EDF 202

Sociological-Anthropological
Foundations of Education

GRACE G. DE VERA, EdD

March 25, 2023
 Overview of
SOCIOLOGY
 SOCIOLOGY
- It is the Science of society and social interactions

- It is a study of people living in interdependence

- It may focus to all kinds of social interactions like social arts, social
relationships, social structures, and social processes

- It gathers social facts like the recurrent and repetitive forms of behavior
such as attitudes, beliefs, values, norms and social institutions that make up
social order

- It studies not only the social structure and functions of social organization
but also the changes trhat take place within
 THE BASIC INSIGHT OF SOCIOLOGY
Sociology starts from the premise that we are basically social animals-not
just from the force of habit but because otherwise we could not survive.

Paula Gray, “Humans are Socail Animals”

The basic insight of sociology: the group to which people largely shape
human behavior and by the social interaction that takes place within those
groups
 The main focus of sciology is more on
groups rather than the individuals; the
way which people act toward, respond to,
and influence one another.
 The Sociological Imagination

Sociological Imagination is the ability to undrstand the

relationship between what is happening in people’s
personal lives and the social forces that surround them.

Wright Mills defines sociological imagination as “the vivid

awareness of the relationship between experience and the
wider society.
 The Sociological Imagination

In effect, Wright Mills is stating that sociological

imagination is the ability to perceive situations and
circumstances in wide social context and observe how
interactions and actions upon other individual and
situations.

Example: Tea Drinking and Sociological Imagination

 The Sociological Imagination

Virtually any behavior can have sociological

imagination applied to it. An example of the application
of Sociological Imagination is the drinking of tea. The
perception of drinking tea can be examined from several
different perspectives rather than just the simple act of
drinking tea.
 The Sociological Imagination
1. It can be seen as a means of maintaining good health in the way that
one might take daily vitamins, because the benefits of tea been touted by
health researchers.

2. It could be considered a tradition or ritual as many people choose to

drink tea ritualistically each day at a certain time.

3. It could be considered a type of drug because it contains caffeine, and

therefore the drinker of the tea may have a type of an addiction.

4. It can be seen from the perspective of beinf social activity that actually
focuses less on the beverage and more on the actual activity of meeting
with another person.
 “Neither life of an individual nor the history of a
society can be understood without understanding
both”

-Charles Wright Mills

 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

One of Emile Durkheim’s major concerns was social and moral order. This

emphasis is undoubtedly related to his upbringing in the home of an eminent French

rabbi” “From Judaic family training and an intimate environment Durkheim gained a

deep and permanent concern for universal moral law and the problems of ethics, a

concern that was not combined with any indulgent sense of humour. Indeed, he was

eminently without humour and somewhat heavy-handed” (Simpson, 1936:1).

 How is social order possible? According to Durkheim, social order works
because of a broad consensus on values and institutions (government,
family, religion etc.) among members of a society. This consensus is
especially characteristic of nonliterate societies based on mechanical
solidarity – social unity that comes from a consensus of values and norms,
strong social pressures for conformity, and dependence on

traditional and family.

 Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Durkheim, witnessing the social upheaval brought on by the

industrial and democratic revolutions, attempted to describe how
social order was achieved in complex, industrial society. In
modern society, he contended, social order is based on organic
solidarity – social unity based on a complex of higher specialised
roles that makes members of society dependent on one another.
 Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Durkheim’s major contribution probably came in the area of

research methods. Although Auguste Comte and other early
sociologists emphasised the need to make sociology scientific, their
own research methods were not very scientific. They did, however,
influence later sociologists to replace armchair speculation with
careful observation, to engage in the collection and classification of
 Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

One of the most prominent of these later sociologists was Emile

Durkheim. He first introduced the use of statistical techniques in the
study of human groups in his ground-breaking research on suicide.
 Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

In this same study, Durkheim demonstrated that suicide involves

more than individuals acting alone. By showing that suicide rates vary
according to group characteristics – the suicide rate is lower among
Catholics than Protestants, lower among married than single person –
Durkheim convincingly supported the idea that social life must be
explained by social factors rather than by individualistic ones.
 FUNCTIONALSIM OR FUNCTIONAL PRESPECTIVE

The concept of ‘function’ has been further elaborated by some of

the sociologists which ultimately led them to establish a
“functionalist theory” as such. The functionalist theory which is
often referred to as ‘function approach’, or ‘structural-
functionalism’, or ‘functionalist perspective’, or ‘functionalism’ has
been associated with the work ofAmerican sociologists, such as
Talcott Parsons, Robert K. Merton, and Kingsley Davis.
 “The functionalist theory implies that society tends to be organised, stable, well

integrated systems, in which most members agree on basic values”. Sociologists with a

functional approach study the way in which each part of a society contributes to the

functioning of the society as whole. They stress much the role of balance or equilibrium

in society. They view society as a system of interrelated parts. They are mainly

interested in the ‘contributions’ or ‘purposes’ these parts serve for ongoing social life.

They focus on the ‘functions’ or ‘consequences’, that a given element has in society. To

make it more specific, the functionalists say that each group or institution persists

because it is functional.
 FUNCTIONALSIM OR FUNCTIONAL PRESPECTIVE

Examples: (i) In trying to explain why all human societies have a family
system-the functionalists would ask what function (or need) does the
family system fulfil for the larger system? The answer to this question will
highlight the contributions that family systems make to the on-going life of
societies.
 FUNCTIONALSIM OR FUNCTIONAL PRESPECTIVE

(ii) Economic activity, functions to provide the goods and

services on which our society depends for its existence. It also
gives people roles in life, enabling them to earn a living and to
draw a sense of identity from the work that they do.
 FUNCTIONALSIM OR FUNCTIONAL PRESPECTIVE

(iii) The school functions to educate children, prepare workers,

take children off their parent’ hands for part of the day
 FUNCTIONAL PRESPECTIVE
Functionalist View
In the functionalist view, a
society has an underlying tendency
to be in equilibrium, or balance.
Social change is, therefore, likely to
be disruptive unless it takes place
relatively slowly. Because, changes
in one part of the system usually
provoke changes elsewhere in the
system.
Example:
If the economy requires an increasing
number of highly trained workers, the
schools and colleges will adopt the
policies and practices to supply them,
and the state will sanction more money
for education. But if the economy
expands so rapidly that the other
elements in the social system cannot
“catch up”, social
disequilibrium well with result.
 From the functional point of view, if a particular social
change promotes a harmonious equilibrium it is seen as
functional; if it disturbs the equilibrium it is dysfunctional; if it
has no effects, it is non- functional. Example: In a democracy
political parties are functional, while bombings, assassination,
and political terrorism are dysfunctional, and changes in
political vocabulary or party symbols are non- functional.
 Functionalists asks such questions as –

“How does this value, or practice, or institution help meet

the needs of the society”?

“How does it fit in with the other practices and institutions

of the society”? “Would a proposed change make it more
or less useful to society”?
Thank you!