The Importance of Social Education in Schools

By Joe Lumsden,
Deputy Head of School and Secondary School Principal

Social Education has been defined by UNESCO as, “The only means to elevate mankind emotionally, intellectu­ally, morally and materially”, while the Central Ministry of Education in India included phrases like ‘functional literacy’, ‘moral life’, ‘community development’ and ‘desirable social change’ in its 1963 definition. It seems there is a broad agreement about the kinds of aspirational goals we would like ‘social education’ to achieve, but how to do it is obviously more challenging.

It seems to be that schools address ‘social education’ through three main avenues.

To begin with, one of the fundamental building blocks of social education must be ‘literacy’. Societies function through effective communication, and without literacy (and to a lesser extent strong numeracy), it is difficult to imagine a community or society enjoying any cohesion or success. This is why you will always see the community’s main language as the most important course in any student’s report card, and why language competence will often be one of the key requirements in admissions tests for schools and universities. 

Secondly, schools will also offer ‘social science’ courses, which usually consist of history, geography, economics, business, religion, philosophy, psychology, etc. The purpose of having students take these courses is to help them understand how they fit into the world, how people relate to each other, how things developed the way they did, and how people have thought about societies and the ideas that drive them. In my experience, I’ve often found that these are the classes at schools that students feel most comfortable in, which suggests to me an innate desire in young people to feel part of a community and to find ways to contribute (which contrasts with the typical criticism of our youth as being overly narcissistic).

Finally, beyond the curriculum, schools will often engage students in service work in the local community. The purpose is to help our students make connections between learning in the classroom and the world that they inhabit. These experiences can be very powerful learning opportunities, especially for students whose lives and schools feel more like a safe bubble, detached from the challenging lives of those around them.

This three-pronged approach of literacy in the official language, social studies classes and community service work may have served its purpose during the twentieth century; however, it is fairly clear that ‘social education’ needs to look different now.