5. The role of education in society Flashcards
1
Q
Functionalist perspective: Durkheim Solidarity and Skills
A
- He argues that without social solidarity, social life and cooperation would be impossible because each individual would pursue their own selfish desires. The education system helps to create social solidarity by transmitting society’s culture (shared beliefs and values) from one generation to the next. School also acts as a ‘society in miniature’, preparing us for life in wider society. For example, both in school and at work we have to cooperate with people who are neither family or friends or teachers and pupils at school and colleagues and customers at work.
- The need for specialist skills can be fulfilled by education.
Education achieves this through the national curriculum and specialist knowledge. Industrial society has complex division of labour and production of goods needs cooperation of different specialist promoting solidarity as everyone has own role - education teaches specialist skills needed for roles from specific subjects.
2
Q
Functionalist perspective: Parsons - meritocracy
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- Sees school as preparing us to move from the family to wider society because school and society are both based on meritocratic principles.
In a meritocracy, everyone is given an equal opportunity, and individuals achieve rewards through their own effort and ability. - School is ‘focal socialising agent’ and bridge between family and society as work with different principles family has particularistic standards and ascribed status society has universalistic standards - school has this and achieve status from own efforts so learn about meritocratic principles here meritocracy gives all equal opportunity so achieve based on own efforts.
3
Q
Functionalist perspective: David and Moore
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- Role Allocation: Education sorts and sifts individuals ‘ - inequality is both natural and inevitable as people are born with unequal talents/abilities providing a meritocracy where people gain their position on ability alone.
4
Q
Evaluation of functionalist perspective
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- Feminism: both ignore patriarchy & education teaches women to be subordinate in society. Ample evidence that equal opportunities in education doesn’t exist. Achievement = influenced by class background.
- Marxists: education in capitalists society transmits ideology of minority - ruling class.
- New right/neoliberals: state education fails to prepare young people adequately for work.
5
Q
Neoliberalism and The New Right
A
- Neoliberalism is based on the idea that the state must not dictate to individuals how to dispose of their own property, and should not try to regulate a free-market economy. They argue that the value of education lies in how well it enables the country to complete i the global marketplace. They claim this can only be achieved if schools become more like businesses.
- The New Right is a conservative political view that incorporates neoliberals economic ideas. There are similarities between the New Right and functionalist views.
- Both believe that some people are naturally more talented than others. Both favour education system run on meritocratic principles. Both believe that education should socialise pupils into shared values, such as competition.
6
Q
Neoliberalism and The New Right: Chubb and Moe - consumer choice
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- New Right perspective
- They argue that the American state education has failed, and they make the case for opening it up to market forces of supply and demand. They failed to create equality; it does not provide them with the skills for the economy. Chubb and Moe called for the introduction of the market system, gives the consumers more control. They wanted to end schools automatically receiving funding and giving families vouchers to spend on education to go to a school of their choice. This improves the product as the schools are more responsive to parents.
7
Q
Neoliberalism and The New Right: Two roles for the state
A
- The state imposes a framework on schools within which they have to compete (e.g. by publishing ofsted reports/exam results, the state helps parents make informed decisions
- The state ensures that schools transmit a shared culture, by imposing a single National Curriculum it seeks to guarantee that schools socialise pupils into a single cultural heritage
8
Q
Evaluation of The New Right perspective
A
- Gewirtz (1995) and Ball (1994) argue that competition between school benefits the middle class who can use their cultural capital to get access to more desirable schools.
- Critics argue that the real cause of low educational standards is not state control but social inequality and inadequate funding of state schools.
- Marxists argue that education does not impose a shared national culture, as the New Right claim, but imposes culture of a dominant minority ruling class and devalued the culture of the working class and ethnic minorities.
9
Q
Marxist perspective: Althusser - ideological state apparatus
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- The state consists of two elements, ‘apparatuses’, both of which serve to keep the bourgeoisie in power:
- The repressive state apparatuses (RSAs), which maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by force or the threat of it. (Includes police, courts and army).
- The ideological state apparatuses (ISAs), which maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling people’s ideas, beliefs and values.(Includes media, religion and the education system).
- Althusser argues two main functions education reproduces class inequality by transmitting it from generation to generation. Education legitimates class inequality by producing ideologies (sets of ideas and beliefs) that disguise it’s true cause. If they accept these ideas, they are less likely to challenge or threaten capitalism.
10
Q
Marxist perspective: Bowles and Gintis - schooling in capitalist America
A
- They argue that capitalism requires a workforce with the kind of attitudes, behaviour and personality-type suited to their role as alienated and exploited workers willing to accept hard work, low pay and orders from above.
Correspondence Principle (work and school are similar)
Myth of Meritocracy (the idea that school is fair is a lie)
Hidden Curriculum (what is learnt indirectly in school)
- Correspondence principle prevails between schools and workplace
- Similar means of motivating behaviour and authority structures
- Students from privileged class backgrounds more likely to continue to higher levels of schooling
- Schools work to prevent social class mobility
11
Q
Marxist perspective: The correspondence principle and the hidden curriculum
A
- Correspondence principle: Bowles and Gintis’ concept describing the way organisation and control of schools mirrors the workplace in capitalist society.
- hidden curriculum:
12
Q
Marxist perspective: myth of meritocracy
A
- Capitalist society based on inequality = always danger that poor will feel inequality = underserved & unfair & will rebel against system responsible. Education system helps prevent this happening - legitimating class inequalities = producing ideologies that serve to explain & justify why inequality is fair, natural & inevitable. Education = giant myth making machine. Key myth = meritocracy - doesn’t exist in Marxism. Evidence = main factor determine whether or both has high income is their family & class background not ability of educational achievement. MOM - serves to justify privileges of higher class, making it seem that they gained them through succeeding in open & fair competition at school = helps persuade wc to accept inequality as legitimate & less likely they’ll see to overthrow capitalism.
13
Q
Marxist perspective: Willis - learning to labour
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- used a combo. of qualitative (ethnography) to study the counter culture of 12 working class boys ‘the lads’. Noted similarities between anti-school subculture of the lads and the shopfloor culture of male manual workers, the lads saw manual work as masculine and intellectual as feminine. Willis concluded this anti-school subculture helped them to slot into working class jobs.
14
Q
Marxist perspective: The lads’ counter-culture
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- Using qualitative research methods including participant observation and unstructured interviews. Wills studied the counter school culture ‘the lads’. The lads find school boring and meaningless and they flout it’s rules and values, for example by smoking and drinking and disrupting classes.
- Such acts of defiance are ways of resisting the school. They reject as a ‘con’ the school’s meritocratic ideology that working class pupils can achieve through middle class jobs through hard work.
15
Q
Evaluation of Marxist approaches
A
- The idea that everyone can achieve whatever goals he or she desires by virtue of hard work and perseverance. Bowles and Gintis argue role allocation isn’t based on merit, but social class, ‘old school tie’ network ensures top jobs go to upper middle class, legitimates economic/class inequalities.
- Useful in exposing the ‘myth of meritocracy’.
- Show that the role that education plays as an ideological state apparatus, serving the interests of capitalism by reproducing and legitimating class inequality.
- Postmodernists argue and say that education now repoduces diversity, not inequality.
- They assume that pupils have no free will and passively accept indoctrination. This appoach fails to explain why pupils ever reject the school’s values.
- Some argue that school simply ‘brainwashes’ pupils into passively accepting their fate. Some pupils may resist the school and yet how this still leads them into working-class jobs.
- Modernists such as Morrow and Torres critisise them for taking a ‘class first’ approach that sees class as the key unequality and ignores all other kinds. Instead Morrow and and Torres argue that society is now more diverse. See non-class ineqaulities, such as ethnicity, gender and sexuality, as equally important. Argue that sociologists must explain how education reproduces and legitimates all forms of inequality, not just class, and how the different forms of inequality are alike.
- Femenists make a similar point to Modernists. McDonald argues that they ignore the fact too. McRobbie points out females are largely absent from Willis’ study.
