Functionalism + Marxism Flashcards
What was Durkheim’s key thinker, explanation and evaluation about the function of education?
- Social solidarity.
- Essential for survival of society.
- Teaching subjects like English, RE and history is central as it enables children to feel a sense of belonging to society.
- It provided common norms and values giving a shared sense of history and a feeling of belonging to wider society.
What was Parson’s key thinker, explanation and evaluation about the function of education?
- Schools act as a bridge between family and wider society
- Believed in individual achievement and equality of opportunity.
- Role of education was to promote universalistic values like achievement, individualism, competition and equality of opportunity.
- Believed schools were miniature versions of society reflecting values of the wider society
What was Blau and Duncan’s key thinker, explanation and evaluation about the function of education?
- Human capital.
- Tested correlation between son’s occupational status with father’s occupational status.
- Higher the father’s educational achievements yield higher child’s educational achievements due to higher expectations and more support for attainments.
What was David and Moore’s key thinker, explanation and evaluation about the function of education?
- Role allocation.
- Role of education was to allocate people to occupations which best suit their ability.
- Both most and least talented would end up in jobs which would make efficient contributions to the smooth running capitalist society.
What was New Right’s View of Education?
- Role of education was that the state education system takes a “one size fits all” approach. Schools should be run like businesses.
- The influence of the education policy was that schools that waste money or get poor results are not answerable to their consumers, meaning low standards of achievement for pupils, less qualified workforce and a less prosperous economy.
What is human capital?
-Intangible economic value of a worker’s experience and skills. (Blau & Duncan).
What are particularistic values?
-Family. Rules and values that give priority to personal relationships.
What are universalistic values?
-Education. Rules and values that apply equally to all members of society. (Parsons
What did Althusser believe?
- Reproduction of Social Inequality. Education deliberates engineering W/C failure in order to create an unqualified factory workforce. Private educations prepares children of elite for positions of power. Hidden curriculum shaped to assist M/C achievement and deter W/C achievement.
- Legitimisation of social inequality. M/C has access to more cultural and economic capital putting them at an advantage. Education encourages students to blindly accept capitalist values, through hidden curriculum.
What did Bowles & Gintis believe?
- Correspondence Principle. “close parallels” between school and workplace in capitalist society. E.g. institutions having a hierarchy with authority figures
- Myth of meritocracy. Not everyone has equality for opportunity. E.g. private schools offer students more extra curricular subjects.
What do post modernists believe?
- Marxists don’t acknowledge that education reproduces diversity.
- Marrow + Torres claim students create their own identities.
What do neo liberals believe?
- Chubb & More argue that Marxists fail to see education has failed all social groups.
- Believe education has failed to equip all students with skills needed to be successful in global market place.
What is the ideological state apparatus?
-Institutions used by state to transmit our values and ideology.
What is the repressive state apparatus?
-Institutions of army, police (physical force).
What is the correspondence principle?
-Theory showing the “close parallels” between schools and workplace.
