Functionalism Flashcards
The role of education
- to learn key skills
- to strengthen collective conscience, value consensus and social solidarity
- a secondary form of socialisation
Functionalism
A consensus theory based on shared agreements, and a structural theory on how society controlled us as individuals.
Durkheim - Functionalism in education
Durkheim had 2 main things to say about education’s function:
1) Education promotes social solidarity
2) Education teaches pupils the specialist skills needed for work
The hidden curriculum is all things students informally learn simply by passing through the education system helps them throughout their all lives; respect, teamwork, ect.
2016 - BBC news article
Ofsted boss: ‘Schools are engines of social cohesion’.
Durkheim point no.1 - examples
- Students in America sing the national anthem every morning. They become aware that they are a part of something much bigger than themselves.
- History and PD lessons promote social solidarity by helping students learn from the past and present.
- Ofted requires that schools show that they are actively promoting British values in order to promote social cohesion and solidarity.
Durkheim point no.1 - criticisms
- BBC News, 2023: Osted claimed that ‘parent’s social contract with schools are fractured’.
- Is individual competition prioritised in reality over community cohesion and social solidarity?
- The ‘symbolic violence’ experienced by working class students suggest that schools impose values rather than promoting them freely, creating antischool subcultures.
Arguement to both criticise and support Durkheim
- Can this make individuals feel isolated and result in radicalisation?
- UK, 17th Feburary 2015: 3 teenage girls from Bethnal Green Academy in London left the UK to Syria, to become ISIS brides. Could and would promoting British values help reduce instances like these?
- Does the ethnocentric nature of schooling highlight weaknesses in Durkheim’s argument? Does increasing diversity in the school population (and society as a whole) make it impossible to have a single shared value system?
Durkheim point no.2 - Examples
By studying a range of subjects, pupils aqcuire the transferrable skills that are needed in society today. Vocational education (T-levels) start a great foundation for future careers.
Durkheim point no.2 - critisms
- BBC News, 2023: T-level delays: Colleges face disruption after courses are pushed back.
Do vocational subjects recieve equal credentials in school and society? Is there a job crisis rather than a skill crisis? - Vocational subjects aren’t seen as valid by Russel Group Universities, and most students who end up doing T-levels are are from the working class. This only further opens the gaps between the classes.
Talcott Parsons - Schools prepare students for wider society
Schools are a microcosm of society - mini versions of wider society. The education system bridges the family to a wider society. The primary socialisation is from the family, and the secondry socialisation is from school. This helps prepare them for wider society. In the family, there are particularistic standards of what is expected from a child’s behaviour, and rules particular to the household. School helps the child prepare for the universalistic standards of society. Furthermore, a child’s status in the family is ascribed from birth, however, in wider society, its generally achieved through their educational qualifications, highighting the importance of the education system.
Talcott Parsons - criticisms
This theory assumes that everyone will take on the school standards. Some students rebel and create an anti-school subculture. It also overlooks how these anti-school subcultures reject university standards.
It also is too simplistic in assuming all pupils have the same family foundations and standards for school to build on as well as ignoring the unequal footing there is with different students - some have social capital to help them achieve more in their education. This means that not all students are prepared for wider society.
Davis and Moore - The education system has a role allocation function
The education system sifts and sorts pupils according to their abilities and efforts. This allows the more talented students to win by achieveing the highest grades and then taking the most respectable, high paid jobs in society. Pupils with low grades will end up with low paid jobs. It is a fair process, since all schools are meritocratic. They give all pupils an equal opportunity to suceed. Sucess and hard work is all down to them.
Davis and Moore - criticisms
They ignore ther stuggles of pupils with disabilities. They ignore the unequal opportunities for students in lower sets - it limits the maximun grade a pupil can get. Growing evidence suggests that graduates don’t often get jobs that matches skills/qualifications, this creates doubts on how meritocratic Britian really is. They don’t take into account material deprivation; there aren’t equal opportunities for hard work and achievement. They overlook teacher labelling and the affect it has on pupils as well as a barriers it creates.
