Sociological Approaches to Studying

Functionalist approach. His representatives said the family, church, education, major social institutions, translating the cultural values. Prominent representative of this trend is Emile Durkheim. In his works, "Education and Sociology" and "moral education", he defines education as a form of collective consciousness, from generation to generation the cultural norms. Durkheim saw education as a reflection of the essence of society and identifies a number of the functions of education, considering the most important of them - the liaison between the individual and society. Durkheim advanced the following theoretical principles are fundamental in nature:
- Education is a social institution.
- Education as a social institution is dependent on the specific historical conditions of social development.
- Other social factors, as well as forms of collective consciousness have a decisive influence on education.
- Socio-economic changes in society involve changes in education.
- Education is directly related to the needs of society.
- Changes in school organization and teaching methods depend on the type of society. In the transition from traditional to industrial society is deepening individualization and differentiation in learning.
- The purpose of education as a social institution - inculcating students with such moral qualities that are required in this type of society.
- Education is the process of socialization of the younger generation.
- The public should take care that the teachers were agents of social values to educate young people as members of acceptable society.
Showing the influence of socio-economic conditions on the formation of thought, he pointed out that if the state of social media focuses public awareness on the value of austerity, physical education will be dropped, inevitably falling by the wayside. This, for example, took place in the schools of the Middle Ages.
According to the public opinion the same education, Durkheim believed to be understood differently. In Sparta, the purpose of physical education was primarily to harden the body to exhaustion, in Athens, it was a way to improve the body, pleasant to the eye, at the time of the knighthood he was required to prepare a flexible and agile warriors, nowadays the problem of physical education is not more than hygienic. Thus, even those qualities, which at first sight seem to be highly desirable, the individual gets when society offers him to do so, and in such manner as it is prescribed by him. Durkheim notes that in a society of conformity preached the same values, but in a society of individualism - the other, and this directly affects the education.
The purpose of education, according to Durkheim - awaken and develop in a person physical, intellectual and moral qualities, which requires him to society as a whole, and that the specific environment to which the individual is involved. In "Education and Sociology", he notes that the transformation of education - the immediate task of teachers who have to constantly improve. The entire educational process will depend on the teacher and the relationship between teachers and pupils. It is the student teacher can instill high moral concepts without which the learning process is not viable - that is why every word and every gesture of teachers should be thought through down to the last detail. Durkheim introduced the concept of "school environment", meaning the influence of the school on her social and civic education student and has to find a balance between connivance, on the one hand, and the abuse of power on the other. It is the school environment is unique in the sense that there child may acquire the appropriate attitudes and social skills. This is where the child is the impact that there is no substitute. Teachers also help the works of sociologists as to overcome vestiges and routine can only experience and knowledge probretennye. Overall, Durkheim consolidated basis sociology of education, had an impact on its further development.
Next approach, which was formed in the sociology of education - conflict - goes back to the classical Marxist tradition. Marx did not leave a special work on the sociology of education, but the representatives of the following areas, in particular, theorists structuralist paradigm, largely based on its methodology.
Marx believed that in an antagonistic society education is conflictual because reproduces social inequality. He pointed out that capitalism does not give different classes of equal access to education, and general alienation exacerbates social inequalities. In a capitalist society can not exist an efficient and equitable system of education, as a reproducing everywhere alienation manifested in the education system. This may explain, for example, professional teachers sabotage, diversion of personnel, unwillingness to learn, etc. Capitalism does not allow for self-identity and, moreover, does not provide "equality of opportunity" in representatives of different social classes. In society, Marx argued, always a struggle between the haves and the have-nots. The rich have different privileges, including access to a better education, and the use of the coercive power of the property management company and manipulate the poor, not allowing them to higher education. An important role is played by the bourgeois state.
In Marx's theory, the state as an instrument of the ruling class, performs the appropriate control of the educational system. In "The Class Struggles in France," he notes that the state is a machine of repression, centralized authority with the appropriate apparatus of violence. Classical Marxism does not share the concept of a neutral state, and claims that it is oppressive and overwhelming force, defending the interests of the ruling class of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat that will ensure the surplus value through the exploitation of wage labor. It is the state creates obstacles for the education of the poorer classes. In this case, Marx against the public and against the bourgeois public education. In "The Communist Manifesto," Marx and Engels advocated free education for children in public schools. Now, this view is not only developing the representatives of the structuralist, and radical humanist paradigm.
However, despite the authority of Marx's sociology, the formation of the conflict approach mainly due to the name of Max Weber, who is known as a symbol of the conflict theory. In his writings, Weber raised a number of issues, the sociology of education. In general theoretical level it is based on the fact that power relations form the basic structure of society, and that the personal status is identified with the position in the group, and the bureaucracy, and the interaction of status in the social space are of paramount importance for society. Describing the activities of educational institutions, Weber notes that their main function is to train a special "cultural status." Power relationships and the inevitable conflicts of interests in society influence on the educational system through the interests and preferences of the ruling groups, which form the school system. Weber's holistic approach combines the study makroobrazovatelnoy organization interpretive examination of what causes this or that particular situation and how we can interpret the situation. Internal maintenance of the school is the cultural status. Weber notes that this status is enhanced through the work of the school and generates the "outsiders" who do not have the opportunity to achieve success. His theory is concerned with the conflict, domination, the struggle for power, wealth and status in society. Fighting groups differ in their special cultural status directly linked to a specific position in the social hierarchy. Education status groups used as a means to achieve the purpose for military, political, and other controls, as well as the exploitation of the workers by the elite.
In the writings of Max Weber are examples of achievements in the analysis of cross-cultural education from pre-industrial society to the present, showing the role of education in different societies and among different peoples. In pre-industrial times, education is the primary goal of differentiation by teaching people to be fit for life, defining its position in society. From the period of the industrial society education affects mobility in society. Weber describes the development of society in the direction of rational organization, stressing that one of harakteritik modern bureaucracy (one of the key concepts of Weber's sociology) is a specific style guide. In his article "The rationalization of education and training," Weber notes that good education develops "specialized" type of person, as opposed to still "cultivates".
Summing up the consideration of the basic approaches in the sociology of education, it must be said that the classics of sociology and their followers in varying degrees of education justified dependence on the type of society, from the cultural and historical conditions of different countries, revealed the relationship of education and other social areas: the economy, politics, social structure, the spiritual sphere, including the traditions, customs, religion, customs, and natural causes. However, they are quite clearly shown that education is not possible to study the cultural and historical context, not taking into account the impact that many social factors. Thus been made a significant contribution to the sociology of education