AN INSIGHT INTO THE ROLE OF EDUCATION AS AN AGENT OF SOCIAL
CHANGE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Abdulghani Ali Al-Hattami, Assistant Professor, University of Dammam
Arif Ahmed Mohammed Hassan Al-Ahdal, Assistant Professor, Qassim University
Abstract
Education enables a man to acquire virtue, by making him social, interactive, and disciplined;
it opens the vistas of learning by helping him better absorb information and sharing the
same, thus making him humane, and the central element in the social structure. Maclver
(1959) asserted that social change happens as a response to many types of social and
nonsocial environment. Education is considered the most important ‘ideological state
apparatus’ devised by the ruling classes to ensure that the society largely conforms to their
ideas and interests. In the traditional educational system the role of education was to transmit
a fixed way of life to the students as society itself was an unchanging and static entity.
However, in this modern context, education is seen as an instrument of social change brought
about by changing man’s attitude and outlook. In this paper, the authors tried to display the
importance of education as an agent of change in this rapid changing world as well as the
relationship between education and the social change. The paper concludes by discussing the
importance of training faculty members in higher education institutions to cope with the
change and teach their students soft skills that are required for students’ success in the 21st
century.
Keywords: education, social change, agent, 21st century, information technology.
INTRODUCTION
Education is a never-ending process; it starts with the birth of an individual and continues till
the life lasts. Education makes a man a real human being. It is an essential human virtue.
Education equips the individual with social, moral, cultural and spiritual aspects and thus
makes life progressive, cultured and civilized. P. C. Banerjee (1947) defined education: “It is
the development of the power of adaptation to an ever changing social environment”.
Culturally, the material and non-material aspects depend upon the needs of the society.
Change occurs in these with the passage of time. New challenges are there before every
society. The structure and functions of different social orders change as a result of a number
of inter-related and inter-dependent factors. In addition, new technologies are developed for
the benefit of mankind. This paper will discuss the human development, education, social
change, and the role of education in building well-being societies.
SYNOPTIC VIEW OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
A peep into the human history will illustrate how man has progressed to date. There was a
time spanning millions of years when man walked erect, lived in caves and in groups but
could not communicate except through cries, shrieks and howls. Body language developed to
facilitate some communication which remained, for the most part, vague. Anatomically, the
voice box had not developed. Then, there was sudden change in anatomy– the brain size grew
from 650 cc to about 1,500 cc - and with this development, the power to think grew manifold.
The voice box developed and various kinds of cries developed as a result of voice
modulation. Slowly, pictography and pictorial language developed. With the passage of a
long time, language took a crude form and, with it, writing developed. Variety came about in
language and grammar was evolved to arrive at exact meanings. After the invention of the
wheel, printing was a revolutionary change. It made it possible to store knowledge and
preserve it for future generations. In the last 150 years, man has invented telephone,
telegraph, radio, television, satellite and digital communication systems and the latest is the
mobile phone technology. This brings to light the fact that education – passing of
information, invention and innovation from one person to the other, from one generation to
the next, through the spoken and the written word – facilitated spread of new knowledge and
learning. It may be emphasized here that in the past, this was possible only by using archives,
libraries and other modes of recording. It proves the hypothesis that education is the tool of
social change which includes change in other aspects of life, such as, cultural, economic and
structural sub-systems of social system.
DEFINITION OF EDUCATION
Various educationists and philosophers have defined education as a process of development.
The meaning of education is manifold. It not only encompasses the all-round or holistic
development of the child, but also includes teacher education as an independent field of
study. Further, it has an intrinsic economic value (and hence its nickname as an investment)
and is also, at the same time, a veritable instrument of social change and control. Education is
a creation of the society and, equally, a creator of it as well. In fact, Education is not only
relevant in the present time but, is also, the means for preparing one for the future. M. K.
Gandhi (1969) said, “By education, I mean all round drawing the best in a child and which
means body, mind and soul”.
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The basic objective of education is to get knowledge, skill and values (ethical, moral,
spiritual and professional) as well as to learn desirable behavior in societal institutions that
make up the structure of society. Socialization process helps man to adapt to the diverse
behavior patterns and changing situations in diverse role contexts. As far as the application of
philosophy of education goes, education helps in reduction of poverty by mitigating its
adverse effects on population, health and nutrition.
While changes in social, economic and political environment take place due to various
factors, the human resource has to adapt to those changes for stability of society, economy
and relationships. Similarly, science and technology introduce inventions into the methods
and processes and so, education has to be re-oriented to respond to those changes.
Thus education is a dynamic, continuous (lifelong), purposeful or objective-oriented process.
Education is, therefore, a tool of individual and social transformation. Historically
considered, during ancient times, in very remote past, social change was brought about by
social wars and battles. Civilizations died and new ones emerged. Science and Technology
ushered in (and continue to do so) changes in methods, cultures, systems and structures of
society. Nowadays, therefore, changes can be made by changing education. It would be
appropriate to discuss the subject at this stage in a historical perspective.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ABOUT EDUCATION
Education among the masses in the world, was extremely restricted for the elite, very poor in
content and coverage. Further, education as a part of the entire culture of the society was
controlled and administered by a specific section, and was used as an instrument of training
with a specific aim in sight. It taught the pupil the virtue of unconditional allegiance to elders,
to parents, to teachers, and to the king. It was a means of making the individual accept and
conform to hierarchical structures of the society and completely subordinate his individuality
to it. Modern education has a fundamentally different orientation and organization as
compared to traditional education. Its content is liberal and exotic and it is steeped in modern
world-view. Modern education is not contained in water-tight compartments. It encourages
an inter-disciplinary approach. In the present time, our social and professional problems are
very complex. They cannot be solved by the experts of any one discipline. It requires experts
of various disciplines to work jointly to find workable solutions. Social change happens as a
result of the fast changing world of the 21st century.
CONCEPT OF SOCIAL CHANGE
Parsons (1937) believe in the existence of structural and functional sub-systems within the
social system. The change in structural and functional sub-systems of the social system is
called social change. According to Jenson (cited in Jadhav, 2012), social change may be
defined as modification in the ways of doing and thinking of people. As per the views of
Dawson, cultural change is the social change. Cultural change can be grouped into two
categories: material and non-material. Material aspects of culture deal with the materials of
utility while the non-material part constitutes habits, ideals, beliefs, attitudes and values. State
of social development is called civilization. In the light of the above facts, social change
means change in material and non-material aspects of the society. According to McIver
(1920), change in social structure is called social change. Peter McLaren defines it as “the
process through which students learn to critically appropriate knowledge existing outside
their immediate experience in order to broaden their understanding of themselves, the world,
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and the possibilities for transforming the taken-for-granted assumptions about the way we
live” (as cited in Shor, 1992, p.16).
Education and Social change
There is hardly anything in our midst which is static. Everything changes, just as every
organism grows. The society composed of human beings also undergoes changes. These
changes occur in the society’s cultural pattern and its structure and, consequently, cast an
impact on its members. This process of change is quite complicated and needs careful and in
depth study. Education has to change its direction in response to the changes in environment.
The institutional framework in society is geared towards improving the quality of life and this
is brought about by changes in production patterns, which, in turn, influence the consumption
patterns, and that leads to change/shift in relationships. The structure of society undergoes
change and such changes are a continuum.
Education is considered as the most powerful social change instrument. Through education,
any society can bring desirable changes that can cope with the rapid development of
technology. Education, no doubt, can help the process of social change as a necessary and
vitally important collateral factor. It can help to stimulate, accelerate and work out that
process by disseminating and inculcating knowledge, information, skills and values
appropriate to the changing socio-economic issues. Education may help the process of far-
reaching social change by using its liberating role of examining and analyzing the existing
social situation.
The relation between education and social change has been examined in rural contexts, where
rigid class systems have proved as barriers to education as well as agricultural changes. Some
research studies are mentioned below:
Lerner (1958) stated that the key to modernization lies in the participant society – one in
which people go through school, read newspapers, are in the wage and market economy,
participate politically through elections and change opinions on diverse matters. He also
posted that education is the pivotal agent in the transition to a fully participant society.
Theodore Schultz (1982) has pointed out that with economic development and the
requirement for highly educated and trained manpower, parents become increasingly
concerned with the quality of their children, as against the number of children emphasized in
traditional societies. Therefore, parents invest in children’s education more as it is investment
in growth agent (education); it has twin advantages of stimulating the process of development
and lowering fertility thus accelerating the process of development.
Marion Levy (1972) has indicated that the aspects of social relations of people may be
discussed in terms of (i) rationality and traditionalism; (ii) universalism and particularism;
(iii) functional specificity and functional diffuseness and (iv) avoidance and intimacy. As the
level of modernization of a society increases, the emphasis shifts on to explaining one’s
reasons for doing a given thing in scientifically defensible terms. Education can be viewed as
investment, an instrument of economic stability, and a discipline.
Education as Investment
In modern economic thought, the concept of education as investment in human capital and as
a critical factor in economic development is of recent origin. The Prime Minister of India in
his foreword to the Seventh Five-Year Plan emphasized human factor in development process
in the following words: “In the final analysis, development is not just about factories, dams
and roads. Development is basically about people. The human factor, the human context, is
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of the supreme value. We must pay much greater attention to these questions in future.”.
Therefore, the human factor is an important correlate of socio-economic development.
Productivity is not a simple consequence of economic resources and inputs. Economic
resources are manipulated by the human factor which serves as a critical variable in the input-
output analysis.
Education for Economic Stability
In the modern society where specialized workforce is the need to attain economic power, the
acquisition of special knowledge and education has assumed economic significance. These
are in great measure economic investment and, combined with other human investment,
predominantly account for the productive superiority of the technically advanced countries.
Nicholson (1990) has given a beautiful example to illustrate the superiority of human skill.
He says that Germany had been devastated by pestilence, famine, civil and foreign wars in
almost every century but it has regained its power quickly every time, while rich and mighty
Spain enjoying comparative internal peace had sunk deeper into poverty and misery. The
same sun still shines on the Spaniards, they have been endowed with rich minerals but that
nation has gradually lost powers of production and has become poor and miserable. It is due
to immaterial products of human industry. Thus, a country is required to sacrifice and give up
measures of material poverty in order to gain culture, skill and powers of limited production;
it must sacrifice some present advantage in order to ensure future ones. Human capital is,
therefore, a joint product with the commodity being produced and this capital formation aids
further developments in both the protected industry and the economy as a whole. The
description above boils down to the stark truth that for economic stability, the human capital
has to the sustained, further trained in the latest methods and technology and kept happy and
contented; these steps will keep the human capital (work-force of the country) motivated and
committed.
Education as a discipline
Education has general and professional aspects. As a general discipline, it teaches desirable
attributes to develop well groomed or rounded personalities, makes students
(children/disciples) values and build strong characters. Education removes ignorance and
creates awareness of subjects, sets the aim of life and as a short-term objective, prepares one
for survival and for making a positive contribution to the society through the process of
socialization and assimilation. Education polishes manners, develops the spirit of service and
enquiry; makes the individual a true citizen, an informed and responsible parent, proficient
worker and efficient professional. The education system provides alternatives in choosing
professional courses as per aptitude or taste or interest. Thus, education does not only make
an individual a good human being, but, also, makes him a worthy member of the society, a
proficient or expert professional.
Education has three components: knowledge, skills, attitude. While knowledge of content is
provided in all kinds of education (general or specialized), skills are imparted and practiced
more in professional/vocational courses. Attitude is tackled in all courses and at all levels in
all disciplines. Without a positive attitude, knowledge and training remain idle rather only in
store (tacit knowledge) which loses relevance and may fade away to a degree.
In the 21st century, the core strength of any country can be natural and human resources.
Change in employment pattern, industry, business, services through the adoption of an
education system which is in sync with the Information & Communication Technology will
make a country a financial (Economic) superpower. The US and its allies fought two world
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wars because of money power and the longest sword they possessed. Now, economics will
rule the world. Time has changed. Good and relevant education creates specialized and
skilled manpower. To cite an example, India changed its education policy and supported
technical education. The result is a large specialized and professional human resource called
human capital. The result is that Indians have occupied a good percentage of highly skilled
jobs in the most advanced countries. Domestically, technology was upgraded and India is
now among the few advanced nuclear powers, included in the exclusive nuclear club of six
members. This is the miracle achieved through education.
SAUDI GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO SOCIAL CHANGE
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the government has set high expectations from its higher
education institutions. It indicated that the education system remained insufficient to meet the
requirements of the rapid changing society. It thus recommended that new mechanisms that
would respond to the demands of the economy and the labor market and, particularly,
increase the employability of young people in different majors, medical, science, engineering,
administration, computer science, and information technology are crucially needed. One of
the most important initiatives designed to pursue drastic reforms in the sector of higher
education is the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment
(NCAAA), which came into being in 2003 with the aim of improving the quality of higher
education provision through determining standards and criteria for academic performance and
accreditation of academic programs. The NCAAA has set eleven key quality standards for
higher education institutions the most relevant of which to the professional training program
is Standard 4. Standard 4, which deals with aspects of teaching and learning, focuses on five
broad areas known as learning outcomes domains. These are knowledge, cognitive skills,
interpersonal skills and responsibility, communication, information technology and numerical
skills, and psychomotor skills (National Commission for Academic Accreditation and
Assessment, 2009).
Although each college has a strong cadre of qualified faculty, intended learning outcomes do
not cover the five domains specified in the National Qualification Framework stated by the
NCAAA as well as the other important skills that are considered crucial for students to cope
with the 21st changes. This might due to the fact that faculty members lack the necessary
educational competencies and skills mentioned above. Current university teaching is
problematic because faculty members tend to teach the way they were taught with the
inherent dangers of proliferating uninformed, outdated, and/or inappropriate teaching and
assessment practices.
IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING FACULTY MEMBERS
A teacher has to be taught how to use the knowledge of psychology and sociology along with
the knowledge of the subject-content while teaching a student to make him or her understand
the material easily, fully and without the fear or inhibition of any kind. The teacher has to be
so trained as to develop the right attitude, understanding and commitment. The teacher should
also have access to resources and technological tools to smoothen the process of teaching-
learning. For this, appropriate training is imparted before taking him on rolls, retrained in-
service. They should be encouraged to develop reflective analysis to think of new ways,
methods and content to improve the quality of his output as per the needs of the students.
Teacher training is a process that involves inputs from three disciplines: Education,
Sociology and Psychology. The solution found to any problem will be a confluence of these
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disciplines. We may term this as “social psychology of education”. A teacher has to play his
role effectively by first updating himself through reflective teaching, identifying classroom
problems/situations where experience-based decisions will have to be taken. Experience does
not come naturally; it has to be acquired by research, seeking the feedback of peers and
having open discussions. The teacher’s lessons should be intelligible, clear and clothed in
simple language. He/she should generate a classroom discussion and encourage questioning.
His behavior should inspire the students and thus promote human values in them. The teacher
has to be innovative and creative to identify student-related activities to engage them in
community service to sensitize and guide them on the path of righteousness and truth (Al-
Hattami, et al., 2013).
Higher education institutions should provide regular training workshops for faculty members.
The importance and effectiveness of faculty training programs is to enhance and elevate
faculty members' professional abilities in teaching. Faculty professional development should
be looked at as a lifelong learning process. Based on a number of in-depth interviews, Gibbs
and Coffey (2000) developed a framework that lays out the rationale for conducting a faculty
training program. Their rationale is based on the improvement of teachers' skills, the
development of teachers' conceptions of teaching and learning, and the consequent changes in
students' learning.
There is no doubt that the teacher plays a crucial role in the transformation of individuals and
society. Teachers are the people who can affect the child’s eternity. Teachers are the role
models for young students. They continue to influence their wards - some inspire them to the
extent that they make their mark and excel. As students are the future of a country, the
models they follow should be absolutely exemplary. Teachers are one single community of
elders who can have very far reaching effects on the younger generation; they have broader
spectrum of influence on the students, even more than the parents. Teachers should be
properly educated, made aware of contexts, enabled to be up to date with the subject matter
and audio-visual and tech-savvy. They can deliver the goods, present their lessons well and
create perfect understanding in their students. They must generate discussions, sharpen
intellects and help the learners relate their lessons to real life situations. Such a divine job can
be done by a teacher who is passionate about teaching, who is professional to the core.
Teacher-training is the most important subject that must attract serious attention of the higher
education institutions, governments and administrators (Al-Hattami et. al., 2013). The power
of individuality makes a grain of mustard into a mountain.
CONCLUSION
Education is a dominant factor which affects the social and cultural behaviors of individuals
directly or/and indirectly. The effect of education is discernible in: (a) standard of life and
living; (b) resources; (c) population situation; (d) environmental problems; (e) existing socio-
cultural patterns, etc.
In fact, education is fundamental to bring change in the socio-cultural behavior of people.
People are constructively engaged and are trying to improve their standard of living. The
awareness component as well as development component is the function of education with
specific reference to social change in the area of standard of living. Not only this, education
affects the development of resources which leads to a significant change in the material and
non-material aspects of the culture of any society. This paper discussed, briefly, the role of
education as an agent of change in the social development and how it contributes to human
resource development and human capital formation. The latter is the sum total of knowledge,
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skills, initiative, resourcefulness, capacity for sustained work, right interests, attitudes, values,
aptitude and all the other human qualities conducive to higher output and accelerated
economic growth. Human resource development and human capital are non-material
components of culture.
Further, technical education is the tool to develop technological resources owing to
researches. Education makes it possible to capacitate people to use natural resources like
forests, water, air, petroleum, metals and minerals, etc. Education helps reorient attitudes
towards environment, nationalism, modernization, internationalism, westernization, etc.
Above all, it is through education that we learn to cooperate, collaborate, be humane and
uphold human rights and respect human dignity as well as dignity of labor. Education teaches
us the lessons of peace and harmony, overcoming strife and conflict and working for a better
future.
To sum up, education is a necessity for all irrespective of caste, creed color or gender. Every
country should be concerned about education. Computer power, Technology, and
Telecommunication technology and technology in relation to activities (in industry, business,
services and home) have converged and, therefore, education system has to adapt to them to
develop the education methods, practices and procedures. Case study method, storytelling
method, experience sharing, group discussions, exercises and role play are now the tools used
to teach and learn without strain and stress.
Education develops the individual: it makes him civilized and sophisticated, and a competent
professional capable of coping with difficult situations and ultimately an expert with the
qualities of a good human being and a responsible citizen.
Education effects changes in thinking, ideology, culture and interaction and this is what
makes society dynamic, vibrant and prosperous. There is an undeniable link with personal
development, social and economic development and ultimately, national and international
development. Education removes all kinds of barriers and helps in establishing peace,
harmony and happiness. Teachers are the kingpins for growth, development and
empowerment good governance is the driver.
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