Relationship Between Education And Society

Outline and assess the view that the role of education system is to justify and reproduce social inequalities (50)

The education system has faults and many inequalities throughout it. The inequalities can be seen in many different areas including, meritocracy, different social classes, gender and ethnic inequalities, racism, cultural capital, and repressive state apparatuses etc. Various sociologists have different views about the education system and what the inequalities consist of.

In this paper it show 's Blair 's top priority was education. This is true because Blair had invested large amount of money into education by investing it on ICT equipment and making ICT part of the education system (Whitty, 2009). This was similar to the conservative party. Also the New Labour party designed eight different education acts. However, these papers did not implement Blair 's legacy in education (Walford, 2005). On the other hand, there were a lot of failures that New Labour party was unable to address. For example, New Labour 's aim was to raised standards for everyone in education not just for few people. Blunkett had successfully implemented this by

Education is an essential part of my life as it presents me with skills towards learning and attaining knowledge; it creates values of proper conduct as in the societal norms; and provides me with the necessary technical expertise to bring about the desired societal change in future (Mills, 2000). My main goal is to excel in school, and become a highly Certified Human Resource Manager, to obtain a better future and to make my parents proud. While engaging in C.Wright Mills’ idea that sociology describes the intersection between

Major social institutions affect society, humanity, and prosperity in different ways. Education is a social institution that affects an individual’s “economic success and social progression (Wright 1368).

The role of education is to educate individuals within society and to prepare and qualify them for work in the economy as well as helping to integrate individuals into society and teach them the norms, values and morals of society. Yet there are three sociological theories that differ greatly between them on the role of education. These are Functionalism, Marxism and Liberalism.

In the book “Social Problems: Continuity and Change”, I studied the chapter Schools and Education. This chapter is very informative on the different social problems that are occurring within schools and education in the United States. The chapter begins with the definition of education, briefly explaining how it is a social establishment that teaches people skills, knowledge, norms, and values that will be beneficial in today society. There are two different types of education. They are formal education and informal education. Teachers, through professional training, often teach formal education to students whereas informal education can occur anywhere, mainly in homes by parents or guardians.

Social, cultural and political changes have immense influences on the education sector. This has been witnessed from the onset African and Asian immigration into the United States from 1954 till present times. During the last quarter of the 20th century, immigrants to the US were denied education and those who received education did so under great threats. The dominant view of society about immigrants during this period was extremely negative and rejecting; thereby not deserving of an education. Currently, the education has been made affordable to everybody due to changing atmosphere of unprecedented social change. In education, this change resulted in the legal dismantling of segregated education for African American children (Collins, 2008). As African American children integrated the schools in the United States, they came to school with the stigma of slavery and the negative attitudes held by the agents of the educational institution. Attitudes and held perceptions were the catalyst for constructions such as biased assessment and the retardation paradigm. From these constructions emerged practices in special education that held large numbers of African American students captive in not only the educational milieu, but also limited their work potential. For this reason, the sociopolitical landscape as a context for curriculum, instruction, and assessment has continued to play a significant role in the education

The sociological imagination raises three core questions. Firstly, what is the structure of the society being studied? Secondly, what relevance does its context in history have? And thirdly, how does it influence and shape those within it? (Mills, 1959: 6-7). The consideration of these questions enables the greatest understanding of the relationship between society and an individual’s position and circumstance, and is what makes the concept sociological.

From The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills addresses a distinction between personal troubles and public issues. Mills uses specific examples like unemployment and societal development. Mills explains the ability to connect the individual problems with societal problems. Throughout the text, we can see how Mills uses the perspective of an individual to explain the perspective of society and vice versa. Using sociological imagination, I will explain how education is influenced by society and history, and how there is positive and negative lessons to be taken out of The Sociological Imagination.

The relation between the study of how people act towards each other and education is a subject of debate. One idea says education is meant to overcome where two things are not the same. Whereas other says the most important function of education is helping to increase balance status of good people in the world and to maintain inequality whatever state it comes in. I will focus on three areas that affects the educations of Socialogy. The first area is Structural Functionalism.

. According to John Dewey education plays a large role in the development of an individual and it is an element that separates humans from other animals. It is important to try to comprehend what Dewey means by this and in order to do so the following must be done. First, one must understand the role education plays in an individual and Dewey’s notions of education in the areas of growth, direction and social function. Second, after comprehending Dewey’s notions of education in the areas of growth, direction, and social function, one must be able to grasp the distinction between education as a social function and the simple notion of training and what sets these two apart. Third, after being able to comprehend the notions of education and the distinction between education as a social function and training, the idea of why education is distinctive of human life will be further developed.

Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. In sociology we have various schools of thoughts or theories and each of these have their own view on the impact of sociology on “life chances”

When considering the cultural lens of the sociological imagination we pay attention to cultural differences and diversity (Georgeou, 2010). In relation education we look again at the historical view of education as a right and the term considered cultural capital, which has had a strong impact on the social inequalities within education.

Success, achievement and participation at school are not simply a matter of intelligence or ability. Discuss this statement with reference to the concepts of cultural capital, hidden curriculum, class and socioeconomic status.