Role of education

Question 1

Emilie Durkheim

Answer 1

(functionalist)
education has two key features:
aid social solidarity
develop specialist skills

Question 2

Parsons

Answer 2

(functionalist)
secondary socialisation, particularistic and universalistic standards, status is achieved not ascribed, meritocracy

Question 3

Hargreaves

Answer 3

schools place too much emphasis on the individual and not enough on the duties and responsibilities, working-class subculture is because of lack of exam success

Question 4

David and Moore

Answer 4

role allocation
The main role of the education system is just sit and sort, roles in society, a field by most talent, encourages competition

Question 5

S E T S

Answer 5

S - social control and social solidarity
E - economic – meet the needs of the economy
T - transmit, norms and values – secondary socialisation
S - social selection – most talented get better jobs

Question 6

Althusser ISA

Answer 6

ideological state apparatus
used by the state to push capitalist
norms and values

Question 7

Marxism criticisms

Answer 7

• Functionalists criticise Marxism for over-emphasising conflict when there must be harmony and shared values for social order to be possible.
• It is seen as economically deterministic; everything revolves around money.
• Marxism has ignored the role of women in society.
• Russia and China have become capitalist & turned their backs on communism.
• Society doesn’t always operate in the interests of the ruling class.

Question 8

Bowles and Gintis

Answer 8

(marxist)
correspondence principle – what happened in schools mirror the workplace
Hidden curriculum - unspoken rules in school
Social reproduction – rich stay rich, poor stay poor

Question 9

Bowles and Gintis critisms

Answer 9

critics of capitalism
this is what they thought education was like, not what they thought it should be like

Question 10

Bourdieu

Answer 10

(marxist)
Culture capital - middle-class parents endow their children with cultural capital, social skills/language better than working class, schools favour these

Question 11

Bourdieu criticism

Answer 11

observes interactions in a confined space so he couldn’t look at wider areas

Question 12

Boudon

Answer 12

(marxist)
cost of persistence – there are certain costs (financial, cultural and social) and staying on in further education, which deters working-class

Question 13

Althusser RSA

Answer 13

repressive state apparatus
To control working-class if ISA fails, E.G police and army

Question 14

Boudon Criticisms

Answer 14

not all middle-class pupils want to continue on in further education
there are many ways around the financial difficulties of staying on in uni, for example, loans and scholarships

Question 15

Paul Willis

Answer 15

(neo-marxist)
Study 12 working-class lads, longitudinal study, counter school, culture, found that the boys rejected school as they wanted easy jobs so they found school pointless

Question 16

Marxist Criticism 2

Answer 16

• working-class students can still do well
• feminists argue they ignore gender
• also ignored ethnicity