Sociological Perspectives of Education

Sociological Perspectives of Education

Introduction

Education is impacted by many factors. The main factor affecting education is the sociological perspective i.e. the people involved and the institutions. The sociological perspectives of education help us to understand how education is impacted by the institutions and the people who are gaining it. It helps us to make sure that we know what changes are required and how they can be managed and dealt with. This paper will discuss the different sociological theories that impact education.

Discussion

Conflict Theory

Conflict theory is one of the major sociological paradigms, or an overall framework or model for understanding the social world. The conflict perspective, developed during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is primarily associated with two German thinkers, Karl Marx and Max Weber. This theory explains that the main goal of education is to maintain the social inequality and gives more power to the people who are dominating in the society. It explains that the education systems is a means of turning the lower class into obedient workers and not treat them equally. This is due to the fact that the people in the education system are only those who promote inequality. According to the conflict theorists, education promotes the concept of classes and other social inequalities because the schools that are built are done so according to the races and classes. They further state that the schools ensure that the working class thinks that they are a low class member of the society and they will have to work hard all their life. The conflict theorists have a negative view of education and for explaining this they have their own reasons and their own explanations.

First of all they say that the schools are funded by the property taxes, which means that the schools in good and wealthy societies have a lot of money and they have good standard of education. They can hire good, qualified and experienced teachers which will make sure that the students get good education. While hiring good teachers they will have to ensure that they pay them good, and schools in good societies will have all the resources and the funds to pay them higher and on time. Even the students have an advantage while attending these schools, because such schools have good reputation and the students can get admissions in good colleges and universities while studying in such reputed schools.

On the other hand, students who are unable to afford good and reputed schools will have to make sure that they work really hard, because they are not studying in good and reputed schools; therefore, will find it very difficult to get admissions in good colleges and universities,. The conflict theorists also argue that not only the system of education prefers the wealthy and affluent people, but the tests that are designed also prefer the wealthy people. They explain this by an example that if the general knowledge or the IQ tests includes a question about an orchestra, only the ...