Sociological Perspective

The term “sociology” can be defined as the study of the “origin, development, organisation, and functioning of human society” (Dictionary.com). Within sociology, there are three main theoretical perspectives that help us to understand childhood. These are the functionalist perspective, the conflict perspective and the interactionist perspective. Firstly, functionalists believe that society is viewed as a “system of interconnected parts” that works collectively in order to sustain a sense of social balance within the world. For example, each of the social institutions is responsible for providing essential functions to society: Family is seen as accountable for “reproducing, nurturing and socialising children”, whereas education provides
Furthermore, this theory focuses entirely on the way that we act and the choices in which we make which determines our behaviour. These choices are believed to be as a result on how we interpret certain situations and how we examine other behaviour around us (Study.com). In relation to child development, interactionists believe that a child’s language acquisition is a result of its social interactions with both the environment and between other children, as well as the most significant people in their lives, e.g. parents or caregivers (Walrath et al, 2011). In relation to education, studies have been carried out by interactionists to observe the social interaction that occurs between children in the classroom and on the playground. I believe that the interactionist perception helps us to gain a true insight into the explanation of one’s behaviour. For example, some studies have shown how children’s playground activities reinforce specific gender-roles. Results of these studies show that girls are more inclined to play cooperative games, while boys are more inclined to play competitive sports (Thorne,