Social Structure: Primary Education

Social Structure of Our Environment

• Course 2021/2022 for 1st year of Primary Education

What are Social Sciences?

• It encompasses disciplines describing human life and its relationships scientifically.

Sociology

• Sociology studies how individuals exist within a society.
• It involves human nature, activities, institutions, and behaviour, as well as their interactions within society.

Definition of Sociology

• Sociology is a science focused on the human species' social aspect as a member of a group through interaction.
• Also studies humans’ relationships with society, represented by legal, religious, economic, and ideological structures.

What Sociology Studies

• Demonstrates that what is deemed "normal" is influenced by historical and social elements.
• Fosters increased critical thinking on assumptions.
• Encourages being more socially active.
• Allows for a better understanding of how society functions can lead to meaningful social changes.
• It helps one better comprehend the complex and diverse forms of life in the world.

The Sociological Perspective

• Observes the general in the particular context (Berger and Luckmann, 1986).
• Moves away from personal interpretations when analysing reality.
• Uses "The Sociological Imagination" (Mills, 1970).
• Aids in understanding how the social setting shapes individual lives.

Sociology: Objectives as a Science

• The object of study is determined to be the social aspects of life.
• Requires a scientific method.
• Aims to discover and explain social workings.

Social Sciences

• Consider the study of human beings in relation to their physical surrounding.
• Studies human relationships with their surroundings from a holistic and multifactorial point of view.

Usefulness of Social Sciences

• Improve human understanding of the social environment.
• Focus on civil rights and citizenship.
• Cover social order and systems of expression.
• Education is a means for knowledge and advancement.
• Authorities use the information provided by social sciences to guide socio-economic and political decisions.

Beginnings of Sociology

• Humans explained the environment and transmission of knowledge through supernatural interpretation.
• Utilized speculation, imagination, contemplation, experimentation, and instruction.

Historical Development of Sociology

• Beginnings:

  • 5th and 4th Centuries BC: Plato and Aristotle reflected on and idealized the society in which they lived.
  • Middle Ages: Interpretations were rooted in the teachings of the Church.

• Continuation:

  • 15th Century: Machiavelli introduced ideas about the State and governing through "The Prince".
  • 15th Century: Thomas More envisioned a society solving social issues in "Utopia".

Development in the 19th and 20th Centuries

• Study is marked by objectivity via analyzing human beings.
• Progress was bolstered by the French and Industrial Revolutions by the mid-18th century.
• Questions regarding human nature and the causes of societal change began to arise.

Auguste Comte

• Defining who was really the first to theorize sociology presents difficulties.
• Comte's contributions:
  • He coined early social physics and then sociology.
  • Focused on the study of society to define how it should be studied.
  • Conceptualized a scientific approach for the study of society.
• Comte proposed that human history passes through three stages:
  • Theological: Guided by religious beliefs.
  • Metaphysical: Natural rather than supernatural focus.
  • Positive: The last portion of human development, scientific knowledge.

Emile Durkheim

• Emile Durkheim was highly influential to sociology's development.
• Argued that sociology is fundamentally the study of social facts.
• It is imperative to set aside prejudices and ideology; attention should be focussed on outcomes due to difficulties in observing.
• Interested in societal transformation and social cohesion via social and moral solidarity.
• Was the first to highlight the importance of education through a sociological lens.
• Saw education as a fundamentally social and evolving process needing to change over time.
• Education is integral for ensuring solidarity amid growing individualism.
• A pioneer in sociology of education.

Karl Marx

• The majority of his work centres on economic views, the consideration of social institutions.
• Identifies 2 foundational components linked with capitalist expansion:
  • Capital is money or means of production.
  • Wage labour comes from workers who lack capital.
• Conflict: Capitalists vs. Proletariat.
• The class system has inequality and conflict.

Max Weber

• Influenced by Marx but was critical of some approaches.
• Economic factors are relevant but ideas and values impact social change.
• Sociology focuses on social action, as opposed to structures.
• An understanding of the motives of people is needed to study social actions.

Herbert Spencer

• Saw society as an organism and individuals as cells.
• Uses an inductive method to study parts to draw conclusions about social phenomena.
• Referred to "survival of the fittest" with Social Darwinism.

Educational Sociology

• Sociology began to influence education in the 20th century.
• John Dewey's 1899 work The School and Society stressed that for a school to be effective, it needed to be intertwined with society.

Development of Educational Sociology

• Sociology expanded in the 20th century.
• The Journal of Educational Sociology was established in 1928.
• Introduced and evolved education sociology.
• Books on the sociology of education were written.
• Research methods improved.
• Studies included class, social mobility, and community organization.

Application of Sociological Principles to Education

• Developing children involves a social structure.
• Affects learning processes.
• Impacts community structures.
• Involves ongoing social change.

Child Development

• The social group is essential for the development of personality.

Learning Process

• Learning differs among humans because individuals develop in different socio-cultural surroundings.

Social Change

• Education must address community evolution, dynamics, and changes to better understand life.

Community

• Knowing the community gives children the understanding they need about their environment, its resources, limits, and factors involving them.

Foundations of Education from a Sociological Point of View

• Education is a social process involving interaction with various people.
• It seeks to achieve a social goal by socializing children, teaching them culture and acceptable behavior.
• The learner and the school must be considered in their cultural contexts.
• What happens outside of the school impacts it.

Usefulness of Sociology of Education

• It allows one to understand the society they live in.
• Gives structure to the social world.
• It provides a defined awareness of social structures.
• Gives knowledge of the democratic system.
• Offers a scientific and objective understanding of human behavior.
• Helps people know themselves.

Differences Between Sociology in the 19th and 20th Centuries

• Philosophical and speculative methods mark 19th-century sociology, reflective of its birth in philosophy, where reflection is used to write treatises.
• 20th-century sociology is scientific due to fieldwork, interviews, and data collection, so that it presents realities.

Role of Sociology

• Sociology enables one to better realize the events happening inside the classroom, as related to the happening outside of it, by viewing social events.
• Maintain an objective perspective on surroundings through sociological perspective.
• It further acknowledges how external society and its social phenomena like inequality and joblessness influence the structure of the education system.

Why Study Sociology of Education?

• Sociology gives distinct and illustrative insight regarding human actions.
• Sociology involves social influences.

Benefits of studying Sociology of Education?

• Sociology fosters a detailed consciousness of personal and others' characteristics.
• It helps build sensitivity toward the broader range of social activity.

What Does Sociology of Education Study?

• Studies connection between education & social equality.
• Studies relationship between education and work.
• Examines school and identity creation.
• Examines subjects’ roles.

Education in Today's World

• Education is now a key social activity comparable to work in modern societies.
• Accumulated culture transmission to younger generations is critical for growth and stability.
• Grant widespread education to innovate societies into equality and fairness.

Changes to Education

• Enrolment in educational programs has grown to about 20 years on average.
• Education has seen greater diversification like classes for older adults, as well as informal and occupational programs.
• Our society is called information or knowledge based.

Social Functions of Schools Today

• Socializing function:
  • Preparing individuals to join the job market.
  • Educating to be citizens for social engagement.
• Educational Function:
  • Reconstructing the traditional learning via experience alone.
  • Nurturing the ability to differentiate and innovate information relevantly grounded in rationale, encouragement and engagement.
• The school is a place for cultural life

What equality in schools involve?

• Compensation Function:
  • Promoting social inequalities at universities by reflecting students’ interests in their own personal progression.
  • Trying to treat everyone the same means equalising those inequalities by helping those most excluded.
  • "Equality of opportunity" is the general discourse.
  • The aim is to minimize impacts of inequality and get each person in place to compete socially offering the equivalence of opportunity.

Society

• It is the object of sociological study.
• Encompasses what it is, its components, and analysis methods.
• Is continually changing.
• Should pay attention to processes and relationships.

Principal components of society

• Consists of social groups.
• Made of institutions.
• Made of groups.
• Assembled of social structures.

Social Structure

• An interdependent set of related parts ensure lasting nature.
• Is made up of primary social groups and institutions.
• Is governed by economic, political, and cultural power.
• Society rests on connections and order.
• Serves as the foundations on which social reality operates.
• Context helps create routines, consistency, and regulatory processes.
• Defined as a set of socially constructed factors like power, the cultures, different social classes, and the economy.
• What unfolds through existence is not random to a society that is not without order.
• Comprises underlying support mechanisms like power relationships and class distinctions.

Constituents of social structure

• Made of Individuals, social groups, statuses and roles.
• Norms and values.
• Include institutions.

Social Groups

• Several individuals who interact together within its environment.
• Member of the community exhibit knowledge about its relations.
• They each hold an identity known and visible for others.
• Social groups diverge from groups (concert, etc.) or social classification like ‘young’, where interaction is unclear.
• Consist of shared interests, structure of statuses and roles, relevant permanence, interactions, regulatory structures, and belonging.

Social Class

• Describes stratification in capitalist countries from the 18th until the 20th century.
• Stratification could have been present in the 10th century.
• Is attained by acquisition.
• Limits need indefinite bounds which facilitate flexibility between classrooms.
• Relies on economic disparity, such as wealth and occupation.
• Uneven interactions operate across social distances.

Today's society is defined by:

• Upper class workers/industrialists controlling work modes.
• Middle class workers who are administrative blue/white collar.
• Working class, blue collar workers.
• Marginal workers/migrants.

Social structures are defined by:

• Asset proprietorship (Marx: bourgeoisie vs. proletariats).
• Scholarly expertise.
• The jobs that people have.
• A defined role/authority on occupation.
• These determinants create lifestyle and status quo.

Max Weber on Social Class

• Extended the concept of strata more than economic.
• Elements include position in a market.
• Honours, prestige and standing for people.
• Power utilizes influences securing ideal and fabric welfare.
• Is very critical about Marx in applying that perspective exclusively when exploring economy solely.

Social Institutions

• They are further components among societal fabrics.
• Establish structured patterns for human actions to serve purpose by means of a unified means in order to give effect among individuals.
• Institutions include finance, the family and schools for producing resources and understanding culture.
• Describe repeatable, stable behaviour meeting requirements for entire sections defined for groups.
• The most critical institutions are education, family, religion, politics, and economics.
• Such function positively by sustaining communities and reproducing customs.
• Institutions may cause issues such as frustration.

Social Stratification

• Process where sections in society, or stratum/class divide that have unequal allocation as well lifestyle differences.

Social Mobility

• Refers to how an entire people as entity move within economic ranking through different stages.
• The person's place inside social hierarchy can change.
• Mobility takes a variety of forms:
  • Vertical: involves upward or downward changes in socio-economic status.
  • Horizontal: is change involving employment.
  • Intragenerational: refers to change across life stages.
• Intergenerational: change in parent to offspring.

Stratification Theories by Davis and Moore

• Examines universal inequality.
• A detailed division of labor occurs in modern societies requiring abilities and training levels.
• Professions that need qualifications have to sustain society.
• Power stems from profits, value and wealth given as recompense.
• Functionalism.

Meritocracy

• Inequalities depend on unequal merits for effort.
• Progress in individual abilities motivates effort.
• High mobility indicates advancement with talent.

Status

• An individual's class in the hierarchy.
  • Ascribed Staus is assigned regardless, while Achieved entails acquired experience.

Role

• Encompasses the undertaking related to communal and cultural value such as healthy lifestyle habits.

Status and Role

• Status with function that social system applies for incorporating community people between social communities.
• Responsibility encompasses expected performance as a role model in acquiring such status.
• A position for standing and an exercise of these points defines status to action.
• Having a maternal attitude does mean you hold status compared those individuals without and to others of learning.

Methods for Sociological Research

• Differentiates quantitive and qualitative traits.
• Quantitative techniques for estimating socio-statistical phenomenon.
• Qualitative, in-depth details on social contexts.
• A joint approach is often taken to establish a complete insight. A research survey approach as analytical is highly utilized so measurable points/outcomes can use/take advantage statistics and be removed thru different analytical skills.

Research objective is:

• descriptive.
  • Quantities and variables will facilitate a chance thru relationships for seeing potential patterns between them.
  • A sample proportional, is given analytical.
  • Other options are the diary, letters etc.

Qualitative Methodology

• Experiments can be hard to execute since, on one hand, separating humans is difficult because their privacy may be affected.
• Personal bios are studied to understand perspectives across social science involving history, attitude and time.
• Interview involves answering questions to a sample, plus a guide along the way.