Education- The Role of Education Flashcards
Functionalism
Society is made up of interdependent parts that have a shared culture/value consensus. The family, education system and economy work together to maintain society.
Durkheim
Role of education is to create social solidarity and transmit special skills.
Social solidarity
Society needs a sense of solidarity so that members feel a part of a community, without it social life would impossible as everyone would be selfish. It is created by learning culture e.g learning your country’s history instills a sense of shared heritage.
Transmits special skills
Education prepares us for wider society as we must interact with people that aren’t family, this co-operation promotes social solidarity but for it to be successful people must perform their roles with the skills needed.
Parsons
Education is the “focal socialising agency” acting as a bridge between the family and wider society. The bridge is necessary as the family and society operate differently and education teaches children a new way of life.
The Family vs Education/ Society
Particularistic standards- specific rules for specific people
Ascribed status- fixed by birth e.g being the eldest
Universalistic standards- same rules for everybody
Achieved status- working for what you get e.g a promotion Meritocracy- equality of opportunity
Davis and Moore
Education allocates pupils their future work roles by assessing their abilities. Inequality is established within education to ensure that important roles are given to the most talented. Education ‘sifts and sorts’ us according to ability. Education offers rewards for the best jobs creating competition.
Functionalism Evaluation
Education does not teach specialist skills- high quality apprenticeships are rare and some young people do not complete higher education or get good jobs. No equal opportunity- class, gender and ethnicity impacts opportunity. Davis and Moore have a circular argument- jobs are important because they are highly paid, they are highly paid because they are important. Education fails to adequately prepare young people for work and it instills the ruling class ideology.
New Right
Education system should be meritocratic and encourage competition . They argue that the say of local consumers- the parents should be taken into account. The solution is the Marketisation of education which creates competition empowering the consumers. Education should affirm the national identity.
Chubb and Moe
State education has failed to create equal opportunity for disadvantaged groups and to transmit skills needed in wider society. Private schools are better because they are paid by the parents. Markestisation would give consumers control which would improve the school. Schools would give vouchers for schools to parents and compete to attract them by improving the school.
Role of the state
Creating a platform for schools to compete e.g Ofsted and league tables.
Ensuring schools transmit a shared culture- the National Curriculum
New Right evaluation
Gerwitz and Ball- competition benefits middle class who use their cultural and economic capital to gain access to schools. Education does not transmit a national culture- imposes the dominant ruling class culture devaluing w/c and e/m cultures. Contradict themselves- emphasis on parental choice but also state imposing a curriculum.
Marxism
The education system maintains class inequality by trasmitting the ruling class ideology and legitimising class inequality.
Althusser
The education system has an ‘ideological state apparatus’ which maintains bourgeoisie rule by controlling ideas and values. The ISA reproduces class inequality through generations and legitimises class inequality by producing lies that disguise the truth which creates an unquestioning workforce.
Bowles and Gintis
Education system works to create an unquestioning workforce through the correspondence principle- close parallels between schooling/work, the hidden curriculm- lessons learnt without directly being taught, myth of meritocracy.
