Education Through iInteractionists Perspective


Education: Interactionists’ perspective

The individuals with interactions’ perspectives are interested in day today activities of the school and their effects on the students, teachers and administrators of the school. After a minor part of socialization at home, children spend a major part of personal and social development in school.  Social milieu is very important for a child’s personal development (Thomson & Hickey, 1996).

Socialization and personal development

Socialization is a process whereby people learn and internalize the attitudes, values, beliefs, and norms of culture and develop a sense of the self. Mostly learning opportunities are planned to produce traditional values, transmit culture, and reinforce social values and norms. Schools provide such a culture in which the children interact with each other, teachers, and administrative personnel and learn to operate in formal and non-formal normative systems. Through the educational process, the students learn about themselves and others and develop attitudes, values, beliefs, and a sense of self that significantly influence the rest of their lives.

Student-teacher interaction
For the students the important business in school is to maintain their social lives. The students want to be star athletes, good-looking and popular than smart or brilliant. Those boys or girls are considered popular who most closely reflect the idealized images of masculinity and femininity.  In order to structure their everyday world of social interaction in school, the students usually form social groups based on common interests and activities, and meaningful symbols.

Labeling students

Labeling students often lead to self-fulfilling prophecies such that predictions about the students’ abilities shape future actions and behavior in such a way that the predictions come true. The labeling process has a significant impact on social interaction among students, teachers, and administrators. Labeling in school impacts far more on adolescent’s self-concept and behavior.
Most students consider their entrance into college after high school as in terms of social significance rather than academic importance.