Education Is an Aspect of Socialization

Education is an aspect of socialization which involves the acquisition of knowledge and learning of skills. It shapes moral values through formal transmission. Education is defined as the knowledge, skill, and development gained from training or studying and, Socialization, Frohberg,(1997). the process whereby an individual learns to adjust to a group (or society) and behave in a manner approved by the group (or society). According to most social scientists, socialization essentially represents the whole process of learning throughout the life course and is a central influence on the behavior, beliefs, and actions of children. Socialization plays an important part in shaping students and their roles in society, through institutions like education and consequently the workplace as seen through the conflict perspectives.
The conflict perspectives put forward by Karl Marx (1818-1883) sees education not as a social benefit or opportunity but as a powerful means of maintaining power structures and creating a tame workforce that is maintaining social inequality and preserve the power of those who dominate society. Teachers treat lower-class children like less competent students, placing them in lower “tracks” because they have generally had fewer opportunities to develop language, critical thinking, and social skills prior to entering school than middle and upper class children are placed in lower tracks, lower-class children are trained for blue-collar jobs by an emphasis on obedience and following rules rather than autonomy, higher-order thinking, and self-expression. Since private schools are expensive and generally reserved for the upper classes, they benefited from having qualified teachers, integration of technology in their classrooms, more resources such as text books and labs while in the public schools system, especially those that serve the poor, are underfunded, understaffed, and growing worse. Students who attend the private schools normally attend the best colleges and get scholarships while those who attend public school upon completion normally attend technical and vocational schools since they cannot afford to pay college tuition and the interest on student loans can be high. Schools are also powerful agents of socialization that can be used as tools for one group to exert power over others – for example, by demanding that all students learn English, schools are ensuring that English-speakers dominate students from non-English speaking backgrounds. Many conflict theorists argue, however, that schools can do little to reduce inequality without broader changes in society. According to conflict theorists, schools train those in the working classes to accept their position as a lower-class member of society. Conflict theorists call this role of education the “hidden curriculum.” This does not place emphasis on the test or lesson content but the form that teaching and learning takes and the way that schools are organized. This is what student learns from the experience of attending school. The hidden curriculum shapes the future work force in many different ways. Students obey orders and have little control over subject choice; this is evident in many public schools where students are given rules to abide by and once broken they may be given written warning then suspension. Time tabling is an issue where student might want to explore varying subjects areas but because of subject pairing students end up doing subjects they have little or no interest in, adversely in the workplace these said students are bombarded with rules that they will have to conform and if broken you are given verbal, then written warning then if persist then you are suspended. Bowles and Gintis and Willis provide evidence to hold up their claims, they say that there is a close relationship between the interactions in the classroom to those in the workplace. Schools do reward for personality traits rather than academic abilities adversely in the work place this create a workforce that is imaginative and easy to manipulate simply because workers will believe that once they have a good personality they will get ahead and be promoted not based on hard work, conformity and obedience. And some students who learn to live with what they see as the boredom of school are prepared for the monotony of low-skilled dead end jobs those jobs with no upward mobility.
Another perspective brought on by Marxist and other sociologist is that they believe that education serves the interest of the powerful that maintains power and there is a link between the education system and the economy. This is evident in our education system; the fulfillment of education is closely linked to social class. Students of low socioeconomic status are generally not afforded the same opportunities as students of higher status, no matter how great their academic ability is or their desire to learn. Imagine someone from a working-class home who wants to do well in school. Teacher gave the class an essay paper on Monday that is due on Friday. Monday evening, a particular student might have to babysit his younger sisters and brothers while his mother works. Tuesday and Wednesday, the student works stocking shelves at a supermarket after school until 10:00 p.m. By Thursday, the only day he might have available to work on that essay assignment, he is so exhausted he can’t bring himself to start the paper. His mother, though she would like to help him, is so tired herself that she is not able to give him the encouragement or support his needs, and since she did not complete high school, she has difficulty with some of his educational materials. They also lack a computer and printer at home, which most of his classmates have, so they have to rely on the public library or school system for access to technology. As this story shows, many students from working class families have to contend with helping out at home, contributing financially to the family, poor study environments and a lack of support from their families. This is a difficult match with education systems that adhere to a traditional curriculum that is more easily understood and completed by students of higher social classes.
There have been many changes made to the structure of the education system throughout the past century but from the conflict perspectives some are still evident. At the ministry’s level the hidden curriculum is also manifested in the fragmentation of the subjects taught at school. The student during the course of the day is exposed to one subject area after another with little connection being made between the lessons taught in the various subject. Bowles and Gintis (2004) maintain that schools assesses pupils based on a set of characteristics contained in the unwritten and untaught rules which illustrate unfairness in assigning marks and grades in schools. Emphasis are placed on some subject areas since the workforce required these students for example a lot of emphasis is place on business subjects since our main industry is Tourism and the business subjects enables them to relate to making Tourism more attractive. Marxist spoke about the two groups that makes up society the rich and powerful versus the working class where they engaged in an ongoing struggles for improvement or maintenance of their quality of life. Teachers need to relate to students not based on their status in society but on the merit that each student learns differently and to be mindful of them. In school its evident that class background is directly related to grades since pupils with an upper class background possess the social characteristics, for example, perseverance, consistency and punctuality, characteristics that teacher employ as the basis for accessing performance. their background.