Education Basics Flashcards
Emile Durkheim
Social solidarity: Education creates a sense of community by transmitting shared norms and values.
Specialist skills: Prepares individuals for their roles in the division of labor in society.
Moral education: Teaches discipline and cooperation, helping maintain social order.
Talcott Parsons
Bridge between family and society: Education shifts children from particularistic to universalistic standards.
Meritocracy: Schools reward achievement based on ability and effort, reflecting societal values.
Role allocation: Education sorts individuals into roles suited to their talents and abilities.
Louis Althusser
Ideological State Apparatus: Education reinforces ruling class ideology and legitimizes inequality.
False consciousness: Teaches students to accept their social position as fair and natural.
Reproduction of labor: Prepares students for exploitation in capitalist systems.
Bowles and Gintis
Correspondence principle: School mirrors workplace hierarchy, discipline, and inequality.
Hidden curriculum: Teaches obedience, conformity, and acceptance of social inequality.
Myth of meritocracy: Argue education reproduces class inequality rather than promoting social mobility.
Paul Willis
Learning to labour: His study of working-class “lads” showed resistance to education but acceptance of working-class jobs.
Anti-school subculture: Students actively reject school values but end up in low-status jobs anyway.
Cultural reproduction: Even resistance contributes to reproducing class structures.
Sue Sharpe
Changing aspirations: Compared girls’ priorities in the 1970s (“love, marriage, children”) with the 1990s (“careers, independence, education”).
Impact of education: Schools play a role in shaping girls’ attitudes towards work and independence.
Gendered expectations: Despite progress, education still channels girls into stereotypically feminine careers.
Radical Feminists
Critique of patriarchy: Argue that education perpetuates male dominance through the hidden curriculum and subject choices.
Sexual harassment: Schools often fail to tackle harassment and reinforce gender norms.
Subject segregation: Highlight that boys and girls are often channeled into gender-specific subjects.
Chubb and Moe
Marketisation: Argued for competition between schools to improve standards, suggesting vouchers for parents to “buy” education.
Consumer choice: Believe education works better when schools are run like businesses, focusing on parental demand.
Inefficiency of state education: Claimed state-run schools fail to meet individual needs, especially for disadvantaged groups.
Charles Murray
Underachievement and the underclass: Links poor educational outcomes to single-parent families and lack of discipline.
Support for traditional values: Advocates for stricter discipline and a return to traditional teaching methods.
Blames welfare dependency: Suggests state welfare systems lead to a lack of personal responsibility, impacting education outcomes.
