Role & function of education Flashcards
Give the Functionalist perspective
Functionalism is based on the view that society is a sytem of interdependant parts held together by a shared culture or value consensus
Each part of society, including the education system, performs a function that helps maintain society as a whole as well as meeting society’s needs
Define value consensus
An agreement among society’s members about what values are important
The founder of funtionalist sociology, identified which two main functions of education?
Durkheim: Creating social solidarity and teaching specialist skills
Define social solidarity
Individual members must feel themselves to be part of a single ‘body’ or community
How does the education system help to create social solidarity?
By transmitting society’s culture - Its shared beliefs and values - from one generation to the next
For example, Durkheims argue the teaching of a country’s history instils in children a sense of shared heritage and commitment to the wider social group
What does Durkheim argue on social solidarity?
• Society needs a sense of solidarity. WIthout it,social lifeandcooperationwould be impossible as each individual would pursue their ownselfish desire
• Education helps create social solidarity by…
• School acts as a‘society in miniature’preparing for life in wider society
For example in both school and society we must cooperate with people that areneither family nor friends
i.e. teachers and pupils, colleagues and customers
In both, we interact according to a set ofimpersonal rulesthat apply to everyone
What does Durkheim argue on specialist skills?
• He argue education teaches individuals the specialistknowledgeand skills that they need to play their part in thesocial division of labour
• Modern industrial economies have acomplex division of labourwhere even the production of a single item involves the cooperation of many different specialists
• This cooperation promotessocial solidairtybut for this to be successful, each individual; must have the necessary specialist knowledge and skills to perform their role
Define meritocracy
A person’s status is achieved not ascribed through individual effort and ability
In a meritocracy, eveyone is given an equal opportunity
What does the American functionalist say on meritocracy?
•Parsonssees schools as preparing us to move from the family to wider society as both are based onmeritocratic principles
• He sees the schools as the‘focal socialising agency’in modern society acting asbridgebetween the family and wider society - the bridge necessary as society & the family operate on different principles
• In the family the child is judged byparticularistic standardsSimilarly in the family, the child’s status isascribed, fixed by birth. For example, an elder son and a younger daughter may be given different rights and duties due to differences in age and sex
• Both school and wider society judge us all by the sameuniversalisticand impersonal standards.
E.g. same laws apply to all, we all sit the same exam and the pass mark is the same for all
• In school and society - status is largelyachieved, not ascribed
E.g. promotion - based on strength and how well we do our job, pass/fail based on individual efforts
Give the functionalist view on role alloction
School performs a function of selecting and allocating pupils to their future work roles. By assessing individuals’ aptitudes and abilities.
Davis & Mooresee education as a device for selection and role allocation
• They argue inequality isnecessaryto ensure important roles are filled by most talented people
E.g. It would be innefficient and dangerous to have less competent people performing roles like a surgeon of airline pilot
Not eveyone is equally talented so higher rewards are given, increasingcompetition& society can select the most talented
• Education plays a key role in this process: Acts as a‘proving ground’for ability, It‘sifts and sorts’us according to ability
SimilarlyBlau and Duncanargue that a modern economy depends for its prosperity on using its‘human capital’, arguing a meritocratic education system does this best making most effective use of talents and maximise their productivity
Define ‘human capital’
Blau & Duncan
It’s worker’s skills
Give the six evaluations of the functionalist perspective on the role of education
Doesn’t teach specialist skills adequately - The Wolf review of vocational education claim high quality apprenticeships are rare and up to a third of 16-19 yr olds are on a courses that don’t lead to high education or good jobs
Achievement is greatly influenced by class background rather than ability
Tumin criticises Davis & Moore for putting forward a circular argument
Marxists argue education in capitalist society transmits the ideology of the minority - the ruling class not like functionalists that view education as a process that instils the shared values of society as a whole
Functionalists wrongly imply that pupils passively accept all they are taught and never reject shool values.
Interactionist Wrong argue Functionalist have an ‘oversocialised view’ of people as mere puppets of society
Neoliberals + New Right argue the state education fails to prepare young people adequately for work
What is the neoliberal perspective on education?
Value of education lies in how it enables the country to compete in theglobal marketplaceonly achieved if schools become more likebusinesses, empowering parents and pupils as customers usingcompetitionto drive up standards
They believe the state shouldn’t provide certain sevices such as education
What is Neoliberalism?
A highly influential economic doctrine that has had major influence: on education policy, all governments
Based on the idea that the state must not dicatate to individuals how to dispose of own property, and shouldn’t try ro regulate the free-market economy
Governments should encourage competition, privatise state-run businesses and deregulate markets
What is the New Right?
A conservative political view, incorperates neoliberal economic ideas
A central principle is the belief that the state can’t meet people’s needs & that people are best left to meet their own needs through the free market - for this reason they favour the marketisation of education
Give the three similarities between the New Right and Functionalist perspective
Both believe some people are naturally more talented than others
Both favour an education system run on meritocratic principles of open competition, and one that serves the needs of the economy by preparing young people for work
Both believe education should socialise pupils into shared values, such as competition, and instil a sense of national identity
Give a key difference between the New Right and Functionalist perspective
They believe the current education system is not achieving these goals
The reason for it failure - it is run by thestate
State education system takes a‘one size fits all’approach imposing uniformity and disregarding local needs. The local customers - parents, pupils, employers - have no say
SES are thereforeunresponsiveand inefficient. Schools that waste money or get poor results are not answerable to customers
This means lower standards of achievement for pupils, a less qualified workforce and a less prosperous economy
Give the New Right’s solution to this key difference
Marketisation of education - creating an ‘education market’
Competition between schools and empowering consumers will bring greaterdiversity, choice and efficiencyto schools, and increase schools’ ability to meet the needs of pupils, parents & employers
Give a good example of the New Right perspective on education
Chubb & Moe- Consumer choice
argue state education has failed in the US
Why did the NR American sociologists argue state educaction in the US has failed? Givethreereasons
It has not createdequal opportunity+ has failed the needs ofdisadvantaged groups
Inefficientas it fails to produce pupils with skills needed by the economy
Private schoolsdeliver higher quality education, since unlike state schools, they are answerable to paying consumers - parents
What did Chubb & Moe base their arguments on?
Acomparisonof theachievementsof60,000pupils from low income families in1,015private and state high schools
Together with the findings of aparents surveyandcase studiesof ‘failing schools’ apparantly being ‘turned around’
Their evidence shows that pupils from low income families consistently do about5%better in private than in state schools
Based on these findings what did Chubb & Moe call for + propose?
Call for theintroduction of a market systemin state education, that would putcontrolin the hand of consumers (parents + local communities). They argue this would would allow consumers to shape schools to meet their own needs and would improvequality&efficiency
To achieve this, they propose asystemin which each family is given avoucherto spend on buying education from a school of their choice.
Give anadvantageof the voucher system Chubb & Moe proposed to intoduce a market into the SES
Forces schools to become morerepsonsiveto parents’ wishes, as vouchers would be the school’s main source of income
Like private businesses, schools would have tocompeteto attract ‘customers’ by improving their ‘product’
Where does the market system already exist?
Private sector- principles already at work
In C+M’s view, educational standards would be greatly improved by introducing the same marketforcesinto the state sector
