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Alisson Hernandez Ruiz

James Bazan

Introduction to Sociology

16 November 2018

EDUCATION AND THE SOCIOLOGISTS’ PERSPECTIVES

In today’s society, education plays a vital role in shaping tomorrow’s leaders. The youth

of our present. The leaders of our future. Education grows their capacity of knowledge and

grooms them to become adults that will lead our society. The first public schools were

established in the United States in the 1800s and now there are over 98,000 public schools across

our nation (National Center for Education Statistics). We value education so much that it has

been made a requirement for children to attend school and it is heavily advised to young adults to

attend college and seek higher education. Sociologists have studied institutions such as education

from a variety of perspectives and have come up with a couple theories which we will analyze.

Structural functionalism originated with a French sociologist named Emile Durkheim.

Structural functionalism is a theory that believes society to be an unified whole that functions

because of its separate structures (The Real World). In other words, society is made up of many

moving parts that end up moving together as one and its key focus is looking at society from a

macro level since individuals do not have much power. These many “moving parts” are called

social structures and a good example of a social structure would be education. Structural

functionalism believes that education would shape everyday behavior by providing knowledge,

morals, rules, and norms for students. “How does our education system benefit society as a
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Alisson Hernandez Ruiz

James Bazan

Introduction to Sociology

16 November 2018

whole?” and “Is poverty, even though harmful to individuals, functional for society because it

ensures that there’s always people seeking higher education for an improved lifestyle?” are

questions structural functionalism could answer about education.

Social conflict is quite the opposite from structural functionalism. Social conflict is a

theory that states individuals and groups are always competing for power in society. This

theory’s key focus is the inequality within society thanks to its groups struggling over scarce

resources such as power, land, food, money, and or status. Social conflict views education as a

placed system reinforcing social inequalities that arise due to differences in class, race, and

gender. “​Where functionalists see education as serving a beneficial role, conflict theorists view it

more negatively. To them, educational systems preserve the status quo and push people of lower

status into obedience” (Lumen Learning). For example, a low income student is more likely to

work a job and pick up extra shifts to financially help out his or her family. This would take

away time from his studies and increase his or her possibilities of having time management

issues. Questions conflict theorists could answer about education would be “​How does race

impact educational achievement?” and “Are low income communities more likely to have high

school dropouts? And why?”

Symbolic interaction is a theory that assumes meanings to not be inherent but created by

humans through interactions. It takes a small scale view of our society. Its key focus is on a small

perspective of the interactions between individuals. For example, hanging out with a friend.
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Alisson Hernandez Ruiz

James Bazan

Introduction to Sociology

16 November 2018

Education itself is a broad topic in terms of its function, but there are minute intricacies than can

be viewed via symbolic interaction. How students interact with each other in the classroom, the

way teachers may praise or ridicule a student based on their behavior, etc. The way those things

would shape an individual is based on the way they are treated or labeled. If a student is known

by others and liked around the environment, they may grow to be confident in the future in

settings where social interaction in involved. If a student is left alone and not accepted by others

around them, they may grow to be anxious around groups of people or become inept in those

settings. If they are taking a test and perform below the standards, they may be labeled a low

achiever or something along those lines. A label like that could be detrimental to growth and

hinder their ability to go above and beyond their full potential. Questions symbolic interaction

could answer include “How do test scores affect a student’s self esteem?” and “How does a

teacher’s interaction with a student affect their performance?”

Finally, these are only three theories out of the multiple sociologists have come up with

throughout the years. When examining education, structural functionalism does a great job

explaining how society avoids conflict and progresses through socialization and social control,

however, it fails to acknowledge inequalities in school districts such as social class and race.

Social conflict is really helpful when understanding how minorities are treated by our education

system but assumes wealthy white students are the only or most likely ones able to thrive. One
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Alisson Hernandez Ruiz

James Bazan

Introduction to Sociology

16 November 2018

strength of symbolic interaction is looking at how education affects people individually,

however, it does not see how it progresses groups of people as a whole. Like mostly everything

in our society, these three main theories have both strengths and weaknesses.
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Alisson Hernandez Ruiz

James Bazan

Introduction to Sociology

16 November 2018

WORKS CITED:

“The NCES Fast Facts Tool Provides Quick Answers to Many Education Questions

(National Center for Education Statistics).” ​National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

Home Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of Education,​ National Center for Education

Statistics, nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=84.

“Chapter 1.” ​The Real World an Introduction to Sociology​, by Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein,

5th ed., W.W. Norton, 2018, pg. 20.

Live, Sociology. “ Conflict Theory on Education.” ​Lumen Learning​, Lumen,

courses.lumenlearning.com/alamo-sociology/chapter/reading-conflict-theory-on-education/.