2.1 perspectives on education

Question 1

What do the functionalists argue the main purpose of education is?

Answer 1

• education is an important agent of socialisation helping to maintain social stability through the development of value consensus, social harmony and social cohesion

Question 2

What are the four basic functions of education, according to the functionalists?

Answer 2

1. passing on society’s culture and building social solidarity
2. providing a bridge between particularistic and universalistic values
3. developing human capital
4. selecting and allocating people for roles in a meritocratic society

Question 3

How does education pass on society’s culture and build social solidarity?

Answer 3

• by both the hidden curriculum and the overt curriculum

Question 4

What is meant by the hidden curriculum?

Answer 4

the hidden curriculum concerns not so much the formal content of subject lessons and examinations as the way teaching and learning are organised
e.g. school assemblies to teach respect for the dominant moral values

Question 5

What does Durkheim say about education?

Answer 5

• schools are a ‘society in miniature’, they are a small scale version of a society as a whole that prepares young people for a life in wider adult society

Question 6

Who coined the term ‘human capital’?

Answer 6

Schultz(1971)

Question 7

What is meant by human capital?

Answer 7

• the knowledge and skills possessed by a workforce that increase that workforce’s value and usefulness to employers
• money is invested in the development of a workforce who can provide the relevant skills needed for a thriving economy

Question 8

What do Davis and Moore argue about education?

Answer 8

• education is a major method of role allocation
• the more talented people gain higher qualifications which leads to important jobs with more money
• inequality is necessary

Question 9

What is the general marxist perspective on education?

Answer 9

• education is primarily a means of social control, encouraging young people to be conformists and to accept their social position and not do anything to upset the current patterns of inequality

Question 10

How does education maintain capitalism?

Answer 10

• reproducing the class system
• teaching skills and values needed by capitalism
• legitimising inequality

Question 11

What does Althusser argue about education?

Answer 11

• education is an ideological state apparatus
• the main role of education is to reproduce an efficient and obedient labour force

Question 12

What does Bourdieu(1977) argue about education?

Answer 12

• each social class posses its own habitus(cultural framework)
• success in education is based on the possession of cultural capital(the knowledge, manners and behaviour which gives middle class people an advantage)
• pupils from lower classes don’t posses cultural capital, so the educational failure of the majority of these pupils is inevitable

Question 13

What do Bowles and Gintis(1976) argue about education?

Answer 13

• education produces a hardworking, docile, obedient workforce through:
  1. the hidden curriculum and the correspondence between the social relationships at school and work
  2. education legitimising inequality and the class structure
• there is a ‘long shadow of work’ that influences the organisation of education

Question 14

What do Illich and Freire argue about education?

Answer 14

• schools are repressive institutions which promote conformity
• they do this by rewarding those who accept the school regime with qualifications and those who don’t conform are excluded from further progress

Question 15

What does Illich suggest as a solution?

Answer 15

deschooling = abolish schooling altogether

Question 16

What is meant by hegemonic control?

Answer 16

where the control of the working class is mainly achieved through the hegemony and acceptance of ruling class ideas

Question 17

What does the work of Paul Willis(1977) suggest?

Answer 17

• schools don’t always produce an obedient workforce, students can be disruptive and challenge the school
• young, working class males aren’t forced/persuaded by the school to leave and look for manual jobs, but actively reject school through the counter-school culture and willingly enter male semi-skilled and unskilled work the minute they leave school

Question 18

What methods did Paul Willis use?

Answer 18

• an ethnographic study using unstructured, group interviews and participant observation

Question 19

What is the New Right perspective on education?

Answer 19

• education shouldn’t be concerned with promoting equality but with training the workforce
• schools should be competitive

Question 20

What did David Marsland argue about education?

Answer 20

• state schools shouldn’t interfere in private lives
• argued against welfare dependency

Question 21

What is the social democrat perspective on education?

Answer 21

• education can be improved but doesn’t need to be revolutionary
• education is essential to promoting equality of opportunity in a meritocracy

Question 22

What did Chubb and Moe argue about education?

Answer 22

• schools weren’t creating equality of opportunity and weren’t giving children the skills they needed to get jobs to support the economy
• argued that there should be a free market in education
• argued that there should be competition for students and funding

Question 23

What is an example of a New Right policy for education?

Answer 23

the 1988 Education Reform Act
- introduced parentocracy = parents are allowed to choose where their children go to school

Question 24

What are some features of education in a postmodern society?

Answer 24

• education has become more fragmented and diverse with lots of different types of schools
• an increased focus on online learning which has led to life long learning so people can update their skills to suit the job market
• privatisation of education -> more global companies becoming involved in education
• comparison with other countries