Roles and Functions of the Education System

Question 1

How do Functionalists view society?

Answer 1

• Functionalists view society as a system of integrated parts, each part has role to play in maintaining society. (organic analogy)
• Believe society is held together by a shared culture or value consensus

Question 2

What is the Organic Analogy?

Answer 2

The Organic Analogy - all major institutions like organs, all contributing to the overall health of the body (society).

Question 3

What did Durkheim (1903) identify?

Answer 3

Emile Durkheim (1903) - identified 2 main functions of education: creating SOCIAL SOLIDARITY and teaching SPECIALIST SKILLS.

Question 4

What is Social Solidarity?

Answer 4

Individuals must feel part of a single community.

Question 5

Why did Durkheim argue that Social Solidarity was needed?

Answer 5

Because without it cooperation would be replaced by the pursuit of self interest. Social Solidarity provides a shared sense of identity through common interests we share as a community.

Question 6

How does Social Solidarity relate to the education system? Example?

Answer 6

Education contributes to SS by transmitting society’s BELIEFS and VALUES from one generation to the next.
E.G. teaching History brings about a shared heritage and a commitment to the woodier social group.

Question 7

How does school act as society?

Answer 7

School acts a ‘society in miniature’ - we have to interact with people who are not family, we have to abode but set of impersonal rules as we would have to in the world of work.

Question 8

Cons of Durkheim’s SS?

Answer 8

• Some individuals still choose to go against social beliefs and interests
• Diversity can alienate people
• Both of these ^^ can cause people to act out against society.

Question 9

How does USA demonstrate Durkheim’s views?

Answer 9

Because its population is drawn from all over the world, and a common education system has helped to cement diverse immigrant cultures into a nation where they share a culture/ set of values.

Question 10

What do Functionalists see education as?

Answer 10

See education as a vehicle for instilling shared societal values. For values to be transmitted there has to be receptivity by those who are the audience of the message.

Question 11

(D) What are Specialist Skills & why are they needed?

Answer 11

Specialist Skills are specific skills taught to cater to modern industrial companies’ complex division of labour, where processes/production need different specialists.

Question 12

How does education relate to specialist skills?

Answer 12

Durkheim argues that education teaches individuals specialist knowledge and skills, and an individuals success depends on them having specialist knowledge and skills to perform their role.

Question 13

Criticisms of Durkheim’s Social Solidarity?

Answer 13

Marxists - argue that education in a capitalist society only transmits the ideology of a minority from the ruling class.
Denis Wrong (1961) - Functionalists have an 'over-socialised view' of society. Interactionists have shown that pupils are NOT uncritical, passive recipients of what they're taught and can challenge school values.

Question 14

Criticisms of Durkheim’s Specialist Skills?

Answer 14

• Education does not teach specialist skills as adequately as Durkheim believes, the Wolf review of vocational education (2011) claims that high quality apprenticeships are rare and 1/3 of 16-19y/o’s are on courses that do not lead to higher education or good jobs.&raquo_space; Not all knowledge entirely dependent on school, how pupils are raised and what they’re exposed to outside of school has an impact.

Question 15

Talcott Parsons (1961), Functionalist studied what?

Answer 15

Meritocracy

Question 16

What did Parsons (1961) see educations main function to be?

Answer 16

• School acts as a bridge between family and wider society, children need to learn a new way of behaving as family and society act on different principles/

Question 17

Parsons (1961) - difference between family and society/school?

Answer 17

Family = particularistic, the child's status is ascribed (fixed by birth), they are treated as an individual.
Society/school = universalistic, individuals are judged by the same standards, status is achieved (not ascribed)

Question 18

How does school prepare us for wider society? (P)

Answer 18

School is based on meritocratic principles, everyone is given an equal opportunity as is wider society. Also, school like a microcosm of society where children exposed to different cultures and, therefore, learn tolerance and how to integrate.

Question 19

Evaluation of Parsons, example?

Answer 19

• Evidence that equal opportunity doesn’t exist, e.g. achievement is greatly influenced by class background.
• GCSE Results 2015: north-south divide in achieving the benchmark of 5 GCSE’s (including English and maths) a difference of 4.7%

Question 20

Davis & Moore (1945), Functionalists studied what?

Answer 20

Studied role allocation.

Question 21

Davis & Moore (1945), function of school?

Answer 21

• Schools perform the function of selecting and allocating pupils their future work roles by assessing individuals aptitudes and abilities, schools match them to the job they are best suited to.
• Education acts as a proving ground for ability, it ‘sifts and sorts’.

Question 22

D&M (1945), ‘sifts and sorts’?

Answer 22

• ‘Sifting and Sorting’ needed as qualifications give entry to highly rewarded positions, only some can succeed in the competition for these positions.
• Social Inequality necessary, the primary roles in society must be filled by most talented.

Question 23

Support for Role Allocation? (D&M)

Answer 23

Peter Blau and Otis Duncan (1978) - Human Capital: prosperity is dependent on using its workers skills. They argue that a meritocratic education system does this best, allocates a person to the job best suited to their abilities.

Question 24

Criticisms of D&M?

Answer 24

Melvin Tumin (1953) criticises D&M for putting forward a circular argument - how do we know that a job is important? Because it is highly rewarded. Why are some jobs highly rewarded? Because they are important.

Question 25

Criticism of D&M (stats)?

Answer 25

2015 report, ‘Over-qualification and Skills Mismatch in the Graduate Labour Market’, says that the growth in the number of uni leavers is ‘significantly outstripping’ the growth in the provision of high-skilled jobs. Data from EU Social Survey - claims that 58.8% of UK graduates in non-graduate jobs.

Question 26

How do Marxists view education?

Answer 26

Believe it is a process that enables the ruling class to reproduce its domination of other social classes order for their power to continue.

Question 27

Ideological transmission (Mx)

Answer 27

Marxists see schools as agencies of ideological transmission - they transmit beliefs beneficial to the basic interests of the ruling class.

Question 28

Marxists, how do schools socialise children?

Answer 28

Socialise children with ideas that legitimise the nature of society ‘as it is’. To accept:

• Capitalism as the best of all possible systems
• The economic domination of the ruling class over time
• Fundamental and inevitable inequalities of wealth, income, power and status

Question 29

Louis Althusser (1971)

Answer 29

a French Marxist philosopher, longtime ember of French Communist party, argued against threats that the saw as attacking theoretical foundations of Marxism.

Question 30

Althusser (1971), Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA)

Answer 30

A saw education as an ISA,
I = role to mystify the way people encouraged to see the world
S = represents the political power of ruling class

Question 31

A (1971), employees and employers?

Answer 31

If capitalism to survive over time, ideas that underpin capitalist forms of production have to be continually reproduced one believed by generations of employers and employees

Question 32

A (1971), meritocratic?

Answer 32

Education claims to be meritocratic, but actually discriminates in favour of privately educated and MC students.

Question 33

A (1971), economic/cultural capital?

Answer 33

MC students have access to economic & cultural capital, giving them an advantage over other students.

Question 34

Economic capital?

Answer 34

MC have more money in family, so access to more things

Question 35

Cultural capital?

Answer 35

Refers to the knowledge, tastes, language, values and behaviours transmitted by MC parents to their children - giving them the ability and confidence to interact with teachers.

Question 36

A (1971), WC failure?

Answer 36

Education functions to deliberately engineer WC failure because capitalism requires an unqualified factory workforce.

Question 37

A (1971), private education?

Answer 37

prepares children for their future positions of power.

Question 38

A (1971), what does education encourage students to do?

Answer 38

education encourages students to uncritically accept capitalist values such as competition, individualism and private enterprise as normal and natural.

Question 39

A (1971), teachers?

Answer 39

Teachers main agent of ideological reproduction who funnel MC students towards success and ‘persuade’ Wc students to accept educational failure.

Question 40

A (1971), hidden curriculum?

Answer 40

organisation and content of education is shaped by hidden curriculum, this functions to assist MC achievement and deter WC achievement - thus reproducing class inequality.

Question 41

What is the hidden curriculum?

Answer 41

informal learning processes that occur in schools. it is a ‘side-effect’ that serves to transmit messages to students about values, attitudes and principles.

Question 42

A (1971), what effects does the chidden curriculum have on the WC?

Answer 42

HC encourages WC students to:

• Conform and to accept hierarchy and inequality
• Lowers their ambitions and encourages them to accept the blamer failure.

Question 43

A (1971), Social learning?

Answer 43

A key feature of the ideology of schooling, it involves teachers playing the crucial part of transforming the consciousness of pupils to accept the ‘realities of life’ and accept ruling class domination.

Question 44

Bowles & Gintis (1976)

Answer 44

Marxists, argue that education ‘stands in the shadow of work’ - education corresponds with/mirrors work in order to prepare WC children for their future as manual workers.

Question 45

B&G (1976), correspondence principle?

Answer 45

The correspondence principle is taught through the hidden curriculum (the day-to-day expectations and rules that underpin the classroom, i.e. obedience punctuality). These are the characteristics that schools prize most, these are also the characteristics that the capitalist system prizes most in workers.

Question 46

B&G(1976), examples of correspondence principle?

Answer 46

S = students work for qualifications, not satisfaction
W = workers work for wages, not satisfaction
S = students must obey teachers 
W = workers must obey bosses
S = learn school is boring
W = workers accept work is boring

Question 47

Problems of B&G (1976)?

Answer 47

• Lack of detailed research
• Ignore the influence of the formal curriculum
• Although hidden curriculum may be influencing pupils, not all are passive recipients of education.

Question 48

Paul Willis (1977)

Answer 48

Neo-Marxist,