DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EDUCATIONAL SOCIOLOGY AND

SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

Any individual can learn very little by himself. Others play a very important
role and contribute a lot to his learning process. The presence of other
persons is important because a person learns from the knowledge gained by
others. Therefore the process of getting education is always a social process.
Emile Durkheim was the first person who indicated the need for a sociological
approach to education. He considered education to be essentially social in
character and in its functions and that as a result the theory of education
relates more clearly to sociology than any other science. He emphasized
that education is not a static phenomenon but a dynamic and ever-changing
process.
Educational sociology is by definition a discipline which studies education
sociologically, with the premise that it recognizes education as a social fact, a
process and an institution, having a social function and being determined
socially. It studies the problems of relationship between society and
education. It evolved as a discipline designed to prepare educators for their
future tasks. It uses the results of sociological researches in planning
educational activities and in developing effective methods of realizing these
plans. The main aim of educational sociology is to study social interaction.
It is the application of sociological principles and methods to the solution of
problems in an educational system. It focuses on the importance of the
interactions of different elements of the society with an individual.
Sociology of Education can be defined as the scientific analysis of the
social processes and social patterns involved in the educational system . It is
the study of how social institutions and forces affect educational processes and
outcomes, and vice versa. By many, education is understood to be a means of
overcoming handicaps, achieving greater equality and acquiring wealth and
status for all (Sargent 1994). Learners may be motivated by aspirations for
progress and betterment. Education is perceived as a place where children can
develop according to their unique needs and potentialities. The purpose of
education is to develop every individual to their full potential. It is most
concerned with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies,
including the expansion of higher, further, adult, and continuing education. It is
relatively a new branch and two great sociologists mile Durkheim and Max
Weber were the father of sociology of education

The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what
to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for

ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men. Bill
Beattie.

References
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-educationsociologyof.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology_of_education
http://www.nou.edu.ng/noun/NOUN_OCL/pdf/pdf2/EDU%20202.pdf
http://wikieducator.org/SOCIOLOGY_OF_EDUCATION