Durkheim on Education ( topic 1 )

Question 1

What is Durkheim’s belief about what the education system provides ?

Answer 1

Durkheim believes that it provides secondary socialisation as opposed to primary socialisation.

Question 2

What does Primary socialisation provide / teach ?

Answer 2

here , the family passes on their set of beliefs and values.

Question 3

What does secondary socialisation provide / teach ?

Answer 3

here , universal norms and values are passed on and these are shared by broader society.

Question 4

What is the definition of norms ?

Answer 4

behaviour and attitudes which are considered normal.

Question 5

What is the definition of values ?

Answer 5

things that people consider as individuals what is important to them.

Question 6

What do functionalists believe about norms and values ?

Answer 6

All members of society are filtered into these norms and values , first through family and then later through institutions.

Question 7

How are universalistic values taught ?

Answer 7

Through secondary socialisation.

Question 8

What is mechanical solidarity ?

Answer 8

The social integration of members in society who share a common set of beliefs and values causing them to cooperate and work with each other.

Question 9

What is organic solidarity ?

Answer 9

society based off of differences and how to make these differences come together so that society can work and function effectively.

Question 10

What is the nature of an industrial society ?

Answer 10

People have to learn certain skills in order to function in that society and perform specific roles that are best suited. There is common and basic knowledge known to everyone , and specific competencies that different people require in order to play their part in a complex industrial society.

Question 11

In Durkheim’s beliefs , how does the education system perform the role of secondary socialisation ?

Answer 11

Instilling social solidarity - learning about history , learning about the bigger picture. Also getting to know children from different backgrounds with different experiences.

Teaching social rules and how to abide by them - Learning how to interact with a set of rules is learning how to function in society. This limits deviance - punishment and with that self - discipline.

Teaching specialist skills - modern jobs require technical knowledge , but this knowledge has changed from generation to generation. Children had to learn skills and principles to work on the assembly line , where groups of individuals learn specific sets of skills. This is also what happens nowadays as students will want to go into different skills and jobs and so will require individual sets of skills , and will have to learn different things.

Question 12

What do Marxists believe about Durkheim’s beliefs ?

Answer 12

They don’t accept / believe that there is a set of neutral norms and values that fit the whole of society.

Question 13

What would post modernists argue about Durkheim’s views on education ?

Answer 13

That contemporary society is multicultural and diverse and so can no longer have one set of norms and values.

Question 14

What do Marxists argue about Durkheim’s point of view about education ?

Answer 14

The powerful in society use education to spread their ideology.

Question 15

What do other sociologists believe about education ?

Answer 15

That contemporary education is no longer based around assembly lines , and so Durkheim’s idea of education might not suit the modern day economy.

Question 16

Why are schools sometimes questioned ?

Answer 16

Knowledge based learning for jobs can only get students so far in the job industry and that specific skills suited for the job tend to be taught through in - work training.

Question 17

What did Hargreaves’s (1982 ) argue ?

Answer 17

He argued that the education system encourages individualism and competition instead of social solidarity and shared values.