How do both agency and structure shape experience of everyday life?Discuss with Class and Education.
The domain of sociology has undergone several shifts and has been continuing to experience these shifts through the interventions of critique that give rise to discourses to levels which have been considered as insignificant or been under-reviewed. The legitimacy of ‘sociology of education’ is regarded as a construction in its own turn. However, it is noted that the legitimate theme of sociological investigation relies on the intellectual and academic boundaries which are regarded as culturally formed and are further referred as the consequences of complex power-games (Lin 2017). It must be noted that critical theory facilitates to demonstrate that the functionalist theory does not reveal any decisiveness while impending critical issues in the domain of education. Thus it is justifiable to perceive critical theory through similar lenses whereby it may not essentially establish itself as the concluding purpose. The report intends to shed light on the way both agencies and structures tend to shape the experience of an individual’s daily life by further focusing on class and education.
Functionalist Theories of Education
The approaches of Functionalism have been signified by further applying to the recognized analogy of living organism and society, whereby the conjecture of analogy reveals that society functions as a human body with specific functioning procedures. In similar sense, education is regarded as a social institution as well as a part of social organism. Furthermore, knowledge that will be incorporated in core curriculum can be regarded as acceptable and legitimate rather than drawing connections with pluralism and differentiation (Giddens et al. 2016). It is significant to note that the desires and needs of society always create dominance to the requirements of the individuals. Thus educators are perceived as agents of such justifiable expertise knowledge transmission along with the principle frameworks and ethical beings for the following generations that will confined themselves with knowledge transferring in particular for societal welfare (Stephens, Markus and Phillips 2014). However, in the opinion of Durkheim teachers must therefore show immense dedication in demonstrating not as individualistic liability but further as ethical authority greater to the educators, whereby students are perceived as blank sheets known as ‘tabula rasa’, unreceptive beings are to be crammed with shared social wellbeing by the agents or teachers of the society (Ladson-Billings and Tate IV 2016). At this juncture, it is significant to point out another form of functionalist approach introduced by Talcott Parsons in the 20th Century distinguished as the essential notions of Durkheim as well as the development of structuralism. However, Parsons argues that school regarded as a fundamental institution of socialization is referred as a exact manifestation of society due to its distinctiveness of being the sole institutional place that educates expertise and responsibilities. According to Parsons, institutes are perceived as unbiased domains structured in order to serve students with essential understanding and knowledge which they would require in order to operate in the broader array of the society (Ballantine, Hammack and Stuber 2017). However, in contemporary societies, the primary connection which have been condemned in several ways and further reinstated by fundamental theorise of educations along with certain conventional advances such as theories related to human capitalism (Stephens, Markus and Phillips 2014). Educational institutes have never been regarded in segregation and the idealized functionalist explanation of institutes have been perceived as oppressive, autocratic and lack adequacy because of deficiency of well-established exposition of what helps in succeeding schools to be considered as effective or the ways these productivities can act as receptive without creating any challenging factors towards the societal needs and requirements as well as the workforce (Ritzer and Stepnisky 2017).
Critical Explanations Related to Class and Education
Critical theories have posed three major concerns of drawing prejudice and biasness in the domain of education and further seeking solutions to those inequalities and unfairness. Furthermore, it has been noted that working class kids or specific marginalized sections have been considered as areas of discourse due to its considerably demeaned functioning in the areas of education in relation to the other privileged counterparts. The 1960s stimulated the social movements in the form of theoretical perspectives related to Marxist conflict whereby the moderate theorizations of structural-functionalist methods in knowledge gathering which had developed through process of reproduction to resistance theories in the following decades (Burbules and Torres 2013). It has been further recognized that conventional liberal educational theorists are often considered to promote the self-governing language that institutes are regarded as unbiased agencies of education that provide essential mechanisms for individual growth along with increasing mobility specifically the marginalized sections. However, on the contrary, the reproduction theorists have regarded class or educational institutes are referred to the agencies of governing class or culture performance in order to underpin the obtainable power associations, set of behavioural pattern and outlines serving to the ideological as well as economic demands and needs of individuals in authority (Whitty 2017). It must be noted that schools or institutions are not simply establishments whereby the overt and covert understanding offered further shape the characteristics of students into submissive or inert beings who develop the competencies to comprehend and express willingness to fit into a disparate or unequal society.
Analysis of Contemporary Modern Education
The contemporary state of decisive theories related to education must be discussed at a phenomenological level that have been classified within the boundaries of academies and is further revealing deficiencies of the competencies in order to comprehend certain phenomena of schooling procedures which developed mostly in association to the school or educational observations and altering social, economic as well as dogmatic conditions of society (Munday 2013). The term ‘phenomenological’ has often been used because of its removal from the phenomena in order to constrict the discourse and further to locate it within a broader representation that has been enlightened by critical theories of education (Lin 2017). However, it has further been evaluate while critical theoretical aspects have been facilitating recent perceptions and outlook to recognize the emergence of social as well as educational understandings, these concepts are sometimes considered to pose resistance from the propensities to establishing recently developed orthodoxies as well as complexities (Strauss 2017). Furthermore, the irresistible existence of concepts related to racial as well as gender disparities in critical interpretations in the domain of education may provide indications towards assuming the aspects associated with radicalism further by canonizing marginalization as a fundamental category as well as description (Ladson-Billings and Tate IV 2016). It has been noted that minority has been regarded as the demonstration of the periphery that seems to have been formulated in order to acquire a influential or prominent position based on the schema of critical theoretical aspects to the degree whereby the other disagreements that may recover certain ideologies of ‘pre-critical’ aspects such as inquiring the fundamental understanding and writing competencies and literacy that argue with certain critical theorists whose fundamental terrains is considered to almost academia even when the area of observation has its existence outside of it (Wexler 2017). As a result, there has been an over-representation of the periphery that has been regarded as to an extent restricted from the preferentiality for educational investigation whereby one can intend to be considered as new convention, decisive and whose fodder has established primarily from immensely prominent theories and phenomena further associated with racial and gender related disparities. Furthermore, it is significant to recognize that ideas and concepts related to ‘social position and classes have been considered as one of the most indistinctive yet usually implemented terminology present in the domain of social sciences and whereby education has not been exempted (Stephens, Markus and Phillips 2014). Though the perceptions related to ‘social class’ concerns are often associated with the ideological standpoints whereby a limited section gathered the ability to generate considerable offerings in order to elucidate the exact connotations of the term ‘social class’. Furthermore, sociology of education literature denotes essentially varied conceptions related to the social class and position (Giddens et al. 2016). However, while a certain segment of scholars pose disagreements to the representation of social class as a section of people comprising of similar standards of lifestyle, preferences and opportunities in order to attain social institutions along with associated authority as well as prestigious position whereby other recognized to the explanations of political economy where ideologies associated with social class is essentially the enduring entities of relations of production, state of affairs related to capitalist authority and the utilization of labour and forms of division of labour (Lin 2017). However, one fundamental criticism that could further be aimed at several ethnographic observations on education in regards to social class is associated to the conflation of what represents the group of labour class with geographical limitations.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded the existing theoretical explanations of education are considered as immensely significant in order to execute any discourse on varied levels. However, sustaining a suggestive approach of negativity or pessimistic nature of the intellect as well as the positivity of determination that may act as essential explanations in the situational contexts for academicians who have expressed dedication towards social integrity but further requires well-established observations of social and political possibilities of daily life as well as the recognition of potentialities for a developing action which may establish as sites of struggle.
References
Ballantine, J.H., Hammack, F.M. and Stuber, J., 2017. The sociology of education: A systematic analysis. Routledge.
Burbules, N.C. and Torres, C.A., 2013. Globalization and education: Critical perspectives. Routledge.
Giddens, A., Duneier, M., Appelbaum, R.P. and Carr, D.S., 2016. Introduction to sociology. WW Norton.
Ladson-Billings, G. and Tate IV, W.F., 2016. Toward a critical race theory of education. In Critical race theory in education(pp. 21-41). Routledge.
Ladson-Billings, G. and Tate IV, W.F., 2016. Toward a critical race theory of education. In Critical race theory in education(pp. 21-41). Routledge.
Lin, N., 2017. Building a network theory of social capital. In Social capital (pp. 3-28). Routledge.
Munday, J., 2013. Introducing translation studies: Theories and applications. Routledge.
Ritzer, G. and Stepnisky, J., 2017. Modern sociological theory. SAGE Publications.
Stephens, N.M., Markus, H.R. and Phillips, L.T., 2014. Social class culture cycles: How three gateway contexts shape selves and fuel inequality. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, pp.611-634.
Strauss, A.L., 2017. Psychological modeling: Conflicting theories. Routledge.
Wexler, P., 2017. Social analysis of education: After the new sociology (Vol. 57). Routledge.
Whitty, G., 2017. Sociology and school knowledge: Curriculum theory, research and politics. Routledge
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