Education - Theories Flashcards
What does the Functionalist Theory compare society to?
Functionalists have a positive view on education, as it’s compared to the brain, maintaining value consensus and social solidarity.
They compare society to the body: the Organic Analogy. Different organs have their own function (heart pumps blood around body) thus society is seen as a whole including institutions(family, media, education) and each institution play a function to maintain social solidarity.
Family is the most important institution: value consensus and social solidarity is learnt and maintained. If any institution fails, this negatively affects society.
What is Durkheim’s (functionalist) view?
Functions of education:
- Social solidarity = education passes society’s culture to children = prepare for wider world = rewards and sanctions = ‘school is society in minature’
c: marxists say school is teaching r/c ideology = to be obedient - Specialist skills = there’s a ‘Complex division of labour’ making employment difficult = need a skilled workforce, education teaches communication skills = become employable, GDP for economy grows, contributes to society
c: new right say education fails to give students the skills they need
What is Parson’s (functionalist) view?
Functions of education:
- Secondary socialisation = learning society’s norms and values from school (respect, be on time = decent person)
c: Deterministic=ignores free will = assumes everyone is perfect but some are badly behaved - Bridge between family and wider society = family is judged by particularistic standards (treated differently) & have ascribed status = wider society is judged by universalistic standards (treated the same) & have achieved status, society is meritocratic (reward effort and ability) = education judges children on meritocratic and universalistic standards, prepares them for wider world
c: education is not meritocratic due to factors: gender, class, ethnicity affecting achievement & students don’t always passively accept the values taught by school
What is Davis and Moore (functionalist) view?
Function of education:
- Role of allocation = people are not equal due to biological differences = some are born more intelligent than others (work hard, become smart, do exams, good grades, deserve good top jobs) = education allocates them = exams ‘sift and sort’ students to give the best job for their ability
c: ignores other factors (family, ethnicity) that can affect achievement
What does the New right Theory say about education?
Education is failing to: prepare students for the world of work & carry out secondary socialisation due to being run by the government
- the state has a ‘one size fits all’ approach = ignores needs and wishes of parents and students
- education wastes resources, maintaining low standards, creating an unprepared labour force, damages economy
Similarities to Functionalists: some are more naturally talented than others, get best jobs
-education should be meritocratic to prepare for the world of work
- education is the main agency of secondary socialisation = share values to students
What are New right’s solutions for the failing of education?
Marketisation of education = Chubb and Moe say opening the education system to market forces will create competition between schools and give choice to parents and students (consumers)
- families are given vouchers to pay for their children’s education = the schools’ only source of income = schools are responsive to parent’s wishes
- more students means more money for better facilities/resources = excellent results = increases competition between schools = raises standards
According to New right, what are the roles the state should have?
- The state should provide a framework within which schools compete against each other (exam results, OFSTED inspections)
- the state should ensure schools share the same values by imposing the National Curriculum (teaching history, emphasising Britain’s role) = integrates pupils into the same values
What are the criticisms of New right views?
- Competition between schools and parental choice only benefits the m/c who use their cultural capital to get their children into the best schools
- It’s not the state control that leads to low educational standards, it’s Social Inequality
- Marxists argue education passes on the r/c ideology, not shared values
What is the Marxist’s view on education?
Education system is part of the superstructure which exists only to serve the needs to capitalism and protect the r/c power. This is done by creating the r/c ideology in order to maintain false class consciousness.
What is Althusser’s (marxist) view?
Role of education:
-education serves interests of the r/c because it is part of the ‘ideological state apparatus’ - a part of the ‘superstructure’ which controls people’s ideas through family, education, religion, mass media.
- Education system protects r/c power by:
1) Reproducing class inequalities = by failing each successive generations of the w/c so they can’t better themselves = so, poor stay poor and rich stay rich (foundation and higher exams= jobs)
2) Legitimising class inequalities = by producing ideologies (ideas/beliefs) that disguise the truth = so w/c think the system is just and fair ( fail due to low attendence, lack of revision)
c: Over-emphasised influence of class & ignore other factors(gender, ethnicity, sexuality) which lead to social inequality in education
& Deterministic = assumes students passively follow ideology but they have free will and see through it
What is Bowles and Gintis (marxist) view?
Education produces obedient workforce that accepts inequality as inevitable and does this by:
1) Reproduction of class inequality through: a) ‘Correspondence principle’ - the close links between school mirroring workplace = both are hierarchies where students and workers are ‘alienated’ from their work due to lack of control, separation of knowledge at school mirrors the separation of tasks at work = thus, prepare students for ‘Fordism’ - boring, repetitive, alienating work (assembly line factory work)
b) ‘Hidden Curriculum’ - things students learn everyday at school (obey authority, be punctual)
2) Legitimation of class inequality = produce the ideas that justify the inequality = education creates the ‘myth of meritocracy’ but Bowles & Gintis says there’s no meritocracy = those who succeed is due to their m/c background, but system makes it look like it’s their hard work and natural ability = makes it look like w/c are poor as they weren’t smart enough in school = blaming individual, not capitalism = prevents w/c rebelling
c: Deterministic = B&G assume students passively accept r/c ideology
Not all subjects indoctrinate students (sociology)
Postmodernists say today’s post-Fordist economy needs skilled, adaptable workforce
Feminist criticise Marxists for ignoring other social inequalities reinforced by the education system (gender inequality)
What is Willis’ (marxist) view on education?
Education reproduces and legitimates class inequalities by creating an obedient workforce. His work is less deterministic than B&G as he acknowledges the free will of students - w/c pupil can resist indoctrination at school but this resistance puts them into labour force that meets the needs of capitalism -He studied 12 w/c lads and their attitudes at school = had a 'counter school subculture' = sexist, bullied, broke rules, found school boring/meaningless= didn't believe hard work at school leads to m/c jobs = held anti-school attitudes, failed exams, got low paid manual jobs - He argues there's a similarity between counter school subculture and 'shopfloor culture' of male manual workers = both see manual work as superior and intellectual work as inferior = lads see themselves superior to girl & conformist boys = attitudes prepare them for low paid manual jobs c: Romanticises lads = turns them into w/c heroes despite anti-social, sexist behaviour Focuses on class inequality, ignoring gender and ethnic inequalities
What are the Postmodernism criticism of all Marxist theories on education?
Fordism is an assembly line production and workers had one skill, gaining a job that needed one skill = work was fragmented into tasks.
- Postmodernism says we’re so advanced we are living in postmodern times caused by globalisation, technological advances and IT development = postmodernity is characterised by ‘greater diversity’ due to rapid changes, bringing ‘greater uncertainty’ = brings fordist production (assembly line, mass production, low skilled, motivated by wages) to post-fordist production (flexible, highly skilled, adaptable, customised production, motivated by job satisfaction
- Education encourages self-motivation and creativity in order to meet needs of changing economy, providing life long training due to rapid technological change and global economic competition, creating IT skills & some aspects of education encourage self-improvement (yoga)
- Modern education has state control, standardised system for all, fixed learning times/period of time’
- Postmodern education has local community control, diverse system to meet diverse needs (faith schools), flexible learning, lifelong learning for economy, active learning experience
What is the feminist’s view on education?
Role of education is to maintain patriarchy by socialising girls and boys into segregated gender role and gender inequality for the benefit of men and the disadvantage of women.
This is done through: textbooks, teacher interactions, student interactions, curriculum and subject choice.
How is patriarchy and gender inequality maintained in education in textbooks?
Language used in textbooks = uses gendered language (he,him,his,man) when referring to a person = downgrades women, makes them invisible thus being a part of gender socialisation of girls into being passive.
-Culley argues computing textbooks show men in decision making positions and females doing desk skilled tasks such as inputting data.
