Functionalist View

Question 1

Which functionalists talk about education?

Answer 1

Durkheim
Parsons
Davis and Moore

Question 2

What 2 main functions of education did Durkheim identify?

Answer 2

Social solidarity and specialist skills

Question 3

What does Durkheim argue society needs? (Social Solidarity)

Answer 3

Argues society needs a sense of solidarity - individuals must feel part of a single community.

Question 4

What does Durkheim say will happen if there isn’t social solidarity?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

How does the education system help to create social solidarity?

Answer 5

By transmitting society’s culture (its shared beliefs and values) from one generation to the next. For example, Durkheim argues that the teaching of a country’s history instils in children a sense of a shared heritage and a commitment to a wider social group.

Question 6

What does school act as?

Answer 6

‘A society in miniature’ - preparing us for life in wider society.
E.g. both in school and at work we have to cooperate with people who are neither friends nor family - teachers and pupils at school, colleagues and customers at work.

Question 7

What does Durkheim say about specialist skills?

Answer 7

In an industrial economy there is a need for different roles - we have a complex division of labour that requires the cooperation of many different specialists.

This cooperation promotes social solidarity, but each person must have the necessary specialist knowledge and skills to perform their role.

Question 8

What does Durkheim argue? (specialist skills)

Answer 8

Education teaches individuals the specialist knowledge and skills that they need to play their part in the social division of labour.

Question 9

What does Parsons talk about?

Answer 9

Meritocracy

Question 10

What is meritocracy?

Answer 10

The belief that all can achieve if they work hard enough.

Question 11

What does Parsons describe school as?

Answer 11

the ‘focal socialising agency’ in modern society, acting as a bridge between the family and wider society.

Question 12

Why is the bridge needed?

Answer 12

Because 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 13

How are children judged within the family?

Answer 13

By particularistic standards - rules that apply only to that particular child.
Similarly, the child’s status is ascribed (fixed by birth)

Question 14

How is this different to school and wider society according to Parsons?

Answer 14

Both school and wider society judge us all by the same universalistic standards. E.g. the same laws apply to everyone and in school is judged against the same standards –> exams
In addition status is largely achieved - at work we gain promotion or get the sack
at school we pass or fail through our own efforts

Question 15

What does Parsons see school as?

Answer 15

Preparing us for the move from the family to wider society because school and society are both based on meritocratic principles.

Question 16

What do Davis and Moore talk about?

Answer 16

Role allocation

Question 17

What do Davis and Moore argue?

Answer 17

That inequality is necessary to ensure that the most important roles in society are filled by the most talented people.

Question 18

What do rewards do?

Answer 18

High rewards are offered for more talented jobs. This will encourage everyone to compete for them and society can select the most talented individuals to fill these positons.

Question 19

How does education play a key part in this process?

(rewards + role allocation)

Answer 19

Education is where individuals show what they can do. It sifts and sorts us according to our ability. The most able gain the highest qualifications, which then gives them entry to the most important and highly rewarded positons.

Question 20

How can Durkheim be criticised?

Answer 20

The education system does not teach specialised skills adequately, as Durkheim claims.

Question 21

How can Parsons be criticised?

Answer 21

There is evidence that equal opportunity in education does not exist. For example, achievement is greatly influenced by class background rather than ability.

Question 22

Who criticised Davis and Moore?

Answer 22

Tuvin

Question 23

How does Tuvin criticise Davis and Moore?

Answer 23

Puts forward a circular argument
How do we know that a job is important = because it is highly rewarded
why is a job highly rewarded = because it is seen as important

Question 24

How do Marxists criticise the functionalist view?

Answer 24

Functionalists see education as a process that instils the shared values of society as a whole, but Marxists argue that education in capitalist society only transmits the ideology of a minority - the ruling class.

Question 25

How does Interactionist Dennis Wrong criticise the functionalist view?

Answer 25

Argues that functionalists have an ‘over-socialised view’ of people as mere puppets of society. Functionalists wrongly imply that pupils passively accept all they are taught and never reject the school’s values.

Question 26

How do Neoliberals and New Right criticise the F view?

Answer 26

Argue that the state education system fails to prepare young people adequately for work.