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James Bazan
Introduction to Sociology
16 November 2018
In today’s society, education plays a vital role in shaping tomorrow’s leaders. The youth
of our present. The leaders of our future. Education grows their capacity of knowledge and
grooms them to become adults that will lead our society. The first public schools were
established in the United States in the 1800s and now there are over 98,000 public schools across
our nation (National Center for Education Statistics). We value education so much that it has
been made a requirement for children to attend school and it is heavily advised to young adults to
attend college and seek higher education. Sociologists have studied institutions such as education
from a variety of perspectives and have come up with a couple theories which we will analyze.
Structural functionalism is a theory that believes society to be an unified whole that functions
because of its separate structures (The Real World). In other words, society is made up of many
moving parts that end up moving together as one and its key focus is looking at society from a
macro level since individuals do not have much power. These many “moving parts” are called
social structures and a good example of a social structure would be education. Structural
functionalism believes that education would shape everyday behavior by providing knowledge,
morals, rules, and norms for students. “How does our education system benefit society as a
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James Bazan
Introduction to Sociology
16 November 2018
whole?” and “Is poverty, even though harmful to individuals, functional for society because it
ensures that there’s always people seeking higher education for an improved lifestyle?” are
Social conflict is quite the opposite from structural functionalism. Social conflict is a
theory that states individuals and groups are always competing for power in society. This
theory’s key focus is the inequality within society thanks to its groups struggling over scarce
resources such as power, land, food, money, and or status. Social conflict views education as a
placed system reinforcing social inequalities that arise due to differences in class, race, and
gender. “Where functionalists see education as serving a beneficial role, conflict theorists view it
more negatively. To them, educational systems preserve the status quo and push people of lower
status into obedience” (Lumen Learning). For example, a low income student is more likely to
work a job and pick up extra shifts to financially help out his or her family. This would take
away time from his studies and increase his or her possibilities of having time management
issues. Questions conflict theorists could answer about education would be “How does race
impact educational achievement?” and “Are low income communities more likely to have high
Symbolic interaction is a theory that assumes meanings to not be inherent but created by
humans through interactions. It takes a small scale view of our society. Its key focus is on a small
perspective of the interactions between individuals. For example, hanging out with a friend.
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James Bazan
Introduction to Sociology
16 November 2018
Education itself is a broad topic in terms of its function, but there are minute intricacies than can
be viewed via symbolic interaction. How students interact with each other in the classroom, the
way teachers may praise or ridicule a student based on their behavior, etc. The way those things
would shape an individual is based on the way they are treated or labeled. If a student is known
by others and liked around the environment, they may grow to be confident in the future in
settings where social interaction in involved. If a student is left alone and not accepted by others
around them, they may grow to be anxious around groups of people or become inept in those
settings. If they are taking a test and perform below the standards, they may be labeled a low
achiever or something along those lines. A label like that could be detrimental to growth and
hinder their ability to go above and beyond their full potential. Questions symbolic interaction
could answer include “How do test scores affect a student’s self esteem?” and “How does a
Finally, these are only three theories out of the multiple sociologists have come up with
throughout the years. When examining education, structural functionalism does a great job
explaining how society avoids conflict and progresses through socialization and social control,
however, it fails to acknowledge inequalities in school districts such as social class and race.
Social conflict is really helpful when understanding how minorities are treated by our education
system but assumes wealthy white students are the only or most likely ones able to thrive. One
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James Bazan
Introduction to Sociology
16 November 2018
however, it does not see how it progresses groups of people as a whole. Like mostly everything
in our society, these three main theories have both strengths and weaknesses.
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James Bazan
Introduction to Sociology
16 November 2018
WORKS CITED:
“The NCES Fast Facts Tool Provides Quick Answers to Many Education Questions
(National Center for Education Statistics).” National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
Home Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics, nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=84.
“Chapter 1.” The Real World an Introduction to Sociology, by Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein,
courses.lumenlearning.com/alamo-sociology/chapter/reading-conflict-theory-on-education/.