Socialization in Schools

Socialization can be defined as the type of social learning that occurs when a person interacts with others. While some believe this process is limited to childhood years, others argue socialization is a continuous process that stretches over a lifetime. Research has shown that gender group associations are the primary concern when children go from preschool age to adolescent years. Although there are many legitimate reasons why homeschooling has become popular, there is a concern about the effects of homeschooling on children, especially as it relates to the child's ability to socialize.

Keywords Adolescence; Elimination; Group Socialization Theory; Homeschooling; Peer Groups; Segregation; Selection; Social Learning; Socialization; The Social Networks Research Group

Socialization in Schools

Overview

Socialization can be defined as the type of social learning that occurs when a person interacts with others. While some believe this process is limited to childhood years, others argue socialization is a continuous process that stretches over a lifetime.

Psychologists, sociologists, and other researchers have studied socialization and social development, allowing practitioners to guide people through the socialization process. Social learning theory is especially helpful in understanding socialization and the most appropriate ways to guide a person through the process.

Selecting Peer Groups

"The first step in human group affiliation is the categorization of people into groups" (Harris, 1995, p. 466). Experts disagree on when humans develop the ability to categorize—Jean Piaget claimed that children develop this ability by the time they are toddlers, but more recent research indicates that infants can categorize people, too. Regardless of age, most people categorize others according to age, sex, and race. Young children are the exception, as most do not begin to make racial distinctions until they reach preschool age. Infants, however, are believed to recognize differences in age and gender by the time they reach one year. Interestingly, infants also demonstrate a preference for other infants, and by the time they are two years old, begin to prefer children of their own sex (Harris, 1995).

Peer Groupings & Socialization

Corsaro (1993) defines childhood socialization as the "production of and movement through a series of peer cultures" (p. 361). According to Corsaro (1993), all childhood peer groups create their own culture. And, as Harris notes, "though this series of cultures is capable of adapting to changing times, it is also capable of remaining relatively unchanged while cohort after cohort of children passes through it" (Harris, 1995, p. 470). Through these series of unique childhood peer cultures, children pass down group norms to younger children as they age and move into older peer groups. For example, a group of eight- and nine-year-olds may teach a six-year-old to play hide and seek or speak Pig Latin even as they are growing older and learning from other, older children how to play basketball or a complicated card game. In this way, groups' norms are passed down from generation to generation.

Children's Groupings

Drawing on Harris' group socialization theory, Ironstrack, Klee, McKay, and Minera (2005) write, "culture may not be transmitted from individual to individual, but from group to group" (p. 3). If Harris is correct, it can be said that children learn primarily from their own peer groups as well as from older groups—including their parents' peer groups—rather than from their parents directly. It can also be inferred that cultural transmission occurs from parents' peer groups to children's peer groups rather than from parent to child directly.

Though there may be cultural variations in parenting practices, the children's playgroup is universal (Harris, 1995). Across cultures, small playgroups will include both boys and girls and a wide range of ages; large playgroups, though, tend to divide along the lines of sex and age (Harris, 1995). And although large groups of girls tend to split up into dyads and triads, these smaller groups will usually be made up of girls who belong to similar social categories, such as age (Harris, 1995). These tendencies demonstrate that children see themselves as members of social categories, even though they may not know all the members of a category, and even if the members of a category are not all located in one place.

For example, in many cultures, a community's children are brought together to attend school. These groups of children tend to be large and composed of individuals of the same age, but that is where the similarities tend to end. Although schools generally group children together by age, children tend to choose to group themselves according to sex as well, even when school authorities disapprove of this segregation (Harris, 1995). For example, during lunchtime children will often divide themselves according to sex (Harris, 1995). The girls may sit together at one table while the boys sit together at a separate table. In schools that have a high degree of racial or ethnic diversity, children may also separate themselves according to these distinctions. However, sex tends to be the most important distinction that children make (Harris, 1995).

Once children reach adolescence, sex segregation diminishes. Instead, adolescents group themselves according to other criteria like "athletic, social or academic interests;… race, ethnicity, social class; and… proclivities such as drug use and delinquency” (Harris, 1995). According to Harris (1995), "two changes occur between early and mid-adolescence: gender ceases to be the primary indicator of group identity, and size ceases to be a useful indication of age and status" (p. 471). Adolescents who live in societies that do not confer adulthood upon them as soon as they reach physical maturation tend to categorize themselves as belonging to an adolescent group that is distinct from adult groups. Harris (1995) uses this tendency to argue that much of adolescent behavior results from adolescents' desire to distinguish themselves from adults, rather than from their aspiration to become adults, as other researchers have argued. To make this distinction, Harris (1995) says, adolescents may dress, speak, and behave differently from adults.

However, others disagree with Harris. Moffitt (2003) asserts that "adolescent delinquency must be a social behavior that allows access to some desirable resource" and suggests that "the 'resource' is mature status, with its consequent power and privilege" (p. 686).

Application

Children's Peer Groups in Schools

The Social Networks research group, composed of faculty and students from the Department of Psychology at Portland State University, has focused its research on children's peer networks. Its members are primarily concerned with how peer group processes can "promote or undermine intra-individual change in a child's academic development" (Sage, Hillier, Weaver, Newton-Curtis, & Kindermann, 2002, p. 3). One facet of the group's research has been how children join, leave, and exclude other children from their groups, as well as how children's groups impact their group members. The researchers have identified three categories of processes:

• Selection: The "expression of children's associative preferences through the bids they make to join certain peer groups, and through their attempts, once they belong to a group, to maintain existing or recruit additional members."

• Elimination: A process "in which children attempt to exclude others, or actually leave a group themselves."

• Socialization: A process "by which peer groups influence individuals" (Sage et al., 2002, p. 2).

The research group conducted a study that examined peer group processes in four mixed fourth and fifth grade classrooms in a suburban elementary school. The research team wanted to observe and evaluate the relationships between a child's school motivation or engagement, processes of selection of peer group members, and socialization influences from group members.

The 112 children and 4 teachers participating in the study were asked to complete questionnaires and engage in a series of interviews over the course of a school year to glean information about how children's peer groups relate to their academic motivation. The findings revealed that children tended to associate with other children of similar levels of motivation, and that the level of a group's motivation was maintained by adding new members and excluding members whose level of motivation had changed. Further analysis showed that individual children's levels of motivation changed relative to the level of motivation within their original peer groups.

Viewpoint

Homeschooling

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), there has been a steady rise in the number of homeschooled children in the US in the twenty-first century. In 2003, 1.1 million students were homeschooled, compared to an estimated 1.5 million in 2007, and 3.7 million in 2021. Additionally, 5.22 percent of the school-age population was homeschooled in 2022. Why is there such growth? According to Mayberry (1991), more and more families, perceiving the public schools as battlegrounds for the political and social interests of a wide variety of social sectors, are becoming disillusioned "with the quality and content of state-sponsored education" (p. 2). She argues that "the decision to homeschool…represents a political response by people who perceive a threat in the current organization and content of public education" (1991, quoted in Aiex, 1994).

There are many reasons why parents choose to homeschool. According to Mayberry (1991), three of the most popular reasons include:

• The family lives in a rural area that does not have a school nearby.

• The parents are concerned about school violence.

• The parents feel they can provide a better education than the public school system.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, parents reported anxiety regarding the environment of schools, "such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure" (2022), as the biggest reason for parents to choose to homeschool their children. Other factors included the desire to provide religious instruction and dissatisfaction with the academic instruction at other schools. These results were consistent with a similar survey taken in the early 2010s.

Mayberry (1991) also found that an ideology can also prod parents to homeschool their children. Of the 1600 Oregon homeschooling families Mayberry (1991) studied, groups she identified as "deeply religious" parents and "New Age" parents emerged as the predominate groups that homeschooled children for ideological reasons. These groups' responses led her to conclude that they perceived homeschooling as a means to control what and how their children learn and, thereby, to pass their beliefs and values onto their children.

Although there are many legitimate reasons for homeschooling's popularity, there is a concern about the effects homeschooling has on children, especially as it relates to children's ability to socialize. Based on homeschooled children's relative isolation from the socialization that formal schooling offers, one may conclude that homeschooled children do not develop the skills they need to interact with environments outside of their homes. Some critics argue that a homeschooled child's self-concept can suffer because of this isolation (Aiex, 1994). Other critics believe that parents who homeschool may be too protective of their children and prevent them from developing strategies for coping with the outside world or adjusting to college life. Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist, advocated public schools as venues where children could learn the collective, secular values and morality of society (Vigilant, 2013). Others defend homeschooling, saying that during early childhood, a degree of protection is needed to foster growth (Aiex, 1994).

Terms & Concepts

Adolescence: The period of physical and psychological development from the onset of puberty to maturity.

Elimination: Processes through which children exclude others or remove themselves from a group.

Group Socialization Theory: Theory coined by Judith Harris based on the concept that, although the influence of parents on children is great, the influence of peers has a greater impact on a child's development.

Homeschooling: An alternative form of education in which parents or guardians assume responsibility for their children's education without sending them to any type of formal school.

Peer Groups: Groups made up of people who share common social characteristics such as age, class, occupation, or education, and interact on a level of equality.

Segregation: The policy or practice of separating people of different races, classes, ethnic groups, religious groups, or genders, often in a way that puts the minority group at a disadvantage.

Selection: The expression of children's associative preferences through the bids they make to join certain peer groups, and through their attempts, once they belong to a group, to maintain existing or recruit additional members (Sage, et al., 2002).

Social Learning: A change in behavior controlled by environmental influences rather than innate or internal forces.

Socialization: The process whereby a child learns the norms, values, and behaviors of a group, largely through imitation and group pressure.

The Social Network Research Group: A group comprising faculty and students from the Department of Psychology at Portland State University dedicated to studying social networks.

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Suggested Reading

Achhpal, B., Goldman, J., & Rohner, R. (2007). A comparison of European American and Puerto Rican parents' goals and expectations about the socialization and education of pre-school children. International Journal of Early Years Education, 15, 1–13. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=25084380&site=ehost-live

Dunsmore, K., & Lagos, T. (2008). Politics, media and youth: understanding political socialization via video production in secondary schools. Learning, Media, & Technology, 33, 1–10. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=30075896&site=ehost-live

Pahlke, E., Bigler, R. S., & Suizzo, M. (2012). Relations between colorblind socialization and children's racial bias: Evidence from European American mothers and their preschool children. Child Development, 83, 1164–1179. Retrieved November 1, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=77729020

Schwartz, D., Kelly, B., & Duong, M. (2013). Do academically-engaged adolescents experience social sanctions from the peer group? Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 42, 1319–1330. Retrieved January 9, 2015, from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=89702155&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Vigilant, L., Trefethren, L., & Anderson, T. C. (2013). “You Can’t Rely on Somebody Else to Teach Them Something They Don’t Believe:” Impressions of legitimation crisis and socialization control in the narratives of Christian homeschooling fathers. Humanity & Society, 37, 201–224. Retrieved November 1, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=90085725