EDUCATION - Role of education

Question 1

FUNCTIONALISM

Talcott Parsons - Focal Socialising Agency

Meritocracy

Answer 1

schools and society are both principled on meritocratic principles… school prepares us to move from the family to the wider society.

within a meritocratic society, everyone is given an equal opportunity to be successful, and individuals achieve rewards through their effort and nothing else.

the family is not meritocratic, but school is a bridge for pupils before the wider world.

Question 2

FUNCTIONALISM

Talcott Parsons - Focal Socialising Agency

Status

Answer 2

children are judged by particularistic standards whereby rules apply to only that particular child. the family’s status is also ascribed.

in contrast, school and wider society judge individuals by universalistic and impersonal standards… the same laws apply to everyone.

within school, each pupil is judged based on the same standards e.g., exams are all standardised. our status is achieved.

Question 3

FUNCTIONALISM

Talcott Parsons - Focal Socialising Agency

Bridge between home and work

Answer 3

he believes that in modern society, school is a focal socialising agency which behaves as a bridge between the family and the wider society.

this is needed because family and society operate on different values and principles, so children need provisions to help them adjust to the wider world.

Question 4

FUNCTIONALISM

Emile Durkheim

Specialist skills

Answer 4

Modern industrial economies have a complex division of labour where production involves many different specialists. For this cooperation to be successful, each person requires the necessary specialist knowledge and skills to perform their role. Durkheim believes that education teaches us the specialist knowledge and skills that is needed for us to play our part in the social division of labour.

Question 5

FUNCTIONALISM

Emile Durkheim

Social solidarity

Answer 5

Durkheim believes that we all must feel as part of a single community. without solidarity, cooperation would be impossible because everyone would only work for their own self-pursuit.

the education system helps to create social solidarity because it transmits society’s shared culture.

Durkheim believes that teaching the history of a country to the pupils within it encourages shared heritage and commitment within a wider social group.

school is a society in miniature as it prepares as it prepares children for wider society.

both within school and work, cooperation with people is important and school teaches us that we must cooperate with people that may not be our family or friends.

Question 6

FUNCTIONALISM

Davis and Moore

Role Allocation

Answer 6

they see school as performing the function of allocating pupils to their future roles in work.

this is done via assessment of each individual’s aptitude.

education is a device for selection… these functionalists focus on the relationship between education and social inequality.

inequality, to them, is necessary to ensure the most important roles are given to the most able people.

higher rewards - tougher jobs, which all encourages greater competition for these jobs.

Question 7

FUNCTIONALISM

Blau and Duncan

Human Capital

Answer 7

they argue that the modern economy is dependent on human capital, which is essentially its workers’ skills.

a meritocratic education system does this best because each persons’ talents are best used… productivity is maximised.

Question 8

EVAL OF FUNC

T-Levels

Answer 8

expecting 45 days of work placement is wholly unrealistic

gender discrepancies are still prevalent, so unlike Williamson’s goal in 2021 to have ‘gold standard’ qualifications, suggesting they are not more inclusive than gendered BTECs.

across all providers of T-Levels, almost half have no women enrolled at all.

Question 9

EVAL OF FUNC

Opposition to Davis and Moore - enter Melvin Tumin

Answer 9

Tumin argues that D+M put a circular argument forward… how do we know a job is important? Because it’s highly paid. Why are some jobs paid highly? Because they are important.

Question 10

EVAL OF FUNC

Interactionist criticism of Functionalists

Answer 10

Dennis Wrong argues that Functionalists are over-socialised… they wrongly impose that pupils passively accept all hey are taught and none reject values.

Question 11

MARXISM

Bowles and Gintis

Correspondence Principle

Answer 11

there are very close parallels between school and the workforce.

school takes place in the long shadow of work.

the hidden curriculum - all the lessons learned in school that are not directly taught.

alienation of student’s lack of control over what to study = workers cannot control production.

there is fragmentation into unconnected and irrelevant subjects. similar to the way workers experience fragmentation through small and meaningless tasks.

Question 12

MARXISM

Bowles and Gintis

Acceptance of hierarchy

Answer 12

everyday working of the school = pupils become accustomed to accepting the hierarchy and competition.

they begint o work for extrinsic rewards.

schooling preps W.C children bevies they then become exploited workers. this is the workforce that capitalism needs.

Question 13

MARXISM

Phil Cohen and YTS

Answer 13

Cohen points out how youth training schemes serve capitalism because they do not teach actual job skills… they teach attitudes and values that are needed in a submissive and subordinate labour force.

this lowers aspirations = they then only accept and apply for low paid work.

Question 14

MARXISM

Bowles and Gintis

Myth of meritocracy

Answer 14

the system is described as a giant myth-making machine.

they argue that meritocracy does not exist because the main factor that determines educational success and income is their family and class background.

the system exists to justify the privilege through success in fair and equal competition.

this encourages W.C school children to accept the inequality they face as legitimate so they can’t and won’t overthrow capitalism.

Question 15

MARXISM

Bowles and Gintis

Legitimising class inequality

Answer 15

there is a danger that the poor will rebel against the system that is responsible for it because they acknowledge it is unfair and undeserved.

the education system helps us prevent rebellion because it legitimises class inequality.

it does this through producing ideology that explains why the inequality is justifiable.

the education system justifies poverty through poor-and-dumb theory of failure.

it blames poverty on the individual.

Question 16

MARXISM

Paul Willis

Counter School Subculture

Answer 16

he used a qualitative research methods… unstructured interviews and participant observations.

he studied 12 W.C lads.

these boys hated school and tormented the conforming boys, labelling them as ear’oles.

they found school meaningless and boring. they smoke and drank and disrupted classes when they could do defy the school.

they rejected the school’s meritocratic ethos of W.C kids being as successful as the M.C purely through hard work.

Question 17

MARXISM

Paul Willis

Shop Floor Culture

Answer 17

the anti-school subculture shared significant similarity with the shop floor culture of male manual workers.

both of the cultures saw manual work as superior and intellectual work as effeminate.

boys identified with the manual work and so they saw themselves as superior to the girls and intelligent boys.

the boys subculture of resistance helped them slot into the jobs they ended up in…. they were in skill-wise inferior jobs.

their acts of rebellion guaranteed that they will end up in unskilled jobs by ensuring they fail in gaining qualifications

Question 18

LIBERAL - less interested in structural approaches, and more interested in the benefits to individuals from learning.

Ivan Illich - DeSchooling Society

Answer 18

in his novel published in 1971, Illich highlights his radical views about schooling.

he presented schools as places where consumerism and obedience to authority were paramount and genuine learning was replaced by a process of advancement to the next institutional hierarchy.

Question 19

LIBERAL

Ivan Illich’s model of schooling

Answer 19

rather than compulsory mass schooling, he suggested that we adopt a model of learning where skills were transmitted through networks of voluntary and informal relationships.

use of tech would be beneficial in creating decentralised webs that could create a good educational system.

he suggests that the institutionalisation of education is considered to institutionalise society and the ideas for de-institutionalising education is a starting point for a de-institutionalised society.

Question 20

LIBERAL

Ivan Illich’s purposes of the Education System

Answer 20

1. provide all who want to learn with accessible resources at any time
2. empower those who want to share what they know and find those want to learn from it
3. give all those who want to present an issue to the public with an opportunity to publicise their challenge.

Question 21

MARXISM

Althusser

RSA

Answer 21

Repressive State Apparatus - this element maintains the rule and power of the bourgeoisie by force or the threat of the force.

this element includes police, courts, army etc. they all use physical coercion to repress and restrict the working classes.

Question 22

MARXISM

Althusser

ISA

Answer 22

Ideological State Apparatus

this maintains the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling the people’s ideas, values, and beliefs.

this includes religion, media and the education system.

the education system reproduces class inequality because it is a vessel of transmission generationally. they fail each successive generation of W.C pupils consequently.

education also legitimises and justifies class inequality by creating ideologies that disguise the true cause.

the function of ideology is to persuade the workers and to accept the inequality is inevitable and so they deserve the lower positions within society.

Question 23

NEW RIGHT

What do neoliberalists think of education?

Answer 23

neoliberals argue that the state should not provide for educational services.

this principle is founded on the idea that states should not dictate the free-market economy and so governments should encourage competition and deregulate markets.

the value of education? this lies in how it enables the country to compete in global economics.

if schools become like businesses, and parents like consumers, then competition would ensure better standards.

the new right do NOT believe that the current education system is successful… they believe the system takes on a one-size-fits all approach which imposes uniformity.

Question 24

NEW RIGHT

Why DON’T the neoliberals like the education system right now?

Answer 24

state-run education systems are inefficient, and they waste money/get poor results… they are unanswerable to the consumers… there are lower standards of achievement, less qualified workforces, and a less prosperous economy.

the only solution for these issues is the marketisation of education… they believe that competition between schools and empowering customers will increase diversity, choice and efficacy.

Question 25

NEW RIGHT

Chubb and Moe

Consumer Choice

Answer 25

these American sociologists argue that state-run education has failed in the USA, because it has not created equal opportunities, has failed to produce pupils with the needed skills, and are unanswerable to their consumers.

this was based off a study of 60,000 pupils from W.C families in 1015 state and private paying high schools.

the evidence proves that pupils from low-income families do 5% better in private schools than they do in state schools.

Question 26

NEW RIGHT

Chubb and Moe

What do they suggest?

Answer 26

they call for the introduction of a market system in state education that puts control in the consumers’ hands.

this would allow the consumers to shape schools to meet their own needs, which increases efficiency.

to do this, C+M propose a system where each family would be given a voucher to spend on buying education from a school of their choice.

schools would be forced to be more responsive to parent’s wishes.

like private businesses, schools would have to compete to attract customers by improving what they are selling.

these principles are already working in the private education sector.

Question 27

NEW RIGHT

The two roles of the state

Answer 27

the NR still do believe that the state has a role… in their view, there are two important roles for the state

1. imposing a framework on the schools where they have to compete. publishing OFSTED inspection reports and league tables means that the state is giving info to parents to make a well-informed choice about school selection.
2. shared culture! national curriculum seeks to guarantee that schools socialise pupils into a singular cultural heritage. they believe education should affirm the national identity and should iterate Britain’s positive role in world history and literature. they also argue for daily christian worship in schools. they also oppose multicultural education that reflects multiple ethnicities.

Question 28

EVAL N.R

Gerwitz and Ball

Answer 28

competition between schools benefits the M.C who use their economic and cultural capital to get access to the most desirable schools.

Question 29

EVAL N.R

Marxists

Answer 29

would argue that education does not impose a shared national culture because it imposes the culture of dominant minority ruling class and devalues the culture of the working class and ethnic minorities.

Question 30

FEMINISM

Heaton and Lawson 1996

Answer 30

they believe that the hidden curriculum is the main source of gender socialisation within schools.

they believe that schools often have textbooks with modern family culture, varied gendered subjects, and discrepancies in teaching staff.

they explored how subjects can often reiterate the patriarchy… gendered PE restricts girls to gymnastics etc.

Question 31

FEMINISM

Liberal Feminists

Answer 31

strongly believe that the best way to fight the patriarchy is by producing legislation to fight discrimination.

this form of feminism believes that women would achieve better academically, if more women were visible in the current social structure.

they are still critical, despite acknowledging the improvements being made. e.g., the 11+ being abolished was great because it meant girls were no longer forced to get higher than boys simply to be on the same level with them. now all subjects are open to all pupils. girls are outperforming guys.

Question 32

FEMINISM

Michelle Stanworth 1983 - liberal feminist

Answer 32

despite the abolition of the 11+, there were still higher expectations of boys and teachers are more likely still to encourage boys to apply for higher education than girls at the same academic level.

Question 33

FEMINISM

Radical Feminists

Answer 33

radical feminists would argue the biggest oppression in our society is the patriarchy.

they believe that the patriarchy can only end when women are freed from the physical and emotional violence inflicted by men in the classroom and playground.

dependence on men = oppression of women.

believe that formal and informal processes reinforce the hidden curriculum and normalise marginalisation

Question 34

FEMINISM

Marxist Feminists

Answer 34

they believe that men have always been paid more and are given higher positions in companies, and so they believe that women are oppressed based on gender and class inequalities.

believe that formal and informal processes reinforce the hidden curriculum and normalise marginalisation

Question 35

POSTMODERNISM

Usher and Edwards
modernity

Answer 35

‘education is very much the dutiful child of the enlightenment’

they refer to the work of Lyotard - from a modern perspective, education promised to liberate humanity from ignorance.

education should help spread rational and scientific beliefs that would free people from the grip of tradition and superstition.

modernity - education was supposed to ‘bring out’ potential so subjects were fully autonomous.

Question 36

POSTMODERNISM

Usher and Edwards
what about postmodernity?

Answer 36

postmodernists are against the belief of a firm foundation of knowledge.

they are against proposing a truth of science and rationality.

they are sceptical that human potential can be achieved through education.

they don’t believe education cannot produce shared values.

education doesn’t produce equality of opportunity.

Question 37

POSTMODERNISM

Usher and Edwards
what about the future of education?

Answer 37

modern education systems should continue

it should be reshaped so that it tries to stress traditional values.

education should be reshaped so that it fits capitalism

content should primarily be about making profit

final possibility - education should reflect cultural pluralism… ‘emphasis on lifelong learning, the recognition and exploration of cultural difference’