As a separate discipline, the sociology of education was formed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. E. Durkheim, D. Dewey, and a number of other sociological scientists came to the conclusion that it was necessary to analyze problems that were associated with the role and functions of education. At the same time, it is the subject and object of studying pedagogy and psychology, history and philosophy, where each science explores the facet that is relevant to it. Sociology relies on information of a general nature, but without which other sciences cannot fully function. Along with this, the sociology of education sets itself specific tasks:
- study the needs of the training system;
- assessment of the quality and level of knowledge and their social significance;
- analysis of the attitude of society to a functioning system;
- impact on education reform;
- determining the degree of its influence on the dynamic development of spiritual needs.
Accordingly, this science is interested in the social side of the education system: how a person joins groups and occupies certain positions, assimilates roles. In accordance with this, the sociology of education is a holistic system of sociological knowledge, which consists of three levels:
- general theoretical and sociological level;
- including special sociological theories;
- consisting of empirical case studies.
Based on the general theories of the general level, knowledge of the middle level appears,
to which the studied industry belongs.
Defining the subject of the sociology of education, the emphasis is on its social nature: the education system as a social institution in which all systems and subsystems are actively interacting, it clearly traces clear links between systems and sublevels.
The object of this industry is education as a social phenomenon: people, organizations and their role in the system. Here we can talk about the environment where the functioning of educational processes takes place, where subjects interact through training sessions.
Studying this system, sociology isolates the functions that underlie
activities:
- Transfer of knowledge to future generations. This function is subject to implementation through the family, educational institutions.
- Ensuring the continuity of social experience. Consolidated in the skills, acquired knowledge and skills, human experience is in the present, but at the same time it actualizes the past and leads to the formation of the future.
- The assimilation of values, which are determined by the prevailing culture.
- The development and disclosure of the abilities of an individual personality, which are prerequisites for the successful implementation of an activity.
- Assistance in the movement of a person with a certain level of acquired knowledge and skills to a higher social status, which also influences mobility in society.
Thus, the sociology of education is a branch of sociological knowledge that determines the role and place of education in the system of social reproduction.