WEEK 4:

SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

THE MEANING OF SOCIOLOGY:

 Latin word Socius which means sharing in a group combined
with Greek word Logos meaning Science. Auguste Comte (1798-
1857)
 Builds the way societies operate
 Increases people’s understanding of each other in a group or
groups
 Seeks knowledge of people as Social animals in terms of their:
Societies and sub-societies; Adjustments to them; Customs;
Institutions; Patterns of stability; Change that they develop
= A Scientific Study of human behaviour in groups by Ezewu
(1986) .
 
= The science of Society by Godia (1988)
 THE CONCEPT OF SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

 Sociology of Education deals with the relationship

between Education and society as a whole
 It examines social activities in educational institutions
 It explains educational phenomena e.g.
Interaction processes in the classroom or outside the
classroom; Student-teacher interactions; Student-
student interactions; Teacher-teacher interactions;
Teacher-parents interaction; Role playing; Socialisation
process; Status identification; Behaviour.
Social institutions that influence education
process e.g. the
Family; School; Religious institutions; Peer
groups; Mass media; Community
Examines various social problems E.g. the
Role of structure in school; School as a formal
organization, ; Bureaucracy in school;
Organization of learning; Relationship between
education and occupation; Education and social
mobility; Problems of elitism
 Seeks knowledge on the:
Effect of the economy on the sort of education provided by a state;
Financing of educational institutions
THE SOCIALISATION PROCESS
The term socialization refers to the Process by which an individual
acquires the:
Knowledge; Skills; Techniques to fit in society e.g. responsibility, love,
care, patriotism, role play etc
NB:
1. Socialisation involves steady learning and it occurs in stages,
beginning at birth and ending at death. Therefore, socialization is a
lifelong process
2. Requires time in order to be successful
AGENTS and MODES OF SOCIALISATION

MODES
 Formal Socialisation

 Takes place when the context of socialization

is structured e.g. Classroom teaching through:
Imparting skills, values, ideas, morals and roles
into the learners; Teaching is controlled;
teaching itself is closely monitored and
supervised by administration; Negative
behaviours are punishments while positive
sanctions are rewards
 2. Informal Socialisation
 Individuals learn the skills, morals, values,
ideas and habits of the society through
interaction with other people
 It is characterized by unconscious learning
 This includes:
Family socialization process; Peer group
socialization; Community socialization
NB:
• Individual learns the way of life of a family, peer group or
community through interactions. Informal socialisation is also
known as interpersonal socialization.
• To enforce social norms in society, sanctions are used e.g.
• A violation of moral conduct in the traditional society is
accompanied by a fine or punishment to enforce morality; an abuse
of human rights is accompanied by punishment like caning or in the
modern society, imprisonment; Positive sanctions like material
incentives, a smile, and a nod play important role in the informal
socialization; Manipulations of sanctions used to enforce norms in
society include teasing, mockery, and standardized jokes.
 AGENTS OF SOCIALISATION

These institutions include:

• The family; the school; the religious institutions; Peer groups; Mass media; The
community
• The Family as a Socialising Agent
• It is in the family that a child is born and brought up in the initial stages of his life,
• The child depends on the family members, (mother, father, sisters, brothers and
relatives)
• This eventually determines the child’s intellectual, physical and personality
development
• It is in the family where the child learns obedience, behaviour, roles and responsibility.
• The family gives the child the earliest experiences in life; therefore, the family is the
primary agent of socialisation
• A growing child uses the family as a reference group and acquires habits which are
features of his/her family
• In the family a child learns the patterns of behaviour and perceives the realities of life.
 Family Organisations

 Family organisations vary from:

 Rural to urban areas; uneducated poor to the educated rich
people; Society to society; Culture to culture e.g
 Extended Family (relatives of the couple, uncles, aunts, brothers
and sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews, grandparents
 Nuclear Family (couple and their children
 The Polygamous Family in which a man marries more than one
wife and the descent is traced (patrilineal)
 The Monandrous Family (a woman takes her husband to live with
her, here descent is traced through the mother (matrilineal).
 The Polyandrous Family (a woman marries several husbands and
brings them under her control
 School as a socialising agent

 The child spends the major part of his/her

most active hours of the day in school
 The school undertakes the role of the
socialising agent at the expense of the family
 Schools serve as a socializing agent both
formally and informally
 
Formally schools socialize children by:

 Teaching in the classroom providing the child

with basic intellectual skills as well as
communication skills
 Imparting vocational skills to the learners
 Playing a role of a counsellor enabling
learners to acquire social skills and moral
values of the society
 Informally schools socialize children

 Teachers and non-teaching staff act monitors for the pupils

 The way a teacher conducts himself/herself influences the
behaviour of the children
 The school provides opportunity for children from
different families, backgrounds and neighbourhoods to
meet exchange views, expressions, and interests,
 Schools modify, intercepts and changes behaviour which
may not be acceptable to the community
 It is a role as a teacher to monitor the interaction process
of students
 THE PEER GROUP AS A SOCIALISING AGENT

• Peer is a person of the same age, class, position as the other or same status
• Peer group pursue common interest
• Peer groups have basic functions such as:
• Sheltering and protecting members, for instance, the group gives its members
psychological sustenance by meeting emotional needs, understanding and acceptance;
• Acting as a source of information for the members;
• Operating as a medium of communication; members can interact directly with one
another thereby, provide an effective learning situation;
• Transmitting the culture of society, they teach certain roles and social expectations
and condition the attitudes and sentiments of their members;
• Investing individuals with specific status; finally;
• The peer groups have considerable influence in shaping the behaviour of members
especially children.
• Therefore, the peer group reinforces both the family and school in school and the
religious institutions intervene
 RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS AS SOCIALISING AGENTS

• They reinforce the accepted morals in society

• Complementing the roles of the family, school, and peer groups in the socialization
process
• Religious beliefs and practices conform to the morals and values of society
• Religious institutions teach good behaviour to children, in particular:
•  
• They instil fear on an individual especially children so they avoid deviating from
the norms
• The teaching of life after death helps to uphold correct behaviours in society
• They teach that the way we live our lives here on earth will determine our lives
after death
• In the case of Christian teaching, it means we will either be in heaven or hell
• Religious leaders’ ways of life serve as models for the rest of the society to
emulate and shape their behaviour accordingly.
 Mass Media as a socialising agent

 Mass Media are organs of communication and amusement e.g.

 television, radio, motion pictures, magazines and newspapers
 Today Mass media socialize children are more aware of the
international and national affairs than children of past years
 The mass media influence the minds of the growing children e.g.
 They learn manners, attitudes, behaviours, values, use of
cosmetics, social life, diseases, languages, wars: Therefore;
 Children come to view the world, their society, their life in the light
of what they see, learn and read in the media organs. This brings;
 the sharp differences in behaviours between the urban dwellers
and rural dwellers
 The community as a socialising agent

• The community builds on the socialization

roles of the family and peer group in
particular e.g. through:
• Baptism and other Christian rituals,
Circumcision both traditional and Islamic,
traditional religious forms of faith and rituals
e.g. kubandwa, guterekera etc
 EDUCATION AND THE TRANSMISSIONOF CULTURE

• Culture is the way of life of a people

• Things that fit people’s customs, desires and needs e.g.
Bringing up of children, worshiping, food, dance, music,
language,
• Learned part of human behaviours, distinct or separate from
inborn or inherited traits or characteristics
• Culture is passed on from one generation to the other as a
way of bringing up children,
• it is social heredity as contrasted with biological heredity
which is inborn
• An individual tends to refer to his/her culture as the best
 Elements Culture
• Social, Economic and Political aspects of live
• The economic elements involve: ways of trade and
all activities directed to maintaining livelihood.
• Political elements involve the ways of leadership,
decision making in the family, clan kinship and
society at large

• = All these practices constitute behaviours pattern

 Material Culture

 Culture is presented by material objects e.g.

Buildings, tools, and machines, which are
created by people
 Aims and values of a society are also part of
its culture e.g. dance; music, drama, belief in
ghosts, the living dead and spirits are
attitudes
 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
 Speech: languages and writing systems
 Art: dancing, painting, drawing, music.
 Mythology and Scientific knowledge: myths and scientific
discoveries.
 Religious practices: rituals, treatment of the sick, the dead and
the living dead.
 Family and social practices: ways of establishing relationships,
customs, marriages, inheritance, to mention but a few.
 Property: standards of value exchange and trade.
 Government: Political and judicial forms
 Warfare: Why, when and how to wage war
  
THE CHARACTERITICS OF CULTURE

 Culture exists with human beings

 Culture lasts beyond any individual life-time
 Culture is observable particularly when we consider the material culture
like houses, ways of dressing,
 Culture is observable particularly when we consider people’s attitudes
towards nature
 Culture is explainable by those who perform certain cultural aspects and
yet in some cases unexplainable when we consider our beliefs
 Culture is ideal and manifests itself in the way people live
 Culture is stable because the values are passed from generation to
generation
 Culture changes when it comes into contact with other cultures
 Culture is shared and also learned
 THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN THE TRANSMISSION OF CULTURE

 The way children are brought up to fit in society

 Education depends on the whole culture of a society in which it
takes place
 Education is an initiation into the culture of the particular society
 Personality is partly determined by culture and education
 Education is the community’s means of nurturing personal growth
 Education is what happens to us from the day we are born to the
day we die
 Culture must have a bearing on our school curriculum because the
school is the main educative agency
 Education is therefore both informal and formal
 THE SCHOOL AND CULTURE

 
 A school selectively transmits societal
appropriate values, culture and knowledge of
the society
 The society outlines its values in curriculum
where values are transmitted
 Schools are expected to bring up children who
are fit to live in that society
 
 EDUCATION AND SOCIAL MOBILITY

 Movement of individuals or groups of individuals

from one social position to another
 Such a movement may be up or down the social scale
 Social mobility refers to the alteration of individuals
or group status either vertically or horizontally
 Social mobility is therefore, a process through which
individuals overcome constraints in society due to:
Crimes, race, religion, or inequalities in sources of
income etc
 Types of Mobility
Vertical Mobility

 Individuals move from lower to the middle or

middle to upper class
 E.g. Movement from peasant society to an
elite society or to a professional class
 Horizontal Mobility

• Individuals move within the same class e.g. changing jobs

preferably to a better job

• Downward Mobility
•
• Individuals move from a higher to a lower class
• e.g. movement from a head teacher to a class teacher
• Ascriptive Mobility
• Position occupied by an individual by right of birth e.g. Born as
a royal family in the traditional
• Boys’ or Girls’ societal roles
 Formal Education as a Tool of Social mobility

 
 Promotes social mobility because many
occupations require minimum level of
education
 Social mobility is achieved through the
passing of examinations rather than through
any other process
 
 EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE

 Society is always changing and everything that changes

within the society constitutes ‘Social Change’
 Social change refers to change in structural
components such as, status, roles and membership
patterns within society
 Social includes: inventions, technology and sciences,
improved communication, ritual and religion, art,
painting, architecture, dancing, drama, and literature
 = occurs as a result of cultural interactions
 THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF EDUCATION TO
SOCIAL CHANGE
 Education is preparation for the future (Transition)
 Education is a major source of new ideas and knowledge eg
 Schools weakened the old society through boarding by isolating children from their
parents and local communities
 The young were taught European values and culture
 Education is an institution through which society can reform
 Education reduces poverty and diseases
 Education helps to realize desirable vision
 Education is influences new situations and new elites
 Education leads to technological change
 Education helps to cover one’s aggressiveness and individuality e.g.
 Education allows self-adjustment for common effort
 Education creates a desire to be obedient for common good
 Education conditions the young, changes peoples attitude and creates awareness for
social justice
Modernism and postmodernism theories of
education
Rational thoughts, progress of science and technology
Humanism, democracy (equity, justice, liberty…) and the
primacy of individualism.
It replaces the idea of divine rights of kings and the
church with the idea of progress, universality and
regularity, which led the modern education.
Many of the proposed systemic changes in education,
such as government goals for uniform national standards
and reforms of teacher education training, fall into the
modern theory.
 Post modernism
 Postmodernists stress the importance of local situations,
the connections between theory and practice and;
 The democratic and authoritarian ideas
 It calls for respect and understanding of human differences
 Postmodernism is called “critical education theory”
 Postmodernism honors human diversity
 This means that curricula should be interdisciplinary and
represent diverse interests, that universal skills such as
critical thinking should be stressed, and that individual
interests can reach a common goal by different paths.