Educational Perspectives in Social System: Foucault Effect

In Social Science, with a special connection to French Sociologist and Literary Critic Michel Foucault, Power refers to the capabilities, capacities, actions, conduct of a social actor. Power does never signify to the threat or use of force by one actor against another and also one single social institution cannot hold power in a structure. Challenging the concept of exercising power by any single individual or social institution Foucault declared ‘Power is everywhere’ and also ‘comes from everywhere’. As also mentioned by Sociologist Max Weber Power mainly refers to the ability to carry out one’s will despite any resistance. Initiating from the very basic of family, larger organizations also like schools, colleges, universities, Governments can also administer power in an ideological way to make learning reasonable and accessible to the students. Rather Foucault has used the term ‘Powerknowledge’ to signify that Power is constituted through accepted forms of knowledge. This ‘regime of truth’ is continuously reinforced and redefined by the social system. Education being a sub system of the whole exercises ‘disciplinary power’ for controlling the population and promoting the norms to make a productive citizen for society in future. This paper focuses on how Foucault’s concept of Power influences the modern day educational practices.