Education and Social Change in American History

Introduction

The relationship between education and social change may not appear straightforward to casual observers, but the two are inextricably bound together. The public schools in the United States have historically been used to inculcate the responsibilities of American citizenship and to promote national values and goals, and in turn, these national values and goals have been shaped by the curricular offerings delivered during different periods in history. In this mutually reinforcing and iterative fashion, education in the United States serves not only to promote and sustain social change — when social change occurs, it can and does cause corresponding changes in the schools.

Although the purpose and scope of education in the United States has been the source of debate since the country was founded, few knowledgeable people will debate the fact that there is a strong relationship between education and social change, or that this relationship can be readily identified throughout American history. To determine how this process functions, this paper provides a review of the relevant scholarly literature concerning the relationship between education and social change in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries, followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

Education and Social Change in the Progressive Era

Throughout American history, schools have been the focus of much debate over the role of government and what types of educational services citizens can reasonably expect — debates that mirrored the larger prevailing social issues of the day. According to Rury (2002), "Education often has been closely connected to the historical processes of social development. Indeed, in U.S. history, education has been a centerpiece of important periods of change in American society" (p. 4). The public schools that emerged during the early years of the country provided the foundation for a sense of proud nationalism and a melting pot for the waves of multicultural humanity that flooded the North American continent during the second half of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries. Rury (2002) emphasizes that "Education has contributed to economic growth and political change, and it has helped to forge a national identity from the country's rich variety of cultural and social groups" (p. 4). The strong relationship between education and social change is further confirmed by Rury's observation that "the process of education itself also has changed a great deal in the past, and it has been influenced by changes in the economy, the political system, and other facets of the social structure including prevailing norms and customs" (2002, p. 4).

The events of the second half of the 19th century are replete with examples of this relationship, with social change fueling gradual but inexorable changes in education in ways that were mutually reinforcing. Rury (2002) reports that "The Progressive Era was a period of transformation in the United States. The industrial revolution unleashed powerful forces of change. The economy expanded at an unprecedented rate, the nation's transportation and communications systems evolved rapidly, and the cities underwent booming growth" (p. 172). These powerful social changes demanded corresponding across-the-board changes in the curricular offerings for American students. As Frye (1999) adds, "All of this demanded significant changes in the educational system, to provide both basic education to the masses of industrial workers and higher forms of instruction to the emerging white-collar labor force" (p. 172).

The educational responses required by these social changes demanded more than merely updating existing curricular offerings; they required a more efficient and professional approach to the delivery of educational services. Rury (2002) explains:

"As the nation's population expanded — a result of both natural increase and immigration — thousands of new schools were needed. With the educational system's growth, more sophisticated forms of management and organization were required to address these conditions. Along with this, fresh educational ideas were debated as educators struggled to fashion a new system of schooling for the 20th century." (p. 172)

For American educators, these changes represented far more than demographic shifts. It became increasingly apparent that, in order to remain viable, American schools would have to change in response to larger social trends. Rury (2002) suggests that "It seems clear that the schools responded to shifts in the economic and social organization of the nation" (p. 172). The corresponding effects of these school changes on American society are illustrated by Rury's observation that "The rational, bureaucratic reforms of the administrative progressives were in part a response to the development of large, complex, urban school systems, and to the problems of maintaining consistent standards of conduct for students and school employees alike, not to mention board members and politicians" (p. 172).

Industrialization, Occupational Shifts, and Curricular Reform

As the American workplace changed, so too did the types of curricular offerings deemed most suitable for promoting economic development and providing young learners with the skills needed to compete in the 20th-century workplace. According to Rury (2002), "High schools proliferated, in large part because of the demand for clerical workers, managers, and other white-collar workers needed to record and process information for the age's new large corporate firms and the governmental agencies established to monitor them" (p. 172). Rury further notes that "Demand for professional services, from legal advice to accountants and engineers, spurred new levels of interest in higher education, as colleges and universities created degree programs to serve their expanding clientele" (p. 172). As Rury (2002) concludes, "If the industrial revolution was transforming American society, the education system was responding in kind. A new age was dawning, and modern schools were developed to meet its varied needs" (p. 172).

The relationship between education and social change, historically mutually reinforcing, continued with one side periodically predominating as these issues received alternating attention from lawmakers and educators. On the one hand, educational systems and curricular offerings changed in response to the needs of the larger society; on the other, those same systems had a corresponding effect on what kind of society emerged as a result. Rury (2002) concludes that this process helped the United States achieve its economic development goals in ways that might not otherwise have been possible. He asks, "Did schools change society in this period as well?" and answers, "Clearly, they provided the skilled and knowledgeable workers needed for the growth of the urban industrial economy. This was not a small matter, for without an educated workforce it is unlikely that the U.S. economy would have developed as rapidly as it did" (2002, p. 172).

The interplay of education and social change from the turn of the century through the first half of the 20th century was clearly tied to the larger social issues of the time. Frye (1999) reports that "Rapid social change occurred in the United States between 1900 and 1940. This change was induced by industrialization and economic development. Profound structural changes in American society resulted in great social stress" (p. 15). According to Singhal, Cody, Rogers, and Sabido (2004), "Social change can occur at the level of an individual, community, or society" (p. 5). It was at the individual level that many of the most profound social changes were felt during this period. Frye (1999) notes that "The social changes appeared most profoundly to the majority of citizens not in the statistics of gross national product or the growth of technological inventions but in the dramatic occupational changes that faced fathers and sons and mothers and daughters" (p. 4).

The technological innovations that followed the Industrial Revolution shifted the emphasis from agricultural education toward more skilled positions as demand for those workers increased (Frye, 1999). Frye observes that "With the change in types and numbers of occupations and their focus in towns and cities, other elements of the social structure also changed. Residence patterns, family structure, inheritance traditions, property holding, and other structures departed markedly from patterns in the immediate past" (1999, p. 15). Just as the American educational community helped to create the new American social sphere, that larger society in turn determined what educational programs and pedagogical approaches would best equip workers with the new skill sets needed in the 20th century. As Frye (1999) concludes, "Physical mobility, immigration, internal migration, access to status roles, and other changes consequent to these structural changes produced social stress. Like other social institutions, education reacted to this stress and developed an ideology and program to deal with it" (p. 15).

Conclusion

Although the research was consistent in showing that there was a strong relationship between education and social change, there was less consistency with respect to what this relationship means for educators in the 21st century, where technological innovations have called into question the value of rote memorization and traditional pedagogical approaches to the delivery of educational services. In reality, what is the value of memorizing all 50 states and their capitals when this information is readily available on a smartphone? What has remained consistent throughout the change process has been the need to help young learners develop the critical thinking skills they will need to use innovations in technology to their best effect.