Sociology of Education Assignment 2022

Running head: SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
Sociology of education
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
Introduction
The field of education has always occupied a significant place within the human
society. Education refers to that social phenomenon whereby the experts or the
teachers of a particular field helps to transmit knowledge about that field to the
younger generation or the students (Blackledge and Hunt 2019). This process of
transmission of knowledge is considered to be important because of the importance of
the use of such information in resolving the personal life problems of the concerned
individuals. The social importance that education has within the lives of the people,
has made it necessary for the various sociologists to analyze this sphere of life. In this
regard, many sociological perspectives have emerged which have tried to understand
education and the role it plays within the lives of the people (Dale 2017). Sociologists
should study education because of the influence it has on the life chances of the
people who fall within its purview. The purpose of this paper is to understand the
functionalist approach to the sphere of education. In this context, the importance of
education through the functionalist lens has been discussed. Furthermore, education as
a ‘social gift’ or a ‘natural gift’ has also been looked in to. The role played by the
parents, teachers, staff administrators and the students themselves within the field of
education has also been looked in to. The paper concludes by emphasizing on the
need for everyone in the community to be educated.
Functionalist perspective of education
The functionalist perspective on education is considered to be along the lines of a
consensus perspective. It means that it tries to understand the needs of a community
based on how to maintain it for the achievement of the common good for all (Schmidt
and Günther 2016). In this context, it can be seen that the functionalist approach lays
more emphasis on the various positive benefits that an educational institute can

2SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
provide such as that of socialization which includes the learning skills taught by the
schools and their attitudes towards the progress of the students. The field of education
supports the community by providing important values and traditional norms to the
students which would help them in their path of achievement and success (Kwok
2017). Besides the inculcation of such cultural and social norms, the functionalist
approach also harps on the impartation of the skills and technical knowledge to the
students. Providing them an equal opportunity to earn a better standard of living is the
primary purpose of the field of education.
Parson is of the idea that education is based on the aspect of meritocracy.
Education is essentially considered to a bridge between two important institutions of
family and the society (Dee and Leišytė 2016). Thus, it helps to socialize the students
with respect to those values and norms which are considered to be acceptable by the
society. Parsons opines that education helps to instill those ideas of equality and value
of competition which would help to develop the element of individualism within the
students. Similarly, Blau and Duncan are also of the same view. They are of the idea
that the contemporary economic structure is dependent on the utilization of human
capital for its own prosperity (Bell et al. 2017). This is best provided by a meritocratic
education system.
The views of Durkheim on the field of education should also be noted. He
opinionated that education is mainly considered to be the field of secondary
socialization as opposed to the primary field of socialization which is accorded to the
family (Cian and Amann 2018). Thus, he believes that the family members are
responsible of passing on the individualist customary values and norms to the students
while the educational institutions are known for inculcating the more universally
accepted values and norms.