Education and Social Change

The book: Sociology is a new social science. Sociology of education is one of the most recent sub-areas of Sociology. Although early educationists like Socrates, Quintilian, Alebard, Pestalozzi, Froebel and Thomas Arnold had stressed upon the social aspects of education in their speeches and writings, yet it was only towards the close of the 20th century that a formal study of the sociology of education began to interest educationists and sociologists. Among the educationists, William T. Harris, the United States Commissioner of Education, was the first to emphasize that education must be based on sociology. In 1897, Albion W. Small of the Chicago University, the first Professor of Sociology in the United States, emphasized that “every teacher should be sufficiently instructed in Sociology to put all his teaching in the setting which the sociological view point affords.” The well known educational philosopher John Dewey in My Pedagogical Creed (1897) expressed his belief that “the school is primarily a social institution, education being a social process.” In India till 1960s our teacher training colleges and university departments of education were completely ignorant of the emergence of ‘Sociology of Education’, the new discipline that had started growing since 1945 in USA. All our teacher education colleges and university department of education taught “Educational sociology” with the same features as pointed out above. Although some Indian sociologists had contributed one or two research studies or articles relating to sociology of education till 1966, yet there was no serious academic understanding and training of sociology of education either in sociology or in education departments of Indian universities. When Kothari Education Commission work was going on in 1964-66, its Secretary J.P. Naik involved a number of Indian sociologists to conduct an empirical study in sociology of education in six states of India to generate sociological data and ideas for the Commission. Also Prof. M.S. Gore was requested to invite papers on different themes of sociology of education, from Indian sociologists and other interested scholars. In this volume I have placed together my selected papers, articles and chapters on most important problems of Indian education contributed me during my last 25 years as active and one of the few pioneers of sociology of education in India, in the hope that the teachers and student of sociology of education in India and abroad will be facilitated, helped and guided by these writing. I have pleasure in dedicating this volume of my life time contributions as a sociologist of education to all students and teachers of Sociology of education.