The main areas considered as the sources of issues

1. 4. Issues in Sociology of Education
The main areas considered as the
sources of issues

2. a) Relationship Between the Society and
Education
• The relationship that may exist between a
particular society and its education system can be
judged after examining the various social
institutions of the society and see how they are
involved in the growth, maintenance, provision,
as well as the general support of educational
activities in schools.
• This is made possible by the observation that the
society carries out its functions efficiently not as a
mass but through its institutions.

3. • Through such institutions as the family, church,
guvernment, industry and various other organizations
or groups, the society is able to deliver its services,
exercise its control, show its interest in and support for
schools and the overall education process.
• When the social institutions become lax, weak or
reduce their support for education, the broad
educational objectives of the society are bound to
erode eventually.
• Relationship btn the society and its iducational system
is therefore an issue vital to the enquiry of Sociology of
Education.

4. b) The Functions and Contributions of Education
What are the observable contributions of education
in society?
• Answer to this question is important in evaluating
the nature of a society’s educational activities
and how adequate its curriculum is.
• Correct answer to this question provide the
rationale (justification) for the provision,
maintenance and support of education by a
society.

5. The search for the proper answers involve
looking into the society in order to measure and
establish:
• How well education helps to socialize children
and transmit culture.
• How well does it develop employable skills,
personality and behaviour.
• How effectively does it bring about desirable
changes in economic, social and technological
areas.
• How much does it promote social integration
and national unity.

6. • The search should also involve investigating to
what extent education contributes to or is used
to promote less desirable outcomes such as social
stratification, ethnic and ratial differentiation,
social control and disruption and power
acquisition.
• It is in that sense that we would consider the
functions and contributions of education as an
appropriate source of issues to be studied in
sociology of education. Each function and
contribution is in fact an important issue.

7. c) A Child Social Milieu and its Effect on Learning
• A child learns from other children, parents, the
members of his family and from observations of
various other surrounding factors. All these
components form what is a child’s social surroundings.
• This environment has the capacity to influence his
acquisition of physical, mental and social knowledge,
his present and future abilities, interactins,
integrations, discriminations, behaviour patterns,
personality growth, individualism, competences and
various other forms of development.

8. • When the nature of the social environment is
such that there is keen interest, coordinated
efforts and adequate provisions towards the
social and personal needs of the growing
child, he will develop as a well balanced,
socially adjusted and emotionally stable
person ready to learn and lead a full life as a
human being in society.

9. • On the other hand, if the social life is one of
indifference, ignorance, social discord,
improper family care, control and guidance,
permiting deviant behaviour, the child will
grow as an ill-trained and ill-behaved person,
a socially maladjusted, irresponsible member
of society.
• The ability of such a child to learn and lead a
full life in society is greatly impaired.

10. • Considering how much the social environment
may influence a growing child in his ability to
learn, it is necessary for the teacher or any
educator to become aware of, and to take
interest in the factors that constitute a child’s
social environment.
• It is in that sense that a child’s social
environments and their effects on his learning
have become such an important issue in the
study of the social side of education.

11. d) The School as a Social Organization
• An organization can be defined as a social system
that carries out specific tasks and objectives for
which it is intended and instructed.
• Basically a typical organization has in its make up
a group of people who are frequently interacting
with each other in their needs to perform and
fulfill the organizational objectives.
• The members often use stereotyped system of
practices and procedures and follow general
regulations and rules.

12. • A typical organization has a formal structure, a
system of relationships and a power or authority
structure.
• Positions are held, roles distributed, obliga tions
and expectations stated. A network of informal
relationships develop btn and among the
members of the organization.
• There is an expression of the goals and objectives
which the organization is striving to attain, that
makes it self identical and different from others.

13. • Given these basic characteristics of an
organization and the importance of stating its
goals, it is inevitable to ask the questions: Does
the school the organizational picture presented
above? Are the goals and objectives clearly
stated? Does the school make up include the
basic components to enable it to pursue its tasks
and attain its goals? How do the various formal
and informal school structures interact and
contribute to the attainment of or the failure to
attain its goals?

14. • All these questions and many more like them are
key for assessing the value or validity of any
education system.
• Experts in sociology of education and many other
interested people, view the school as a social
organization, and as such a pertinent source of
sociological issues, particularly in view of the fact
that the school has been given the sole task of
educating or socializing children in order to make
them resposible members of the society. (Sample
case cfr. Deliquency in schools – CUEA handouts)

15. e) The Teacher and the Teaching Activities
• Even when suitable organizational components
are present in the school and the goals are
wellstated, goal attainment can become elusive if
appropriate means and resources (teachers and
teaching materials) to attain the goals are
lacking.
• The interactive activities that the teacher
facilitates at school are actually what
distinguishes a school as a unique organization in
the society whose goal is to educate and socialize
the child.

16. • Such interaction requires that the teacher should
play several roles such as the instructor, guide
and counsellor, displinarian and evaluator.
• Because the roles are considered to be critical
part of the teacher’s socializing efforts, there is
need to prepare, train and socialize the teacher
professionally before he can engage in his
teaching duties so as to enable him to carry out
the various roles adequately.

17. • The society uses the teacher as its
representative in the schoolas well as the
instrument to carry out its requirements in
fulfilling its expectations for its growing
members that is, the children.
• The quality of the teacher’s socialization
affects in turn the socializing and teaching
activities among the growing children.

18. i) The Socialization Role of the Teacher in the School
• The teaching activities are socially puposeful
because they follow certain socially prescribed
routines and methods with the aim of fulfilling
particular purpose in society.
• The profession of teaching, therefore, requires
a long period of training during which great
attention is approaches, metods and skills
required to facilitate and guide the learners in
the learning process.

19. • The needs and expectations of the
stakeholders (students, parents, the
community at large) also form the bulk of the
knowledge required during the teacher’s
training.
• All these together with specialized knowledge
in the teacher’s special area of study enable
the teacher to successfully interact and
educate at school.

20. The following ate some of the social functions
the teacher performs at a school level
• Public relations
• Surrogate parenthood
• Guidance and counselling
• Administration
• Disciplinarian, social critic of behaviour
• Teaching
• Originating and implementing social change

21. • The success of teachers in the performance of these
functions depends to a great extent on the teacher’s
motivation and conscientiousness.
• Some people choose the teaching profession because
they have been influenced by their peers or associates
to do so. Others decide to become teachers because of
the terms and conditions of service, or because the
profession is popular in their locality, or because they
have certain values they would like to pursue in their
life and the teaching profession can be used as a
stepping stone toward their interests (Ewezu 1986).

22. • In such situations, these teachers are very unlikely to
create a tolerable socializing impact in school, because
their aims in the profession do not demonstrate any
relationship with the learners’ needs or school mission.
• Highly motivated teachers are those who have chosen
on the profession to serve learners, transmit cultural
heritage, evaluate and do research on the authenticity
of available knowledge, reflect on appropriate ways of
delivery in school, and examine extraneous community
factors that affect learning.

23. • Teaching is therefore a process where
interaction btn teacher and learners is
genuine, deep, real and direct.
• In order for this interaction to be successful
the teacher should be well trained to be able
to stimulate the learner intellectually towards
creative, constructive and dialogical academic
discourse without denting their personality or
integrity.

24. ii) Social Role of the Teacher in the Classroom
• The class is a micro-society whose interactions
patterns are managed by the class teacher. The
classroom is made of materials, the teacher and
the learners.
• The materials influence not only interaction
patterns btn the teacher and learners, but also
btn the learners themselves.
• It must be noted that the class as a community is
composed of members who come from different
socio-economic background, where they have
already been differently socialized.

25. • As a class community, they are however
expected to relate under different ofr more or
less similar rules in the class. This gives the
teacher the urgent task of ensuring a cordial
relationship among them in order to
facilitateorderly learning.
• Some prominent sociologists have come
foward with various models in describing the
role of the teacher in the classroom.

26. Talcott Parson
• According to Parson (1959) Children who come from
the neighbourhood of the school, be it urban setting or
rural community, are similarly socialized and therefore
constitute a homogeneous group in the classroom.
• However, different socialization patterns in the family
and presence of many schools which draw children
from cross-cultures make Parson’s claim unsustainable.
• Leading the learners to achieve the same social,
intellectual and moral roles in the given time of
schooling, therefore, remains to be an important
function of the teacher.

27. Datta (1984)
• According to Datta, the teacher achieves a
socializing role in class in many ways, including
his leadership style in class, personal image
and esteem, competence in his area of
specialization and the approach he uses to
understand and handle individual learners’
difficulties.

28. Through leadership style, the teacher may use
the following styles suggested by Datta (1984):
• Dominative interaction which includes orders,
reminders, sanctions and other punishments to
influence the social behaviour of the learners.
• Integrative interaction involving approving,
commending, accepting, encouraging and being
generally helpful to learners.
• Note that other approaches generally used in
class are democratic, authoritarian and Laissez
fare.

29. • The degree to which the mentioned
approaches achieve socialization varies.
• It must also be noted that none of these styles
can be used in isolation. An interplay between
them is always inevitable.
• In the teacher’s choice of teaching style, the
teacher must use humane styles if he is to
perform his role as an agent of socialization
successfully.

30. • Expository approaches generally achieve little or no
fruitful interaction btn the teacher and the learners.
• Similarly, learners by looking at the teacher as the sole
source of knowledge disregarding fellow learners as
source of knowledge may suppress educational
discourse which inhibits meaningful socialization
among them.
• The best way is to use progressive approaches viz
discussion, demonstration, role play, simulation
games,debate, presentations, project method and field
excursion and trips to maximize interaction in learners.

31. • Datta also points out that, intellectual aquisition
should assist learners to make appropriate social
and moral judgements.
• This begins with respect for the teacher,
friendliness towards classmates and good
working habitssuch as punctuality and differed
gratification but aims at culminating in the
capacity for leadership and initiative.
• The teacher as social formator also fulfills the
important function of a disciplinarian in class.

32. • This helps to regulate behaviour in the class
owing to expected and frequent problems in
interaction among learners from different
social backgrounds.
• Reproaching, facial expression, eye contact,
advice, and corporal punishment are some of
the social tools to restore misbehaving
students back to track.

33. • However in many countries in the world, the
use of corporal punishment (caning) is
increasingly becoming restricted.
• Alternative means of maintaining discipline
using positive reactions such as rewarding
good behaviour are increasingly being used to
promote morals and acceptable social
development among students.

34. Aggarwal
According to Agarwal (1992) the teacher’s methods
in the classroom should:
• Enable students to grasp knowledge and skills
useful to their adjustment to social situations.
• Use social forces to enhance development of the
capacity for social adjustment.
• Develop problem-solving and constructive
thinking capacity.
• Utilize project (research), discussion,
demonstration and trips which enhance full
interaction, hence social development.

35. • As model of social behaviour, the teacher
should also demonstrate an impecable
personality and constantly relate
teaching/learning experiences to the society
in order to create the relevant social link with
the school.

36. Flankers
• In his analysis of verbal interaction in the
classroom, Flanker established the Flanker’s
Classroom Interaction Model which classifies
teacher’s socialization role into two
categories: “direct” and “indirect”.
Indirect: These teachers enhance socialization
process in the classroom without providing
direct components of socialization.

37. Flankers identified the following means of
indirect socialization by these teachers:
• Accepting and acknowledging the feelings of the
learners humbly whether positive or negative.
• Rewarding and exhorting – encouraging learners
(praising or by facial expression) whenever they
displayed a satisfactory behaviour.
• Accepting and using ideas of students to clarify
facts.
• Frequently questioning to sustain social
interaction btn learners themselver and the
teacher too.

38. Direct influence
• Here the teacher is the main player and he
appears to direct, because he does not give
much opportunity to learners in the process of
socialization.
• The teacher provides a package of knowledge
and values expectedly to socialize the
learners.

39. Flankers identified the following methods of
direct socialization:
• Lecturing by which the teacher expresses
facts, opinions and feelings to passive group of
learners.
• Giving directions and commands to be carried
out unquestionably by the learners.
• Criticizing or justifying authority in order to
change the feelings or convictions of the
learners.

40. • As it cn be seen, generally indirect methods
enable the learners to talk, contribute their ideas
and even initiate the process of learning. This
leads to healthy process of socialization.
• Conversely direct methods condemn learners to
silence leading to confusion and despondent
which not only hampers orderly socialization, but
also leads to inadequate dependent thinking.
• Flankers commended the use of indirect methods
in school owing to their success in socialization.