PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION AND
SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
PSE4801
ASSIGNMENT 02
DUE JULY 2024
, Conflict Theory and Schooling as a Social Construct :
For conflict theorists, especially with the work of Karl Marx and later Pierre Bourdieu,
schooling is not seen as a process for education but instead as the most critical
institution in any society in the creation of social inequality. It denotes that education
is one area that supplies the objectives of the dominant class by legitimating their
power and reproducing social hierarchies. Schools do not, therefore, seem to be the
neutral sites for learning that they ought to be but rather resemble a battleground on
which different social groups contest for their right to control resources and cultural
capital. The curriculum, teaching methods, and even disciplinary practices would be
formed in order to maintain the status quo concerning the dominance of principal
ideologies and values. In this vein, it criticizes the meritocratic ideals of
functionalism, as it holds that the most important factors that determine success in
education lie in social background and economic status rather than purely individual
effort.
Interpretivist Approach and Shared Meanings :
Sharing ground in symbolic interactionism and phenomenology, the interpretivist
approach posits that how people make sense of their world is through shared
symbols, languages, and norms. Contrary to the structuralist strand, emphasising
social structures and institutions, interpretivists focus more on the subjective
experiences and meaning-making processes of people in specific social contexts.
This approach has put more emphasis on the point that meaning does not lie with
the objects or actions but meaning is actually socially created through interaction.
Shared meaning imposed on cultural and social contexts can govern the views and
interpretations of certain roles and identity and relationship by other individuals.
These interpretations therefore provide research information on how individuals
traverse their social environment in developing themselves.
Stage Theory in Educational Policy:
The stage theory presents the argument that societies experience transformation in
the social structure through predictable developmental stages, where each stage is
associated with specific economic and social setups. The purpose of educational
policies developed through the stage theory is to meet societies' dynamic demand at
every level of transformation in the developmental stages. According to this
functionalist perspective, education has to play a critical part in the training of
individuals to contribute to a society at any given level of development—whether it is
agricultural, industrial, or post-industrial—with very effective results. This view raises
several critical issues since, according to critics, the diversity of human societies and
the historical experiences of countries that might actually shape their educational
systems are thrown aside. Besides, such a one-size-fits-all 'stage theory' developed
in countries with culturally homogenous settings often fails to capture the relevance
of the indigenous knowledge system and local educational practices which would not
fit into the typology associated with Western development.
