Functions of Education

Question 1

Education

Answer 1

The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university.

Question 2

Introduction

Answer 2

Various views of the role of education, which can broadly be placed into two types: conflict views, which argue that the education system reproduces inequalities within society, and consensus theories, which argue that the education system benefits individuals and society.

Question 3

Consensus Theories

Answer 3

Such as Functionalism and the New Right, regard education as having two major functions: secondary socialisation and providing the skills needed in preparation for paid employment, maintaining society. The education system is meritocratic. A meritocracy is a fair system that gives everyone an equal chance of success.

Question 4

Conflict Theories

Answer 4

Take a negative view of education and see it as a way to reinforce inequalities in society. There are two main conflict theories: Marxism and Feminism.

Question 5

Functionalism

Answer 5

Education is a key institution of Secondary Socialisation and aids meritocracy.

Question 6

Functionalism (Durkheim)

Answer 6

• Education ensures individuals understand and conform to social values.
• A form of social solidarity which means individuals are integrated and value society by sharing beliefs and values.
• Establishing a value consensus: which are a shared set of norms and values, something that is even more necessary now as in industrial societies
• Individuals come from more diverse backgrounds so education plays a vital role in instilling a sense of a shared culture and identity in the younger generation.

Question 7

Functionalism (Parsons)

Answer 7

Developed DURKHEIM’S ideas and argued that education has three main functions in Modern Industrial societies like the Unities Kingdom and the USA.

1. ) A Bridge between School and Work,
2. ) Value Consensus and two key values: Individual Achievement and Metricorcay
3. ) Role Allocation

Question 8

Parsons: A Bridge between School and Work

Answer 8

Education is the main secondary socialisation and acts as a bridge between the family and the workforce, thus preparing them for the world of work.
Family treat children in terms of particularistic values and are seen as the best even when the reality is different.
Wider society individuals are judged by universalistic values which are applied to everyone. Education aids the transition by assessing according to universalistic standards like exams.

Question 9

Parsons: Value Consensus

Answer 9

1. ) Individual Achievement: Learned through competition with others, rewards like praise, higher grades and educational qualifications, preparing them for the working world
2. )Meritocracy is a social system in which people get opportunities and succeed based primarily on their talent and effort. Equal opportunities policy emphasising that all children irrespective of gender, ethnicity, social class or disability should be treated equally and given equal opportunities.

Question 10

Parsons/Davis and Moore: Role Allocation

Answer 10

Selecting pupils for their future roles in society.
Schools are seen as operating on the principle of meritocracy, rewarding the most talented and hard-working students with higher grades and better qualifications.
The system ‘sifts, sorts and selects,’ individuals on the basis of ability, motivation and talent and allocates them to their most appropriate role in adult life.

Question 11

Modern Examples of Functionalist Ideas

Answer 11

Theories are outdated.
Recently concern among politicians and some educationalists about the need for education to transmit shared values.
The Al Madinah free school, an Islamic primary school raised concerns because had a very conservative Islamic approach to education, for example segregating girls and boys. Criticsargued that state-funded schools should reflect broader British values such as democracy and multiculturalism.
In 2014 the Department of Education told all schools to promote ‘British values’ which would be assessed through SMSC.
Showing their ideas have some relevance.

Question 12

The New Right

Answer 12

Social democratic approaches dominated government educational policy in the period after the Second World War.
The Thatcher government was strongly influenced by New Right approach this could be seen in their educational policies.
New Right ideas are a form of ideology informing government policies on education rather than a sociological theory of education.

Question 13

TNR and Functionalism

Answer 13

Agrees with Functionalism that Education has two main functions: Secondary Socialisation and Meritocracy.

Question 14

TNR view on Education

Answer 14

Education system should be run like a business and enable parents to have choice in the school they send their children to. New Right thinkers are optimistic that the education system can offer opportunity for all.
They have concerns, however, about the failings of the current education system. Recently, the New Right has aspired to make state education more like private education, viewing the private system as a ‘better’ model of education.

Question 15

TNR and Marketisation

Answer 15

Believe that goods and services are best delivered through a competitive market.
The New Right believe public services should be organised on the same principle, rather than one organisation (for example the local education authority) providing all educational services in an area there should be a choice of providers (for example different types of schools) competing with one another in an education market.
This would drive up standards in all schools and colleges as they seek to attract more customers.

Question 16

TNR and Vocationalism

Answer 16

Education can help to support economic growth.
New Right argue that UK governments have in the past put too much emphasis on academic education some of which has little relevance to the world of work.
Call for a greater emphasis on vocational education, for example courses which directly train students in skills they can use in the workplace.

Question 17

TNR: Chubb and Moe

Answer 17

Argue that the introduction of market forces into education, known as marketisation, is beneficial to the education system as it helps improve standards and efficiency.

Question 18

TNR Modern Influence

Answer 18

Considerable influence on educational policies in the last 30 years and could argue they have proved successful.
-The proportion of pupils leaving school with qualifications such as GCSEs has increased and a growing number of young people go on to university.
Also, argue that parents and students now have much greater choice about schools; rather than standard local comprehensive schools, there is a choice of different schools, for example specialising in arts, sciences, sports or technology, along with academies and free schools.
Although New Right ideas have met with considerable opposition from some teachers and educationalists, this approach has remained the dominant influence on education policy since 2005.

Question 19

Criticisms of Functionlaism and TNR

Answer 19

• Marxists would question if education reflects a set of beliefs shared by the majority of society. Values emphasised by schools are ones which benefit capitalist employers. For example, pupils are encouraged to be obedient workers
• Common culture based on shared values is outdated as young people will increasingly compete for jobs in a global society. So diversity will consequently be more valuable.
• Functionalists ignore inequalities for boys, w/c and EM. Parents who are themselves highly educated and well off are in a much better position to take advantage of parental choice in education.
• Meritocracy is questioned by many sociologists who point to evidence that some pupils fail to achieve because they are disadvantaged by social background factors.
• Assumes that the education system is organised in a beneficial way for all, and this is simply not the case. New Right thinkers fail to acknowledge that when choice is introduced, not all students are able to utilise the choices.
• Schools put too much emphasis on traditional academic subjects and fail to focus on the practical and social skills required in the workplace.

Question 20

TNR and Functionalism Critisms Support Statistics

Answer 20

For example, some students may not be able to go to a school a long way away because of transport costs: such choices in fact reproduce inequalities. Fact remains 1/2 of all Oxbridge’s school students with 3As gained a place compared to less than a third of state school students with the same grades and disproportionate in top professions: 29% of MPs compared to 7% of population, 50% of HoL, 70% of senior judges and 62% of senior armed forces officials

Question 21

Marxism

Answer 21

Marxists argue that the education system acts as a means of socialising children into their respective class position.
Making sure that they are unlikely to challenge the system. Marxists point out that the education system supports capitalism by ensuring that working-class students are prepared for mundane repetitive labour while middle-class students are encouraged to aspire to higher levels of education and use school as a way of making connections that will help them later in life.

Question 22

Marxist Views on Education

Answer 22

Society is not meritocratic, this is a myth maintained by false class consciousness.
According of Marxists Education serves the needs of the capitalist society by allowing the ruling class to pass on their norms and values by acting as the ‘thinkers’ of education and so producers of ideas, referred to as the ruling class ideology. Socialises children into their respect class positions which may explain why disportioncate amounts of the top professions are held by those privately educated, institutions only accessible with bourgeoisie.

Question 23

Marxism: Althusser

Answer 23

• Ideological State apparatus justifies capitalism.
• Reproduces class inequality by making school middle-class institutions and legitimises inequality as socialises working class children into accepting their subordinate status to the middle class.
• Argues that education transmits capitalist ideology in two ways: it teaches young people that capitalism is normal despite its inequalities. Schools don’t encourage young people to question or criticise the existing society.
• And by selecting and grading pupils for unequal positions in society, schools makes inequality appear fair and legitimate.
• Pupils who fail or leave with few qualifications are seen as doing so due to their own lack of ability or motivation rather than the fault of a society where some pupils have much better educational opportunities than others.

Question 24

Marxism: Bowles and Gintis

Answer 24

• Obedient workforces will not challenge authority and therefore does not encourage social mobility.
• Hidden curriculum socialises obedient workers through punctuality and coping with boredom
• Argue that the idea of meritocracy put forward by functionalists is a myth used to justify inequalities in capitalist society.
• Pupils are encouraged to believe that everyone has an equal chance. In reality, they argue, pupils from the working class and ethnic minorities have much lower chance of success because the system works against them.
• By fostering this belief, those who fail in education are encouraged to accept dead-end jobs and low pay because they feel they deserved to fail because of their own lack of ability or effort.
• In 1998 the government took away schools choice to determine what they taught and imposed a national curriculum which empathises subjects that are relevant to employment: Maths, English, Science while subjects that question society critically like sociology were not included.

Question 25

Criticisms of Marxism

Answer 25

• Many subjects in the formal curriculum such as sociology encourage students to look at society critically
• Bowles and Gintis/Althusser imply that education is largely controlled by the ruling capitalist class but the UK education system until recently was controlled by LEAs representing local councils elected by ordinary people.
• Employers have often complained that the education system does not produce the kind of workers they are looking for. For example, schools are accused of focusing too much on academic or irrelevant subjects and not prioritising basic skills, such as numeracy and literacy, or on vocational skills. Relative autonomy from the control of employers.
• Wills agreed that w/c students do not passively accept their position in society but instead oppose it by showing little respect for school rules or teachers authority. Forming counter cultures. Will’s ‘Lads’ attached little value to academic success and expected to get a job in the same factories as their fathers. Not producing a docile workforce ready for exploitation
• When controlled by local education authority that represented located councils that represented local people who voted them in
• Jobs in the service sectors, professional and managerial. Employers want a capable workforce capable of working with others and capable of decision making.

Question 26

Feminism

Answer 26

Feminists have campaigned for equality in education for 200 years.
19th-century women fought to gain admittance to British universities and were able to study at most universities by 1900, although in very small numbers.
-Cambridge University did not allow women to qualify for degrees until 1948. Even
in the 1970s about twice as many males as females gained university places.
-Girls’ education often focused on preparing them for a role as wives and mothers,
-Girls were encouraged to take subjects such as cookery, needlework and home economics and discouraged from taking sciences

Question 27

Feminism: Spender (1983)

Answer 27

Women as invisible in education arguing that the curriculum was male-biased with limited attention being paid to the role of women in history, sciences or the arts. Spender also showed that boys tended to receive more attention and encouragement from teachers.

Question 28

Feminsim and Marxism

Answer 28

Feminists argue that the hidden curriculum also operates to reinforce gender inequalities over class inequalities.
Males and females may not only study different subject in the formal curriculum but there may also be hidden messages in the way school are organised, for example in many schools and colleges more of the senior teachers and headteachers are male while jobs such as cleaners and catering staff are mainly performed by females implying that it is normal for women to carry out more subordinate roles.
Similarly, Marxists argue that education is concerned with the process of social reproduction ensuring that class inequalities are perpetuated in each new generation. Many feminists see schools acting as agencies of gender socialisation, in order to reproduce relationships of domination and subordination between males and females.
Education perpetuates a patriarchal society, leading to lower paid jobs and weaker economic positions.
Gendered Subjects that lead to lower paid positions.
Girls’ education often focused on preparing them for a role as wives and mothers.

Question 29

Feminism Stats

Answer 29

Needs to be acknowledged that girls now out-perform boys.
This year 8.5 per cent of male entries and 7.6 per cent of female entries received an A* grade.
This represents a slight narrowing of last year’s gap, when 8.8 per cent of boys and 7.8 per cent of girls received the top grade.In terms of the overall A-level pass rate, the gap which girls had over boys remained the same size.
In 2018, 98.1 per cent of female entries achieved an A-E, compared with 97.1 per cent of male entries. Last year the figures were 98.3 per cent and 97.3 per cent respectively.
But boys still dominate A grades and the top positions is society.

Question 30

Feminism Critisims

Answer 30

• Most schools now have equal opportunities policies that encourages them to treat both sexes equally and to have the same expectations of boys and girls. Feminism has made a major contribution to equality of opportunity in education.
• Some (functionalists and the New Right) disagree with the Marxist perspective of education and argue that education is fair or meritocratic, and it is true that education does offer some students the opportunity to do well and for them to increase their social position.
• Feminists have been criticised for underestimating the change in girls’ position educationally. For the first time in history, young women in their early 20s are now earning more than men, which suggests that women’s economic position is changing for the better.
• Feminists for fail to consider the issue of gender more broadly rather than women only, as there are now many concerns about boys, especially in terms of underperforming working-class boys.
• Education had been feminised making a hostile environment that prohibits male learning

Question 31

Interpretivistism

Answer 31

Interpretivists’ views on education emerged in the 1960s and explore education on a micro level, looking at the processes that occur within education and attempting to understand the meanings of behaviour within school.
Don’t regard education as positive or negative.
Labelling is a process in which meaning is attached to behaviour.
This can be positive or negative and, with regard to education, usually refers to the way in which teachers label students. The process of labelling and the impact that it has on student achievement. Interpretivists believe that teachers (and students) label some students positively and some negatively, resulting in students internalising these labels, creating what is known as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Self-Fulfilling prophecy is when a person begins to internalise the label given to them and begins to act out the label. The interpretivist view is developed more fully later in this chapter when exploring class, gender and ethnicity, looking at the processes that occur in education in relation to interactions between the student and the teacher and students themselves.

Question 32

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)

Answer 32

• Interpretivist approach to uncover the power of teachers labelling their students.
• In their study all students were given an IQ test.
• The results were not disclosed to the teachers. Instead the teachers were told that around 20 per cent of their students were ‘spurters’ who were likely to perform better than their classmates.
• ‘Spurters’ had indeed made most progress.
• Concluded that teacher expectation plays a significant role in shaping student performance.
• Criticised for ethical reasons as the impact on children involved in this study could be long term. It was also only carried out in one school and so the results cannot necessarily be generalised.

Question 33

Conclusion

Answer 33

Disregarding sociological theories the agreed four functions of education include: socialisation of norms and values, training children for future employment, passing on key knowledge of culture, protect children from exploitation.
Through the Compulsory Education Act 1880: which was designed to end child labor and stop them from being exploited by business owners by safeguarding them in the home up to the age of 18.