Social Dimensions of Education (Hand Out)

SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF EDUCATION

Unit 1: THEORETICAL APPROACHES IN SOCIOLOGY

1. CONSENSUS THEORY
 This is a theory of right and wrong which means literally “An action is right if
everyone agrees that it is.”
 which means essentially trying to get agreement from all the people who are
involved in a particular situation. It would be an ideal way to make decisions if you
could poll everyone in a given community, and they all agreed, and they all were
good and wise persons.
Strengths of Consensus Theory:

1. This theory’s excellence lies in the fact that debate, dialogue, discussion, and perspective-
taking would continue until every qualified member of the community came to see the
same truth.
2. It is all-inclusive. In theory, every person involved in the decision-making-process would
be consulted and all opinions would be measured as equally important.
Weaknesses of Consensus Theory:

1. Communities these days are too big to get everyone’s vote on every issue; decisions on
the right course of action would never get decided successfully since the process to reach
consensus would be very difficult.
2. Some people are wiser, better listeners, more agreeable, and have a better understanding
of right and wrong than others do. So, it is not advisable to attempt to get everyone to
agree all the time to know what is right.
3. Finally, morality is about right decisions, and just because a group of people gets together
and decides to do a certain thing does not necessarily mean it is actually right. For
example, can you imagine how you would feel if your neighboring community decided
that it is right to build a big wall between you and them? You’d be thinking, “Hey, this
isn’t how my community would have voted, and I think they’re right!”

Structural functionalism is a range of theoretical perspectives within anthropology and

sociology that addresses the relationship of social activity to an overall social system. Structural
functionalism emphasizes the aspects of social institutions and behavior that are conducive to
stability and order within society.

Social Control, Social Order and Social Stability

Social Control is the means by which people are led to do their expected roles. If society is
to function effectively and efficiently, its members must act the way they should be as members
of society.

Social Order takes place if people will do their tasks and follow what is expected of them.
Examples, obeying traffic rules

 Social order can be achieved through Social control. Rules and regulations lead to
social order. Rules and regulations will lead to social order.
Social Stability is the state at which the society is in equilibrium. This can be established
only if there is social control and social order.

Implications to education:

Schools must establish rules and regulations, otherwise learning can not take place
effectively. The successful management of the classroom may be attributed to the teacher’s
ability to maintain order and discipline.

2. Conflict theory
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Conflict is a disagreement or clash between opposing ideas, principles, or people. This can
be a covert or overt conflict.

3. Interactionist theory
 Interactionist perspectives tend to concentrate upon relatively small-scale
levels of social interaction (e.g. between, individuals, small social groups)
 It is a product of social-interaction. In this respect, culture develops out of the
way people act towards one another in a way that involves both purpose and meaning.

The Four Pillars of Learning:

1. Learning to Know
This type of learning is concerned less with the acquisition of structured knowledge than with
the mastery of learning tools. It may be regarded as both a means and an end of human
existence. Looking at it as a means, people have to learn to understand the world around
them, at least as much as is necessary for them to lead their lives with some dignity, develop
their occupational skills and communicate with other people. Regarded as an end, it is
underpinned by the pleasure that can be derived from understanding, knowledge and
discovery. Learning to know implies learning how to learn by developing one's
concentration, memory skills and ability to think.
2. Learning to Do
Education should equip people to do the types of work needed in the future? "Learning to do"
can no longer mean what it did when people were trained to perform a very specific physical
task in a manufacturing process. Skill training therefore has to evolve and become more than
just a means of imparting the knowledge needed to do a more or less routine job.
3. Learning to Be
The aim of development is the complete fulfillment of man, in all the richness of his
personality, the complexity of his forms of expression and his various commitments - as
individual, member of a family and of a community, citizen and producer, inventor of
techniques and creative dreamer. This human development, which begins at birth and
continues all through a person's life, is a dialectic process which is based both on self-
knowledge and on relationships with other people. It also presupposes successful personal
experience. As a means of personality training, education should be a highly individualized
process and at the same time an interactive social experience.
4. Learning to Live Together
One of education's tasks is both to teach pupils and students about human diversity and to
instill in them an awareness of the similarities and interdependence of all people. From early
childhood, the school should seize every opportunity to pursue this two-pronged approach.

UNIT 2- INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Intercultural Communication
 is the systematic study of exactly what happens in intercultural contacts and interactions
when the communication process involves culturally diverse people
 occurs whenever a message produced in one culture must proceed in another culture
Events Involving Intercultural Communication
1. concept of cultural history
2. advances in technology such as improved transportation and communication systems
3. superiority in culture
4. globalization of the economy
5. changes in imagination patterns

Communication and Language

Communication
 is the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, by speech, signals, writing or
behavior.
 The process of transferring and sharing information and experiences. It may take the form
of interpersonal communications (body language, nonverbal communication, rumors) and
mass media (TV, film, radio, newspapers, and computers).

Language
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 A way of speaking, distinct in every culture.

 serves as an mechanism for communication and as a guide to social reality
 Language is purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions
and drives by means of a system of voluntary produced symbols.

Symbols include words even abstract ideas; they express the differences and
nuances of numerous actions and behavior patterns of numerous actions and
behavior patterns of men in their everyday lives.
 Language is not only a collection of sounds and utterances: it involves as set of rules
regarding pronunciation, grammar and semantics used in speech. Speech or talk is
essential to language; otherwise there is no oral expression.

Relationship between Language and Culture

Language is an integral part of culture and human culture cannot exist without it. All
human societies have languages. In some simple societies where people cannot read or write,
they have a spoken language.

In the transmission of culture, language is of utmost importance. Without language, the

ability to convey ideas, attitudes, customs and traditions is impossible; with language, persons
can pass on knowledge from one generation to another.

Through the use of language, wide vistas of reality have been opened. What we have
observed and experienced, as well as our norms, values, and ideas exist because we have learned
to identify or experience these things though language. These things are shared and transmitted
from one generation to another through the process of socialization.

Language enables people to transcend time and space. Through the use of language, we
can talk about what happened in the past and what are possibly forthcoming. Language enables
us to communicate with others, design complicated plans and projects, and develop abstract
ideas.
The language of a group of people reflects the stage of development of their culture; the
richness of terms in any language reflects the present pre-occupation of the particular society.

Languages in industrialized societies constantly change and are enriched by new words as
the people adapt to their advancing technology and other changes in their way of life.

The nature and Meaning of Culture

The concept of culture

According to Edward B. Taylor, “Culture is that complex whole which includes
knowledge, beliefs, art, law, morals, customs and capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of a society”

Modern culture is not the result of a few years, nor the labor of a few people. Culture is
the accumulated ways of doing things which is the product of human experience; it is the totality
of what individuals have learned about living together.

Characteristics of Culture
1. Culture is learned
Man is not born with culture, but he is born with the ability to acquire culture, developing
it through experience.
Man acquires culture through learning via language and writing, enabling them to pass
this to succeeding generations.
2. Culture is diverse and all people have varied culture
Each culture is different. Individuals must be cautious to avoid assuming that their way
of doing things is the only right or practical way.
All people, no matter how simple or advanced in their ways of living, have a culture
unique to them. Therefore one can not criticize or look down on the ways of other people but

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accept the fact that they do what is the best way for them. The ways of people are the results
of their relationship with their environment.
3. Culture is a group product
Culture is the results of a group’s habits and experiences, passed on to succeeding
generations for posterity.
Culture results from spontaneous accumulation of man’s experience in living with others.
The formation of culture is automatic. Man did not plan to build up a culture by inviting
others to join him in conceiving a pattern to be followed. Human beings just associated
themselves and adapted whatever seemed most useful to them at the time and improved upon
it as time went on and further need arose.
4. Culture is transmitted from one generation to generation
Man improves on what his preceding generation has accomplished. Culture can be
transmitted by suggestion, by formal communication, by mass communication, suggestion
and by a system of reward and punishment. Culture is cumulative and it enables man to
improve what other generations have accomplished; thus from simple things, today we have
advance technology.
5. Culture is adaptive and maladaptive.
Culture is adaptive when used by man to make the environment viable for a stable
economy. In contrast, culture is maladaptive when scarce resources are destroyed or depleted.
Culture is continually changing. The development of culture traits is due to discovery and
invention. Discovery is usually accidental, it has an element of chance; while invention,
denotes planning.
6. Culture is shared.
Social interaction is made meaningful by shared beliefs, values and expectations of
people. Philippine culture encourages love for God and country, respect for law and authority
and family solidarity.
7. Culture is patterned and integrated.
A unified or integrated culture is one where there is conformity between ideal norms and
actual behavior. The members’ biological, psychological and social needs are met.
8. Culture is compulsory
Culture restrains man from violating existing rules and regulations of society. Members
of a group have to follow the group’s culture if they wish to be in harmony with another.
9. Culture is cumulative
Each culture stores pertinent knowledge and passes new knowledge to the succeeding
generations while information which is no longer useful is slowly cast off.

10. Culture is dynamic

Culture is continually changing (Salcedo, et. Al., 2001) A group’s culture is never in a
permanent state. Today’s practices may no longer be applicable in the future.

Forms of culture
1. Material - consists of tangible things like houses, clothing, tools, utensils, automobiles,
TV, technology etc.
2. Non-material – refers to what is symbolic or intangible such as sentiments, social norms,
values, folkways, mores, systems of beliefs or knowledge

Components of culture

Culture is the totality of social organizations, symbols, language, customs and traditions
(values, beliefs, norms, folkways, sanctions and mores), technology (material culture, the arts,
religion and governance present in a given community or society

Social organization – is the way a culture groups its members in order for the members to work
together to meet their basic needs.
Symbols – are anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a
culture. Manipulating symbols allows us to engage with others within our own cultural
system.
Language – is a system of symbols that allows members of a society to communicate with one
another.

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Technology (Material Culture) – are tangible human creations, knowledge that a society applies
to its environment that affect the way members of a culture live.
The Arts – are products of the human imagination, which entertain and reinforce culture’s values,
or reveal things about a culture.
Religion – is a system of beliefs that is created to offer explanations for life’s challenges, based
on the supernatural.
Forms of government – refers to the society’s laws and political institutions.
Customs and traditions – are rules of behavior. The following are the subcategories of customs
and traditions:
 Values – are culturally defined standards by which people assess desirability, goodness
and beauty which serves as guidelines for social living.
 Beliefs – are specific statements that are held to be true and are based on values. For
example: If you work hard and make lots of money you will be happy.
 Norms - are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its
members. Norms reflects values.
 Folkways – are traditional ways of doing things in a certain culture. (Ex. Pamanhikan).
These are customs for routine casual interaction (the difference between polite and rude
behavior). Individuals have more personal discretion with folkways.
 Mores – are society’s standard of proper moral conduct. Mores are heavily sanctioned
folkways for group survival and are accepted without question as they embody moral
views of the group.
Example:
An Igorot folkway is for a boy to sleep in the ulog with the girl he is
courting. If she becomes pregnant and he does not marry her, he is ostracized by
the whole group, according to the mores of the tribe.
 Sanction – refers to receiving an approval or disapproval of the community on the
action performed by an individual member or group. It is either formal or informal.
Written sanctions in a form of social policy or laws are referred as formal sanction.
Gossiping, appreciating a good work, or achievements are examples of informal
sanctions.
Sanctions can either be positive or negative. Positive sanctions are applied when
socially accepted actions or deeds are performed. Informal positive sanctions are done in
the form of social respect or group recognition.
Assimilation – is the process of adopting a different often a dominant culture by an individual
Transculturation - is a phenomenon of merging and converging cultures.
Acculturation – refers to replacement of the traits of one culture with those of another
Dominant culture – customs and traditions practiced mostly by people
Subculture - represents the variations as practiced by smaller groups
Counter- culture - is the rejection of existing social norms
Cultural Integration – refers to the process of combining various elements of culture

TRANSFER OF CULTURE
1. Unidirectional
• Desired Goal : To have exact copy-like nature of transmission of the given message.

• This transfer is given directly. And viewed as something given.

Ex.: Knowledge

2. Bi- Directional Transfer Model

• The participants of this culture transfer of knowledge are actively transforming the
cultural message.
• They change or reconstruct the message unlike unidirectional in which there are no
changes made

IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE
• Develops Quality of Life
• Boost of Local and National Economy
• Provides links between the PAST,PRESENT and FUTURE to develop a sense of
“commonness”
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FUNCTIONS OF CULTURE
• Culture shapes behavior.
• Culture provides a standard by which we evaluate other’s behavior.
• Culture provides boundary maintenance.

CULTURAL ISSUES
1. Cultural Relativism
• The principle that an individual human’s belief activities make sense in terms of his or
her own culture.
• Culture is responsible or related to how people behave or think.
2. The growth of Feminism
Feminism – is a movement organized around the belief in the social, political, and
economic equality of the sexes, largely motivated by experiences of women
3. Multiculturalism – is a public policy approach for managing cultural diversity in a
multiethnic society, officially stressing mutual respect and tolerance for cultural
differences within a country’s borders.
Emphasis: Unique characteristics of different cultures.

THE GROWTH OF SUBCULTRE

Subcultures - is a set of people with distinct sets of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them
from a larger culture of which they are a part.
Youth subculture – refer to the ways young people (adolescents and teenagers) differentiates
themselves from the mainstream culture
- React to the economic, political, and educational changes.
- Easily adopt changes
CULTURAL CHANGE
Can come about due to:
 environmental change
 inventions
 Contact with other people
 Diffusion – something moves from culture to another
Stimulus diffusion – refers to an element of one culture leading to an invention in another
 Innovation – is an idea perceived as new by an individual
Diffusion of Innovation Theory
ROGERS’ 5 CHARACTERISTICS OF INNOVATIONS
1. Relative Advantage
2. Compatibility
3. Complexity
4. Trialability
5. Observability
FIVE CATEGORIES OF ADOPTERS:
1. Innovators – 2.5%
2. Early adopters – 13.5 %
3. Early majority – 34%
4. Late Majority – 34%
5. Laggards – 16%

Unit 3: SCHOOL AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE

Functions of Schooling
1. Encourages enculturation
2. Socialization Process
3. A means to cultural and social change.

Factors affecting School’s Conceptualization and Studies:

1. Historical factors
2. Economic factors
3. Socio-cultural factors
4. Geographical factors
5. Environmental factors

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6. Political factors
Student subculture
• subculture — a social group within a national culture that has distinctive patterns of
behavior and beliefs
• youth subculture — a minority youth culture whose distinctiveness depended largely on
the social class and ethnic background of its members; often characterized by its adoption
of a particular music genre
Ideal types of subculture:
1. Collegiate subculture- Focuses on having fun and socializing.
2. Academic subculture - Identified with the intellectual concerns of the faculty and
values knowledge for his own sake.
3. Vocational subculture -Primarily interested in career prospect and views college as a
means of obtaining degrees which are essential for advancement.
4. Mono conformist subculture - is hostile to the college environment and seeks out ideas
that may or may not relate to studies
5. High school subcultures - is a group of students in a secondary education setting which
acts as a subculture. Group members share a distinct set of behaviors, beliefs or
interests which differentiate themselves from the dominant culture.
6. Music and Youth Subcultures - identified with a specific music genre and in some
instances music was the defining characteristic around which the group was formed.
7. Family and Youth Subcultures - those tend to have closer interaction and youth do not
seem so intent on being different to their parents.
8. Fashion and Youth Subcultures - fashion plays a role and they are more strongly
identified by their fashion.
Unit 4: GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT
Gender (Maciones 2002) – refers to the personal traits and social positions that members of a
society attach to being male and female.
- dimension of social organization, shaping how we interact and how we think about
ourselves.
Sexuality – the state of being either male or female.
Influences on Gender
1. Biological Influences
a. Pubertal Change and sexuality
- Pubertal change influences behavior. Behavior is related to hormonal changes in
puberty.
2. Social Influences
a. Parental influences
- Parents influence their children’s gender development by their examples. Boys are given
more independence while girls’ sexual vulnerability causes parents to monitor them
closely. Severe restrictions on adolescent boys disrupt their development.
b. Peers
- Play a vital role in modeling and responding to gender behavior. Inadolscence4, peer
approval or disapproval is a powerful influence on gender attitudes and behavior.
c. Schools
- The pressure to achieve and to excel in academics is more likely to be helped on boys
than on girls because they will grow up to be the breadwinners
d. The media
- Social researchers assumed that mass media carry sexist messages. Exposure to mass
media by the sexes would inculcate stereotyped messages in them.

3. Cognitive Influences
- Cognitive influences on gender stress that children organize their world on the
basis of gender after identifying themselves as either male or female.
Gender Issues:
1. Women’s issues
a. Sexism –characterized by endorsement of traditional roles, differential treatment for men
and women, especially the stereotype that females are less competent than males.
2. Sexual Harassment – occurs when an individual is unable to perform a task due to unwelcome
and unwanted sexual advances by either the same or opposite sex.

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Forms of sexual harassment:

a. sexist remarks
b. vulgar sexual language
c. covert physical contact – deliberate and proper touching of private and sensitive
body parts, patting especially in the workplace or in the public.
3 Low Wages
Gender discrimination remains responsible fro sizeable differences in pay among sexes,
reasons include unsubstantial scientific claims like women are weak, women are emotionally
unstable, women give birth frequently and go on leave which adversely affect their
productivity.

4 Equal Work Opportunities and promotions

5 . Sexist Advertising and music
6. Domestic violence
Forms of domestic violence:
a. battering
b. child abuse
c. verbal abuse of the elderly
7. Working Mother
8. Adolescent Pregnancy
9. Men’s Issues
a. Adolescent Fathers
b. Sexual harassment
c. Discrimination against Gays and Lesbians
d. Age discrimination
Manifestations of Gender Bias:
1. Marginalization – refers to condition where women are considered to be a non-essential
force in the economy despite their crucial role in production. Society does not give much
recognition and value to women’s contribution to the economy and pays scant attention to
their need for loans, as consumers and as workers. When a woman is marginalized her
self-confidence and self-esteem collapses, and begin to give up her capacity to make
decisions for herself.
Examples:
Lower wages, last hired, first hired policy:; little or no access loans
2. Subordination- refers to the secondary position of women compared to men on society.
Women have less access to and control over resources and less say in the making of
policies.
Examples:
Less women in elective or appointive govt. office, women concentrated in low
positions in bureaucracy; few women in policy making level
3. Double/ Multiple Burden- the division of the production/ reproduction spheres has
doubled the burden of women participating in productive activities. Aside from full-time
productive work, housework and childcare remain women’s responsibility. Women
therefore, experience the double day, double burden or double shift. In this condition,
woman is paid worker in the company or any establishment (as a part of the labor force)
and unpaid worker (at home).
Examples:
Childcare and household responsibilities shouldered mainly by women on top of
regular working hours outside the home.
4. Gender Stereotyping- the tendency of a given culture to ascribe particular traits,
characteristics and roles, distinctly to men and women.
Examples:
Women portrayed as either homemakers/virgins or temptress of=r sinners in most
advertisements and TV movies, and radio programs and newspaper stories.
5. Violence- is any carried out with the intention or perceived intention of physically hurting
another person. It includes sexual assault, rape, incest, pornography, femicide and wife
battering.
Examples:

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Wife-beating cuts across classes; still not considered a crime and considered as a
family matter; cases of rape, incest, sexual harassment increasing.

Unit 5: GLOBALIZATION AND EDUCATION

Globalization- refers to an increasing interconnectedness and convergence of activities and
forms of life among diverse cultures throughout the world.
 Education systems constitute the core of the globalization process.
 Global Education extends students’ awareness of the world in which they live by opening
them to the diverse heritage of human thoughts and action and creativity.
Socio-Cultural, Economic, and Political issues on Globalization:
1. Socio-cultural issues on globalization include massive migration, managing difference
and global changes in culture.
 The global changes in culture deeply affect educational policies practices, and
institutions.
 Teachers and schools need to have the flexibility to cope with and make use of the
cultural resources that are in their classrooms.
2. Economic issues on globalization
 Globalization brings about opportunities for education, particularly in the ways that
new technologies can be put to work to improve both the quantity and quality of
education worldwide.
3. Political issues on globalization
 There has been the constraint on national/state policy making post by external
demands from transnational institutions.
 There has been a growing internationalization of global conflict, crime, terrorism, and
environmental issues, but in inadequate development of political institutions to
address them.

Perspective of Globalization:
1. Globalization as Universalization is the process of spreading various objects and
experiences to people at all corners of the earth
2. Globalization as Westernization or Modernization of the World – refers to the
intrusion of America into the social structures of other countries and the attempt to
inculcate in them the values and principles of western culture.
3. Globalization as Deterritorialization – refers to the spread of supraterritoriality. Its
entails reconfiguration of geography so that social space is no longer wholly mapped in
terms of territorial places, territorial distances, and territorial borders.
4. Internationalization – refers to growth in the interaction and interdependence between
people in different countries.

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