Education - Functionalism Flashcards
What did Emilie Durkheim (1903) say education provided?
Social solidarity
A way to learn specialist skills
Why is social solidarity a good thing?
Stops individuals from pursuing their own self-interests (Durkheim)
Binds people together to avoid social disturbance
What’s an example of social solidarity in schools?
American patriotism brings a country of immigrants together (saluting to the flag in schools)
Teaching history provides people with a sense of shared heritage
What are examples of social solidarity being a bad thing?
American patriotism can lead to nationalism and xenophobia
Different parts of history (black history, women’s history, etc.) can be ignored
People don’t want to change and (for example) look at other history as it would critique their countries past actions and therefore be unpatriotic
What examples of British schools are used to bind us?
British values
Religious school holidays
Singing hymns in assembly
Festivals about royal events
What do Functionalists believe are the main reasons for education?
Teach specialist skills (Durkheim) - used in the workplace, individual success
Meritocracy (Talcott Parsons 1961) - efforts and abilities control whether someone succeeds or fails
Role allocation (David and Moore 1945) - assessments match students to the job they are best suited for
Why are specialist skills important?
Modern industry have a complex division of labour and specialists are needed
Why is meritocracy important?
Whilst in the family, the attitude may be particularistic (treated as an individual, status is fixed at birth) in school and work its universalistic (everyone’s judged on the same standards, have to achieve to succeed)
What are British Values?
Added to curriculum in 2014
Used to ‘improve safeguarding and standards’
They are democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect, tolerance of people with different beliefs
What are the positives about British Values?
Social solidarity and promotes good values
What are the negatives of British Values?
It’s a response to terrorism and therefore suggesting its discriminatory to certain groups who are British but its implied they don’t share these values
What are the criticisms of meritocracy?
Equal opportunity in education doesn’t exist (north-south divide has a difference of 4.7% in 2015 for achieving 5 good GCSEs)
What is the criticism for role allocation not existing?
Melvin Tumin (1953) David and Moore present a circular argument (a job is important because its highly rewarded, its highly rewarded because its important) 2015 report 58.8% of UK graduates are in non-graduate jobs
What is the criticism for specialised skills?
Wolf (2011) a third of 16 - 19 year olds are on vocational courses that do not lead to higher education or good jobs
What are criticisms of social solidarity (and it not existing)?
Marxists argue education only transmits the ideology of a minority - the ruling class Denis Wrong (1961) pupils are not uncritical, passive recipients of all they are taught and can challenge the schools values
