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Summary ESC3701 Assignment 2 2023
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The document provides guidelines on how to answer assignment 2 for ESC
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ASSIGNMENT 02: SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION (PART B)(SHORT QUESTIONS) (100 Marks) – on the my Unisa Moodle platform
DUE DATE: To be communicated on myUnisaUNIQUE
NUMBER: To be communicated on my Unisa
QUESTION 1
Functionalism is one of the major theories in Sociology of education.
Provide a brief explanation of what Sociology of education as discipline entails. (Page 4)
(10)
The sociology of education is concerned with how people's experiences impact how they engage
with schooling. The sociology of education, in particular, investigates how people' experiences
influence their educational success and results. Sociology of education is the sociological study of
educational systems, processes, and practices. It is a fundamental field within the subject of
sociology. However, it is also regarded a part of the educational discipline. As a result, sociology of
education is defined as the scientific study of social processes and social patterns in the
educational system. This implies it is utilized to improve knowledge of the interaction between
educational institutions and society at both the micro and macro levels. (Saha, 2008: 300):
At a micro level, researchers seek to identify how variation in school practices, for example,
different teaching methods, leads to differences in student performance.
At a macro level, sociologists work to identify how various social forces, such as politics,
economics and culture, create variation in schools as organizations.
Education sociology is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences influence
education and its consequences. It is primarily concerned with modern industrial civilizations' public
educational systems, including the rise of higher, further, adult, and continuing education.
What makes sociology of education unique is that it finally treats education at a level of abstraction
that is primarily concerned with the social institutions of education, from peer groups through
classes and schools, to the educational system addressing institutional compositions, structures,
methods, philosophies, and functions, but not dismissing the interdependence of education and
other society institutions such as economic, political, and governmental authorities.
QUESTION 2
The works of Emile Durkheim focus on how social order is possible and how society can remainstable
despite the many influences that can destabilize social order.
With the above in mind, briefly explain Durkheim’s point of view regarding the role of
educational institutions to uphold the equilibrium between individual rights and the interest
of society. (Page 8) (10)
These works focus on how social order is possible and how society can remain stable in spite of
the many influences that could potentially destabilize social order. The question that occupied
Durkheim throughout his career concerned how we can ensure the kind of moral regulation and
social integration that is appropriate for a modern society. It is necessary to know more about
Durkheim's life and the world in which he lived to understand why this issue troubled him so greatly.
He was born in 1858, almost seventy years after the French Revolution. The guiding theme of the
French Revolution was individual freedom, in contrast with the rapidly growing nationalism and
extreme conservatism that began developing prior to the First World War, which ended in 1918.
The war raised nationalist feelings to a fever pitch. In a climate of virulent nationalism, there was no
, space for individualism to question the wisdom of government policies (Gelderblom et al., 2012: 64-
65).
It is helpful to view Durkheim's theory against the backdrop of the capitalist industrialization
experienced by France at that time. His theory was an attempt to defend the rights of the individual
as expressed in the ideals that underpinned the French Revolution. However, Durkheim's theory
also warned against the dangers of unchecked individualism, where the rights of the individual
might outweigh the collective interests of society (Blackledge & Hunt, 1985:10-12).
Educational institutions and sub-systems have an important responsibility to help achieve the
desired equilibrium between the rights of the individual and the interests of society. Education can
be defined as the influence exercised by the adult generation on those who are not yet ready for
social life. For the child to live up to the demands of both the political society and the special space
that he or she is destined to occupy in society, the child needs development in the physical,
intellectual and moral states of his being (Ballantine, 1983: 8-9).
Haralambos and Holborn expand on what Durkheim expects education to be. They maintain that
education should:
live up to a certain amount of specialization
One of the functions of education is to prepare people for the particular milieu for which they are
destined.
Since all are subjected to the school regime, education will build up the necessary consensus
for society to continue
Education must provide the norms and values that the child needs.
It must also provide a cognitive framework in terms of which the child can come to understand
the world and acquire knowledge.
Durkheim (1956: 122) states that the person who emerges from the education system is not the
person made by nature, but the person whom society wishes him or her to be and for whom the
internal economy calls. Education is social in nature and is a means to an end. It is not the
individual being educated, the teachers or the educational administrators who define the end
product, but society. The primary functions of education are therefore not to develop the abilities
and potential of children per se, but to develop those abilities and capabilities that society needs.
School education is a social institution and its ideals should be decided by society (Morrish,
1978:31).
QUESTION 3
Conflict Theory recognizes the inharmonious nature of families, but assert the family’s ability to dealwith
differences, change and conflict.
Briefly address the link between Conflict Theory (Marxism) and the dominant role of the
family. (Page 15) (10)
According to conflict theory, inequalities exist between the dominant group and all other groups in
every community. When we examine the money, power, and status systems in a society, we may
see these discrepancies. These are the same institutions that keep one group's social, economic,
political, and coercive dominance at the expense of others.
Family has a significant role in these institutions as a tool for maintaining patriarchy and socio-
economic inequality in society. This is prevalent in most African countries where the traditional
family system is followed. The system is patriarchal in the majority of these cultural groupings,
which adds to gender inequity. As a result, the family becomes a social system that advantages
males more than women. It permits males to keep their positions of power (Boundless, 2015).
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