Chapter 3: Social Science

Theories and Their

Implications to Education
Intended Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the Chapter, the students must be
able to explain three social science theories and
their implications to education.
Introduction
Sociologist today employ three primary
theoretical perspectives: the functionalist
perspective, the conflict perspective and the
symbolic interactionist perspective. These
perspectives offer sociologists theoretical
paradigms for explaining how society
influences people, and how people influence
society. Each perspective uniquely
conceptualizes society, social forces, and
human behavior.
Three Social Theories
1. Structural-functional theory
Herbert Spencer, the proponent of structural-functional
views society as “a system of interconnected parts each with a
unique function. The parts have to work together for stability
and balance of society.” Society is compared to the human body
with different but interrelated parts performing different
functions. Just as the human body has many parts, society has
different but interrelated components such as the family, the
state, the school, the Church, mass media, economics. These
must coordinate and collaborate for society to function well. If
one part of the human body does not function well, the whole
body is affected. In the same way, when one component of
society does not do its part, society will not function well. The
overall health of the organism (society) depends upon the
health of each structure.
 For instance, there is a peace, stability, equilibrium
and harmony in society if families do their part in bringing
forth children, nurturing and socializing them; if education
or schools effectively transmit knowledge, skills and values;
if politics governs citizens well; if economics takes care of
food production, distribution of goods and services and if
religion strengthens the moral fiber of the members of
society. Failure of one social institution to do its part
means disruption of stability in society. For example, the
rise of single parent and dual earner families means
families have less time or sometimes no more time left for
the supervision of children in their homework which may
result to an increase of non-performing students in school.
 In high tech world, educational institution must teach
adults the new skills to relate to the tech-savvy young and the
world and to be more effective in the workplace. With more
women in the workplace, policies against sexual harassment and
discrimination were formulated. The Cybercrime Act of 2012
came about to address legal issues concerning online
interactions and the internet in the Philippines.
The functionalist theory of education focuses on how
education serves the need of society through the development
of skills encouraging social cohesion. The role of schools is to
prepare students for participation in the institution of society.
Education is concerned with transmission of core values for
social control. Education is concerned with socializing people by
bringing together people from different backgrounds. The
functionalists theory is focused on social stability and solidarity.
Functionalists see education as a beneficial contribution to an
ordered society.
 Functionalism does not encourage
people to take an active role in changing
their social environment, even when such
change may benefit them. Instead,
functionalism sees active social change as
undesirable because the various parts of
society will compensate naturally for any
problems that may arise. For example,
schools can compensate for the lack of
them and the lack of parental advice from
home.
 Purposes of Schooling
according to Functionalists
The purpose of schooling according to the functionalist
theory are:
1) Intellectual purposes- acquisition of cognitive skills, inquiry skills
2) Political purposes- educate future citizens; promote patriotism;
promote assimilation of immigrants; ensure order, public civility and
conformity to laws
3) Economic purposes- prepare students for later work roles; select
and train the labor force needed by society
4) Social purposes- promote a sense of social and moral responsibility;
serve as a site for the solution or resolution of social problems;
supplement the efforts of other institution of socialization such as
the family and the church
An examination of the present curricula in basic and in tertiary
education shows that these 4 function are given attention to.
2. Conflict Theory
According to this theory, there are always two opposing
sides in a conflict situation. People take sides between
maintaining the status quo and introducing change then arrive
an agreement. Conflict theory welcomes conflict for that is the
way to the establishments of a new society. Conflict theorist find
potential conflict between any groups where inequality exists:
racial, gender, religious, political, economic, and so on. Conflict
theorist note that unequal groups usually have conflicting values
and agendas, causing them to compete against one another. This
constant competition between groups forms the basis for the
ever-changing nature of society.
The factory workers want change- better working
conditions, higher salaries. The factory owners naturally are
opposed to such. The resolution of the conflict, however, leads
to a compromise, a change in the way the factory is managed
where both workers and owners are happy.
How Proponents of Conflict Theory
Regard Education
According to the conflict theory, education is not truly
a social benefit or opportunity as seen by the functionalist.
Rather, education is a powerful means of maintaining power
structures and creating a docile work force for capitalism.
The purpose of education is to maintain social inequality and
to preserve the power of those who dominate society and
teach those in the working class to accept their position as a
lower class worker of society. Conflict theorists call this the
“hidden curriculum”. The “hidden” curriculum socializes
young people into obedience and conformity for them to be
developed as docile workers.
SYMBOLIC-INTERACTIONIST
THEORY
• The theory is focused on individuals who act based on
meaning which is based the individual’s experience. The
meanings are not permanent and may change overtime as
the individual continue to interact with others and with
symbols.
• Can be traced to the original proposed concept of Max
Weber: the assertion that individuals act according to
their interpretation of the meaning of their world.
• This perspective was introduced to American sociology
by George H. Mead
• Theorists Herman and Reynolds (1994) noted that this
perspective sees people as being active in shaping the
social world rather than simply being acted upon.
SYMBOLIC-INTERACTIONIST
THEORY
• Has roots on phenomenology which emphasizes the
subjective meaning of reality
• Is a theoretical approach to understanding the relationship
between humans and society.
• According to the theory human action and interaction are
understandable only through the exchange of meaningful
communication or symbols.
• Main principles of the theory:
• Human beings act toward things on the basis of the
meanings that things have for them
• These meanings arise out of social interaction
• Social action results from a fitting together of individual
lines of action
3. The symbolic interactionist
theory perspective/SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONISM
THREE TENETS OF INTERACTIONIST THEORY
ARE:
1. An individual’s action depends on meaning.
2. Different people may give different
meanings to the same thing.
3. Meanings change as individuals interact
with one another.
IMPLICATIONS TO TEACHING
• The theory directs sociologists to consider the
symbols and details of everyday life, what these
symbols mean, and how people interact with
each other.
• It is important that symbols are understood by
others as one intended it to be.
• It must be ensured that the sender of the symbol
and the receiver of the symbol must give the
same meaning to the symbol to avoid conflict or
misunderstanding.
Weakness of Symbolic
Interaction theory

The interactionists may miss the larger issues

of society by focusing too closely or by
restricting themselves to small or individual
interactions.
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
THEORY
• Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a Russian
psychologist who emphasizes the importance of
culture and interaction in the development of
cognitive abilities.
• A philosophical approach that suggests that "the
natural world has a small or non-existent role in
the construction of scientific knowledge".
• "Constructivism is the philosophical and scientific
position that knowledge arises through a process
of active construction."(Mascolol & Fischer,
2005)
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
THEORY
• Emphasis is on the collaborative nature of
learning and the importance of cultural and
social context.
• All cognitive functions are believed to originate
in, and are explained as products of social
interactions
• Learning is more than the assimilation of new
knowledge by learners; it was the process by
which learners were integrated into a knowledge
community.
 Underlying Assumptions of
the Theory (Jonassen, 1994)
• Constructivist learning environments provide multiple representations of reality.
• Multiple representations avoid oversimplification and represent the complexity of
the real world.
• Constructivist learning environments emphasize knowledge construction instead of
knowledge reproduction.
• Constructivist learning environments emphasize authentic tasks in a meaningful
context rather than abstract instruction out of context.
• Constructivist learning environments provide learning environments such as real-
world settings or case-based learning instead of predetermined sequences of
instruction.
• Constructivist learning environments encourage thoughtful reflection on
experience.
• Constructivist learning environments "enable context- and content- dependent
knowledge construction."
• Constructivist learning environments support "collaborative construction of
knowledge through social negotiation, not competition among learners for
recognition."