Education Flashcards
Durkheim’s functions of education
Enforces social solidarity and teaches specialist skills
How does education achieve social solidarity and teach specialist skills?
-Social solidarity is enforced as education creates a shared culture amongst students (through subjects such as history, literature and religion) which promotes a shared identity.
-Specialist skills are taught through the National Curriculum which sets out the required knowledge that students must know, e.g. literacy and numeracy provide necessary skills and knowledge needed for employment.
Evaluate Durkheim’s functions of education.
-Marxists suggest that the history, religious beliefs and literacy that schools teach are passed on from the ruling class. As such it contradicts Durkheim’s beliefs as there is no shared culture and instead a dominant culture.
-Feminists criticise Durkheim’s views as they claim that specialist skills are not taught to all pupils. They note that girls are discouraged from certain subjects that have a typically masculine domain, such as engineering, thus they are not able to learn the specialist skills needed for future employment.
Parson’s function of education.
Acting as a source of secondary socialisation
How do schools achieve secondary socialisation?
Education enforces the hidden curriculum which aids pupils in transforming the particularistic values of the home into the universalistic values of society, teaching pupils the implicit knowledge that enables them to succeed in wider society, e.g. being punctual and accepting hierarchy.
Evaluate Parson’s function of education.
-Marxists argue that the hidden curriculum prepares students for future exploitation by transmitting the values of capitalism and enabling a state of false class consciousness.
-Postmodernists further criticise Parson’s ideas of universal values as they note that society has become fragmented, thus the impact of passing on norms and values in society has become diluted due to the hyperreality in which we now live.
Davis and Moore’s function of society
Role allocation
How does education achieve role allocation?
By sifting and sorting pupils based on their ability, e.g. those with aptitudes for science are persuaded to go down a more scientific route. In addition to this, education promotes the idea of social mobility and meritocracy, socialising pupils to believe that achieving good grades is based on natural ability and hard work. Following this achievement, pupils are socialised to believe that they will be rewarded for their efforts with high-status jobs.
Evaluate Davis and Moore’s function of role allocation.
-Marxists criticise the concept of meritocracy, claiming that it is a myth designed to reinforce traditional roles of middle and working-class students. As such, promoting the idea of meritocracy legitimises inequality as it shifts blame for underachievement from the education system to the individual.
-It is not necessarily the case that students with the best qualifications go on to get high-status jobs. Some people are able to access high-status jobs without good qualifications, thanks to family connections, and there are also high levels of graduates who go on to be unemployed, despite their qualifications.
Althusser’s function of education.
Maintaining its status as an ideological state apparatus
How does education achieve its status as an ideological state apparatus?
Education offers a fragmented curriculum that doesn’t offer a clear depiction of society, e.g. subjects such as history are taught from a British rather than a global perspective. As well as this, education teaches key skills for employment (e.g. literacy and numeracy) from an early age, whereas subjects such as drama and dance are relatively ignored.
Evaluate Althusser’s function of education.
-Functionalists would disagree with Althusser on the motives for education, suggesting that the promotion of meritocracy and value consensus all have beneficial functions for society.
-Althusser’s theory is deterministic as many working-class students have gone on to succeed and enter higher education. COUNTERPOINT: there are still fewer than 10% if students from working-class backgrounds in higher education.
