Major Sociological Theories in Transforming Individuals

Sociological theory is, of course, intimately concerned with the nature of ‘social practices’ of particular group members and with their interpretation and meaning. In other words, “a sociological theory is a set of interrelated concepts used to describe, explain, and predict how society and its parts are related to each other” (Lecture Note). An important feature of the analysis of social relations is the application of the theory to the empirical study of social phenomena and change. Through the Conflict Theory, Structural Functionalist or Symbolic Interactionist lenses, this analytical framework allows an analysis of how social relations can be understood in terms of interaction, conflict, and change.

It has the power to provide a useful tool in the analysis of the systems or phenomena of sociological interest. In this course, the particular sociological interest is education taken from the book Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover, and the application of the theory to the specific case of the study of social sciences. Education is a means to awaken and realize the potential abilities of each individual, awaken each person’s intellect. To analyze education as a sociological process means to consider education to a complex process of interactions, conflict, and change. This complexity occurs because of the fact that social relations are not reducible to simple linear timelines, but are embedded in a dynamic state of interaction and transformation which takes place in the course of a person’s existence. A study is thus most properly seen as an extension of one’s theoretical views concerning education to the social context through Conflict Theory, Structural Functionalist or Symbolic Interactionist lenses.

Examining education through the Conflict theory lens provides insight into how social detrimental social phenomena such as war and poverty derive from the lack of education, and only education can help resolve these social problems. In its essence, Conflict Theory is the “power struggle that is most often won by the wealthy elite and lost by the common person of common means” (Lecture Note). In other words, the conflict between the interests of the common person and the well-to-do elites is a fundamental feature of a social order — whether international war, conflict, democracy, political equality or gender relations. But to a greater extent, Conflict Theory looks at how socioeconomic disparities manifest as social problems, and these social problems are often at least in part manifested by inequality, be it education specifically.

This phenomenon can be seen in the case of education in the developing world, for example, with some countries having extremely low educational levels and even low literacy rates on the whole. In these countries, the education system is very often the result of political and class interests, and when inequality is at least as high, the education crisis becomes very difficult to contain. For example, in Congo and Sudan, there is a strong relationship between inequality and an education crisis, which often goes in the direction of extreme poverty and a lack of access to schooling. However, the relationship can be different in some sub-Saharan African countries such as Nigeria where many have the highest levels of educational attainment in the world and are able to achieve significant benefits from their education system. While Nigeria is immersed in the religious conflict between Islam and Christianity, Nigeria has the largest nominal GDP in Africa, and the best education system among any country in the sub-Saharan region. The government of Nigeria also has a high level of educational attainment, and although it is a country with substantial inequality, it has made a great effort to increase access to higher education for its students.

Contradicting to Conflict Theory, Structural Functionalist theory emphasizes how society remains stable or adjusts to destabilizing forces when unwanted change is threatened. As societies reach new levels of development, they are forced to respond to the dynamic demands of new needs. This dynamic response to instability and change is often in conflict with the prevailing economic and political values that keep populations from coping with these new demands. In education, a great deal of variability is present in students’ learning styles, and this variability reflects a person’s ability to learn in a social context and the way in which that learning interacts with the dynamics of the world. In both cases, the challenge in education is to design programs that facilitate the socialization of individual learners while also providing adequate resources for a systemically disadvantaged student to achieve his or her full potential. In other words, the society creates a situation in which every adult on the planet can learn and succeed as long as he or she has the basic resources needed to do so.

In the case of Tara Westover, she had virtually none of the basic services that other students in her situation would need when she was homeschooled until seventeen. Because of her situation, her educational opportunities were severely curtailed, and her social circles were deeply hostile to her. After learning about the new world through her brother who went to college, Tara decided to do something about it. Through her passion and drive, determination, and countless other qualities that made her exceptional, she has come to the realization that she would like to one day become a part of the new world school revolution, delivering education to the poor and underprivileged, to give hope to those who have yet to find hope, and to give the young people of this world the joy of learning no matter their situation. A new world is envisioned as a place where the children of the world have full access to educational opportunities that will allow them to improve their learning and personal development.

Symbolic Interactionism focuses on the micro-context of individual relationships, the interaction between people — at the individual level and in society — the dynamics across social and cultural boundaries. This emphasis allows for a more complex view of the ways in which people interrelate, but it also places considerable limits on our ability to study interpersonal interactions in the wide-span of social domains. Interactionists maintain that interactions take place in different social worlds, but they recognize that, within particular context, people’s relationships often differ from those found within social spheres; social relationships are not reducible to them. As a result, interaction can have a large impact on the way people think and see the world. In education, interaction influences learning by providing the opportunity to engage in complex social interaction. It also promotes the understanding of the relationship between what is observed in the social arena and what is known in the domain. For educators, interaction can also have a significant effect on the process of learning and teaching, through the development of collaborative learning. By its nature, collaborative learning requires an effective process of communication. As people learn, they learn collaboratively: they build on each other’s thoughts, experiences, perceptions and conclusions. This process is important in order to understand the world we enter, and to build on each other’s experiences. However, collaborative learning also requires the ability to manage and modify one’s own knowledge and emotions, as well as the processes of knowledge representation, interpretation and retrieval.

For example, a student who has read a textbook that explains in detail the mechanics of a car engine is able to determine more precisely how this car works, and how it was produced, and its cost and potential performance. On the other hand, a mechanics who did not go to college but has studied the manual of a car and its parts is better able to provide information specific to this car. This skill is not acquired in one place: there is a relationship between the material and the object that cannot be found in a book. The interactions between individuals, such as the student and the mechanics, constitute the foundations on which the knowledge of a car is built, both on theoretical and empirical grounds.

Applying social theories above, we conclude that there is a sufficient connection between the development of society and a theory that education is the process of transformation that has developed itself through conflict and in maintaining social relations. In this sense, the development of society is a natural consequence of social conflict. It therefore has a”transformation” intrinsic to its social context, and it may be a factor in determining whether the development is best understood in terms of the theory of structural functionalism. The theory of education that I have suggested, then, is an intersubjective, holistic, developmental theory with a central part of social development. The theory also has the value of drawing a distinction between the social nature of educational processes and the theory of structural functionalism. The social nature of educational processes is the product of the complex interactions of various social factors. Social factors are the driving forces of social change, and the relationship between them and the social life of communities is essential in shaping the development of human beings.