The relationship between the individual and society is a multifaceted research question characterized by diverse opinions. Numerous social needs as education, depend on their connection and communication. The sociology of education includes a set of types and activities of various educational institutions, which provide members of society with knowledge, fundamental ideas, and professional skills. Structural functionalism and symbolic interactionism are concepts that enable comprehension of the nature of the interaction between society and the individual and explain the educational process.
Firstly, it is worth beginning with structural functionalism and its primary categories. Its creator is Parsons, whose theory explores the individual and his basic actions in society. Social systems are formed by processes and states of social interaction between the main subjects actively interacting with each other (Stolley, 2005). Since the social system is formed of individuals, each participant is endowed with ideas, goals and attitudes correlated with cultural values and norms of life. Each person unwittingly opposes the other, which characterizes group, class, and personal relationships. If such relations are preserved, the system can be considered viable. The development of Parsons’ theory was carried out by Robert Merton, who improved and modified the structural functionalism of his predecessor (Stolley, 2005). He believed Parsons’ theory was essentially a philosophical system challenging to reconcile with empirical analysis.
Functionalism in the sociology of education deserves an exceptionally detailed analysis. According to it, societies, like living organisms, consist of objectively necessary and interrelated parts, each of which performs a specific function (Musgrave, 2017). These include the transmission of culture, the reproduction of the whole model, the exercise of control and power, the distribution of benefits, and more. All organs must act in concert, achieving the balance of society. Functionalist sociologists consider the family, the Church, and education the leading institutions of cultural transmission (Musgrave, 2017). If one is dysfunctional, the others take over some of its functions for societal balance. Teachers and students are not bound together by personal feelings and attachments but by common and abstract grounds (Musgrave, 2017). However, school is not a mirror image of adult society; it resembles other social institutions without fully reproducing them, which makes it a link between family and adult society.
Symbolic interactionism operates with various categories, the consideration of which is no less critical. The concept pays special attention to communication, through which the essential characteristics of society and the individual and their unity achieved in the interaction process are manifested (Stolley, 2005). Due to socialization, people can interpret stimuli and expected responses more or less consciously. Symbols are what make it possible to do what animals cannot. Consequently, symbolic interactionism states that the symbolic environment mediates people’s interrelation with physical and objective reality (Stolley, 2005). In other words, people’s meanings of signs and symbols define them and the reality they feel.
In the process of socialization, common cultural meanings control how individuals interact with the environment. Thus, symbolic interactionists perceive society as an interconnected system of positions, roles, statuses, group expectations, and reactions to actual behavior, which always deviate from set norms. A mutually consistent set of attitudes, directions, and meanings toward others and oneself is gradually formed. Concerning the education system, this approach aims to study not only educational associations in which direct communication and psychological interaction prevail but also to explain the features of management (Musgrave, 2017). It is of great theoretical and methodological importance when studying such components of managerial activity as attitudes or behavior motivation because a manager’s behavior, to a certain extent, can be considered a role with its own stable socio-psychological structure.
Thus, it can be concluded that both concepts are based on different approaches and categories. Structural functionalism interprets society as a system with its own structure and mechanisms of interaction of structural elements, each of which performs its own function. Symbolic interactionism puts forward the idea that the social world can be represented as a diversity of symbols that create the basis for human interaction.
References
Musgrave, P. W. (2017). The sociology of education. Routledge.
Stolley, K. S. (2005). The basics of sociology. Greenwood Publishing Group.