SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF EDUCATION

CHAPTER I
Introduction to the Social Dimensions of Education

Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Differentiate the various social science theories.

2. Explain the relationship of the various social

theories – the conflict, consensus, functionalism and
interactionist theories – and educational systems.

3. Discuss how the various social science theories

affect the functions of schools.
•Introduction
Sociologists see education as one the major
institutions that constitutes society. While theories guide
research and policy formulation in the sociology of
education, they also provide logical explanations for why
things happen the way they do. These theories help
sociologists understand educational systems.

This chapter presents an introduction to the social

science theories of education-consensus and conflict,
structural functionalist and interaction theories as related
to education.
Consensus and Conflict Theory
Darendorf (1959,1968) is the major
exponent of the position that society has two
faces (conflict and consensus) and that
sociological theory therefore should be divided
into two parts, conflict theory and consensus
theory.
Consensus theories see shared norms and
values as fundamental to society, focus on
social order based on tacit arguments, and view
social change as occurring in a slow and orderly
fashion. In contrast, conflict theories
emphasize the dominance of some social
groups by others, see social order as based on
manipulation and control by dominant groups,
and view social change as occurring rapidly and in a
disorderly fashion as subordinate groups overthrow
dominant groups (Ritzer, 2000).
Consensus theorists examine value integration
in society, and conflict theorists examine conflicts of
interest and the coercion that holds society together
in the face of these stresses. Dahrendorf recognizes
that society can not exist without both conflict and
consensus, which are prerequisites for each other.
Thus, we cannot have conflict unless there is some
prior consensus.
Consensus is a concept of society in which the
absence of conflict is seen as the equilibrium state of
society based on a general or widespread agreement
•among all members of a particular society.
conflict is a disagreement or clash between
opposing ideas, principles, or people – this can be a
covert or overt conflict.
The conflict theory, according Horton and Hunt
(1984) focuses on the heterogeneous nature of society and
the differential distribution of political and social power.
A struggle between social classes and class conflicts
between the powerful and less powerful groups occur.
Conflict theorists ask how school contribute to the
unequal distribution of people into jobs in society so that
more powerful members of society maintain the best
positions and the less powerful groups (often women,
racial and ethnic groups) often minority groups, are
allocated to lower ranks in society.
The conflict perspective assumes that social
behavior is best understood in terms of conflict or
tensions between competing groups. Such conflict
need not be violent; it can take the form of labor
negotiations, party politics, competition between
religious groups for member, or disputes over the
budget.
The discourse of conflict theory is on the
emergence of conflict and what causes conflict within
a particular human society. It is a theory that deals
with the incompatible aspects of society.
 The conflict theorists are interested in how
society’s institutions – the family, government,
religion, education, and the media – may help to
maintain the privileges of some groups and keep
others in subservient position.
Consensus theory is a sociological perspective
or collection of theories, in which social order and
stability/social regulation form the base of emphasis.
It is concerned with the maintenance or continuation
of social order in society, in relation to accepted
norms, values, rules and regulations as widely
accepted or collectively by the society-or within a
particular society itself.
 Social theorist Karl Marx was interpreted by some
social theorists as emphasizing the role of human beings in
social conflict. They explained change as emerging from
the crisis between human beings and their society. They
argued that Marx’ theory was a theory characterized by
class conflicts or the conflict between the bourgeoisie (rich
owners) and the proletariat (poor workers).

Max Weber argues that schools teach and maintain

particular “status cultures,” that is, groups in society
with similar interests and positions in the status hierarchy.
Education systems may train individuals in specialties to fill
needed positions or prepare “cultivated individuals,” those
who stand above others because of their superior
knowledge and reasoning abilities.
 Structural Functionalism states that society is
made up of various institutions that work together in
cooperation.
Parsons’ structural functionalism has four functional
imperatives for all “action” systems, embodied in his
famous AGIL scheme. These are:
1. Adaptation: A system must cope with external
situational exigencies. It must adapt to its environment
and adapt environment to its needs.
2. Goal attainment: A system must define and achieve
its primary goals.
3. Integration: A system must regulate the
interrelationship of its component parts.
4. Latency (pattern maintenance): A system must
furnish, maintain, and renew both the motivation of
individuals and the cultural patterns that create and
sustain the motivation.
 Parsons designed the AGIL scheme to be used at all
levels in the theoretical system. The behavioral organism is
the action system that handles the adaptation function by
adjusting to and transforming the external world. The
personality system performs the goal-attainment function
by defining system goals and mobilizing resources to attain
them. The social system copes with the integration
function by controlling its component parts. Finally, the
cultural system performs the latency function by
providing actors with the norms and values that motivate
them for action.
Parsons’ conception of the social system begins at the
micro level with interaction between ego and alter ego,
defined as the most elementary form of the social system.
He described a social system as something which consists
of a plurality of individual actors interacting with each other
in a situation which has at least a physical or environmental
aspect, actors who are motivated in terms of a tendency to
to the “optimization of gratification” and whose relation to
their situations, including each other, is defined and mediated
in terms of a system of culturally structured and shared
symbols.
In his analysis of the social system, Parsons was
primarily interested in its structural components. In addition
to a concern with the status-role, he was interested in such
large-scale components of social systems as collectivities,
norms and values. Parsons was not simply a structuralist but
also a functionalist.
The key principles of the functionalist perspective
(Farley, 1990) include the following:
1.Interdependency–One of the most important principles
of functionalist theory is that society is made up of
interdependent parts. Every part of society is dependent to
some extent on other parts of society, so that what happens
at one place in society has important effect elsewhere.
2. Functions of Social Structure and Culture. Social
system exists because it serves some function. This principle
is applied by functionalists to both social structure and
culture. Social structure refers to the organization of society,
including its institutions, its social, and its distribution of
resources. Culture, refers to a set of beliefs, languages, rules,
values, and knowledge held in common by members of a
society.
3. Consensus and cooperation. Societies have a tendency
toward consensus; that is toward consensus in order achieve.
Cooperation. Functionalists believe that inability to cooperate
will paralyze the society, and people will devote more and
effort to fighting one another rather than getting anything
done.
4.Equilibrium.This view holds that, once a society has
achieved the form that is best adapted to its situation, it has
reached a state of equilibrium, and it will remain in that
condition until it is forced to change by some new condition.
Figure 1. The Structural-Functional Model (Source:
Sociological Theory, George Ritzer, 2000)

Social structures provide preset

patterns Which evolve to meet
human needs

Stability, order, Maintenance of

and harmony society
 The structural functional model addresses the question of social
organization and how it is maintained. It has its roots in
natural science and the analogy between a society and an
organization. In the analysis of living organism, the
scientist’s task is to identify the various parts (structure)
and determine how they work (function).In the study of
society, a sociologist with this perspective tries to identify
the structures of society and how they function; hence the
name structural–functionalism (Javier et al., 2002).
The component parts of a social structure are families,
neighbor, associations, schools, churches, banks, countries,
and the like. Functionalist sociologists begin with a picture
of society that stresses the interdependence of the social
system; these researchers often examine how will parts are
integrated with each other. Functionalists view society as a
kind of machine, where one part articulates with another to
produce the dynamic energy required to make society
work.
Most important, functionalism stresses the processes that
maintain social order by stressing consensus and agreement.
Structural functionalism puts emphasis on social order
and stability not on conflict. It claims that society is made up
of different institutions or organizations that work together in
cooperation-to achieve their orderly relationship and to
maintain social order and social stability. This maintenance
of society is extracted from the internal rules, norms, values
and regulations of these various ordered institutions.
Modern functionalist theories believe that education is
a vital part of a modern society. From this perspective,
schooling performs an important function in the development
and maintenance of a modern, democratic
society, especially with regard to equality of opportunity for
all citizens. Thus, in modern societies education becomes the
key institution in a meritocratic selection process.
Interactionist Theories
In general, interactionist theories about the relation of school
and society are critiques and extensions of the functionalist
and conflict perspectives. The critique arises from the
observation that functionalist and conflict theories are very
abstract and emphasize structure and process at a societal
(macro-sociological) level of analysis.
* Symbolic Interactionism. Symbolic interactionism, views
the self as socially constructed in relation to social forces and
structures and the product of ongoing negotiations of
meanings. Thus, the social self is an active product of human
agency rather than a deterministic product of social structure.
The basic idea is a result of of interaction between individuals
mediated by symbols in particular, language. The distinctive
attributes of human behavior grow from people’s participation
in varying types of social structure which depend in turn, on
the existence of language behavior. It is interested not simply
in socialization
 Symbolic interactionists are, of course, interested not
simply in socialization but also in interaction in general, which
is of “vital importance in its own right.” Interaction is the
process which the ability to think is both developed and
expressed. All types of interaction, not just interaction during
socialization, refine our ability to think, Beyond that, thinking
shapes the interaction process. In most interaction, actors
must take others into consideration and decide if and how to
fit their activities to others. However, not all interaction
involves thinking.
PRINCIPLES OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
1. Human beings unlike lower animals, are endowed
with a capacity for thought.
2. The capacity for thought is shaped by social
interaction.
3. In social interaction, people learn the meanings and symbols
that allow them to exercise their distinctively human capacity
for thought.

4. Meanings and symbols allow people to carry on

distinctively human action and interaction.

5. People are able to modify or alter meanings and

symbols that they use in action and interaction on the basis of
their interpretation of the situation.

6. People are able to make these and alterations

because, in part, of their ability to interact with themselves,
which allows them to examine possible courses of action,
assess their relative ad advantages, and then choose one.

7. The intertwined patterns of action and interaction

make up groups and societies.
•Non-Symbolic Interactionism
The first, nonsymbolic interaction – Mead’s
conversation of gestures – does not involve thinking. The
second symbolic interaction does require mental processes
(Ritzer, 2000).
Mead’s approach to symbolic interaction rested on three
basic premises.
1. The first is that people act toward the things they
encounter on the basis of what those things mean to them.
2. Second, we learn what things are by observing how
other people respond to them, that is through social
interaction.
3. Third. As a result of ongoing interact, the sounds
(or words), gestures, facial expressions, and body postures
we use in dealing with others acquire symbolic meaning
that are shared by people who belong to the same culture.
 The importance of thinking to symbolic interactionists is
reflected in their views of objects. Blumer differentiates
among three types of objects: physical objects, such as a chair
or a tree; social objects, such as a student or a mother; and
abstract objects, such as an idea or a moral principle.

Another, concept used by symbolic interactionist is the

looking-glass self. The basic notion of the looking-glass self
can be summed up as “We see ourselves as others see us.”
We come to develop a self-image on the basis of messages we
get from others, as we understand them. If your teachers and
fellow students give you the message that you are “smart,”
you will come to think of your self as an intelligent person.
 CHAPTER II
THE FOUR PILLARS OF EDUCATION

Introduction

“Learning the Treasure Within,” the report of the

International Commission on Education for theTwenty-first
Century,chaired by Jacques Delors, and published by
UNESCO in 1996 provides new insights into education for
the 21st Century. It stresses that each individual must be
equipped to seize learning opportunities throughout life,
both to broaden her/his knowledge, skills and attitudes and
adapt to a changing, complex and interdependent world.
The Four Pillars of Education
* Learning to know, that is acquiring the instrument of
understanding;
* Learning to do, as as to be able act creatively in one’s
environment;
* Learning to live together, so as to participate in and
cooperate with other people in all human activities; and
* Learning to be, so as to better develop one’s personality
and to act with ever greater autonomy, judgment and
personal responsibility.

Learning to know
Learning to know implies learning how to learn by
developing one’s concentration,memory skills, and ability to
think.
 If, as a teacher, you have been helping students to
develop their skills that would make them independent
learners, you are doing well on the first pillar of education
because you have prepared them for life in the knowledge
society in which we all now live.
A truly educated person nowadays needs a bread
general education and the opportunity to study a small
number of subjects in depth.
To learn to know, students need to develop learn-to-
learn skills. Such skills are learning to read with
comprehension,listening, observing, asking questions, data
gathering, note taking, and accessing, processing, selecting
and using information so that students ca become lifelong
learners.
The role of the teacher then is as facilitator, catalyst,
monitor and evaluator and evaluator of learning because the
process of learning to think is a life long one and can be
enhanced by every kind human experience.
Learning to do
In addition to learning to do a job or work, more
generally, entail the acquisition of a competence that
enables people to deal with a variety of situations, often
unforeseeable, and to work in teams, a feature to which
education methods do not at present pay enough attention.

Education must contribute to the all-around

development of each individual – mind and body,
intelligence, sensitivity, aesthetic sense, personal
responsibility and spiritual values.
Education means reaching out to embrace the whole of
society and entire lifespan of the individual. Learning
throughout life is the “key to the 21st century – essential
for adapting to the evolving requirements of the labor
market and for better mastery of the changing time frame
and rhythms of individual existence.”
 Learning to do represents the skillful, creative and
discerning application of knowledge. One must learn how
to think creatively, critically and holistically, and how to
deeply understand the information that is present.
Learning To Live Together in Peace and Harmony
Learning to live together is the one most vital to
building a genuine and lasting culture of peace in both the
Asia-Pacific region and throughout the world. Peace must
begin with each one of us. Through quiet and serious
reflection on its meaning, new and creative ways can be
found to foster understanding friendship and cooperation
among all people. The third pillar of education implies that
teacher should help the students to develop an
understanding of other people and appreciation of
interdependence since we live in a closely connected world.
The teacher should help students to realize the value of
being able to live together in their gradually enlarging
world: home, school, community, country and the world.
 Learning to live together in peace and harmony
requires that quality of relationship at all levels is
committed to peace, human rights, democracy and social
justice in an ecologically sustainable environment.
Learning to be
Learning to be refers to the role of education in
developing all the dimensions of the complete person: the
physical, intellectual, emotional, and ethical integration the
individual into a complete man. Conscientization is the
process of becoming aware of the contradictions existing
within oneself and in society and of gradually being able to
bring about personal social transformation.
The Faure Report, learning to be, summarizes the
universal aims of education, to wit: 1) towards a scientific
humanism; 2) creativity; 3) towards social commitment;
and 4) towards the complete man.
 CHAPTER III
Intercultural Communication

Introduction
The world today is characterized by an ever growing number
of contacts resulting in communication between people with
different linguistics and cultural backgrounds. This
communication takes place because of contacts in the areas
of business, military cooperation, science, education, mass
media, entertainment, tourism and also because of
immigration brought about by labor shortage or political
conflicts (Alwood, 2003).
In all these contacts, there is communication which needs
to be as constructive as possible to avoid misunderstandings
and breakdowns. It is our belief that problems in
communication can be resolved through research on the
nature of linguistics and cultural similarities and differences.
 There is therefore a need to explain the manner by
which intercultural communication skills enable greater
effectiveness in personal and professional life, in a
globalized and technological social context.

Two types of communication:

1. Verbal refers to use of language; and
2. Non-verbal refer to the use of gestures, facial
expressions, and other body movements.
Language is an abstract system of word meaning and
symbols for all aspects of culture. It includes speech,
written characters, numerals, symbols, and gestures and
expressions of non-verbal communication. Paralanguage
behavior that may be expected from him.
 Language is the key factor in the success of the human
race in creating and preserving culture, for without
language the ability to convey ideas and traditions is
impossible.
The study of language is divided into four areas:
1. Phonology refers to a system of sounds.
2. Semantics is the study of word meanings and word
combinations.
3. Grammar refers to the structure of language through
its morphology and syntax.
3.1. Morphology is the study of the language’s
smallest units of meaning called morphemes.
3.2. Syntax specifies how words are combined into
sentences.
4. Pragmatics is concerned with rules for the use of
appropriate language in particular context.
Relationship Between Language and Culture
The most significant inventions made possible by culture is
language. The learning of culture takes place through language.
From our enormous capacity to learn and use language is derived our
collective memory (myths, fables, sayings, ballads, and the like) as
well as writing, art and all other media that shape human
consciousness and store and transit knowledge. If culture can affect
the structure and content of its language, then it follows that
linguistic diversity derives in part from cultural diversity.

The linguistic-relativity hypothesis asserts that languages

determines thought and therefore culture. In reality language and
culture influence each other (Edward Sapir). Every society has a
culture, no matter how simple the culture may be, and every human
being is cultured in the sense of participating in some culture or
other.
What is Culture?
Culture refers to the attitudes, values, customs, and
behavior
Patterns that characterize a social group. The characteristics of
culture are:
1. Culture is learned.
2. Culture is shared by a group of people.
3. Culture is cumulative.
4. Culture change.
5. Culture is dynamic.
6. Culture is ideational.
7. Culture is diverse.
8. Culture gives us a range of permissible behavior patterns.
 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
COMMUNICATION COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR MATERIAL
. Language . Ideas . Norms .Tools,Medicine
. Symbols . Knowledge . Mores . Books
. Beliefs . Laws . Transportation
. Values . Folkways . Technologies
. Accounts . Rituals

1. Communication. It is the act of imparting, sharing and conveying

information The communication component are:
1.1. Language. It defines what it means to be human. It forms the
core of all culture. When people share a language, they share a
condensed, very flexible set of symbols and meanings. It is beyond
grunts and hand signals, and provides the basis for symbolic interaction.
1.2. Symbols. Along with language and non-verbal signals, symbols
form the backbone of symbolic interaction. They condense
very complex ideas and values into simple material forms so that the
very presence of the symbol evokes the signified ideas and values.
It carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share
culture.
2. Cognitive Component. It is the mental act of perceiving things.
2.1. Ideas. These are mental representations (concepts,
categories, metaphors) used to organize stimulus; they are the basic
units out of which knowledge is constructed and a world emerges.
2.2. Knowledge. These are ideas which were linked together
and organized into larger sets, systems, etc. Knowledge
systematically summarizes and elaborates how we think the world
looks and acts. It is the storehouse where we accumulate
representations, information, facts, assumptions, etc. Once stored,
knowledge can support learning and can be passed down from one
generation to the next.
2.3. Beliefs. Beliefs accept a proposition, statement,
description of facts, etc. as true. Explanations and predictions
(cause and effect logic) rely on beliefs.
 2.4. Values. It is defined as culturally defined standards of
desirability, goodness, and beauty which serve as broad guideline
for social living. They support beliefs, or specific statements that
people hold to be true. The values people hold vary to some
degree by age, sex, race, ethnicity, religion, and social class.
Values change over time.
2. 5. Accounts. People who share a culture share a common
language for talking about their inner selves. Accounts are how
people use that common language to explain, justify, rationalize,
excuse, or legitimize our behavior to themselves and others.
3. Behavioral Component (how we act)
3.1 Norms. Norms are rules and expectations by which a
society guides the behavior of its members. Norms vary in terms
of importance. They are reinforced through sanctions, which take
the form of either rewards or punishment.
 3.2. Mores. They are customary behavior patterns or
folkways which have taken a moralistic value. This includes
respect for authority, marriage and sex behavior patterns, religious
rituals, and other basic codes of human behavior.
3.3. Laws. They are formalized norms, enacted by people
who are vested government power and enforced by political and
legal authorities designated by the government.
3.4. Folkways. They are behavior patterns of society which
are organized and repetitive. They are commonly known as
customs. It involves the way we eat, how we dress and other
patterns that we follow.
3.5. Rituals. These are highly scripted ceremonies or strips
of interaction that follow a specific sequence of actions.
4. Material Components. They refer to physical objects of
culture such as machines, equipment, tools, books, clothing, etc.
The Organization of Culture
While the culture of a group is an integrated network of folkways,
mores, systems of beliefs, institutional patterns, it can be broken
into simple units or elements called cultural traits. A cultural
trait, either of a material or non-material culture, represents a
single element or a combination of elements related to a specific
situation. Example of cultural traits are kissing the hands of the
elders after Sunday mass and at angelus. Cluster of culture traits
are known as culture complexes which, in turn, group together to
form a culture pattern.
How is Culture Transmitted
Culture is transmitted through:
1. Enculturation. It is the process of learning culture of one’s
own group. Example, Learning the folkways, mores, social
traditions, values and beliefs of one’s own group.
2. Acculturation. It is the process of learning some new traits
from another culture. For example, when students from the rural
areas migrate to the urban areas and gradually learn some urban
customs, they become acculturated.
3. Assimilation. It is the process in which an individual entirely loses
any awareness ho his previous group identity and take on the culture and attitudes
of another group. An Ilocano who moves to Mindanao and assumes the folkways
of the local group, then he has become assimilated.
Importance and Function of Culture
Culture is what distinguishes human beings from the lower animal forms
making them unique. It is a powerful force in the lives of all people and shapes and
guides people’s perceptions of reality.
1. Culture helps the individual fulfill his potential as a human
being. It helps in the regulation of a person’s conduct and prepares him so he can
participate in the group life.
2. Through the development of culture, man can overcome his
physical disadvantages and allows him to provide himself with
fire, clothing, food and shelter.
3. Culture provides rules of proper conduct for living in a society.
4. Culture also provides the individual his concepts of family,
nation, and class.
Cultural Relativism
It is impossible to understand what the actions of members of
other groups mean if we analyze them in terms of our motives and
values. We must interpret their behavior in the light of their motives,
habits, and values. The same behavior has different meanings in
different cultures and we must look at the behavior in relation to the
culture of the society where it takes place.

For example: Practices considered immoral or taboo to a

certain group of people but are accepted by other groups with a
different cultural orientation.

The central point in cultural relativism is that in a particular

setting certain traits are right because they work in that setting while
other traits are wrong because they clash painfully with parts of the
culture.
 CHAPTER IV
Cultural Changes
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1. explain the concepts of multiculturalism and multi-cultural
education;
2. identify and explain the four approaches to multicultural
education;
3. Describe student subcultures; and
4. Accept the diverse characteristics and needs of learners.
Introduction
Whenever two or more people come together with a shared
purpose, they form a culture with its own written and unwritten
rules for behavior. Our families, workplaces, and communities all
have cultures. These cultures have a tremendous impact upon our
behavior as individuals.
 Multiculturalism. It is a policy that emphasizes the unique
characteristics of different cultures, especially as they relate to one
another in receiving nations. It is a systematic and comprehensive
response to cultural and ethnic diversity, with educational, linguistic,
economic and social components and specific institutional
mechanisms.
Multicultural Education. It is an emerging discipline whose
aim is to create equal educational opportunities from diverse racial,
ethnic, social class and cultural groups.
One of its important goals is to help all students to acquire
knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to function effectively on
pluralistic democratic society and to interact, negotiate, and
communicate with peoples from diverse groups in order to create a
civic and moral community that works for the common good.
There are four approaches in accomplishing the related goal of
multicultural education which is to help all students develop more
positive attitudes toward different racial, ethnic, cultural and
religious groups.
Dimensions of Multicultural Education
1. Content integration. It deals with the extent to which teachers
use examples and content from a variety of cultures and groups to
illustrate key concepts, generalizations, and issues within their
subject area or disciplines.
2. Knowledge construction process. It describes how teachers
help students to understand, investigate, and determine how the
biases, frames of reference, and perspective within a discipline
influence the ways in which knowledge is constructed within it.
3. Prejudice reduction. It describes lessons and activities used
by teachers to help students to develop positive attitudes toward
different racial, ethnic, and cultural groups.
4. Equity pedagogy. It exists when teachers modify their
teaching in ways that will facilitate the academic achievement of
students from diverse racial, cultural, and social class groups.
5. Empowering school culture and social structure. It will
transform ways to enable students from diverse racial, ethnic, and
gender groups to experience equality and equal status .
The Growth of Student Subcultures
As we have seen, people develop cultures to provide a
structured framework of rules for their behavior. In turn, people’s
behavior is influenced by their cultural background (socialization)
and setting (their personal experiences in society). They also form
much smaller groups within society which we term subcultures.
Subculture refers to the cultural patterns that set apart some
segment of a society’s population. It can be based on age, ethnicity,
residence, sexual preference, occupation, and many other factors.

Functions of Subcultures

1. Permitting specialized activity.

2. Identity in mass society.
3. Cultural adaptation and change.
 Cultural differences imply the transmission of ideas from
generation to generation by significant members of the older
generation (parents, teachers, religious leaders, etc.).
What is a Culturally-Responsive Teaching?
Culturally responsive teaching acknowledges cultural
diversity in classrooms and accommodates this diversity in
instruction. It does this in three important ways.
1. By recognizing and accepting student diversity, it
communicates that all students are welcome and valued as human
beings.
2. By building on students’ cultural backgrounds, culturally
responsive teaching communicates positive images about the
students’ home cultures.
3. By being responsive to different student learning styles,
culturally responsive teaching builds on students’ strengths and use
these to help students learn.
According to Banks (1996), these four approaches are:
1. Contribution approach – The ethnic heroes and holidays are
included in the curriculum.
2. Additive approach – A unit or course is incorporated (for
example, a unit on women in history), but no substantial change
to the curriculum as a whole.
3. Transformation approach – Curriculum is changed, so that
students are taught to view events and issues from diverse ethnic
and cultural perspective.
4. Social action approach – Students make decisions about their
world and become directly involved in social actions.
Multicultural education is a progressive approach for
transforming education that holistically critiques and addresses
current shortcomings, failings, and discriminatory practices in
education.
 Several shared ideals on multicultural education which
provided a basis for its understanding.
* Every student must have an equal opportunity to achieve her
full potential.
* Every student must be prepared to competently participate in an
increasingly intercultural society.
* Teachers must be prepared to effectively facilitate learning for
every individual student, no matter how culturally similar or
different from themselves.
* Schools must be active participants in ending oppression of all
types, first by ending oppression within their own walls, then by
producing socially and critically active and aware students.
* Education must become more fully student-centered and
inclusive of the voices and experiences of the students.
* Educators, activists and others must take a more active role in
reexamining all educational practices and how they affect the
learning of all students: testing methods, teaching approaches,
evaluation and assessment, school psychology and counseling.
 Chapter V

Social Institutions
Learning Objectives:
1. To identify and describe the characteristics and functions of
different social institutions.
2. To describe the various types of governments.
3. To discuss the relationship between economy and education.
4. To show the interrelationships among the social institutions.
Introduction
Individual, formal organizations, commonly identified as
“institutions,” may be deliberately and intentionally created by people.
Their development and functioning in society in general may be
regarded as an instance of emergence, that is, institutions arise,
develop and function in a pattern of social self-organization, which
goes beyond the the conscious intentions of the individual humans
involved.
What is Social Institution?
In any human society are social structures and social mechanisms of
social order and cooperation that govern the behavior of its members.
These are called social institutions and according to functional
theorists, perform five essential tasks namely: replacing
members or procreation, teaching new members, producing,
distributing and consuming goods and services, preserving order, and
providing and maintaining a sense of purpose.
Social institution is a group of social positions, connected by social
relations, performing a social role. It is a society that works to
socialize the groups of people in it. Common examples include
universities, governments, families, and any people or groups that
you have social interactions with.

Characteristics and Functions of an Institution

Palispis (1996) pointed out the following characteristics and
functions of an institution. They are:
1. Institutions are purposive.
2. They are relatively permanent in their content.
3. Institutions are structured.
4. Institutions are a unified structure.
5. Institutions are necessarily value-laden.

From these characteristics, it may be said that an institutions is

a relatively permanent structure of social patterns, roles, and relations
that people enact in certain sanctioned and unified ways for the
purpose of satisfying basic social needs.
Institutions have various functions as follows:
1) Institutions simplify social behavior for the individual person.
2) Institutions, therefore, provide ready-made forms of social
relations and social roles for the individual.
3. Institutions also act as agencies of coordination and stability for the
total culture.
4. Institutions tend to control behavior.
Major Social institutions
The five major social institutions are: family, school, religion,
economics and government.
1. The Family. The family is the smallest social institution with the
unique function or production and rearing the young. It is the basic unit
of Philippine society and the educational system. It is the institution to
which we owe our humanity.
Functions of the Family
a. Reproduction of the race and rearing of the young.
b. Cultural transmission or enculturation.
c. Socialization of the child.
d. Providing affection and a sense of security.
 e. Providing the environment for personality development and the
growth of self-concept in relation to others.
f. Providing social status.

2. Education
The basic purpose of education is the transmission of knowledge.
Schools became necessary when cultural complexity created a need
for specialized knowledge and skill which could not be easily
acquired in the family, church and community.
Purposes of Schooling
a. The intellectual purposes of schooling.
b. The political purposes of schooling.
c. The social purposes of of schooling.
d. The economic purposes of schooling.
Manifest Functions of the School.
The manifest functions of education are defined as the open and
intended goals or consequences of activities within an organization or
institution. There are six major manifest functions of education in
society, to wit: socialization, social control, transmitting culture,
promoting social and political integration, and as agent of change
(Javier et al, 2002).
Latent Functions of Schools
The latent function of schools are the hidden, unstated and
sometimes unattended consequences of activities within an institution.
* Restricting some activities.
* Matchmaking and production of social networks.
* Creation of Generation Gap.

3. Religion.
Religion may be defined as any set of coherent answers to the
dilemmas of human existence that makes the world meaningful.
Religion as defined in terms of its social function is a system of
beliefs and rituals that serves to bind people together through shared
worship, thereby creating a social group. It is the socially defined
patterns of beliefs concerning the ultimate meaning of life, it assumes
the existence of the supernatural.

Characteristics of Religion
* Belief in a deity or in a power beyond the individual,
* A doctrine of salvation,
* A code of conduct.
* Religious rituals.
Functions of Religion
Among the many functions of religion identified by Calderon
(1998) are the following:
1. Religion serves as a means of social control.
2. It exerts a great influence upon personality development.
3. Religion allays fear of the unknown.
4. Religion explains events or situations which are beyond the
comprehension of man.
5. It gives man comfort, strength and hope in times of crises and
despair.
6. It preserves and transmits knowledge, skills, spiritual and cultural
values and practices.
7. It serves as instrument of change.
8. It promotes closeness, love, cooperation, friendliness and
helpfulness.
9. Religion alleviates sufferings from major calamities.
10. It provides hopes for a blissful life after death.
The Elements of Religion
There are four elements of religion. They are sacred and profane,
legitimation of norms, rituals and religions community.
4. Economic Institutions
Human behavior is mainly concerned with the satisfaction of
material wants. It is centered on the task of making a living, the most
absorbing interest of man. To that end, man in all ages and among all
classes struggle to bring about changes in the environment. The
changes that have take place and are taking place are the result of the
interplay of forces in our efforts to improve our material well-being.
Our mode of living centers on the acquisition of wealth in order to
satisfy our wants and this aspect of man’s activity constitutes the field
of economics.

Microeconomics vs. Macroeconomics

Microeconomics looks at the trees, while macro-economics looks
at the forest. Both categories involve the construction of theories and
formulation of policies-activities that are the heart of economics.

Basic Economic Problems.

First, what goods and services to produce and how much.
Second, how to produce goods and services.
Third, for whom are the goods and services.
5. Government as a Social Institution
The institution which resolves conflicts that are public in nature
and involve more than a few people is called government.
The Supreme Court of the Philippines defines government as
“that institution by which an independent society makes and carries out
those rules of action which are necessary to enable men to live in a
social state, or which are imposed upon the people for that society by
those who possess the power or authority of prescribing them.”
The Three Branches of Government
In the Philippines, there are three branches of government: the
executive branch, which proposes and enforces rules and laws; the
legislative branch, which makes rules and laws; and the judicial
branch, which adjudicates rules and laws.
Functions of Government
The functions of government are:
1. The constituent functions contribute to the very bonds of society
and are therefore compulsory.
2. The ministrant functions are those undertaken to advance the
general interest of society, such as public works, public charity, and
regulation of trade and industry. These functions are merely optional.
Where do you stand?

Look at the following purposes of schools. Encircle the number that

best reflects how important you think each school function is.

Use the following scale.

1 Very Unimportant
2 Unimportant
3 Moderately important
4 Important
5 Very Important
1. To transmit the nation‘s cultural heritage 1 2 3 4 5

2. To encourage students to question current

practices and to promote social change 1 2 3 4 5

3. To prepare competent workers to compete

successfully in a technological world economy 1 2 3 4 5
4. To develop healthy citizens aware of nutritional 1 2 3 4 5
exercise and good health.

5. To lead the world in creating a peaceful global

society, stressing an understanding of other cultures. 1 2 3 4 5

6. To nurture students in developing art,

music, and writing. 1 2 3 4 5

7. To demonstrate academic proficiency through

high standardized test scores 1 2 3 4 5

8. To teach students work ethics: punctuality,

responsibility, cooperation, self-control, neatness 1 2 3 4 5

9. To prepare students for college and/or

well-paid careers 1 2 3 4 5

10. To eliminate racism and all forms of

discrimination in society 1 2 3 4 5
 CHAPTER VI

Gender and Development

Learning Objectives:
At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
1. Describe gender equality and inequality and how they affect
development.
2. Explain the relationship between gender and power.
3. Discuss significant gains that have been made in woman’s
education as a result of global advocacy.

Introduction
In addition to age, gender is one of the universal dimensions on
which status differences are based. Unlike sex, which is a biological
concept, gender is a social construct specifying the socially and culturally
prescribed roles that men and women are to follow.
Gender shapes the lives of all people in all societies. It influences
all aspects of our lives, the schooling we receive, the social roles we play,
and the power and authority we command. Populatio n
processes – where women and men live, how they bear and rear
children, and how they die – are shaped by gender as well (Riley,
1997).

Theories of Gender Development

1. Social learning theory – They believe that parents are the

distributors of reinforcement, reinforce appropriate gender role
behaviors. By the choice of toys, by urging “boy” or “girl”
behavior, and reinforcing such behavior, parents encourage
children to engage in gender-appropriate behavior.

2. Cognitive development theory – This derives from Kohlberg’s

speculations about gender development. We know from Piaget’s
work that children engage in symbolic thinking by about 2 years
of age. Using this ability, children acquire their gender identity
and then, Kohlberg believes, they begin the process of acquiring
gender-appropriate behavior.
3. Gender schema theory – A schema is a mental blueprint for
organizing information, and children develop and formulate
appropriate gender. Such a schema helps a child to develop
gender identity and formulate an appropriate gender role.
Consequently, children develop an integrated schema ir picture, of
what gender is and should be (Elliott et al., 1996).
What is gender stereotyping?
Gender stereotyping is defined as the beliefs humans hold
about the characteristics associated with males and females. From an
early age, people form ideas of what males and females should be,
beginning to accumulate characteristics that they consider male and
female, and assigning labels to those categories. This process certain
simplifies the ability to deal with the world. Obviously, that rough,
noisy person is a boy, and that gentle, soft-spoken, obedient person is
a girl.
Gender and Equality
Gender equality gives women and men the same entitlements
to all aspects of human development, including economic, social,
cultural, civil and political rights, the same level of respect, the same
opportunities to make choices, and the same level of power to shape
the outcomes of these choices.
Research from around the world has shown that gender
inequality tends to slow economic growth and make the rise from
poverty more difficult. The reasons for this link are not hard to
understand. Half of the world’s population is female, hence, the
extent to which women and girls benefit from development policies
and programs has a major impact on the countries’ overall
development success.
Gender Inequality
Four themes characterize feminist theorizing of gender
inequality.
1. Firstly, Men and women are situated in society not only
differently but also unequally. Specifically, women get less of
material resources, social status, power, and opportunities for self-
actualization than do men who share their social location – be it
location based on class, race, occupation, ethnicity, religion,
education, nationality, or any other socially significant factor.
2. Secondly, This inequality results from the organization of
society, not from any significant biological or personality differences
between men and women.
3. Thirdly. Although individual human beings may vary somewhat
from each other in their profile of potentials and traits, no significant
pattern of natural variation distinguishes the sexes. Instead, all
human beings are characterized by a deep need for freedom to seek
self-actualization and by a fundamental malleability that leads them
to adapt to the constraints or opportunities of the situations in which
they find themselves.
4. Fourthly, All inequality theories assume that both men and
women and men will respond fairly easily and naturally to more
egalitarian social structures and situations.
Gender and Power

Gender refers to the different ways men and women play in

society, and to the relative power they wield. While gender is
expressed differently in different societies, in no society do men and
women perform equal roles or hold equal positions of power.

Power is a basic fabric of society and possessed in varying

degrees by social actors in diverse social categories. Power becomes
abusive and exploitive only when independence and individuality of
one person or group of people becomes so dominant that freedom for
the other is compromised.
Women and children have often been on the abusive side of
power. Some causes that are often referred to are: the greater
physical strength that men tend to have the imbalance of power
between men and women resulting from social structures and
historical practices in regard to finances, education, roles of authority
and decision making; the abuse of power by men and the failure of
cultural pressures to prevent such abuse; and a distorted view of
sexuality and the objection of the female.
Several factors act as determinants of the amount of power a
person holds or can use in his or her relation with others: status
resources, experience, and self-confidence.
 Chapter VII
Globalization and Education

Globalization refers to an increasing interconnectedness

and convergence of activities and forms of life among diverse
cultures throughout the world.
Introduction
Globalization is most often used to describe the growing
integration of economics worldwide through increases in trade,
investment flows, and technology transfer. The term conveys a
sense that international forces are driving more and more
developments in the world, and thus crystallizes both the hopes
of some people that we will finally achieve a global society and
the fears of many others that their lives and jobs are threatened
by forces beyond their control. (Chronicle of Higher Education,
January 23, 1998).
 One could think that globalization is only a matter of industry
and business, and that education as a moral process is not part of this
development. However, if we understand education as a part of the
information business, education systems can be seen as the core of
the globalization process. Rinne (2000) emphasizes that educational
policy has become an ever more important part of economic, trade,
labor and social policy in western countries. One complete global
development is the development of mega-universities, university
networks and virtual universities, that can offer competitive training
programs for students recruited from all over the world.
GLOBAL EDUCTION AND GLOBALIZATION
An education for globalization should therefore nurture the
higher order cognitive and interpersonal skills required for problem
finding, problem-solving, articulating arguments, and deploying
verifiable facts or artifacts. These skills should be required of children
and youth who will as adults, fully engage the larger world and master
its greatest challenges, transforming it for the betterment
of humanity – regardless of national origin or cultural upbringing.
Globalization has become a widespread idea in national and
international dialogue in recent years. But what do we mean when we
invoke each of these terms, and is there really a meaningful distinction
between the two.
Globalization’s shifting and controversial parameters make it
difficult to describe it as clearly as a dominant force, both positively and
negatively, shaping the environment in which we live. Motivated by
economic forces and driven by digital technologies and communications,
globalization links individuals and institutions across the world with
unprecedented interconnection. In doing so, it, in some way
democratizes and intensifies interdependence and in other ways creates
new forms of local reaction and self-definition. While it may spread
certain freedoms, higher living standards, and a sense of international
relatedness, it also threatens the world with a “universal” economy and
culture rooted in North American and Western ideals and interests.
 Global education, as distinct from globalization, does what
higher education has traditionally aimed to do: extend students’
awareness of the world in which they live by opening them to the
diverse heritage of human thoughts and action, and creativity.
Global education places particular emphasis on the changes in
communication and relationships among people throughout the world
highlighting such issues as human conflict, economic systems, human
rights and social justice, human commonality and diversity, literatures
and cultures, and the impact of the technological revolution.
While it continues to depend on the traditional branches of
specialist knowledge, global education seeks to weave the boundaries
between the disciplines and encourages emphasis on what
interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary studies can bring to the
understanding of to human problems. Some see global education as
a vehicle for the promotion of global education that might itself be
seen as the West’s effort to destabilize fragile balances in economic
and political systems.
 Characteristics of Globalization Linked To Education
* In educational terms, there is a growing understanding
that the neo-liberal version of globalization, particularly as
implemented ( and ideologically defended) by bilateral,
multilateral, and international organizations, is reflected in an
educational agenda that privileges, if not directly imposes,
particular policies for evaluation, financing, assessment,
standards, teacher training, curriculum, instruction and testing.
In the face of such pressures, more study is needed about
local responses to defend public education against the
introduction of pure market mechanisms to regulate
educational exchanges and other policies that seek to reduce
state sponsorship and financing and to impose management
and efficiency models borrowed from the business sector as a
framework for education decision making. These educational
responses are mostly carried by teacher unions, new social
movements, and critical intellectuals, often expressed as
opposition to initiatives in education such as vouchers of
* In economic terms, a transition from Fordist to Post-
Forndist forms of workplace organization; a rise in
internationalized advertizing and consumption patterns; a
reduction in barriers to the free flow of goods, workers and
investments across national borders; and correspondingly, new
pressures on the role of workers and consumer in society.
In political terms, a certain loss of nation-state sovereignty
or at least the erosion of national autonomy, and,
correspondingly, a weakening of the notion of the “citizen” as a
unified and unifying concepts, a concept that can be
characterized by precise roles, rights, obligation and status.
* In Cultural terms, a tension between the ways in which
globalization brings forth more standardization and cultural
homogeneity, while also bringing more fragmentation through
the rise of locally oriented movements. Another theoretical
alternative identifies a more conflicted and dialectical situation,
with both cultural homogeneity and heterogeneity appearing
simultaneously in cultural landscape.
Globalization is undoubtedly an important constitutive feature of the
modern world. One of the current interdisciplinary assumptions is that
globalization necessarily amounts to the loss of cultural identity.
Philosophers may argue endlessly about globalization, but they can all
agree that it refers to an increasing interconnectedness and
convergence of activities and forms of life among diverse cultures
throughout the world. As it has been plausibly suggested, a culture “is
no longer a discrete world. It is transformed to accord with a world of
ruptured boundaries” (Held and McGrew, 2003). Globalization has
attracted the attention of many disciplines because it affects both self-
understanding and cultural identity.
If we look at the recent developments in the education sector
globally, we can summarize the implications of global information
society in the education system as follows:
* Demand for widening the education access for all.
* Continuous lifelong learning(e.g., facing the boundaries
between present and inset, formal education and working life).
 * Global versus local cultural developments.
* Creation of new educational networked organizations (e. g.,
global virtual universities, virtual schools, multinational educational
consortiums, etc.).
* Changing of educational management from hierarchical
institutions to equal distributions of network organizations, from
commanding to negotiating.
* Demand for more flexible and general skills (e.g., meta-
skills such as problem solving, searching information, learning skills,
etc..).
Core Values and Competencies for Global Education
Our vision of global education was organized around the
following core values: peace and non-violence, social justice and
human rights, economic well-being and equity, cultural integrity,
ecological balance, and democratic participation. Core skills and
competencies included self-worth and self-affirmation, the affirmation
of others, including cultural and racial differences, critical thinking,
effective communication skills (including active listening), non-violent
conflict resolution and mediation, imagination (the ability to envision
alternatives), and effective organizing (Mische, 2001).
Socio-Cultural Issues on Globalization
1. Massive migration – Globalization and massive migrations are
changing the ways we experience national identities and cultural
belonging.
2. Managing difference – It is becoming one of the greatest
challenges to multicultural countries. From France to Sweden, Brazil to
Bolivia, Indonesia to Malaysia, the work of managing difference calls
forth a new educational agenda. Children growing up in these and other
settings are likely than in any previous generation in human history to
face a life of working and networking, loving and living with others from
different national, linguistic, religious, and racial backgrounds.
3. Global changes in culture deeply affect educational policies,
practices and institutions. Particularly in advanced industrial societies,