Functionalism Perspective

Question 1

What does Durkheim argue?

Answer 1

that society needs a sense of social solidarity

Question 2

What is social solidarity

Answer 2

its individual members must feel themselves to be apart of a ‘single body’ or community

Question 3

What does Durkhiem argue would happen without social solidarity within society?

Answer 3

social life and cooperation would be impossible because each individual would pursue their own selfish desires

Question 4

How does Durkheim argue the education system helps create social solidarity?

Answer 4

by transmitting society’s culture from one generation to the next generation

Question 5

How does the National Curriculum aid Social Solidarity?

Answer 5

it teaches a country’s history which instils in children a sense of a shared heritage and a commitment to the wider social group

Question 6

What does Durkheim argue if value consensus broke down?

Answer 6

society would fall into anomie

Question 7

What is vital for social solidarity?

Answer 7

Functionalist see an ethnocentric curriculum as being vital for social solidarity

Question 8

Why might postmodernist criticise Durkheim?

Answer 8

Postmodernists might criticise Durkheim for his assumption that society needs shared value as Britain has become much more multicultural in recent decades and the extent to which there is a single British culture is debatable

Question 9

How does Parson see the school as?

Answer 9

the ‘focal socialising agency’ acting as a bridge between the family and wider society

Question 10

Why is the bridge needed?

Answer 10

family and society operate on different principles so children need to learn a new way of living if they are to cope with the wider world

Question 11

What does Parson think the education system is?

Answer 11

meritocratic, so that children learn the importance of hard work

Question 12

Parson argues that children are judged by particularistic standards which is

Answer 12

rules that only apply to that particular child

Question 13

In families, the child status is

Answer 13

ascribed, which is fixed by birth

Question 14

An example of an ascribed status?

Answer 14

An elder son and a younger daughter are given different rights or duties because different age and sex

Question 15

what does the school and the wider society judge us all by?

Answer 15

the same universalistic and impersonal standards e.g. the same laws apply to everyone and within education each pupil is judged against the same standards as they all sit the same exam and the pass mark is the same for everyone

Question 16

In both school and work, our status is

Answer 16

achieved not ascribed e.g. at work we gain promotion or fired depending on how good our work is whilst at school we pass or fail due to our own idnividual efforts

Question 17

How does Parson see schools as preparing us to move from the family to wider society?

Answer 17

because school and society are both based on meritocratic principles

Question 18

What is a meritocracy?

Answer 18

everyone is given an equal opportunity, and individuals achieve rewards through their own effort and ability

Question 19

Criticisms of Parson Meritocracy

Answer 19

Marxists criticise the appearance of meritocracy as nothing but an ideology and they call this the myth of meritocracy - they argue that the proletariat are persuaded to believe that the rich and powerful reached their position through their hard work and their natural ability rather than their privileged birth because this then leads them to accept inequality as fair

Question 20

Bowles and Gintis Criticism of Meritocracy

Answer 20

conducted a study which demonstrated how IQ played a small part in academic success which translated into economic success and this depended on social class, ethnicity and gender significantly

Question 21

Davis and Moore argue that the education system

Answer 21

has the function of role allocation

Question 22

What does education do?

Answer 22

it sifts and sorts people into appropriate jobs based. on their work ethics and ability and the most able people gain the highest qualifications and go on to have the highly rewarded positions

Question 23

what does Davis and Moore argue?

Answer 23

that people social class is directly linked to their abilities and effort and in olden times the rich could only afford schooling but this is no longer the case

Question 24

What is the education system specifically designed for?

Answer 24

to give everyone a fair chance and therefore each individuals allocated role in society is their own doing

Question 25

According to David and Moore social mobility

Answer 25

is possible and if an individual cannot move up in the world it is due to their own limitation and not because the system is corrupt

Question 26

Criticism of Davis and Moore

Answer 26

Those who get the best qualifications do not necessarily go on to get the highest incomes as factors such as social class can effect this - some people are able to earn high salaries without good qualifications due to family connections while there are high levels of graduate unemployment and underemployment

Question 27

What do Chubb and Moe argue ?

Answer 27

that schools need to be run like businesses so that education would be In the hands of consumers (parents) and they argue this would allow consumers to shape schools to meet their own needs and would improve quality and efficiency

Question 28

What certain things did the government need to do to make sure that schools run efficiently according to Chubb and Moe?

Answer 28

1. government need to impose a framework on schools within which they have to compete e.g. ofsted inspections reports, league tables and this make schools compete and it is this competition which ultimately drives up standards and services
2. the state ensures that schools transmit a shared culture by imposing a national curriculum as it guarantees that schools socialise pupils into a single cultural heritage e.g. British values imposed through British history and literature and this will integrate pupils into a single set of traditions and cultural values and for this reason the New Right oppose a multicultural education system

Question 29

Criticism on Chubb and Moe

Answer 29

• Marxists argue that education does not impose a shared national culture as the New Right claim but imposes the culture of the dominant minority ruling class and devalues the working class and ethnic minorities
• Gerwitz and Ball both argue that competition between schools benefits the middle class, who can use their cultural and economic capital to gain access to more desirable schools