Social constructivism
Social constructivism is a theoretical framework in the social sciences that explores how knowledge, identity, and reality are constructed through social interactions and cultural contexts. It posits that what we often perceive as natural social phenomena are, in fact, products of cultural and societal influences that evolve over time. Originally articulated by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, this theory encompasses various disciplines, including sociology, psychology, and education, emphasizing the importance of social relations in shaping individual and group identities such as gender, ethnicity, and race.
Social constructivism acknowledges both objective and subjective realities, suggesting that while an external reality exists, the meanings attributed to it are socially created. Influenced by thinkers like George Herbert Mead and Emile Durkheim, the theory highlights how individuals actively engage with their social environments to build a shared understanding of the world. In educational contexts, constructivist approaches prioritize experiential learning, positioning educators as facilitators who guide students in constructing their own knowledge. Despite facing criticism for potential relativism—where truth and morality may seem entirely subjective—social constructivism remains influential in fields such as pedagogy, media studies, and cultural analysis, exploring how diverse perspectives shape our understanding of reality.
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Subject Terms
Social constructivism
The term social construction, the root of social constructivist theories, defines how a seemingly natural social phenomenon is actually socially and culturally built. These phenomena are accepted as natural and unquestionable, often explained as the norm. They are, however, a product of the culture, which causes most of its members to adopt the same worldview. In time, these interpretations of reality change as other ideas and beliefs penetrate the culture and its institutions. Nevertheless, these other ideas and beliefs may become the new norm.
In the social sciences, social constructivism is an umbrella term that covers different related theories, and which draws upon a wide variety of disciplines and philosophies; these include ethnography, sociology, anthropology, and feminism, among others. It studies how people learn and gain knowledge. It understands that individual and group identity positions, such as gender, ethnicity and race, are built within a structure of social relations, which, in turn, condition how knowledge is acquired and the world is understood. In short, social constructivism focuses on the nature of knowledge and how it is created. Constructivist theories do not discount objective reality; reality may be considered as existing both as objective and material reality, as well as a subjective or mental reality. The meaning given to it in society, however, is a created and shared endeavor, specific to each culture.
History
Social constructivism was first developed during the Enlightenment. Its modern origins stem from the work of classical sociologists such as George Herbert Mead and Emile Durkheim, psychologists such as Jerome Bruner, and educators such as Jean Piaget, John Dewey, and Lev Vygotsky, among others. The work of Mead in particular, one of the spearheads of symbolic interactionism, is considered by many as the common link among modern social constructivist and constructionism theories.
The theory of symbolic interactionism proposes that people’s self and identity are a social construction, shaped by the interactions of people with each other. Social interactionism contains a spectrum of concepts and methods that seek to define the social and cultural processes that create personal and social identities. Beliefs, expectations, and behavior are based on socially constructed systems, which create the framework that humans operate in on a daily basis. This framework contains all the information and practices understood as knowledge.
People, however, do not just receive this knowledge as if they were empty vessels waiting to be filled. Individuals and groups interact with each other, contributing to the common trove of information and beliefs, reaching consensus with others on what they consider is the true nature of identity, knowledge, and reality.
French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu was one of the foremost constructionist thinkers. Bourdieu built upon the work of Durkheim, who looked at the social structures that are imposed on individuals; even though these structures are imposed from outside, they impact the thought process and beliefs of individuals. As society modifies its structures and creates new ones, new belief systems offer novel ideas that often contradict the established order. More recent ideas may become accepted and spread, thus conditioning worldviews as previous ideas did before. As these models become commonplace across a society, they become norms and institutions, considered as necessary for society to function.
In the pedagogical field, constructivist teaching methods privilege the student’s experience, and position the educator as a facilitator of learning. Educators help learners build knowledge actively, rather than just simply reproducing facts, such as with traditional methods of rote memorization.
Social construction theories are often criticized as relativist; that is, the belief that humans are unable to see reality beyond the internal constructs of their minds. Relativism runs a varied spectrum of beliefs, which generally argue that reality exists solely as relative to something else. Different strands of relativism exist because many social structures, behaviors, and beliefs stem from a community’s history, culture, economy, geography, and other such factors. Extreme relativism, however, argues that all notions of truth, ethics, morality—and even reality itself—are merely cultural and subjective to particular viewpoints.
Impact
Social constructivism developed as academics attempted to understand, in the face of a vast cultural diversity worldwide, how people form worldviews and perceive reality. Its most contemporary strands emerged in the late twentieth century and included the field of postmodern theory. It is closely related to constructionism and representationalism, theoretical fields rooted in the human experience.
Among the most common relativist branches are contextual relativism and radical relativism. The contextual angle recognizes the existence of objective reality, while understanding that knowledge and meaning are based on the social context of culture and social interactions.
Radical relativism proposes that human knowledge is deeply subjective and the mind cannot represent objective reality. That is, the world can only be known in relation to personal or subjective experience and never fully separate from it. In this view, then, different realities exist, as many as there are human perceptions, and all are more or less equally valid. This position is the most criticized tenet of social constructionism. Critics point out, for instance, that radical constructivism calls into question the foundation of moral truths by reducing everything to mere perception.
Despite its critics, social constructivism is used in many academic and practical fields. Among common areas studied by contemporary social constructivists are ways to develop effective teaching methods for a diverse society; how gender, class, and other social variables impact human knowledge; media effects; perceptions of social status and appropriation of culturally valued kinds of knowledge; and even its application to art, among many others.
Bibliography
Bagnioli, Carla, editor. Constructivism in Ethics. Cambridge UP, 2013.
Elder-Vass, Dave. The Reality of Social Construction. Cambridge UP, 2012.
Henson, Kenneth T. Curriculum Planning: Integrating Multiculturalism, Constructivism and Education Reform. Waveland, 2015.
Hjelm, Titus. Social Constructionisms: Approaches to the Study of the Human World. Palgrave, 2015.
Leon-Guerrero, Anna. Social Problems: Community, Policy, and Social Action. Sage, 2013. Print.
Ore, Tracy. The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality. McGraw, 2013.
Taylor, Brandon. After Constructivism. Yale UP, 2014.
Thampinathan, Sanjeef. "The Application of the Constructivism Learning Theory to Physician Assistant Students in Primary Care." Education for Health, 2022, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 26–30, doi:10.4103/efh.EfH‗333‗20. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.