Introduction to sociology Sociological Perspectives in Education - for B.Ed. and integrated B.Ed.programme.

1. Sociology
Sociological Perspectives in
Education
Unit I
-
Dr.S.Janaki
Department of Education
SASTRA Deemed to be University

2. Auguste Comte, a French social thinker, is
traditionally known as the “Father of
Sociology’ as he coined the term
‘Sociology’ in 1838.

3. Meaning
• Kingsely Davis says that “Sociology is a
general science of society”
• Harry M.Johnson say that “Sociology is the
science that deals with social groups”.
• Ogburn and Nimkoff define sociology as “the
scientific study of social life”.

4. Focus of sociology
• Population patterns
• Social behaviour
• Social institutions
• Social change
• Cultural influences.

5. Social Stratification
• The Indian society may be classified into three
main social classes
• The Upper Class:
• The Middle Class
• The Lower Class:

6. The Upper Class
• It includes very rich businessman,
industrialists, politicians and very high placed
professionals and bureaucrats. They enjoy not
only very high economic status and the
advantages, but also high social status and
political influence.

7. The Middle Class
• The middle class people are white collared
workers, who have limited resources but high
aspirations to live in luxury. Middle class
includes school teachers, technicians, clerks
and a number of other wage earners.

8. The Lower Class
The lower class people, who constitute about
70% of total Indian population are largely
made up of agricultural and industrial
labourers, low paid employees and daily wage
earners.

9. social stratification
• In the words of Young and Mork, “In most
societies, people classify one another into
categories and rank these categories from the
higher to lower.” The process of defining such
category is called social stratification.

10. These categories themselves are called
strata popularly known as classes.
The rigidity of stratification structure
different in societies. In some cases it
is extremely rigid while in others it is
flexible. E.g. the caste in Indian
society is a very rigid stratification
structure.

11. There are three types of social characteristics
used in stratification systems, considering the
fullest spectrum of societies.
• Biological factor such as age, sex, race and
kinship.
• Class characteristics such as occupation,
wealth and power.
• Any number of idiosyncratic characteristics
such as talent and personality.

12. • Stratification on caste basis.
• Stratification on religion basis.
• Stratification on economic class
basis.

13. Educational Sociology
• W.R.Smith – It is the branch of Social Science
which seeks to find answers to Educational
problems through the use of sociological
principles and methods.
• Prof.Payne – The Social Science that describes
the benefits derived by man from social
institutions, groups, methods and
relationships.

14. • Dotson – It is a Social Science that portrays
how educational methods helps to develop
human personality.
• Finney and Zeleny – It is a discipline that
interprets educational problems on the basis
of Sociology.
• Kulph – Educational Sociology is a branch of
Science that studies Educational institutions
considering them as social organisations.

15. Objectives of Educational Sociology
• Role of the teacher in the community
• Role of the School as an instrument of Social
Change.
• Needs of the society in which the school
functions
• The social factors which affect the school
• the ways and means to develop healthy
relationship between the teacher and taught.

16. • How to socialize the curriculum
• The role of formal and informal agencies of
education in relation to economic social and
cultural trends and democratic ideologies.

17. To meet the Social demands
• UEE
• National Literacy Mission
• Special attention to Girl’s Education
• Priority of Education to the oppressed and the
backward.
• ABL, ALM, Joyful learning
• Grant of scholarships and loans.