Sociological Foundations of Music

Education
Outline
I. What is Sociology
II. Sociological Theories
a. Symbolic Interaction Theory
b. Functionalism
c. Conflict Theory
III. Sociological Theories and Music Education
IV. Functions of Music in the Society
 I. What is Sociology?

• Sociology, a social science that studies human societies,

their interactions, and the processes that preserve and
change them. It does this by examining the dynamics of
constituent parts of societies such as institutions,
communities, populations, and gender, racial, or age
groups. Sociology also studies social status or
stratification, social movements, and social change, as well
as societal disorder in the form of crime, deviance, and
revolution.
 II. Sociological Theories
a. Symbolic Inter -Action Theory
-George Herbert Mead
(William James, John Dewey, and Charles S. Peirce)

Symbolic interaction is one of many theories in social sciences.

This theory claims that facts are based on and
directed by symbols. The foundation of this theory is meanings.
Symbolic interaction examines the meanings
emerging from the reciprocal interaction of individuals in social
environment with other individuals and focuses on
the question of “which symbols and meanings emerge from the
interaction between people?”
 b. Functionalism

• Emile Durkheim
• Functionalism interprets each part of society in terms of
how it contributes to the stability of the whole society.
Society is more than the sum of its parts; rather, each
part of society is functional for the stability of the
whole. Durkheim actually envisioned society as an
organism, and just like within an organism, each
component plays a necessary part, but none can
function alone, and one experiences a crisis or fails,
other parts must adapt to fill the void in some way.
 Functionalism

• Within functionalist theory, the different parts of society

are primarily composed of social institutions, each of
which is designed to fill different needs, and each of
which has particular consequences for the form and shape
of society. The parts all depend on each other. The core
institutions defined by sociology and which are important
to understanding for this theory include family,
government, economy, media, education, and religion.
 c. Conflict Theory
• Karl Marx
• purports that due to society’s never-ending competition for finite resources it will
always be in a state of conflict. The implication of this theory is that those in
possession of wealth and resources will protect and hoard those resources,
while those without will do whatever they can to obtain them. This dynamic
means there is a constant struggle between the rich and the poor. Conflict theory
examines any social phenomenon through the lens that there is a natural human
instinct towards conflict. Marx is not saying that conflict is good or bad, but
instead that it is an unavoidable aspect of human nature and helps explain why
things are.
For example, conflict theory can be used to look at wars, violence, revolutions, and
other forms of injustice and discrimination by explaining that there is a natural
disparity in a society that causes these problems.
 10 functions of music in society
1. Emotional expression
2. Aesthetic enjoyment
3. Entertainment
4. Communication
5. Symbolic representations
6. Physical response
7. Forcing to social norms- cultural expectations
8. Validates rituals and religion
9. Contribution to culture -securityl and norms
10. Integration of society
 Sociology and Music Education
• cultural theory they consider whether cultural inversion
effects upon the school music curriculum
• musical experience is differentiatedaccording to various
articulations between gender, social class, age, and ethnicity.
• in the field of music different social groups relate to music in
different way
• how musical meaning is produced, distributed and consumed
by various socialgroups; what those meanings are, and how
people come to agree or disagree about them; whatmusical
commodities and cultural objects mean to people; how
people reproduce oldmeanings and produce new ones.
 Sociology and Music Education

• human beings as elements of theenvironment, and

defined society as a system that covers all forms of
communication.Johansen discusses music as a school
subject that operates as a social system existing
amonghuman beings. Based on Luhmann’s assumption
that, social systems function to reducecomplexity
Johansen examines the implementation of a new music
curriculum as a form of‘complexity reduction’ Finally, he
sums up the key points of this approach, describing
futurepossibilities and considerations.
 Sociology and Music Education

• Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) is used to analyze a

growing range of social and cultural practices
acrossdifferent institutional and national contexts. LCT
builds primarily on the sociological work ofBasil Bernstein
and Pierre Bourdieu, and on the philosophical ideas of
critical realism.Lamont and Maton discuss relevant LCT
research, highlight the potential of LCT to shednew light to
attitudes and practices (beliefs and behaviors) among
learners and teacherstowards music in formal education,
and look at music education research itself from an
LCTperspective.
 Sociology and Music Education

• Hebert examines the concept of ethnicity in music

education byconsidering relevant theories and findings
from the fields of sociology, musicology and music
education. Hebert claims that music education has failed
to meet the needs ofethnically diverse learners. The main
question for music education scholars is how to
preparemusic teachers to accomplish such a complex and
multi-dimensional task, and how tosupport them in doing
so with effective curriculum and instructional strategies.
• Functionalism
- institution independent part
-School, Church, Politics, Hospitals

• Emil Durkheim- He don't judge individual where it came from.

• Symbolic Interaction- recognizes the power of interaction through environment.

- Human action
-relative meaning
-mirror (other saying it is you)

• Children- curiosity & medication they learn independent throught interaction

with others.
• Pluralistic
-small or group
-have identity
-wider culture
-maintain , identity, culture and practice

• Objectivism - objective- reality

-Experience
- Conciousness
-Identity
Role of cascation-reason, conceptualization