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Lesson 1 - Individuals, Groups, & Institutions

This document discusses teaching sociology concepts to early childhood students. It explains that institutions greatly influence individuals and culture, and it is important for students to understand how institutions form and change over time. The document advocates teaching children about key institutions like family, community, schools, and government in order to help them better understand societal interactions and perspectives different than their own. It concludes that examining institutions helps students learn to effectively engage with the social world and contribute to shared societal goals.

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Rhoda E. Sabangan
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601 views2 pages

Lesson 1 - Individuals, Groups, & Institutions

This document discusses teaching sociology concepts to early childhood students. It explains that institutions greatly influence individuals and culture, and it is important for students to understand how institutions form and change over time. The document advocates teaching children about key institutions like family, community, schools, and government in order to help them better understand societal interactions and perspectives different than their own. It concludes that examining institutions helps students learn to effectively engage with the social world and contribute to shared societal goals.

Uploaded by

Rhoda E. Sabangan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LESSON 1

INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND INSTITUTIONS

Teaching Sociology in Early Childhood Education

Institutions exert enormous influence over us. Institutions are organizations that
embody and promote the core social values of their members. It is important for students to
know how institutions are formed, what controls and influences them, how they control and
influence individuals and culture, and how institutions can be maintained or changed. When
we have knowledge of sociology in the childcare field, we can better communicate and help
parents, students, and coworkers. We learn how to see and comprehend other's point of view
and opinions in a new and respectful way. We can understand different perspectives and see
why they believe the way they do.
We as teachers need to study sociology to better relate to the issues of the children in
our class and the issues of the society they grow up in to best understand what care they may
need to learn how to interact the correct way to others and build trusting friendships and
relationships with parents and coworkers.

Family and Community Integrity

Family and community are two of the most significant social institutions in the
development and daily lives of individuals. Together they shape who we are, instill us with
values, define what we consider to be normal and abnormal and teach us about what is
possible and not possible. Our families and communities print the many inner maps that we
carry to orient ourselves to the world. Communities are the context where families prosper
and flourish or flounder and fail. Practitioners, policy makers and researchers benefit by
having a better understanding of the complex, dynamic relationship between family and
community.

INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND INSTITUTIONS

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of
interactions among individuals, groups, and institutions.

Institutions are the formal and informal political, economic, and social
organizations that help us carry out, organize, and manage our daily affairs.  Schools,
religious institutions, families, government agencies, and the courts all play an integral role
in our lives. They are organizational embodiments of the core social values of those who
comprise them, and play a variety of important roles in socializing individuals and meeting
their needs, as well as in the promotion of societal continuity, the mediation of conflict, and
the consideration of public issues.

It is important that students know how institutions are formed, what controls and
influences them, how they control and influence individuals and culture, and how
institutions can be maintained or changed. 

Students identify those institutions that they encounter. 

They analyze how the institutions operate and find ways that will help them
participate more effectively in their relationships with these institutions. Finally, students
examine the foundations of the institutions that affect their lives, and determine how they
can contribute to the shared goals and desires of society.

In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with sociology,
anthropology, psychology, political science, and history. 

Young children should be given the opportunity to examine various institutions that
affect their lives and influence their thinking. They should be assisted in recognizing the
tensions that occur when the goals, values, and principles of two or more institutions or
groups conflict—for example, the school board removing playground equipment for safety
reasons vs. the same equipment being used in a city park playground (i.e., swings, monkey
bars, or sliding boards). They should also have opportunities to explore ways in which
institutions (such as voluntary associations, or organizations like health care networks) are
created to respond to changing individual and group needs.

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