Sociology of Education

However functionalists believe that the education institution is there and built for a reason, that it affects and benefits both the

The role of education is to educate individuals within society and to prepare them for working life, also to integrate individuals and teach them the norms, values and roles within society. Functionalism and Marxism are the two main perspectives which will be studied; Marxism is a structural conflict sociological theory whereas functionalism is a structural consensus sociological theory.

Functionalism can be defined as the different elements that can contribute to a society as a whole. For example, someone who is homosexual would be considered deviant. Society sees that a homosexual

Functionalism is made up of many integrated parts that work together to keep production flowing throughout society. I’ll provide an example of how I viewed functionalism to generate a better understanding of the process. During a baseball game, imagine you’re out on the field playing third base. You’re not out there alone, you have eight other players with you, all with specific jobs. Your objective is to acquire an out, you need the pitcher to throw the ball, catcher to catch the ball, fielder to field the ball, and an umpire to enforce the call. Say I snatch a ball hit to me at third base, in order to obtain the out I must throw the ball to first base, then the first baseman must catch it, and in conclusion the umpire will rule him out. It’s a team affair, we all functioned collectively to secure the out, I can’t throw the ball to an empty bag, I need the first baseman to be there for me. August Comte and Herbert Spencer viewed society as a living organism. Resembling Animals, we all have organs to keep our bodies jolting around, lacking properly functioning organs, we die. Emile Durkheim additionally viewed society as being composed of numerous parts, respectively, working together to form a societal

‘To what extent is an individual’s education shaped by society?’ this is the question to which I will be exploring in this paper. I want to be looking at all factors of today’s sociality and every individual it affects. I will be looking at society through all aspects of life including social class, disability and gender and seeing if that will make any contributions towards the individual. I hope to come to a conclusion in this essay using all my evidence.

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.

Functionalism is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology which explains how social order is possible or how society remains relatively stable.

Social influences on educational outcomes and the social nature of education structures of the past and present exemplify how social institutions can affect education perceived by individuals. This can also be defined as the sociology of education; a study of education systems of how social institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcome, as interpreted by Scott and Marshall (2009). This essay will address how the background of sociology of education (culture of power that exist) shapes the current social perspectives in education, how sociology of education contributes and its usefulness for initial educators.

Functionalism is a consensus theory which means it assumes that for society to work effectively all individuals within it must function and behave properly. Functionalist’s believe that society is based upon harmony, integration and social solidarity.

Functionalism theory believes that every aspect of society has a specific role and are required for society to function properly. Social consensus plays an important part in this theory as everyone in society agrees to work together to achieve a common goal that everyone will benefit from. to Functionalists use a macro level of analysis. In education, functionalists look at the positive qualities such as knowledge gained by teaching and social skill sets, such as developing friendships that are obtained while attending school. This helps society benefit later down the road as well as offers stability as jobs are plentiful in school systems. Students learn certain skills, discover their abilities, develop those abilities to use in the future in their chosen field of work which then benefits society as a whole.

The education system in the UK has many influences and consequences which are brought about by the Sociology of education. The Sociology of education focuses on a pupil’s personal experiences and closely examines the different ways in which a pupil’s personal experiences impacts their education. Education is a social practise where different links are made between practise and context within social situations. Both the influences and consequences of Sociology in schooling in the UK results in different experiences for the pupil. Throughout this essay I will deeply analyse and discuss factors such as structure and agency as well as social class. This essay will examine different theories such as Bourdieu’s theory and Marxist’s theory to conclude how Sociology affects schooling in the UK.

Education is a vital system in most societies, and is compulsory for all children up to the age of 16 in Britain. There are many different ideas as to why education is so important and the functions it fulfills within society, some more positive than others. Although some people say that education is only intended to teach the individual enough knowledge to pass exams and start a career, most sociologists believe it has functions which go beyond this surface view and in some way affect or serve society as a whole as well as the individual. An ideology is false view of society which

Education plays an important part in everyone’s success in life. It provides children with teaching skills that prepare them mentally, physically and socially for the outside world of society. Education is vital to the needs of the modern industrial society, it teaches children from a young age discipline, respect, morals and values and prepares them for work and to help integrate them into society. There has been a lot of ideas and theories of how education should work. The three most common sociology groups are functionalist, Marxist and Interactionist. Marxist and

Education has been defined as “the social institute responsible for the systematic transmission of knowledge, skills and cultural values within a formal organised structure” (Kendall 2010: 462).The role of education in society has been available in the works of great philosophers and thinkers such as Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and Bernstein (Chandrass and Sharma 2004).

Education serves to fulfill a multitude of society’s needs, but upon research, perhaps the most important function of education is socialization. If children need to learn the , values, norms and skills they need to function in society, then education is a primary vehicle for such learning.