SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION LECTURE TWO 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 All issues in the society:  Health & illness  racial & ethnic conflicts,  poverty,  education,  immigration,  sexuality,  gender,  class, and crime & punishment, environment & economic development. 5/25/2016

 What is society?  How do different sociological perspectives view society? 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

The largest form of human group which consists of people who share a common heritage and culture. Members of the society learn this culture and transmit it from one generation to the next. Society refers to a group of people who live within the same territory and share a common culture (Schaefer, 2000) 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 Culture provides the meanings that enable human beings to interpret their experiences and guide their actions whereas society represents the networks of social relations that arise among people (Hughes, Kroehler & Zanden, 1999). 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 There are set of basic concepts that can describe important features of our social environment.  Different social theories have explained many feature of our social lives.  A theoretical perspectives provides a set of assumptions, interrelated concepts, and statements about how various social phenomena are related to one another 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 There are three contemporary theoretical perspectives in sociology that are used to explain a society:  The Functionalist perspective  The Conflict perspective  The Symbolic Interactionist perspective 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 Mainly from the ideas of August Comte, Herbert Spencer and Emile Durkheim.  It takes a broad view of society and focus on the macro aspects of social life.  The functionalist’s views on society are as follows:  Society as a social system - They view society as a system, a set of related elements or components in a more or less stable fashion through a period of time. 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

- They focus on the parts of society, particularly its major institutions like family, religion, economy, state and education. - Functionalists see society on a whole scale but that smaller units make up this whole. - All these smaller parts must have an equilibrium in order to function smoothly as a whole being. - Change in one institution has implications for other institutions and for the society as a whole. - Every social structure contributes to the overall social stability or instability as any one thing affects all other parts of the whole. 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

- These actions by each part are classified into manifest function (intended and recognized by the participants in a system), latent function (actions that are neither intended nor recognized), and dysfunction (not helpful to society). - In the end Functionalism's view on society is that of a being made of many parts all of which must work in order for the whole to achieve stability. 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 Assumes that most members of a society agree on what is and what is not desirable, worthwhile and moral – share consensus regarding their core values and beliefs.  Maintain that a high degree of consensus provides the foundation for social integration and stability.  By virtue of long socialization process, people come to accept the rules of their society, and so for the most part they live by them. 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 The perspective is a useful tool for describing society and identifying its structural parts and the functions of these parts.  It provides a ‘big picture’ of the whole of social life.  It is sometimes helpful to describe behaviuor at a given point in time, apart from social processes. 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 It does not provide us with the entire story of socila life.  It has difficulty dealing with history and processes of social change.  It tends to exaggerate consensus, integration and stability while disregarding conflict, dissent and stability. 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 Like functionalists, they focus their attention on society as a whole.  Emphasize the process of change that continually transform social life.  See society as unstable and disordered.  They focus upon the interests that divide.  Sees that social unity is an illusion resting on coercion. 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 Sees the main source of conflict in human societies is scarcity of the resources people require.  They maintain that society is often held together in the face of conflicting interests. 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 This has been more concerned with the micro or small-scale aspects of social life.  Emphasize that we are social beings who live a group existence, but we posses few, if any, innate behaviours for relating to one another.  We share the meanings of different things in the society.  Social interaction, and therefore society itself, is possible because people share meanings. 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 We respond to things in our environment on the bases of their meanings – understanding we have of them.  Meanings are not inherent in things, but emerge from social interaction. 5/25/2016 1:21 PM

 Understanding social circumstances provides us a better chance of controlling them.  Sociology provides the means of increasing our cultural sensitivities.  We can investigate the consequences of adopting particular policy programs.  Sociology provides self-enlightenment, offering groups & individuals an increased opportunity to alter the conditions of their own lives. 5/25/2016

THE END. 5/25/2016 1:21 PM