Institutional Functions as A Core Problem in the Sociology of Education

Abstract

This article examines the methodological aspects of the institutional functions of education, which constitute one of the basic constructs of modern sociology of education. It is shown that in the global sociology of education, the problem of institutional functions was unfortunately “forgotten” at the stage of the general social and philosophical approach of the 1950-1960s and was not developed (after the stage of structural functional analysis). This state of the problem of institutional functions did not allow for the translation of sociological concepts of education into the plane of educational policy, making these concepts evidence-based and useful for the macrosocial management of education. The article discusses the theoretical and socio-practical prerequisites and criteria for defining these functions. Institutional functions of education are considered as universal (characteristic of different socio-historical contexts), objective (independent of consciousness) social ties of the educational sphere with the main spheres of society (economy, social organization, culture and politics). It is argued that the development of this problem expresses a new “threshold” in the development of the sociology of education, rising to which it gains better opportunities for realizing its socio-practical potential. With this development, the sociology of education for the first time approaches an assessment of the social (societal) effectiveness of education, allowing it to shed the prevailing triviality and clarify its subject boundaries, strengthening the theoretical integration of sociological research on education. The issue of the institutional functions of education could give this branch of sociology a new general direction, consistent with the intentions of its founders in early XX century.