Origin and development of Educational Sociology

Origin and development of Educational Sociology

The development of Educational sociology is divided into three significant stages.

1-     the first stage, that is actually on the work of John Dewey (1859-1952) and Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) 

2-     the second stage, that is after first world war

3-     the third stage, that is after second world war

First stage

This era is actually all about the work of Dewey and Durkheim. John Dewey was the first to appreciate the essential relationship between school and society. He had observed that the old simple life and the village community were inevitably breaking down and that social structure generally was changing. He felt that there were tensions developing between village and town life of which both pupils and adults were quite unconscious.

Therefore, a social spirit of co-operation and mutual aid should be elicited. In order to achieve this aim, Dewey described that school is community in miniature, a micro-society, which both reflected the larger society outside and also sought, in the long run,

Emile Durkheim saw the education as a social thing and argued:

“It is society as a whole and each particular social milieu that determine the ideal that education realizes. Societies can survive only if there exists among its members a sufficient degree of homogeneity; education perpetuates and reinforces this homogeneity by fixing in the child, from the beginning, the essential similarities that collective life demands. But on the other hand, without certain diversity all co-operation would be impossible; education assures the persistence of this necessary diversity by being itself diversified and specialized.”

He further argued that the profound transformation which contemporary societies were then undergoing necessitated corresponding changes in the national education. He concluded his lecture at Sorbonne with these words: ‘I don not believe that I am following a mere prejudice or yielding to an immoderate love for a science which I have cultivated all my life, in saying that never was a sociological approach more necessary for the educator.’

Publications by other scholars

• W.T. Harris, Educational review (1839)
• Lesterward, Dynamic sociology (1883)
• C.A. Scott, Social Education (1907)
• D. Shea, Social development and education (1909)
• Kings, social dimensions of education (1912)
• Bet, Social principles of education (1912)

Second stage

After the First World War, there were not only the economical problems was faced but also sociologically multidimensional problems was occurred. To eliminate the effects of war and enhance the collaboration among people, it was understood that to enhance the relationship of education with the society.

Number of publication was published to discuss the relationship of education and society. Some publications are mentioning below:

Publications by other scholars

• Kirk Patric, Basis of Sociology (1916)
• W.R. Smith, Introduction of Educational Sociology (1917)
• C.L. Robbins, School as a social institution (1918)
• W.E. Chancellor, Educational  Sociology (1919)
• F.R. Clow, Educational application of sociology (1920)
• Senedden, Educational  Sociology (1922)
• E.R. Groves, Social problems and education (1924)

In 1937, another sociologist affected the role of education in society that is Fred Clarke, the director of London University, institute of Education. He believed that there should be planning in education and in his book Education and Social change, which was published in 1940, Clarke stated that ‘we propose to accept unreservedly what may be called the sociological standpoint and to exhibit as well as we can its concrete application to the field of English education.’

Third stage

Third era started after Second World War to present. In 1940 Karl Mannheim, lecturer of sociology in London school of Economics, discuss the education as one of the dynamic elements in sociology; it was as social technique in itself and a means of social control. In Man and Society he stated:

“Sociologists do not regard education solely as a means of realizing abstract ideals of culture, such as humanism or technical specialization, but as part of the process of influencing men and women. Education can only be understood when we know for what society and for what social position the pupils are being educated.”

After the death of Mannheim, Clark worked further and published his freedom in the educative society, which is likened to the Platonic educative society.

In 1950 W.A. Stewart wrote an important article for the sociological Review. This article still has a lot to offer in a consideration of the content of and the difficulties involved in, a course of training teachers. Prof. Stewart spoke of the ‘traditionally cautious scrutiny’ which the study of sociology had received in Britain.