EDUCATION AND

SOCIAL MOBILITY
Chapter 3
 Define social class, social mobility &
pattern

 Determine factors and effects of social

mobility

 Conceptualize social change

 Assess education and development of

economy and theory of the Economic
Development

LEARNING OUTCOMES
 Social class – the status of a person in a society, can be
determined by socio-economic status (SES)of a person.
 Socio-economic status can be measured through
someone’s household income, occupation, education and
social status.
 There are 5 level of social class.
High
Class
Upper Middle
Class
Lower Middle Class

Worker Class

Low Class

Social Class Hierarchy

 High Class Upper Middle Class
[People who are rich by inherit [consists of people with high
& corporate people become rich education level
through their own effort] (professional/non-
professional)]
e.g. entrepreneur, businessman,
aristocrate e.g. judge, engineer, doctor,
architect
Lower Middle
[Most of them graduate from high Worker
school, not many have diploma, not [blue collar worker, manual
as great as the upper middle class work, hold SPM/PMR
but pay more attention on their kids’
education]
certificates]
e.g. teacher, policeman, technician, e.g. piper, factory workers,
clerk, postman driver

Low Class
[very low education level/may not
have education, income is unstable
e.g. fisherman, farmer

Social Class
 Social mobility refers to the movement of person
upwards or downwards in the social structure [John Jarolimek,
1981]
 Due to the advancement of a country, the SES of a society
always changes.
 Education is a very important element in social mobility.
For instance, lower middle class parents will provide good
education so that their children to be in higher social class
in future.
 With good education, a person can lead a better life and his
social class is not rigid.
 Without education, a person may not be able to move from
his current social class and there’s a possibility that his
social status may decrease.
 Therefore, awareness about the importance of education
is important; no matter in which social class a person
belongs to.

Social Mobility
 Uphold & Demote Mobility
Uphold Mobility: a normal factory worker is promoted to be
a supervisor in the factory.
Effect : This situation will make the power, status and
earning of the worker become more higher
Demote Mobility: A headmaster of a school is demoted to
be a normal teacher.
Effect : The power and the status are decreasing.

 Horizontal Mobility
Post and current earning will not undergo any changes.
E.g. a teacher is transferred from one school to another
without having anything that is being changed.
Effect : Change the place of work and type of work do not
involve the changing of earning & degree of work.

The Patterns of Social Mobility

 Mobility In One’s Generation
This mobility happens in an individual’s life span.
e.g. A clerk who has been working for more 10 years is
promoted to be an accountant.
This changes can also be called as uphold changes in one’s
generation.

 Mobility Among Generation

Involve the changing of standard of living between one
generation to one another.
e.g. A father who works as a clerk has given to his child
good education until the child has become a doctor. This
also can be called as an uphold mobility in one generation
to another.
e.g. A doctor’s son who works as a clerk can be called as
demote mobility.

The Patterns of Social Mobility

 Sponsored Mobility
This happens when there is a certain side or government
has sponsored and give a scholarship for the students who
have achieved good results to further their studies at the
higher level. It does not count whether the students come
from a rich or poor family.
Through the scholarship those students can shape a better
community based on the skills that they have.

 Counter Mobility
This mobility is one contest among the students in
institution to get the best score. With their best score, they
will get rewarded by certain sides.

The Patterns of Social Mobility

 Education
Country’s
Progress
Employment

Self Skills &

Respect Natural
Talents

Emigration Marriage

Authority Investment

Factors that Influence the Social Mobility

 Everyone, regardless their social class status would try their very
best in grabbing every chance possible.
 Insecure feeling of losing jobs due to capable person strive them to do
their best-competitiveness.
 Education is very important – lower class community can improve their
living standards.

The Conclusion of Social Mobility

1. Education is a steeping stone in improving the living standards.
However, it may break the society into 2 groups – conservative &
liberal.
2. The upper class children have better education opportunity.
3. The form of employment is influenced by the structure of society (poor
> middle > rich)
4. Usually small no. of family member + parents hold high position = high
IQ level of children.
5. Those who enter IPTS usually come from well earned family.
6. Poverty is one cause of attrition (being left behind) in education.

Social Mobility Effects on Individuals & Society

  Changes in society are usually related to education & economic
development in a country.
A developed country causes the social changes in the society. It
involves the aspect of economy, family, changes in social
roles, social & political revolution.
 Characteristics of social changes may differ from each country.
Generally, the sociologist’s opinions on the social change are as
followed:

1) It occurs without planning.

Changes and social development in certain places happens
without planning or as a coincidence.

2) Universal but variation

Social development occurs everywhere especially in the
developed countries.
The more develop a country is, the faster the social
development take place to the individual & the society.

Concept & Characteristics of Social Change

 The more develop a country is, the faster the social
development take place to the individual & the society.
Yet, backwards countries such as Cambodia & Laos can be said
as having a very slow social development and some part of the
country is still in the old phase.
Therefore, social development is not the same form one
place to another.

3) Controversial
Due to the technology, there are the good and bad sides of it.
For e.g. in the area of agriculture, the usage of sophisticated
tools and machines reduces the needs of manpower. Therefore,
it becomes a controversial issue among the hand skill
workers.

4) The effect of social development differs

The advancement & modernization of a particular place will give
different effects on social development whether it is a positive
or negative effect.

Concept & Characteristics of Social Change

 Physical Environment
• Major changes in the physical environment are very
compelling when it occurs

Population Growth
• A change in the size population may bring about a change
in the economic life of the people, may further bring
about a change in various aspects of human life.

Leadership
• A good leadership advances the standards of a country &
also the social changes. It a leader does not progress the
country, the people will be left behind.

Cultural Process
• Refers mainly to ideas, knowledge, values and beliefs

Factors That Influence Social Change

 • Involves the behaviour & the attitudes of
an individual; and their interaction pool.
Micro • e.g. the way individuals communicate to each
other. With the help of the latest technologies
such as mobile phones & the internet, we can
keep in touch with anyone across the globe.

• Refers to how a large group, for example an

institution undergo changes.
Macro • The factors that contribute to this large change
are technology advancement, political structure,
economics or national development, religion or
belief, education and also population.

Types of Social Change

 Evolution Model
 Heavily influenced by Darwin theory & supported by
sociologist Herbet Spencer.
 Social change is an advancement of the society from a
backward society into a modern society.
 This model insists that all societies go through in the same
way.

Cyclical Model
 Once a society has reached the final stage of a society
change, they go back to the starting point again to start a
new cycle.
 E.g. a society that went through cyclical change is the
Roman Empire.
 Shows that people go through social changes all the time &
usually this change brings more advantages than
disadvantages.

Models of Social Change

 Conflict Model
 Insists that society change will occur if there is a
repression or conflict in the society.
 According to Karl Marx, conflict in society is caused when
the rich & powerful people take whatever they want
from the poor & helpless people. This repression will
result a change in the society.

Functional Model
 Society will keep on changing itself to suit the changes
that it undergoes.
 e.g. in materialized world, men will take career women as
their life partner. This will lead to a change in the society
where the child of these parents will spend more time their
nannies or maids.

Models of Social Change

 Classical Theory of Cycles
 Introduced by Greek Philosopher.
 Changing process happens in cycle. The advancement of a country will
not last long.

Modernization Theory
 Middle 1950’s. According to Hungtington, modernization process has few
features – revolution, systematic, global, convergence [union],
progressive & moving forward.

Human Capital Theory

 Introduced by Theodore Schultz. Education as an investment that will
benefit the country.

Evolution Theory
 Introduced by George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel [German], Auguste Comte
[France] and Herbert Spencer [England].
 According to Comte, social change happened due to human achievement
in science which can happen in 3 ways:

Theories of Social Change

 1. Theology (religion)
2. Metaphysic (philosophy)
3. Scientific.
For Spencer, only the strong could live or surpass others. However,
according to Hegel the social changes happen because of God willing.

In conclusion, the social changes are:

a) It shows that human beings are really aggressive in upgrading their

social status in the society.
b) There are pro’s and con’s in social changes.
c) It involves large number of society.
d) The process of social changes takes a lot of time.

Education & Social Changes

 When a society improves their lifestyle, it will directly change the society’s
education quality.
 For instance, in Malaysia our education system only starts to grow and
improve after the independence especially after 1970’s.

Theories of Social Change

  In an advanced country or society, people will start to realize the
importance of education.
 Parents will not only give their children basic education, but also
provide them with extra classes or tuition.
 Education industry started to grow rapidly – parents are willing
to spend large amount of money to get the best education for
their children.
 A child from a rich family can afford to go for extra classes to
improve their academic achievement while a child from a poor
family will solely depend on the facilities provided in public
schools – creates a society that believes money can buy
education and only children from a rich family can perform well
in their academic.
 Giving rise to a new conflict in the society – education institutes
are more focusing on getting profit rather than focusing on
providing good education.

Theories of Social Change

 Elite and Mass Education
 Formerly, only certain people get the opportunity to learn, e.g.
religion study, started in a certain place like mosque, palace etc.
 In the rural areas, chances are limited. In the British colonial
area, they provided the Malays and English educational system,
but it was limited.
 The group of people who get to learn and write and read well are
called as elite because they have the opportunity to get
education.
 After the independence, only a small amount of people could
enter the tertiary level [university].
 People who get high marks, good results, good family
background, live in the city are also called elite because they get
the privilege compared to other students.
 1980-1990 : more students were allowed to enter universities.
 Education is one important aspect thus, there are agencies that
provide loan to students to get education

Education & Development of Economy

  1998: The amount of students who entered the tertiary level
were increasing because our government wanted the students to
study in local universities.
 The increasing of amount of universities, private colleges, smart
schools etc. open a wider chance in science and technology field.
 In any country in this world, they will apply three levels of
education.
1) Primary Level
2) Secondary Level
3) Tertiary Level
 The difference is only how long does each level needs to be
completed, e.g. In Malaysia, we required six years of learning in
the primary level. But, in Thailand and Indonesia they might be
different.
 This difference is not a big matter because the preparation and
the content of education is all that matter.
 Students are needed to be prepared with many skills so that
they can contribute to the country.

Education & Development of Economy

  Theory of the Economic Development is linked with
investment in education.
 Investment in education is one of the important asset in
the development of human resources.
 The best way to attack and eradicate poverty is through
education and training [Duke, 1985]
 In Malaysia, the importance of investing in educational
development has been done ever since the Independence
Day.
 For instance, Razak’s report, Rahman Talib’s report, the
Committee of High Education Planner or The Committee of
Khir Johari (1967).
 Some of them focused on the educational of technical and
vocational: School of technical and Polytechnicas

Theory of The Economic Development

  Producing more sophisticated and high skill citizens.
 Producing more specialists in one’s field to help develop the
country.
 Could be the next leader of the country.
 As many would graduate with good grades, it will help the
government in planning the future.
 The investment in education is made by:
Building more education institutions.
Giving out scholarships – MARA, PTPTN
Providing courses for the teachers, lecturers etc.
Organizing variety of workshops that suit the current
situation.

The Importance of Investment in Education

  It can’t be denied that investment in education does bring
profit not only to the country but also to the society.
 Few years back education was emphasized on science
subject only. This matter was taught to be the most
important thing.
 However, lately the government announced that in a few
years time literature would be introduced in primary level,
something that never done before.
 More and more higher education institutions take note on
this matter and develop more practical curriculum so that it
suits the needs of the country in turning Malaysia into
advanced country like Japan, South Korea, the USA etc.

Education & Country Needs

Written Assessment
Thank You