Sociological Theories Of Education (P1) Flashcards
What does Durkheim say the two roles of education are? (Functionalism)
Creating social solidarity (socialisation function) - teaching us shared n&vs and preventing anomie + schools acting as a mini society
Teaching specialist skills (economic function) - complex division of labour requires specialist skills to perform jobs and keep the economy running
Give 2 criticisms for Durkheim’s view that the role of education is to create social solidarity
Interactionist-> too deterministic- assumes students accept the n+vs they’re taught in school when they may reject them e.g Willis’ lads
Marxists-> the n+vs passed on in education aren’t those of all of society but of the r.class
Give 2 criticisms for Durkheim’s view that the role of education is teaching specialist skills
New vocationalism has been criticised, as the Wolf review (2011) into vocational education found that high quality apprenticeships are rare and that up to 1/3 of 16-19 year old are on courses that don’t lead to high education or jobs.
Neoliberals and the New Right -> state education system fails to prep young people adequately for work as ‘consumers’ (parents, students & employers) have little/ no say in how it is run.
What does Parsons argue is the role of education (functionalism)?
-School is a bridge between the fam and wider society
-How we’re treated in the fam , where a child is judged by particularisatic standards and status is ascribed, is different to that in school and work , where you’re judged by universalistic standards and status is achieved.
-Education performs a socialisation function
-Both school and work are meritocracies which is a selective function as education helps works out who gets which qualifications.
What do Davis and Moore argue to be the role of education? (Functionalism)
Role allocation (selection function) :making sure people end up in the jobs they’re suited to by ensuring the most talented get the most important jobs (e.g doctor). Those jobs are rewarded with high wages and so everyone tries to compete for them. Schools then ‘sift and sort’ people based on their talents.
Give a criticism for Parsons and Davis and Moore’s view on the role of education
Assumes education is meritocratic e.g role allocation is just based on ability and talent. However evidence shows that children don’t have an equal chance to succeed in education due to CAGE.
What are the 3 ways that the New Right agree with functionalist views on education?
some people are naturally more talented than others.
education should be meritocratic and prepare people for work.
education should socialise children into shared n+vs and give them a sense of national identity.
What is the new right perspective on education?
Education isn’t working because it’s run by the gov, who decide what kinds of schools we should have.
They argue the gov takes a ‘one size fits all’ approach by making all schools the same and not allowing the ‘consumers’ who use education to have a say on how it’s run.
Schools that waste money or get poor results aren’t answerable to consumers leading to low standards in schools.
What’s the New Right solution to the problem of the education system
Marketisation - make schools compete against each other for students leading to them improving their ‘products’ and gives parents more choice of which schools to send their children to (parentocracy).
Give a criticism for the New Right’s view of education
Marxists-> competition between schools benefits the middle class who use their knowledge of the education system (cultural capital) and money (economic capital) to get their children to the best state schools e.g moving where the best schools are (selection by mortgage).
What are Chubb and Moe’s 2 arguments on the education system? (New Right)
The American state education system is failing disadvantaged students. Private schools deliver better education because they’re “answerable to paying customers”. This can be seen by the fact that children from low income families do better in private schools rather than state schools.
Schools should be made to compete against each other and no longer receive automatic funding. Parents should be given vouchers to buy their child an education at the school they want them to go to - forcing schools to improve as the vouchers= main income source.
What 2 roles do the New Rights say the state should have in education?
Creating a framework for schools in which they have to compete - in the UK this is done through league tables and OFSTED inspections- allows parents to compare different schools against each other and the funding formula.
Ensuring schools transmit a shared culture to students (socialisation function) - e.g the National Curriculum ensures schools socialise children into a single cultural heritage + there should be an act of Christian worship in schools- NR oppose multicultural education.
Give 2 criticisms for the New Right’s view on education
Marxists -> education doesn’t pass on a shared culture but r.class ideology.
Teaching a curriculum based on British culture would be ethnocentric and would disadvantage ethnic minorities.
Who argues that the r.class use RSA & ISA to control the w.class? (Marxism)
Althusser
Which 2 functions does Althusser argue the education system performs? (Marxism)
Reproduces class inequalities by ensuring w.class pupils fail.
Legitimates class inequalities by producing ideologies to hide its true purpose. Students learn that inequality is inevitable and that failure in school is their own fault (socialisation function).
Give 2 criticisms of Althusser’s view on the role of education
Functionalists-> education passed on shared n+vs rather than RC ideology & state schools = meritocratic so failure = student’s fault, not the education system.
Feminists-> education reproduces gender inequalities by making girls choose trad female subjects such as Textiles.
Who argues the main function of eduction is to produce an obedient workforce who accepts inequality (Marxism)
Bowles and Gintis
What are the parallels between school and work according to Bowles and Gintis? (Marxism)
Hierarchy: teachers at top , students at bottom; bosses at top, workers at bottom.
Alienation: students have no control over what they study, workers have no control over what they make.
Extrinsic satisfaction: grades but not enjoying what you’re studying itself; wages rather than enjoying the job itself.
Competition: among students for top grades , among workers through differences in status and pay.
What other things, apart from the main function of education and its parallels to work, do Bowles and Gintis argue? (Marxism)
The correspondence principle works through the hidden curriculum (things we learn at school but aren’t on our timetable) e.g obeying authority.
Schools promote the idea that they’re meritocratic but this is a myth as social class is the main factor in determining how well someone will do in education.
They legitimate inequality as students who fail, blame themselves for their failure which justifies poverty as people come to believe the idea that the poor are dumb.
Summarise the study of Willis’ lads (Marxism)
Willis - interested in how education helps to maintain capitalism and combined this w/ an Interactionsit approach to find out the meanings pupils give to their behaviours in school.
Studied 12 white WC boys through interviews and observations. The lads formed a counter- school culture, saw meritocracy as a con and saw manual work as superior.
Due to their behaviours, Willis said they ended up in low paying jobs that capitalism needs people to perform and, being used to finding ways to amuse themselves at school, they didn’t expect to enjoy work, and so could cope w/ unskilled manual jobs. They left school with poor qualifications.
Give 2 criticisms for Willis’ study of the lads
As Willis only did his study on one group of 12 students in one school it is difficult to generalise his findings to the whole education system: because he only studies a small group of people, it is difficult to say if their views and experiences can be used to reflect those of all students/all schools.
He only focused on white working class males, neglecting that some cultures may form among ethnic minorities and female students too (e.g Fuller’s girls).
Who created the argument of the different types of capital to explain why middle class students achieve more than working class students? + name the 3 capitals (Marxism)
Bourdieu
Economic capital - money
Educational capital - qualifications
Cultural capital- knowledge, attitudes and values of the middle class
Give additional evaluation of the Marxist view on education
(+) 83% of children from MC backgrounds achieve 5 A*-C grades at GCSE compared to 44% from WC backgrounds. This evidence supports the views of Althusser, Bowles & Gintis and Bourdieu that education isn’t meritocratic as there are differences in achievement, challenging the functionalist view.
(-) some sociologist argue that gender, ethnicity and sexuality inequalities are as important as class qualities in society today and that sociologists should explain how education reproduces and legitimates all forms of inequality and how they are interrelated.
What are the feminist perspectives on education?
Radical feminist argue that while girls achieves more than boys, the education system is used to maintain patriarchy e.g girls are encouraged to take traditional female subjects, less female headteachers, male gaze etc.
Liberal feminist disagree w/ rad fems and believe the education is now promoting gender and equality e.g GIST and WISE, inclusive textbooks etc.
