Functionalism Flashcards
Functionalists believe education performs what 4 functions
Social solidarity
Specialist skills
Secondary socialisation
Sifting and sorting
Social solidarity AO1
•Where individual members of society feel they belong to a community
• Durkheim argues school is society in miniature
• Child learns to interact with others, follow rules, learned shared culture
• Prepares the child for interacting with society and accepting social rules
Social solidarity AO3
• A conflict approach would argue that the school fails to pass on a shared culture - it actually passes on the dominant culture which may exclude minorities.
• School can be seen as ethnocentric- gives priority to white culture over others, which makes ethnic minorities feel excluded. This means it is more likely to divide people than unite them.
Specialist skills AO1
•Durkheim- individuals must be taught specialist skills so that they can take their place within a highly complex division of labour
• Modern industrial societies require individuals to have the specialist skills and knowledge to perform their roles
• Gives skills eg critical thinking, organisation, time management
• People work, earn money to support families and pay tax to government for society
Specialist skills AO3
• The (2011) Wolf review of vocational (work-focused) education found that a third of 16-19s were doing courses that do not lead to Higher Education or good jobs.
The New Right would support this view.
Secondary socialisation AO1
• Parsons- education passes on key norms and values of society
• Children are socialised into value of meritocracy- taught we can achieve status based on ability and effort
• School mirrors society as it is meritocratic
• All should strive to achieve full potential
Education is fair to everyone because-
-free education
-same opportunity for qualifications
-study same subjects
-same criteria to access grades
Secondary socialisation AO3
• Existence of private education undermines that everyone has an equal chance to succeed
• Bowles and Gintis say meritocracy is a myth
• Children of the wealthy obtain high qualifications and well-rewarded jobs irrespective of their abilities. The education system disguises this with its myth of meritocracy. Those denied success blame themselves rather than the system.
•Inequality in society is legitimated: it is made to appear fair.
The bridge AO1
Parsons- education helps students to make the transition from home to work
• Education teaches universal standards that apply to everyone and in doing so acts as a bridge between home and society
The bridge AO3
New Right- functionalist perspective lacks contemporary relevance
System now fails to help students transition to work as too many young people are on benefits
Sifting and sorting AO1
•Davis and Moore- role of education is role allocation, sifts and sorts people according to ability and effort
•Puts people on the career paths they are suited to based on ability and effort
•Most able students gain high grades and get important jobs
•Most important jobs should be filled with best people for them, and receive higher status and better pay
• Leads to natural inevitable inequalities which are desirable as they act as an incentive to work hard
Sifting and sorting AO3
• Davis and Moore assume roles are allocated based on ability and effort, but evidence suggest that class, gender and ethnicity have a significant role in determining achievement.
•Policies may undermine the ability of students to access the top jobs using their ability and effort - tuition fees of €9,000 may deter the most talented working class students from going to university and getting the jobs they are suited to
