SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Education, government & economy

A R E P O R T B Y : T H A L I A E R I K A L . L A P U T
3 PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION

SYMBOLIC
FUNCTIONALI CONFLICT
INTERACTIONIS
SM THEORY
M
FUNCTIONALIS
M Latent functions include child
care, the establishment of
peer relationships, and
a) Socialization lowering unemployment by
b) Social Integration keeping high school students
c) Social Placement out of the full-time labor
force. Problems in the
d) Social and educational institution harm
Cultural society because all these
Innovation. functions cannot be
completely fulfilled.
 CONFLICT
THEORY
Education promotes social inequality
through the use of tracking and standardized
testing and the impact of its “hidden
curriculum.” Schools differ widely in their
funding and learning conditions, and this
type of inequality leads to learning
disparities that reinforce social inequality.
 SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONISM
This perspective focuses on social interaction in the
classroom, on the playground, and in other school venues.
Specific research finds that social interaction in schools
affects the development of gender roles and that teachers’
expectations of pupils’ intellectual abilities affect how
much pupils learn. Certain educational problems have
their basis in social interaction and expectations.
School as a formal organization
Bureaucratization of Schools

Teachers: Employees and Instructors

Student Subcultures
 Bureaucratization of Schools
• A bureaucracy is a large, formal, secondary
organization characterized by a hierarchy of
authority, a clear division of labor, explicit rules, and
impersonal interactions between its members.
• In a pluralistic society, disseminating the dominant
culture through public education is a topic of heated
social debate.
 Bureaucratization of Schools
• Advances in information technologies provide
constant connectivity to the virtual world. Schools
have begun to take advantage of these virtual tools as
enhancements and replacements of physical school
structures and face-to-face learning experiences.
 Critical issues
• Bureaucracies are intended to ensure equal
opportunities and increase efficiency based on a
meritocratic structure. Meritocracy means that hiring
and promotion should be based on proven and
documented skills, rather than on nepotism or
random choice.
 Critical issues
•However, the theory of
meritocracy becomes
convoluted when it is
applied to schools
because some individuals
have access to privileges
that give them
advantages over other
individuals.
 Teachers: Employees and Instructors
A TEACHER IS A PERSON WHO PROVIDES EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS

•Teachers, like other professionals, may have

to continue their education after they
qualify, a process known as continuing
professional development.
 Teachers: Employees and Instructors

• In education, teachers
facilitate student learning,
often in a school or
academy, but also in other
environments such as
outdoors. A teacher who
teaches on an individual
basis may be described as a
tutor.
Teacher at a British Museum: A teacher and young
pupils at the British Museum Duveen Gallery.
 Teachers: Employees and Instructors

• The relationship between

children and their teachers
tends to be closer in the
primary school, where
they act as form tutor,
specialist teacher, and
surrogate parent during
the course of the day. Teacher in Laos: Teacher in primary school in
northern Laos.
 Student Subcultures
A youth subculture is a group characterized by distinct styles, behaviors and interests that offer an
identity outside the mainstream.
• Thesubculture
A youth studyis of subcultures
a group often
characterized by distinct consists of and
styles, behaviors theinterests
studythatofoffersymbolism
an identity
attached to clothing, music or other visible affections by members of
outside the mainstream.

the subculture. It also studies the ways these same symbols are
interpreted by members of the dominant culture.
• The term “scene” refers to an exclusive subculture or faction. It may
also be geographically based, i.e. the London punk scene.
 Student Subcultures
• Early studies in youth
culture were mainly
produced by functionalist
sociologists
A youth andcharacterized
subculture is a group focus byon
youth outsideas a single form of
distinct styles, behaviors and interests that offer an
identity the mainstream.
culture. In explaining the
development of the culture,
they utilized the concept of
anomie.
GOVERNMENT: POWER & authority
POWE authority
R
the ability to accepted power—
exercise one’s will that is, power that
over others people agree to
(Weber, 1922) follow.
 Types of authority

Charismati Rational-
Traditional
c Legal
Types of authority
Tradition
al
Source of Power :
Legitimized by long standing
custom
Leadership Style:
Historic Personality
Example:
Patriarchy
Types of authority
Charismatic
Source of Power :
Based on a leader’s personal
qualities
Leadership Style:
Dynamic Personality
Example:
Napoleon, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther
King, Jr.
Types of authority
Rational -
Legal
Source of Power :
Bureaucratic officials
Leadership Style:
Authority resides in the office,
not the person
Example:
Modern British Parliament
 ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
• Economies consist of producing goods and exchanging
them.
• A formal economy is the legal economy of a nation-state, as
measured by a government’s gross national product (GNP),
or the market value of all products and services produced
by a country’s companies in a given year.
• An informal economy is economic activity that is neither
taxed nor monitored by a government; the terms “under
the table” and “off the books” typically refer to this type of
economy. Informal economic activity can be found in
 The market
• A market is a central space of exchange
through which people are able to buy and sell
goods and services.
• the prices of goods and services is mainly
controlled through the principles of supply and
demand and competition.
 The market
• “Supply and demand” refers to the balancing of the amount
of a good or service produced and the amount available for
sale.
• Prices rise when demand exceeds supply and fall when
supply exceeds demand.
• The market coordinates itself through pricing until a new
equilibrium price and quantity is reached.
• Competition arises when many producers are trying to sell
the same or similar kinds of products to the same buyers.
ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

CAPITALISM SOCIALISM
CAPITALISM
• Capitalism is generally considered by
scholars to be an economic system
that includes private ownership of the
means of production, creation of
goods or services for profit or income,
the accumulation of capital,
competitive markets, voluntary
exchange, and wage labor.
• Government does not have control
over markets, and on property rights Profile of Adam Smith, by James Tassie,
1787: Author of the Wealth of Nations
socialism
• Socialism is an economic system in which the means of
production are socially owned and used to meet human needs
instead of to create profits.
• The means of production refers to the tools, technology,
buildings, and other materials used to make the goods or
services in an economy.
• Social ownership of the means of production can take many
forms. It could refer to cooperative enterprises, common
ownership, direct public ownership, or autonomous state
enterprises
socialism
• Social ownership contrasts with
capitalist ownership, in which the
means of production are used to
create a profit. In a socialist economic
system, the means of production
would instead be used to directly
satisfy economic demands and human
needs.
• Accounting would be based on
Karl Marx helped to create the system
physical quantities or a direct measure
of social thought now called Marxism. of labor-time instead of on profits and
expenses.
The changing face of workforce
1 2 3
1.Workers 1.Workers are
1.It has created a
situation in which are being being replaced
workers who by computers
perform easily forced to
that can do the
automated tasks compete in a
are being forced to job more
find work that is global job effectively and
less automated. market. faster.