SOCIO-EDUCATIONAL

THEORISTS

Prepared by: MARVIE C. GUMARU

- Conflict Theory
MAX WEBER & GEORGE H.
MEAD
 Symbolic interactionism traces its origins to
Weber's assertion that individuals act
according to their interpretation of the meaning
of their world, and the American philosopher
George H. Mead (1863–1931) introduced this
perspective to American sociology in the
1920s.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
People attach meanings to
symbols, and then they act
according to their subjective
interpretation of these symbols.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
This perspective focuses on social interaction
in the classroom, on the playground, and in
other school venues. Specific research finds
that social interaction in schools affects the
development of gender roles and that
teachers’ expectations of pupils’ intellectual
abilities affect how much pupils learn.
Certain educational problems have their basis
in social interaction and expectations
Symbolic interactionist studies of
education examine social interaction in
the classroom, on the playground, and in
other school venues. These studies help us
understand what happens in the schools
themselves, but they also help us
understand how what occurs in school is
relevant for the larger society.
 Some studies show how children’s playground
activities reinforce gender-role socialization.
Girls tend to play more cooperative games,
while boys play more competitive sports
(Thorne, 1993)Thorne, B. (1993). Gender play:
Girls and boys in school. New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press
 APPLYING SOCIAL
RESEARCH
 A body of research shows that teachers’ views about students can
affect how much the students learn. When teachers think students
are smart, they tend to spend more time with these students, to call
on them, and to praise them when they give the right answer. Not
surprisingly, these students learn more because of their teachers’
behavior. But when teachers think students are less bright, they
tend to spend less time with these students and to act in a way that
leads them to learn less. Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson
(1968)Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the
classroom.
 APPLYING SOCIAL
RESEARCH
 Jacobson (1968)Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the
classroom. New York, NY: Holt. conducted a classic study of this
phenomenon. They tested a group of students at the beginning of the
school year and told their teachers which students were bright and which
were not. They then tested the students again at the end of the school
year. Not surprisingly, the bright students had learned more during the
year than the less bright ones. But it turned out that the researchers had
randomly decided which students would be designated bright and less
bright. Because the “bright” students learned more during the school
year without actually being brighter at the beginning, their teachers’
behavior must have been the reason. In fact, their teachers did spend
more time with them and praised them more often than was true for the
“less bright” students. This process helps us understand why tracking is
bad for the students tracked down
 APPLYING SOCIAL
RESEARCH
 Other research in the symbolic interactionist tradition focuses on
how teachers treat girls and boys. Many studies find that teachers
call on and praise boys more often (Jones & Dindia, 2004).Jones, S.
M., & Dindia, K. (2004). A meta-analystic perspective on sex equity
in the classroom. Review of Educational Research, 74, 443–471.
Teachers do not do this consciously, but their behavior nonetheless
sends an implicit message to girls that math and science are not for
them and that they are not suited to do well in these subjects. This
body of research has stimulated efforts to educate teachers about the
ways in which they may unwittingly send these messages and about
strategies they could use to promote greater interest and
achievement by girls in math and science (Battey, Kafai, Nixon, &
Kao, 2007).Battey, D., Kafai, Y., Nixon, A. S., & Kao, L. L. (2007).
ROBERT MERTON -
FUNCTIONALISM
He divided human functions into two
types:
1. manifest functions are intentional
and obvious
2. latent functions are unintentional and
not obvious
The manifest function of attending a church, for
instance, is to worship as part of a religious community,
but its latent function may be to help members learn to
discern personal from institutional values.
With common sense, manifest functions become easily
apparent. Yet this is not necessarily the case for latent
functions, which often demand a sociological approach
to be revealed. A sociological approach in functionalism
is the consideration of the relationship between the
functions of smaller parts and the functions of the
whole.
With common sense, manifest functions
become easily apparent. Yet this is not
necessarily the case for latent functions,
which often demand a sociological
approach to be revealed. A sociological
approach in functionalism is the
consideration of the relationship between
the functions of smaller parts and the
functions of the whole.
 FUNCTIONALISM
 Education serves several functions for society.
These include (a) socialization, (b) social
integration, (c) social placement, and (d) social
and cultural innovation.
 Latent functions include child care, the
establishment of peer relationships, and lowering
unemployment by keeping high school students
out of the full-time labor force. Problems in the
educational institution harm society because all
these functions cannot be completely fulfilled.
SOCIALIZATION
 Ifchildren are to learn the norms, values, and skills
they need to function in society, then education is a
primary vehicle for such learning. Schools teach the
three Rs (reading, ’riting, ’rithmetic), but they also
teach many of the society’s norms and values.
 In the United States, these norms and values include
respect for authority, patriotism, punctuality, and
competition (for grades and sports victories).
 SOCIAL INTEGRATION
 Fora society to work, functionalists say, people must
subscribe to a common set of beliefs and values. The
development of such common views was a goal of the
system of free, compulsory education that developed in
the nineteenth century. Thousands of immigrant
children in the United States today are learning
English, US history, and other subjects that help
prepare them for the workforce and integrate them into
American life.
 SOCIAL PLACEMENT
 Beginning in grade school, students are
identified by teachers and other school officials
either as bright and motivated or as less bright
and even educationally challenged. Depending
on how they are identified, children are taught at
the level that is thought to suit them best. In this
way, they are presumably prepared for their later
station in life.
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
INNOVATION
Our scientists cannot make important
scientific discoveries and our artists and
thinkers cannot come up with great works
of art, poetry, and prose unless they have
first been educated in the many subjects
they need to know for their chosen path.
 Education also involves several latent functions, functions that
are by-products of going to school and receiving an education
rather than a direct effect of the education itself.
 One of these is child care: Once a child starts kindergarten and
then first grade, for several hours a day the child is taken care of
for free.
 The establishment of peer relationships is another latent function
of schooling. Most of us met many of our friends while we were
in school at whatever grade level, and some of those friendships
endure the rest of our lives.
 A final latent function of education is that it keeps millions of
high school students out of the full-time labor force. This fact
keeps the unemployment rate lower than it would be if they were
in the labor force.
Because education serves so many
manifest and latent functions for society,
problems in schooling ultimately harm
society. For education to serve its many
functions, various kinds of reforms are
needed to make our schools and the
process of education as effective as
possible.
 KARL MARX - CONFLICT
THEORY
 The conflict perspective was originated primarily
out of Karl Marx's writings on class struggles,
presents society in a different light than do the
functionalist and symbolic interactionist
perspectives.
 Conflict perspective focuses on the negative,
conflicted, and ever‐changing nature of society.
 It encourage social change (even when this
means social revolution), and believe rich and
powerful people force social order on the poor
and the weak.
 Conflict theorists, for example, may interpret an
“elite” board of regents raising tuition to pay for
esoteric new programs that raise the prestige of a
local college as self‐serving rather than as
beneficial for students.
 American sociologists in the 1940s and 1950s
generally ignored the conflict perspective in
favor of the functionalist, the tumultuous
1960s saw American sociologists gain
considerable interest in conflict theory. They
also expanded Marx's idea that the key conflict
in society was strictly economic.
 Today, conflict theorists find social conflict
between any groups in which the potential for
inequality exists: racial, gender, religious,
political, economic, and so on.
 Conflict theorists note that unequal groups
usually have conflicting values and agendas,
causing them to compete against one another.
This constant competition between groups
forms the basis for the ever‐changing nature of
society.
 EDUCATION AND
INEQUALITY
 Conflicttheory does not dispute the functions just
described. However, it does give some of them a
different slant by emphasizing how education also
perpetuates social inequality (Ballantine & Hammack,
2012).Ballantine, J. H., & Hammack, F. M. (2012).
The sociology of education: A systematic analysis (7th
ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
 EDUCATION AND
INEQUALITY
 Such tracking does have its advantages; it helps ensure that
bright students learn as much as their abilities allow them,
and it helps ensure that slower students are not taught over
their heads. But conflict theorists say that tracking also
helps perpetuate social inequality by locking students into
faster and lower tracks. Worse yet, several studies show
that students’ social class and race and ethnicity affect the
track into which they are placed, even though their
intellectual abilities and potential should be the only things
that matter: White, middle-class students are more likely to
be tracked “up,” while poorer students and students of
color are more likely to be tracked “down.”
EDUCATION AND
INEQUALITY
 Once they are tracked, students learn more if they are
tracked up and less if they are tracked down. The latter
tend to lose self-esteem and begin to think they have little
academic ability and thus do worse in school because
they were tracked down. In this way, tracking is thought
to be good for those tracked up and bad for those tracked
down. Conflict theorists thus say that tracking
perpetuates social inequality based on social class and
race and ethnicity (Ansalone, 2010).Ansalone, G. (2010).
Tracking: Educational differentiation or defective
strategy. Educational Research Quarterly, 34(2), 3–17.
 EDUCATION AND
INEQUALITY
 Conflict theorists add that standardized tests are culturally biased
and thus also help perpetuate social inequality (Grodsky, Warren,
& Felts, 2008).Grodsky, E., Warren, J. R., & Felts, E. (2008).
 Another critique of conflict theory involves the quality of schools.
Schools differ mightily in their resources, learning conditions, and
other aspects, all of which affect how much students can learn in
them. Simply put, schools are unequal, and their very inequality
helps perpetuate inequality in the larger society. Children going to
the worst schools in urban areas face many more obstacles to their
learning than those going to well-funded schools in suburban
areas. Their lack of learning helps ensure they remain trapped in
poverty and its related problems.
 EDUCATION AND
INEQUALITY
 Conflict theorists say that schooling teaches a hidden
curriculum, by which they mean a set of values and
beliefs that support the status quo, including the existing
social hierarchy (Booher-Jennings, 2008).Booher-
Jennings, J. (2008). Learning to label: Socialisation,
gender, and the hidden curriculum of high-stakes
testing. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29,
149–160. Although no one plots this behind closed
doors, schoolchildren learn patriotic values and respect
for authority from the books they read and from various
classroom activities.