to be more tolerant than (high school graduates in their attitudes toward ethnic and social
groups.

THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY

“Learning and the areas to be learned should not have boundaries, Education, as a public property, should
belong everyone, not just the academically successful but also those who have wisdom outside the school”
Sayer and Williams, (1989)
School is an open system and a social organization which thrives on the effective interrelationship within it
and with its relevant communities.(wankwo, N wokafor, Ogunsanwo & Ighalo, 1985).
Community according to Jones and George (2006) refers to physical location like 10/ towns or cities or to
social milieus like ethnic neighborhoods in which an organization is located. A community provides an
organization with the physical and social infrastructure that allows it to operate; its utilities and labor force;
the homes in which its managers and employees live; other organizations such as hospital, town services,
carriers and theaters that service their needs and soon.
Community is a part of the society and education is the counterpart of both. School is the social institute
where consciously designed learning experiences are provided with the objectives of achieving social aim at
large, over a period of time.
School is also defined as a subsystem of the larger system of the society. It has to functionally coordinate
with its immediate environment, the community in which it is situated.
The process of social interaction is essential for creating and maintaining social relationships. School
community relationships are a two-way symbiotic arrangement in which the school and the community work
together to achieve their respective goals. This reciprocal relationship is unbreakable, as the two have a
direct impact on one another.
If schools are expected to be successful in their primary mission of educating the community's children, they
need to know a great deal about the community and the families from which the children come. his means
that the school cannot exist in isolation but in co-operation with the community in which it finds itself.
(hebereme, 2008).
The school need to organize incentives for students to participate in social care, health programs, growth
plans, and other public events in order to foster effective school-community relationships.

Types of school community relationship

1. Parenting. Schools and communities relate as parents of a student. Families must provide for the health
and safety of children, and maintain a home environment that encourages learning and good behavior in
school. Schools provide training and information to help families understand their children development
and how to support the changes they undergo.
2. Communication. School must reach out to families with information about the school programs and
student reports, as well as new information on topics such as school choice and making the transition
from elementary school to higher grades. Communication must be in forms that families find it
understandable and useful. for example, school can use translator to reach parents who don’t speak
English well and it must be two- way, with educators paying attention to the concerns and need of
families.
3. Volunteering. Parents can make significant contribution to the environment and functions of a school.
School can get the most out of this process by creating flexible schedules, so more parents can
 participate, and by working to match the talents and interest of parent to the needs of students,
teachers, and administrator.
4. Decision making. School can give parents meaningful roles in the school decision making process, and
provide parents, with training and information so they can make the most of those opportunities. This
opportunity should be open to all segments of the community, not just people who have the most time
and energy to spend on school affairs.
5. Collaboration with community. Schools can help families gain access to support services offered by
other agencies such as health care, cultural events, tutoring service, and after school child care
programs, They also can help families and community groups provide services to the community, such as
recycling programs and food pantries.

Areas of school comunity relationship

Partnering according to Michigan State University (2004) requires give and-take conversation, goal
setting for future, and regular follow-up interaction. School community partnership should be
considered as connections between school and community resources. The area of this partnership
according to Yelena Mitrofanova Extension Education (n.d.) may involve the following:
1. Use of School or Neighborhood Facilities: Schools and Communities can partner with each other in
the use of different facilities. Both schools and communities can benefit from use of each other's
facilities such as clinics; transport facilitates; sources of water; restaurants; etc.
2. Sharing Other Resources: These kinds of partnerships are forged between schools and
organizations. The partnerships are often made between local business and schools. The aims of
these partnerships focused on exposing students to careers and work skills, with the sponsoring
organization benefiting from free or cheap labor.
3. Collaborative Fund Raising and Grant Application: The school and community collaborate in raising
funds needed for educational process. They develop a written plant that includes measurable goals
and accountability for how funds are used and what results are expected.
4. Volunteer Assistance: Another important area of school community relationship is area of
volunteering. While most of the volunteers are likely to be parents, such a volunteer service or
program need not be restricted to parents.
5. Mentoring and Training: Schools are often offered technical support from outside consultants. The
effectiveness of these consultants varies. In some cases, experts are brought into the school to give a
workshop.
6. Information Sharing and Dissemination: Schools and Communities share and disseminate
information through communication with each other. Communication involves sharing and
transmitting message ideas or attitudes among administrators, teachers, students, parents and other
interested constituents. Information sharing and dissemination is a give-and-take process that
requires perfect partnership between schools and communities for a better result.

The role of the teacher in school-community relations

According to Nebor,John N. (1984). The role of the teacher in a positive school- community relationship is extremely
important since it is the teacher who is the backbone of the educational system.

Consistent with the assumption that teachers are an immensely valuable tool for school/community relations, it is
the duty of the administrator to train and educate their teachers for the position they will play in the
community.Teachers should be allowed recognize the role that their administration plays in the community in no
uncertain terms