2. Theories
guide research and policy
formulation in the sociology of education
They also provide logical explanations for
why things happen the way they do.
Theories help sociologist understand
educational systems
3. Consensus and Conflict Theory
Society
has two faces (Dahrendorf;
1959,1968)
Sociological
Theory should be divided
into 2 parts. Conflict Theory and
Consensus Theory
4. Consensus
Sees
shared norms and values as
fundamentals to society
Focuses on social order based on tacit
agreements.
Social change occurs in a slow and
orderly fashion
5. Examines
value integration in society
Absence of conflict as the equilibrium
state
A collection of theories in which social
order and stability as the base of
emphasis
Concerned with the maintenance or
continuation of social order in relation to
norms, values, rules and etc.
6. Conflict
Emphasize
the dominance of some social
groups
Social order as based on manipulation
and control by dominant groups
Social change is occurring rapidly in a
disorderly fashion
Subordinate groups overthrow dominant
groups
7. Examines
conflict of interest and the
coercion that holds society
Disagreement or clash between opposing
sides, principles, or people
It can be overt or covert conflict
Focuses on the heterogeneous nature of
society and the unequal distribution of
political and social power.
8. Struggle
between social classes
Asks how schools contribute to the
unequal distribution of people into jobs in
society
More powerful members of society
maintain the best positions
Less powerful group (women, racial and
ethnic group) are allocated to lower
ranks
9. Education
plays a big part in maintaining
the prestige, power, and economic and
social position of dominant group in the
society
Social behavior is best understood in
terms of conflict or tensions between
competing groups.
It needs not to be violent
10. Emergence
of conflict and what causes
conflict
Conflict theory deals with the
incompatible aspects of society and how
they clash with one another
Interested in how society institutions
(family, gov’t religion, education and
media) helps to maintain the privileges of
some groups.
11. Emphasis
in social change and
redistribution of resources makes conflict
theories more radical and activist than
functionalist.
12. Structural Functionalism
Talcott
Parsons, Robert Merton, and
others proposed the ideas of Structural
Functionalism and was dominant for many
years.
Declined dramatically in the last 3
decades due to the existence of conflict
theorist
13. Parson’s AGIL System
Four
functional imperatives for “all”
action systems.
Adaptation:
System must cope with
external situations, adapt to its
environment and adapt environment to
its needs
14. Goal
Attainment : A system must define
and achieve its primary goals
Integration: regulate the interrelationship
of its component parts. Manage the
relationship among other 3 functional
imperative (A.G.L)
Latency: Furnish, maintain and renew
both the motivation of individuals and the
cultural patterns that create and sustain
motivation
15. AGIL
system was designed for all levels,
the behavioral organism is the action
system that handles the adaptation
function by adjusting and transforming the
external world.
Personality system performs the goal
attainment by defining system goals and
mobilizing resources
16. Social
system copes with the integration
of function by controlling its component
parts.
Cultural system performs the latency
function by providing the norms and
values that motivates them for action.
18. Assumptions
Systems
have the property of order and
interdependence of parts
Systems tend toward self maintaining
order (equilibrium)
The system may be static or involved in
the ordered process of change
The nature of one part has an impact on
the form that other parts can take
19. System
maintains boundaries with their
environment
Allocation and integration are two
fundamental processes for equilibrium
Self maintenance involving the
maintenance of relationships, control of
environment and control of tendencies to
change the system from within
21. Functional requisites of a Social
System
Must
be structured so that they may
operate compatibly with other systems
To survive, it must have the requisite
from other systems
Must meet a significant proportion of
needs of its actors
Must elicit adequate participation from its
members
Must have minimum control over
disruptive behaviors
23. Key Principles of Functionalist
Perspective
Interdependency-
every part is
dependent to some extent to other parts
Functions of Social Structure and
CultureSocial Structure- organization of the
society
Culture- Set of beliefs, language, rules,
values and knowledge held in a common
set of members.
26. Interactionist Theories
Relation
of School and society are
critiques and extensions of the
functionalist and conflict perspectives
Interpretable snapshot of what schools
are like on an everyday level
Micro-sociological level of analysis
Noticing taken-for-granted behaviors
Implicit assumptions for usually unnoticed
interactions
27. Symbolic Interactionism
Views
the self as socially constructed in
relation to social forces and social
structures
Social self is an active product of human
agency rather that a deterministic
product of social structure.
All types of interaction refines our ability
to think
Not all interaction involves thinking
28. Principles
Human
beings are endowed with a
capacity for thought
The capacity for thought is shaped by
social interaction
People learn the meanings and the
symbols in social interactions
Meanings and symbols allow people to
carry on distinctively human action and
interaction
29. People
are able to modify or alter
meanings and symbols that they use on
the basis of their interpretation of the
situation
People are able to make these changes it
is part of their ability to interact within
themselves, allows them to examine
possible courses of action, asses their
relative advantages and disadvantages and
choose one
Intertwined patterns of action and
interaction make up groups and societies
30. Non-Symbolic Interactionism
Differentiation
made by Blumer between
two basic forms of interaction.
◦ Nonsymbolic interaction- conversation of
gestures does not involve thinking
◦ Symbolic interaction- requires mental process
31. Premises
People
act towards the thing they encounter
based on what those things mean to them
We learn what things are by observing how
other people respond to them
As a result of ongoing interaction, sounds or
words, gestures, facial expressions and body
postures we used with dealing with others
acquire symbolic meanings that are shared
by people who belong to the same culture.
32. Importance
of thinking to symbolic
interactionist is reflected in their view on
objects.
3 types of objects
◦ Physical
◦ Social
◦ Abstract
33. Different
objects have different meanings
for different individuals.
“A tree will be a different object to a
botanist, a lumberman, a poet and a
home gardener”
Looking-glass Self
◦ We see ourselves as other see us
- Charles Cooley
