Education, as such, is a triangular process. At one end there is the educator, on the other end is the educant and still on the other end is society. Thus, education is a social need. Without education, no society can prosper. Education is very much related to sociology. Social process goes hand in hand with Education. Educational Sociology is very important branch of the discipline of Sociology.
The meaning of educational Sociology is well explained by George Payne: “By Educational Sociology we mean the Science which describes and explains the institutions, the social groups and social processes – that is the social relationship in which or through which the individual gains and organises his experiences.”
Brown says, “Educational Sociology is the study of the interaction of the individual and his cultural environment, which includes other individuals, social group and patterns of behaviour”.
To put in simple terms Educational Sociology utilizes all that has been learned in a social and educational field but joins them in a new science called ‘Educational Sociology’ by applying sociological principles to the whole process of education, including subject matter and activities, method of social organisation and measurement to quote Dodson, “Educational Sociology is interested in the impact of total cultural milieu in which and through which experience is acquired and organised”.
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The educational system motivates, equips and even allocates individual in a society to perform different roles. In the same way the other segments of the social system have important consequences for the system of education as a whole. Generally, a given system of education performs those functions which are more or less, adequate to the “survival” and “contribution” of a society at that point of time.