Functionalist view on education

Question 1

Durkheim (1903)

Answer 1

Social solidarity
-Society needs a sense of solidarity: individual members feel apart of a community.
-He argues without it social life + cooperation = impossible as each individual would pursue their own selfish desires
-Education system creates it by transmitting society’s culture, the shared beliefs + values e.g. the school teaching history instils a child’s sense of a shared heritage

Question 2

Society in miniature

Answer 2

-Preparing us for life in wider society e.g. school + work will have us work with people who are neither family or friends: teachers + pupils at school, colleagues + customers at work

Question 3

Specialist skills

Answer 3

-Durkheim argues education teaches you special skills that will help you perform your role in the social division of labour

Question 4

Parson (1961)

Answer 4

-Education acts as a bridge between the family and the rest of society: is ‘focal socialising agency’, is important as family + society operate on different principles and children need to learn a new way of living.
-Within the family the child is judged on particularistic standards: the child is born with an ascribed status e.g. the eldest son + youngest daughter may be given different duties based on differences between age + sex
-Contrasts with school where everyone is judged at the same level as we all sit the same exams

Question 5

Davis + Moore (1945)

Answer 5

Role allocation
-Education performs the function of selecting + allocating pupils to their future work roles
-Argue that social inequality is crucial to ensure the most important roles in society are fulfilled by the most talented people.
-Not everybody is equally talented and so society has to offer higher rewards for these jobs e.g. doctor, lawyer etc
-Education ‘sifts and sorts’ us based on our ability: the most able gain the highest qualifications–> enter the highest + most important positons

Question 6

Blau + Duncan (1978)

Answer 6

-Argues a modern economys success depends on ‘human capital’- workers skills
-Argue the education system does this best as it allocates people to jobs suited to their abilities

Question 7

Evaluation of functionalists

Answer 7

-Meritocracy in education doesn’t exist e.g. a persons achievement is heavily influenced by their class
-Marxists argue that education transmits the values of a minority- the ruling class
-New Right argue that education fails to prepare young people adequately for work