PSE4801
Assignment number: 04
Year: 2022
DOCUMENT PREVIEW:
1. Introduction to the essay:
Indicate the meaning of the school as organisation and socialisation agent in society.
The purpose of schooling is the transmission of culture, the process by which the culture
of a society is passed on to its children. Individuals learn their culture; acquire
knowledge, beliefs, values, and norms. Agents of socialization are people, groups and/or
institutions that influence self concepts, emotions, attitudes and behaviour. This
influence occurs in small groups and in society, and it may be the result of direct and
overt explicit social pressure, or it may be subtle, insidious, and unconscious. This
influence acts on the individual’s attitude, beliefs, and behaviours to conform to the
influencing group’s beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes.
, 1. Introduction to the essay: Indicate the meaning of the school as organisation and
socialisation agent in society.
The purpose of schooling is the transmission of culture, the process by which the culture
of a society is passed on to its children. Individuals learn their culture; acquire
knowledge, beliefs, values, and norms. Agents of socialization are people, groups and/or
institutions that influence self concepts, emotions, attitudes and behaviour. This
influence occurs in small groups and in society, and it may be the result of direct and
overt explicit social pressure, or it may be subtle, insidious, and unconscious. This
influence acts on the individual’s attitude, beliefs, and behaviours to conform to the
influencing group’s beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes.
2. Body of the essay: Unpack the various functionalities of the school.
School perform in a formal way those basic tasks that simpler societies are able to
perform informally through the ongoing activity of the family, the community or the tribe
e.g. in most traditional societies, children learn to work by watching their parents and
other adults working and by participating in that work at increasing level of responsibility.
In modern society children have little opportunity to watch their parents work and the
school must now teach many of the requisites skills and attitudes.
3.1 Functionalism, inequality, assimilation and schooling (20)
The functionalism focuses on how education serves the needs of society through
development of skills, encouraging social cohesion and sorting of students. According to
functionalists, the role of schools is to prepare students for participation in the institutions
of society. Functionalist focus on the positive functions performed by the education
system, there are four positive functions that education performs.
Assimilation is a cultural concept that refers to the process whereby one group, usually a
subordinate one, becomes indistinguishable from another group, usually a dominant
one. The process of assimilation occurs when one group takes on the dress, speech
patterns, tasted attitudes and economic status of the dominant group. Assimilation
involves a change in wants of the members of the subordinate group. The school help
assimilate new group into ongoing culture and develop a common allegiance to
democratic principles.
3.2 Conflict (Marxist) theory, class, reproduction and schooling.
Conflict Theory believes that the educational system reinforces and perpetuates social
inequalities that arise from differences in class, gender, race, and ethnicity
3.3 Interpretivism, socialisation and legitimation.
Interpretation is usually thought to as the engagement of a single person with a written text;
activities associated with interpretation are also entailed in the process of socialization.
Socialization is the process by which new member of the group come acquire the habits,
attitudes, or believes of the older members. What is shared is a structure of intelligibility that
enables communication and intersubjective Understanding to take place and provides a
Assignment number: 04
Year: 2022
DOCUMENT PREVIEW:
1. Introduction to the essay:
Indicate the meaning of the school as organisation and socialisation agent in society.
The purpose of schooling is the transmission of culture, the process by which the culture
of a society is passed on to its children. Individuals learn their culture; acquire
knowledge, beliefs, values, and norms. Agents of socialization are people, groups and/or
institutions that influence self concepts, emotions, attitudes and behaviour. This
influence occurs in small groups and in society, and it may be the result of direct and
overt explicit social pressure, or it may be subtle, insidious, and unconscious. This
influence acts on the individual’s attitude, beliefs, and behaviours to conform to the
influencing group’s beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes.
, 1. Introduction to the essay: Indicate the meaning of the school as organisation and
socialisation agent in society.
The purpose of schooling is the transmission of culture, the process by which the culture
of a society is passed on to its children. Individuals learn their culture; acquire
knowledge, beliefs, values, and norms. Agents of socialization are people, groups and/or
institutions that influence self concepts, emotions, attitudes and behaviour. This
influence occurs in small groups and in society, and it may be the result of direct and
overt explicit social pressure, or it may be subtle, insidious, and unconscious. This
influence acts on the individual’s attitude, beliefs, and behaviours to conform to the
influencing group’s beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes.
2. Body of the essay: Unpack the various functionalities of the school.
School perform in a formal way those basic tasks that simpler societies are able to
perform informally through the ongoing activity of the family, the community or the tribe
e.g. in most traditional societies, children learn to work by watching their parents and
other adults working and by participating in that work at increasing level of responsibility.
In modern society children have little opportunity to watch their parents work and the
school must now teach many of the requisites skills and attitudes.
3.1 Functionalism, inequality, assimilation and schooling (20)
The functionalism focuses on how education serves the needs of society through
development of skills, encouraging social cohesion and sorting of students. According to
functionalists, the role of schools is to prepare students for participation in the institutions
of society. Functionalist focus on the positive functions performed by the education
system, there are four positive functions that education performs.
Assimilation is a cultural concept that refers to the process whereby one group, usually a
subordinate one, becomes indistinguishable from another group, usually a dominant
one. The process of assimilation occurs when one group takes on the dress, speech
patterns, tasted attitudes and economic status of the dominant group. Assimilation
involves a change in wants of the members of the subordinate group. The school help
assimilate new group into ongoing culture and develop a common allegiance to
democratic principles.
3.2 Conflict (Marxist) theory, class, reproduction and schooling.
Conflict Theory believes that the educational system reinforces and perpetuates social
inequalities that arise from differences in class, gender, race, and ethnicity
3.3 Interpretivism, socialisation and legitimation.
Interpretation is usually thought to as the engagement of a single person with a written text;
activities associated with interpretation are also entailed in the process of socialization.
Socialization is the process by which new member of the group come acquire the habits,
attitudes, or believes of the older members. What is shared is a structure of intelligibility that
enables communication and intersubjective Understanding to take place and provides a
