Emile Durkheim's sociological thinking evolution from a pedagogical perspective

In the work's economy, an important specific perspective is the historic one. Thus, we shall concentrate on Durkheim's work historic analysis, made by several Romanian and foreign authors, which will help us correctly placing Durkheim's sociology within the great sociological and psychological thinking systems. At the same time, it will help us identify the importance of the paradigm he proposes within the sociological thinking system - the classical functionalism paradigm - which will influence the education sociology apparition and development. Durkheim's most important and substantial merit consists in supporting and demonstrating the fact that sociology must be conceived as a general science of the social. This approach becomes exemplary for understanding pedagogy as a general science of education. This thesis, which today is unanimously accepted, has been hardly to assert within the historic conditions where Durkheim created his sociological work during the 19th-20th centuries. (c) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.