Concept of Communities
Education is a social institution where formal knowledge is imparted. One of the main functions of education is socialization. Sociology is a scientific study of human society and social interaction. The main focus of sociology is a group not an individual. Functionalism is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system where the different areas work mutually to encourage harmony and steadiness. It is a very broad theory in which all the elements including the complex societies of the industrialized world make up human society. The functionalists argue that education serves many important functions in a society. Firstly the main focus is children who are taught to live a social life. Reading book knowledge is not sufficient for the teaching methodology. Society’s culture including moral values and ethics, politics, religious beliefs, habits and norms must also be taught side by side. Secondly, education imparts occupational training to the students. During the early 19th century jobs were transferred from father to son. Nevertheless these jobs today require at least high school education, on the other hand, a college or post graduate degree is essential for many professions. Third, education according to the functionalist theorist serves to control social behavior or guideline of abnormal conduct. However, attending school the young people are kept away from troubles and streets.
Traditionally the families had been the main arena for socialization, but since the societies got complex it became difficult for the family to fulfill all aspects of its socialization function. A need for formal education system became compulsory to extend the socialization process that starts in the family. In the modern society there is a difference in education and socialization, however, bringing up and educating the children are two separate tasks. On one hand bringing up children is informal whereas school education is formal. The educational process is far beyond just formalized instructions. In addition children also learn things in their families and among their peers. In school children’s master status is that of student and the primary task is to learn. This brought an evolution of civilization, which changed dramatically with the industrialization of western culture.
Schooling from the past to the present stages have been able to bring about some changes in order to improve the standards and make students live better. Classrooms are now more learner-centered than being teacher-centered in the past. This inculcated the students to participate in various activities and develop their socialization skills.
Though education and socialization go side by side in a classroom, the students have to be divided according to their capabilities. We come across such students that are hard to control in an institution and they are focused on moral education for building the social structure of such students coming from a diverse background. For example a seven year old girl who is isolated by the other girls of her class. These girls are known by the name of ‘cool girls’ of the classroom and hence they tend to set up standards for others who wish to join them. Hence when one does not fit in these standards is isolated and her intimidation and being bullied by other boys and girls of the class leads her away from socializing with others. Cultural niceness is a limiting social activity which diminishes the child’s self esteem and constructs a passive and unassertive femininity in the child, which is the case seen here because this girl lived with her divorced mother.
Some students learn early unlike others and achieve high scores in tests as well as games. This helps students develop their self esteem as an identity. Further this also builds a competitive spirit of learning in the classroom and through games outside the classroom. A reward after the competition motivates the students towards winning. The functionalist sees that such students are sorted out on the basis of merit. This is done to fulfill the society’s need of channeling output capable students into most important occupations. Such students are identified by the schools. Socialists like, Talcott Parsons, Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore referred this as social replacement. This function leads to making a networking in high school and college so that the significant role of education helps in finding similar students.
At times when the child completes his high school the parents limit their options for college due to some income crisis, interests of student, inability to manage education expenses or they opt to get married.
Functionalists portray an “ironic dual role” in education where we find different culture. The more educated the students are, they get liberal whereas less educated people are conservative. The primary role of education should be to inculcate the values of educational skills in the students so that they may find a prestigious place in the society. The final function of education is the “replacement of the family” which came in the end of the twentieth century. At times the parents send their children to private schools to just sustain their standards.
Similarly, cyberspace bullying is another form of bullying where students use the email, instant messages and so on to release private and humiliating information about other students in order to frighten their peer. For instance in the case of a boy who was being bullied by other boys where fake love emails were sent to others on his behalf leading him in an embarrassing situation. Kowalski, Limber and Agatson (2007) put forward that cyberspace bullying is mostly led by girls than by boys. This type of bullying has drastic effects as sometimes the child being bullied does not even know the person and hence teachers and parents cannot confront him or her.
Many of these issues can be dealt with when parents, teachers and students work together so as to improve upon the social skills of the child. Keeping students busy in learning is really helpful because then they do not have time to deviate towards these activites. Creating challenges for them in class and outside will help them stay on track. Teachers and parents need to set up goals in order to control these situations and promote healthy social relationships in school and the community.
Change is difficult to adopt, especially the change of the environment completely for some who migrate from their home country to other because of various factors. Their past moves with them and it takes time for them to adjust. Usually these types of students come forth situations where they are discriminated by others due to racist comments. Or at times they themselves find it difficult to accept the new culture and environment they have landed in. Teachers and parents working closely for such students can help in minimizing the time taken to accept these changes. Various teaching ideas can be used in the classroom in order to make these children feel included and participate more actively in the classroom. For instance having students come out and talk about their cultures in the form of role plays can help everyone understand each other and be able to accept and understand their peers better.
Practice makes perfect, hence teachers can take into practice as a norm the ways students should communicate with each other, the language they should be using so as to help them socialize better and more politely with their peers.
Boys and girls mostly will have different choices and interests, and planning schoolwork keeping in mind the interests of each gender will help them get more involved in learning. Asking students to reflect on various situation will help them broaden their thinking and learn to accept others and respect their values.
Education builds up a connection between a family and the society by creating a competitive spirit, equality and individualism among the students. Functionalists believed it is impossible to believe that social order is crucial for an organized society. They also believe that value agreement shaped the fundamental integrating standard in the society. If the people of the society shared their values and cooperated with each other through proper education, would avoid conflicts. For example, making queue at a shopping mall, or a buffet. Education teaches the students the norms and values to live successfully in a mass of society. Schooling helps the students develop a value of accomplishment. In this way they achieve an influential role in the society leading to secondary socialization.
References
Tischler, Henry L. (1996). Introduction to Sociology (5th ed.). Philadelphia : The Harcot Press.
Giddens, A. (2009). Sociology (6th ed. Pp.67-105). Cambridge, U.K. : Polity Press.
Crawford, K. & O’Neill, D. (2009). The social contexts of teaching and learning (pp.163-187). Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Australia.
Groundwater-Smith, S., Brennan, M., McFadden, M., Mitchell, J., & Munnset, G. (2009). Secondary schooling in a changing world (2nd ed., pp. 15-32). South Melbourne, Vic.: Cengage Learning.
Cooper, M., & Iles, L. (2011). Gender and diversity in the classroom. In M. Hyde, L. Carpenter, & R. Conway (Eds.), Diversity and inclusion in Australian school (pp.88-115). South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press. (Original work published in 2010)
Burnham, Peter. (2012). Functionalism. Answers.com. Retrieved from <http://www.answers.com/topic/functionalism-anthropology>
