THE SCHOOL AS SOCIAL SYSTEM

REPORTER:
FATIMA O. GERASMO AND NOVEN T. GERASMO
The Education Act of 1982
Educational community refers to those persons or groups of persons as
such associated in institutions involved in organized teaching and learning
systems.
Educational community refers to those persons or groups of persons as
such associated in institutions involved in organized teaching and learning
systems.
Parents or guardians or head of the institution or foster home which
has custody of the pupil or student
Students or higher level or a person engaged in formal study, as well
as pupils.
School personnel
Schools or institution
Primary Purpose of Schools
Preservation and continuation of the society in which they exist.
Provide a structures setting in which individuals are socialized through
the learning roles, rules, and relationships that characterize the society.
Mirror the society that supports them.
Schools in the Philippines
Formal education and societys primary learning system
Main instrument of achievement of the countrys educational goals and
objectives.
Three levels of formal school system.
Elementary Education
Secondary Education
Tertiary education
Responsibility (E.A. of1982)
To provide, within the context of formal education system.
Specialized educational services to meet the needs of certain clientele.
Specialized educational system includes:
Practical arts
Special education
Non-formal education
Social System Defined
Is a model of a school organization that possesses a distinctive total
unity (creativity) beyond its component parts; distinguished from its
environment be a clearly defined boundary; is composed of subunits,
element, subsystems interrelated within relatively stable patterns. With
certain components boundaries, equilibria, elements, and activities. Olsen (1968)
Example of social system
School building

 Complete elementary school

Complete school district
Classroom
in other words school system model can be unit of any size that has an
analytical value. The boundaries and the unit of analysis have to be carefully
defined and environment is anything outside the boundaries of the unit
analysis
There is a partially controlled exchange that modifies both the systems
internal and environmental components, and this mutual control and
exchange mechanism is explained in social system models as homeostasis,
feedback, and equilibrium. Homeostasis is a process in which a group of
regulators acts to maintain a steady state among the system components. In
the same way that the homeostatic mechanisms of an organism trigger
reactions to maintain body temperature as the organism moves from a warm
environment to a cold one, crucial elements subsystems and activities in
a school building or an entire school must be protected so as to ensure and
maintain overall stability.
Basic Assumptions for Social System Models
Social system is comprised of interdependent parts, characteristics,
and activities that contribute to and receive from the whole.
Social system are goal-oriented, and indeed there maybe multiplicity of
goals.
Social systems are peopled.
Social systems are structural.
Social systems are normative.
Social systems are sanctioned bearing.
Elements of a Social System
Institutional Elements
Educating people is the responsibility of the formal school institution. Getzels
and Guba have pointed out that the most important subunit of the institution
is the role.
The nature of roles is described by the following characteristics:
1. Roles represent position, includes principals, head teachers, teacher,
student, and custodial person.
2. Roles defined in terms of norms and expectations.
Individual Elements
Occupy roles or positions in the school; because owing to individual
differences no two administrators, teachers, or students have the same
personality, these individuals behave differently in similar situations.
Educational Administration
The ratio of bureaucratic expectations to individual needs will vary with the
specific type of organization, specific job, and the specific person involved.
Informal Group Elements

Internal Feedback Loop

Both the formal and informal groups attempt to influence individual behavior,
and the feedback loop tells and individual how his social behavior is viewed
by the bureaucratic structure and the informal group.
External Feedback Loop
Monitors school social behavior. The culture of community provides
environmental constraints that directly influence bureaucratic expectations
and group intentions and indirectly influence individual needs.
Society as a Composite of Many Social Systems
Various social systems interact within the society or supra-system. The
schools, which compromise the educational system, have the primary
function of transmitting and modifying the cultural heritage of the society in
which they exist.
A Conceptualization of an Educational System
The Guerrero Model
The educational system in the Philippines during the period of New Society is
composed of four subsystems (pre-elementary, elementary, secondary, and
higher education).
The Anglin-Goldman-Anglin Model
Educational system consist inputs, processes, outcomes, and feedbacks.
Inputs represent the base or starting point and include the beginning
knowledge and skills brought to the system by both teachers and students,
as well as their motivation and effort, the goals and purposes of instruction
set by the society and the resources available to do the job. The process
components includes the various methodologies applied in the
teaching/learning situation to achieve the stated goals. The processes used
covey such diverse activities as lectures and discussion, textbook
assignments, and research experiments. The feedback component
continuously monitors the educational system. Teachers and administrators
receive feedback through test scores, student evaluations, and observations
regarding the effectiveness of student performance. Students receive
feedback from these sources as well as from peer discussions. The progress
of the schools is also monitored and evaluated by parents in the community
at large and regulatory agencies through a variety of formal methods such as
report cards, test scores, and accreditation visitations and informal methods
ranging from school visits to back-fence chats.
The Tuckman model
Input refers to available monies (budgets), facilities, characteristics of
students (prior learning), and programs. The process component is
composed of teacher style and technique, administrator style and technique,
and program operation. The output component pertains to student growth in
terms of achievement attitudes, and behavior.

Viewing the Educational System within a System Framework

Viewing is as a system
Aforementioned purpose is realized through a harmonious blending of
different inputs
Various aspects of the educational system or suprasystems.
Within this framework, we are compelled to assess the performance of
quality control
The systems view in education provides a framework for understanding
and need for change.
Through a system view, educators and administrators are provided
with systematic system od education.
Viewed in the light of systems concepts, the educational system may
be likened to a living organism.

Using systems concepts as framework, the educational

system may also viewed within the context of the bigger
system.
The Operational Model of the School as a Social System

Since to some extent the institutional role expectations and the

individual need-dispositions have their source in and are related
to the culture in which the system operates, the operational
model in the analysis of the administrative relationships of the
school principal is viewed as composed of these salient elements:
the interaction of the role and personality in the context of value.
Integration of the Organization and the Individual
The fusion process viewed the interaction between the position
and the function of the organization and the standing and conduct
of the individual is seen as simultaneously reconstructing both the
individual and the organization.
The term socialization of personality and personalization of roles
were actually coined by Getzels and Thelen, and used in their
paper. In this paper they discussed, among other things the three
types of group leadership.
Types of Group Leadership

 Nomothetic style normative dimension of behavior and

stresses the requirements of the institution.
Idiographic style idiographic dimension of behavior and
stresses requirements of individual
Transaction style implemented by the efforts of people with
needs to be met.
The Transaction Style
Necessary to make explicit the roles and expectations
required to achieve goals. The actual balance of emphasis on the
performance of role requirements and the expression of
personality needs changes as a function of interaction within the
classroom group.