わが国教育社会学の問題点
“教育的社会学”と“教育の社会学”の再検討
1978 年 33 巻 p. 82-88,en215
詳細
1978 年 33 巻 p. 82-88,en215
Ever since educational sociology started to develop in Japan nearly thirty years ago, its qualification as an academic discipline has been criticized because of its ambiguity. A controversy over whether to define it as an applied or a pure science has been one of the factors that evoked this impression of ambiguity.
In the early years, it defined itself as an applied, practical science (hereafter called “Educational Sociology”), in which the knowledge and theory of sociology was applied to solve educational problems. Another school has emerged in later years, with the name of “Sociology of Education”, taking the position of a pure science that, regardless of practical efficiency, describes and explains educational phenomena with viewpoint and frame of reference of sociology.
Having reviewed researches carried on in Japan so far, the author wishes to argue out the controversy on two grounds.
1) The general sociology which the “Educational Sociologists” expected to rely on had not developed sufficiently in that area to enable it to contribute to problem-solving in education. Thus, they were obliged to make sociological studies on the social aspects of education for themselves. It has been a natural follow-on in the developmental course that “Educational Sociology” has evolved into the Educational “Sociology of Education”. The two schools, in principle, are not a matter of alternatives. It is urged that our educational sociology integrates its practical and theoretical positions.
2) The two schools share in a problem of value-judgement. There is no doubt that “Educational Sociology” seeks to realize practical values. On the other hand, the “sociology of Education”, in spite of its would-be objective neutral stand, cannot be free from value-judgement. First, its subject of study is derived from practical concern with the problematic situation of education. In the second place, the theoretical frame of sociology with which the educational phenomena are interpreted is based on some ideology of social life. The author proposes a need for examining researchers' ideological standpoints in society from the viewpoint of the Sociology of Knowledge.
