Education

Question 1

FUNCTIONALIST: Durkheim - social solidarity and division of labour

Answer 1

• discusses social solidarity - members of society have shared values (value consensus)
• education system encourages this by socialising young people into norms and values needed for a smooth society
• education ensured people have the skills needed for a specialised division of labour

Question 2

FUNCTIONALIST: Parsons - bridge, difference in values

Answer 2

• bridge between school and work

- particularistic

Question 3

FUNCTIONALIST: Davis & Moore - meritocratic society, role allocation

Answer 3

• social stratification
• matching the most suitable people with the functionally most important roles
• rewards motivate them

Question 4

MARXIST: Althusser - ISA

Answer 4

• transmits capitalist ideology disguised as common values
• ISA used to be the church but is now education
• creates a false class consciousness; WC accept failure, legitimising inequality

Question 5

MARXIST: Bourdieu - cultural capital

Answer 5

• WC cultural attributes rejected
• system defines by and for the middle class
• MC succeed by default rather than greater ability
• cultural assets seen as worthy of investment so have greater value as cultural capital

Question 6

MARXIST: Bowles and Gintis - correspondence theory

Answer 6

• education ensures workers will unquestioningly adapt to needs of capitalist system
• school corresponds with work
• teachers are bosses, pupils are workers
• argue that rewards in education and occupation not based on merit but on social background; higher a person’s class, the more likely they are to attain high educational qualifications
• ‘education reproduces inequality by justifying privilege and attributing poverty to personal failure’

Question 7

MARXIST: Rikowski - education increasingly capitalised

Answer 7

• education becoming a global commodity

- driving force behind educational institutions is the drive of profit

Question 8

MARXIST: Cote - white collar workers

Answer 8

• focus of education shifted to produce a surplus of white collar workers
• these operate as needed in an advanced capitalist societies but still exhibit false class consciousness
• new reserve army of labour of more educated white collar workers
• competition between them for jobs keeps wages down and labour cheap despite university qualifications

Question 9

MARXIST: Willis - Learning to Labour, 1977

Answer 9

• 12 WC boys
• formed a counter school sub cultural grouping
• characterised by opposition to values and norms perpetuated throughout school
• boys felt superior to conformist ‘ear oles’
• identified with adult world; expressed sexist and racist attitudes, smoking, drinking
• academic work had no value for the boys; no interest in gaining qualifications and saw manual work as superior to mental work