Key Elements of School as a System

INITIATE

One of the elements of the as a school system is school culture. Take time to read and answer the survey
questionnaire on school culture by ticking the box that corresponds to your answer.

Legend: SA - Strongly Agree D - Disagree

A - Agree SD - Strongly Disagree

Questions Responses
SA A D SD
1. I feel emotionally safe in school.
2. I feel physically safe in school.
3. I feel that I belong to the school.
4. Students in my school treat one another with respect.
5. My school imposes discipline fairly.
6. Faculty and staff value what students have to say.
7. My school respects all cultures.
8. My school reflects a true “sense” of community.
9. In my school, students care about learning and getting a good education.
[Link] of my teachers are enthusiastic about teaching and communicate this to
students.
[Link] of my teachers know me by name.
[Link] in my school help one another even if they are not friends.
[Link] my school, teachers are respectful toward one another.
[Link] my school, students support most extra-curricular activities, not just sports.
[Link] school seeks to define the problem/issue rather than blame others.
[Link] talk to students about academic performance.
[Link] talk to students about the things in school that matter in the real
world.
[Link] care about one another in my school.
[Link] and staff tell stories of celebrations that support the school values.
[Link] listen to their students when they have problems.

INTERPRET

1. What have you learned about your school culture?

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2. What do you think are the most important issues that need to be addressed in your school?
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INPUT

A school is a special environment where a certain quality of life and certain types of activities and
occupations are provided with the goal of securing the child’s development along desirable lines. The school
is an important part of society. It is considered as one of the agencies of the socialization process. It helps the
control human behavior and to develop one’s personality. The school is a system of social interaction. It is an
organized whole comprising of interacting personalities bound together in an organic relationship. As a social
system, the school is characterized by an interdependence of parts, a clearly defined population,
differentiation from its environment, a complex network of social relationships, and its own unique culture.
Sociologists made the following assumptions as they examined the school as a social system.
1. Social systems are open systems: schools are affected by state mandates, politics, history, and a host of
other environmental forces.
2. Social systems consist of interdependent parts, characteristics, and activities that contribute to and receive
from the whole. When the principal is confronted by parental demands for new courses, not only is the
principal affected directly, but also the teachers and students are affected.
3. Social systems are peopled: teachers act based on their needs, beliefs, and goals or motivations, as well as
their roles.
4. Social systems are goal-oriented: student learning and control are just two of many school goals, but the
central goal of any school system is the preparation of its students for adult roles.
5. Social systems are structural: School systems have a division of labor; for example, Math and Science
teachers, specialization such as the teachers, guidance counselors, and administrators, and hierarchy such
as superintendent, principals, assistant principals, and teachers.
6. Social systems are normative: schools have formal rules and regulations as well as informal norms that
prescribe appropriate behavior.
7. Social systems are sanction-bearing: schools have formal mechanisms such as expulsion, suspension,
termination, tenure, and promotion, as well as informal sanctions that include the use of sarcasm,
ostracism, and ridicule.
8. Social systems are political: schools have power relations that inevitably affect administrator and teacher
activities.
9. Social systems have distinctive cultures: schools have a dominant set of shared values that influence
behavior.
10. Social systems are conceptual and relative: for one purpose, a classroom can be considered a social
system, but for other purposes, the school or school system may be viewed as a social system.

Since the school has all of these characteristics, then it can be considered a social system.

Key Elements of Social System

A social system is comprised of inputs, transformational processes, outputs, feedback, and
environment (Aydin, Sarier, & Uysal, 2013)

1. Inputs
Inputs are the energy or materials that are put into the system like labor, money from the
environment, and other associated aspects such as human, material, financial, or information resources.
2. Transformational Process
Transformational process denotes effective internal processes. In education it refers to the
organization and content of the curriculum, health of the interpersonal climate, motivation levels of
students and teachers, teachers and administrator leadership, quality and quantity of instruction,
coordination and vision, learning time, school and classroom, shared efficacy and academic optimism.
3. Outputs
From social system viewpoint, outputs are those that are produced by the system or process from
specific inputs. In education, significant outputs for students comprise academic achievement, creativity,
self-confidence, goals, anticipations, and a high graduation rate as well as a low dropout rate. On the part
 of the teachers, important outputs are job satisfaction, a sense of efficacy and others. The outputs for
administrators include job satisfaction, balance budgets, and commitment to school.
4. Feedback
Feedback is defined as a reaction or a response to a particular process or activity, it occurs when
outputs of a systems are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that shapes a circuit
or loop. The system can then be said to simply feed back itself. There are three various kinds of feedback
mainly based on purpose: evaluation, appreciation, and coaching.
5. Environment
In a social system, environment refers to the events occurring in the world that have an effect on the
activities and outcomes of an organization. Environment range from “static” on one extreme to “dynamic”
on the other. Static environments are relatively stable or predictable and do not have great variation,
while dynamic environments are in a constant state of flux. Because environments cannot be completely
static or constantly changing, organizations have varying levels of dynamic or static environments.

Hoy and Miskel (2013) inject four sub-systems into the transformation process. They are structural,
cultural, individual, and politics.
1. Structural system
The structural system is similar to those of formal organizations. Bureaucratic expectations
rule organizational behavior. Roles that are derived from those expectations are represented by
positions in a hierarchy. The hierarchy distributes tasks to specialized individuals, and the organization
is a result of the division of labor. The structure of social systems inherits many elements from rational,
natural, and open systems theories. For example, social systems have both formal and informal
organizations within them.
2. Cultural system
Similar to the emergence of informal organizations, culture emerges from the interactions of
individuals within a system. As individuals interact, they share values, beliefs, and habits and gain an
identity as a group. This is a natural outcome of all social systems. Culture is the most visible aspect of
organizational life that distinguishes it from others. Culture significantly affects behavior by
establishing a commitment to shared norms among individuals. In other words, culture represents the
unwritten, feelings part that is the set of values, norms, and beliefs of the organization.
3. Individual system
Each individual has a different set of needs and beliefs that affect behavior. Unlike organizational
expectations, individual needs and expectations are flexible and adaptable to formal roles, and thus
they provide room for discretion in behavior. Individuals interpret their roles according to their
behavior. Hoy and Miskel (2013) claim that social behavior is formed by the interaction of bureaucratic
expectations and individual needs. Along with behavior, individual needs and beliefs also form
feelings. Social systems have strong links with the attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, motivations, habits,
 and expectations of human beings. Since people are an important element of social systems, their
positive feelings towards the organizations significantly affect the overall health of the system.
4. Political System
Politics inevitably appears in organizations. Politics emerges from the interaction of authority
and power within an organization. Politics is the way some individuals use their influence for their own
interests. They often use their power backstage to profit from their private affairs at the expense of
the organization. From the social behavior perspective, politics utilizes the absolute use of
individualistic needs and thus, ignores the organizational role expectations. Consequently, it benefits
individual interests only. However, this does not mean that politics is always harmful to the
organization. Mintzberg (1983) claims that politics can provide the organization with many
advantages. One advantage of the political system is that it forces a school to be responsible for its
environment. Schools must pay attention to external pressures, respond to their demands, and
produce outcomes. In other words, schools are compelled to be open systems by political forces.

Four Functions of the Social System

Talcott Parsons identified four functions of the social system, without which a social system
cannot subsist. These are called ‘functional prerequisites. These four such as functional prerequisites
are:
1. Adaptation
Adaptation, as a functional prerequisite, implies the generation and acquisition of resources
from the outside system, its external environment, and its distribution in the system. External
environment in this case means land and water. As an example, we can mention the economic system,
which involves resource utilization, production, and distribution in the society. Adaptation is oriented
to factors external to the system and it has an instrumental character.
2. Goal Attainment
Goal attainment is that functional prerequisite that involves the following: firstly, the
determination of goals, secondly, the motivating of members of the system to attain these goals, and
thirdly, the mobilizing of the members and of their energies for the achievement of thses goals. Its
processes are consummatory in character although they do involve external interaction. The
organization of the power and authority structure in a social system is an example of an institution
where goal attainment is the primary thrust.
3. Integration
Integration is that functional prerequisite that helps to maintain coherence, solidarity, and
coordination in the system. In this social system, this function is mainly performed by culture and
values. Therefore, the cultural system and its associated institutions and practices constitute elements
of the integration. Integration ensures continuity, coordination and the solidarity within the system; it
also helps in safeguarding the system from breakdown or disruption. This functional prerequisite is
internal to the system and has a consummatory character.
4. Latency
Finally, latency is that functional prerequisite of the social system that stores, organizes, and
maintains the motivational energy of elements in the social systems. Its main functions are pattern
maintenance and tension management within the system. This function is performed by the
socialization process of the members of the social system.

Key Elements of the School as a Social System

1. Structure

Bureaucratic expectations are formal demands and obligations set by the organization. They
are the key building blocks of organizational structure. Bureaucratic roles are defined by the sets of
expectations, which are combined into positions and offices in the organization. In schools, the
positions of principal, teacher, and student are critical ones and each is defined in terms of a set of
 expectations. The bureaucratic expectations specify the appropriate behavior for a specific role or
position. A teacher, for instance, has the obligation to plan learning experiences for students and has
duty to engage students in a pedagogically effective manner. Bureaucratic roles and expectations are
the official blueprints of action, and the organizational structure of the office.

Some formal expectations are critical and mandatory; others are more flexible. Many roles
are not precisely prescribed and the expectations associated with most positions are wide-ranging.
This range of freedom makes it feasible for teachers with quite different personalities to perform the
same roles in the system and in this sense are complementary. For example, it is difficult, if not
impossible, to define either the role of the student or that of the teacher in a school without specifying
the relationship of teacher to student. Likewise, the role of the principal is dependent on its
relationship to the roles of teachers and students.

From a vast array of vague and contradictory expectations, formal organizations select a few
general bureaucratic expectations that are reasonably consistent with the organization’s goals. These
expectations often are formalized, codified, and adopted as official rules and regulations of the
organization; they may delineate such things as arrival times, building assignments and job
descriptions. Specialization is the expectation that the employee’s behavior will be guided by the
experts, who complement the rules and regulations. Thus, a teacher is expected to behave in
appropriate ways based on the school’s rules and the expert’s demands in the instructional job.

Put simply, formal organizations such as schools have structures composed of bureaucratic
expectations and roles, a hierarchy of offices and positions, rules and regulations, and specialization.
Bureaucratic expectations define organizational roles; roles are combined into positions and offices;
and positions and offices are arranged into a formal hierarchy of authority according to their relative
power and status. Rules and regulations are provided to guide decision making and to enhance
organizational rationality and labor is divided as individuals specialize in tasks. Behavior in schools is
determined in part by their organizational structure; some structures facilitate and others hinder
school functioning.

2. Individual
Each social system is inhibited by living people. Whenever a role is being performed, it is
performed by individuals. Each individual stamps the role he occupies with the unique style of his own
pattern of expressive behavior. The personal dimension involves the personality of the role incumbent.
The personality may be defined by the component need dispositions. The need dispositions are
conceived of as forces within an individual. A school is thought of as a social system, with its
characteristic institutional functions, roles, and expectations. As an institution it has the function of
socialization. Various incumbents in it have to play the roles expected of them.

Every individual in the society is functional. He goes by the status-role relation. It may come
to the individual by virtue of his birth, sex, caste, or age. One may achieve it on the basis of the service
rendered. Like the status, society has prescribed different roles to different individuals. Sometimes,
we find that there is a role attached to every status. Role is the external expression of the status. While
discharging certain jobs or doing certain things, every individual keeps in mind his status. This thing
leads to social integration, organization, and unity in the social system. In fact, statuses and roles og
together. It is not possible to separate them completely from one another.

Man does not live by reason alone. Sentiments such as filial, social, and notional have played
immense roles in investing society with continuity. It is directly linked with the culture of the people.
Man is born social and dependent. He has to meet his requirements and fulfill his obligations. Man
and society exist between needs and satisfactions, ends, and goals. These determine the nature of the
social system. They provided the pathway of progress and the receding horizons.
 Individuality is one of the most important things in school. It affects the way people look at
one another and definitely how they look at themselves. What makes that one person special is how
they express their individuality. A good education system gives students the freedom to recognize
their capabilities and individual potential. It should give students the freedom to learn and create a
classroom atmosphere where thinking, questioning, and imagining are encouraged. In this context,
education should encourage students to work collaboratively and to ask questions creatively about
ideas and issues across a range of disciplines.

As creative thinkers, they try to imagine and explore alternatives, think in a different manner.
Such an approach is required for a solid academic foundation and for enhancing their intelligence,
including “soft skills” such as understanding, empathy, and communication skills. The use of different
learning materials and various resources allows students with various learning styles to understand
information in the most effective way.

Education leads to greater personal freedom through greater competence, if it becomes

organized to consider diverse perspectives. However, a student’s freedom to learn requires the
teacher's freedom to teach, and these are in close relationship with each other. In this context, current
educational systems need to adopt new methods and strategies that are able to support educational
goals and ensure the freedom of learning and teaching.
Each individual has a different set of needs and beliefs that affect behavior. Unlike
organizational expectations, individual needs and expectations are flexible and adaptable to formal
roles, and thus, they provide room for discretion in behavior. Individuals interpret their roles according
to their behavior. Social behavior is formed by the interaction of bureaucratic expectations of human
beings. Since people are an important element of social systems, their positive feelings toward the
organization significantly affect the overall health of the system.

3. Culture
Each school has a particular culture. This can be noticed in the comparison of the private and
public schools, the rural and the urban schools, the schools in the tribal areas, the schools for the boys,
and the schools for girls. Culture is comprised of norms, customs, traditions, and rules of behavior, and
attitudes. All these are reflected in the social life of the school. In the outer society, culture is
transmitted without much change and refinement in the school, and particular attention is given to
transmitting refined elements of culture. This is done through various means of socialization and the
allotment of different roles to different students.

A culture system is referred to as a vibrant link between bureaucratic role demands and
individual work which desire to take along people together in the place of work. Consequently,
organizations need to design their own unique culture. In school, shared values, norms, beliefs, and
ways of thinking among teachers are shared orientations from the culture of the school and
significantly have an influence on their conduct.

Culture emerges from the interactions of individuals within a system. As individuals interact,
they share values, beliefs, habits, and gain an identity as a group. Culture is the most visible aspect of
organizational life that distinguishes it from others. Culture significantly affects behavior by
establishing a commitment to share norms among individuals.

Society lays down certain norms and ideals for keeping the social system intact and
determining the various functions of different units. These norms prescribe the rules and regulations
on the basis of which individuals or persons may acquire their cultural goals and aims. In other words,
ideals and goals are responsible for an ideal structure or system of society. Due to them, human
behavior does not become deviant, and they act according to the norms of society. This leads to
organization and stability.
4. Politics
The structure represents the formal dimension of the school social system, while the
personal aspect of the system is represented in the individual. Culture is the collective dimension of
the system that blends the formal with the personal to create a system of shared beliefs. However, it
is the political dimension that spawns the informal power relations that emerge, often to resist other
systems of legitimate control. Members who work within the confines of the structure, culture, and
individual systems usually contribute directly to the needs of the organization at large. The structure
provides formal authority, culture generate informal authority, and the individual brings the authority
of expertise to the organization. Politics, in contrast, is typically informal, often clandestine, and
frequently illegitimate. It is illegitimate because its behavior is usually designed to benefit the
individual or group at the expense of the organization. Consequently, most politics is divisive, pitting
individuals and groups against each other and against the organization at large.

However, politics is an inevitable part of organizational life. There are always those to seize
power for their own personal ends. In its extreme, one can conceive of an organization as a mass of
competing power groups, each seeking to influence policy in terms of its own interest, or in terms of
its own distorted image of the organization’s interest. Although politics is informal, divisive, and
typically illegitimate, there is little doubt that it is an important force influencing organizational
behavior.

5. Technical Core: Teaching and Learning

The technical core, as defined by Hoy and Miskel (2013), is the system of organizational
activity where the actual product of the organization is being produced. All organizations have a
technical core that is concerned primarily with the major mission of the social system. In schools, the
teaching-learning process is the core of the organization. All other activities are secondary to the basic
mission of teaching and learning, which shape the administrative decisions in schools.

6. Environment

There is no doubt that the environment is critical to the organizational functioning of schools.
It is the system’s source of energy it provides resources, values, technology, demands, and history- all
of which place constraints and opportunities on organizational action.

Broad and specific environmental factors influence the structure and activities of schools. The
social, legal, economic, political, demographic, and technological trends have a powerful impact on
schools. Likewise, interested stakeholders such as parents, regulatory agencies, accrediting agencies,
and educational associations also create immediate and direct effects on schools. School decision
makers monitor the environment for information, and their perceptions determine to a large degree
the future directions of the organization.

7. Outcomes

Outcomes are indicators of goal accomplishment. Organizational effectiveness is the degree

to which actual outcomes are consistent with expected outcomes. Schools and teachers may define
student outcomes as the knowledge, skills, and habits of work that students are expected to acquire
by the end of the instructional period, such as a course, program, or school year. Outcomes, in
education, are about what happens to students as a result of objectives and outputs. They convey
students’ overall satisfaction with a course or program, transformative experiences gained, notable
achievements, and tangible indicators of career readiness and improved performance.

8. Feedback Loop
 A feedback loop is the part of a system in which some portions or all of the system’s output is
used as input for future operations. Each feedback loop has a minimum of four stages. During the first
stage, input is created. During the second stage, input is captured and stored. During the third stage,
input is analyzed, and during the fourth stage, the insight gained from the analysis is used to make
decisions. Feedback loops can either external or internal.

School performance can be monitored through internal and external feedback mechanisms.
An internal feedback loop is employed when a school collects feedback from the internal team, such
as the teachers and non- teaching personnel, while an external feedback loop is observed when the
comments, suggestions, and observations come from the external stakeholders such as the parents,
government agencies, and partner communities.

TASK 1

Based on the lesson discussed, complete the K-W-L Chart below.

K-W-L CHART
Topic: ________________________________________________________________________

What I Know What I Want to Know What I Learned

Task 2

If you are going to give a lecture about the school as a social system, what will you focus on? What will be the
focus of your lecture? Discuss your answer in 3-5 sentences.

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Task 3

If you are to draw a symbol of your understanding of the social system, what would it be? After the drawing symbol,
explain it in 3-5 sentences.
Task 4

Apply what you have learn on the key elements of the social system by completing the Table below using your
knowledge about your school.

Inputs Transformational Outputs

Process

Feedback