Sociology-Education-Role in Society Flashcards

1
Q

What is functionalism based on?

A

The view that society is a system of independent parts held together by a shared culture or value consensus. Each part of society performs functions to help maintain society as a whole

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2
Q

What did Durkheim 1903 identify?

A

Two main functions of society: Social solidarity and teaching specialist skills

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3
Q

What is social solidarity?

A

Society’s individual members must feel themselves to be part of a single ‘body’ or community

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4
Q

What does Durkheim argue would happen without social solidarity?

A

Social life and cooperation would be impossible because each individual would pursue their own selfish desires

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5
Q

How does the education system help to create social solidarity?

A

By transmitting society’s culture from one generation to the next, eg Durkheim argues that teaching a country’s history instils in children a sense of shared heritage and a commitment to the wider social group

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6
Q

What does school act as for children?

A

A ‘society in miniature’, preparing them for life in wider society, eg both in school and at work we have to cooperate with people who aren’t friends or family (teachers/pupils/colleagues/customers), and have to interact according to a set of impersonal rules that apply to everyone

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7
Q

Why are specialist skills needed?

A

Modern industrial economies have complex divisions of labour, where production of one item involves cooperation of many different specialists, this also promotes social solidarity

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8
Q

How does Durkheim argue that education teaches specialist skills?

A

Education teaches individuals the specialist knowledge and skills that they need to play their part in the social division of labour

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9
Q

What does Parsons 1961 say?

A

Draws on many of Durkheim’s ideas and sees the school as the ‘focal socialising agency’ in modern society, acting as a bridge between the family and wider society, needed because family and society have different principles and so need to learn this way of living to cope in the wider world

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10
Q

How are children treated within the family?

A

They’re judged by particularistic standards and their status is ascribed

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11
Q

How are people treated in school and wider society?

A

Judged by the same universalistic and impersonal standards. Status is largely achieved, not ascribed

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12
Q

How does Parson view school?

A

As a way of preparing children to move from the family to wider society, because school and society are both based on meritocratic principles

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13
Q

What happens in a meritocracy?

A

Everyone is given an equal opportunity, and individuals achieve rewards through their own efforts

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14
Q

What is another function of education?

A

Selecting and allocating pupils to their future work roles. By assessing their aptitudes and abilities, school can help match them to the job they are best suited to

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15
Q

How do Davis and Moore 1945 view education?

A

As a device for selection and role allocation, they focus on the relationship between education and social inequality

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16
Q

Why do Davis and Moore argue that inequality is necessary?

A

To ensure the most important roles in society are filled by the most talented people. Not everyone is equally talented so society should offer higher rewards for these jobs, encouraging everyone to compete for them so society can select the best individuals

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17
Q

How does education play a part in this process of job selection?

A

It acts as a proving ground for ability, the most able gain the highest qualifications, which gives them entry to the most important and highly rewarded positions

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18
Q

What do Blau and Duncan 1978 argue?

A

Argue that a modern economy depends for its prosperity on using its ‘human capital’-its workers’ skills and a meritocratic education system does this best as it allocated people to the bet suited job for their abilities, making most effective use of their talents and maximise productivity

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19
Q

What is a criticism of Durkeheim’s idea of teaching specialist skills?

A

The education system doesn’t teach specialist skills adequately eg the Wolf review of vocational education 2011 claims that high quality apprenticeships are rare and up to 1/3 of 16-19 year olds are on courses that don’t lead to higher education or good jobs

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20
Q

What is a criticism of meritocracy in education?

A

Much evidence to show that equal opportunities in education don’t exist, eg achievement is greatly influenced by class background, rather than ability

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21
Q

How does Tumin 1953 criticise Davis and Moore?

A

For putting forward a circular argument: We know a job is more important because its more rewarded, and they are more rewarded because they are more important

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22
Q

How do Marxists criticise the functionalist view?

A

Functionalists see education as a process that instils the shared values of society as a whole, but marxists argue that education in capitalist society only transmits the ideology of a minority-the bourgeoisie

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23
Q

What does Wrong 1961 argue about functionalists?

A

They have an ‘over socialised view’ of people as mere puppets of society-functionalists wrongly imply that pupils passively accept all they are taught and never reject the schools values

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24
Q

How do Neoliberals and the New Right criticise functionalism?

A

They argue that the state education system fails to prepare young people adequately for work

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25
Q

What is neoliberalism?

A

An economic doctrine that has had a major influence on education policy. They argue that the state shouldn’t provide services such as education, health and welfare. Their ideas have influenced all governments since 1979

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26
Q

What is neoliberalism based on?

A

The idea that the state mustn’t dictate to individuals how to dispose of their own property, and shouldn’t try to regulate a free market economy, so governments should encourage competition, privatise state-run businesses and deregulate markets

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27
Q

What do neoliberals argue about the value of education?

A

It lies in how well it enables the country to compete in the global marketplace. This can only be achieved if schools become more like businesses, empowering parents and pupils as consumers and using competition between schools to drive up standards

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28
Q

What is the New Right?

A

A conservative political view that incorporates neoliberal economic ideas. A central principle is belief that the state can’t meet people’s needs and that people are best left to meet their own needs through the free market, which is why they favour marketisation of education

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29
Q

What are the similarities between the New Right and functionalists?

A

Believe some people are naturally more talented than others, 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 wok, Believe education should socialise pupils into shared values, such as competition, and instils a sense of identity

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30
Q

What is a key difference between functionalism and the new right?

A

The new right don’t believe that the current education system is achieving these goals. The reason for is failure, in their view, is that it’s run by the state

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31
Q

What do the new right argue about the state education system?

A

It takes a one size fits all approach, imposing uniformity and disregarding local needs. Local consumers who use the schools have no say. It is therefore unresponsive and inefficient. Schools waste money or get poor results aren’t answerable to their consumers so lower standards of achievement lead to a less qualified workforce and less prosperous economy

32
Q

What is the new rights solution to these problems?

A

Marketisation of education-creating an ‘education market’ and believe that competition between schools and empowering consumers will bring greater diversity, choice and efficiency to schools and increase schools’ ability to meet needs of pupils, parents and employers

33
Q

What is a good example of the new right perspective on education?

A

Chubb and Moe 1990

34
Q

What do Chubb and Moe 1990 argue?

A

State run education fails as it doesn’t create equal opportunities/doesn’t meet needs of disadvantaged groups, is inefficient as it fails to produce pupils with skills needed by economy, and private schools deliver higher quality education as they are answerable to paying customers, unlike in state schools

35
Q

What do Chubb and Moe base their arguments on?

A

A comparison of the achievement of 60,000 pupils from low income families, in 1,015 state and private high schools, and findings of a parent survey. Evidence shows pupils from low income families consistently do 5% better in private schools

36
Q

What do Chubb and Moe propose based on their findings?

A

Introduction of a market system in state education that would put control in the hands of consumers, arguing this would allow consumers to shape schools to meet their own needs and would improve quality and efficiency

37
Q

How do Chubb and Moe say a market should be introduced into state education?

A

Propose a system in which each family would be given a voucher to spend on buying education from a school of their choice, encouraging schools to become more responsive to parents’ wishes as the vouchers would be the school’s main source of income. Like private businesses they would have to improve their ‘product’ to attract ‘customers’

38
Q

What two roles does the state have in education, according to the new right?

A

Imposes a framework on schools within which they have to compete (eg publication of Ofsted reports and league tables to parents so they can make informed choices) and it ensure schools transmit a shared culture (eg by the National Curriculum which ensures schools socialise pupils into a single cultural heritage as New Right believe education should affirm the national identity)

39
Q

What do Gewirtz 1995 and Ball 1994 argue about the New Right?

A

Competition between schools benefits the middle class who can use their cultural and economic capital to gain access to more desirable schools

40
Q

What do critics argue about the New Right?

A

The real cause of low educational standards isn’t state control but social inequality and inadequate funding of state schools

41
Q

What is the contradiction in the New Right?

A

Between their support of parental choice, and the state imposing a compulsory national curriculum on all schools

42
Q

How do marxists criticise the New Right?

A

They argue that education doesn’t impose a shared national culture, but imposes the culture of a dominant minority ruling class and devalues the culture of he working class and ethnic minorities

43
Q

What do marxists base society on?

A

Class division and capitalist exploitation

44
Q

What are the two classes explained by marxism?

A

The capitalist class and the working class

45
Q

What is the capitalist class?

A

The Bourgeoisie which is the minority class. They are the employers and owners of means of mass production. They make their profits by exploiting the labour of the majority (the proletariat)

46
Q

What is the working class?

A

The proletariat who are forced to sell their labour power to the capitalists as they own no means of production of their own and so have no other source of income. As a result, work under capitalism is poorly paid, alienating, unsatisfying and something over which workers have no real control

47
Q

How can the two class system cause conflict?

A

Eg if the working class realise they are being exploited, they may demand higher wages, better working conditions, or even the abolition of capitalism itself

48
Q

What does Althusser 1971 say?

A

The state consists of two elements of ‘apparatuses’, both of which serve to keep the bourgeoisie in power (the repressive state apparatuses, and the ideological state apparatuses)

49
Q

What are repressive state apparatuses?

A

RSAs, maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by force or threat of it, including the police, courts and army. When necessary they use physical coercion to repress the working class

50
Q

What are ideological state apparatuses?

A

ISAs, maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling people’s ideas, values and beliefs, including religion, media and the education system

51
Q

What two functions does Althusser say education performs?

A

Reproduces class inequality by transmitting it from generation to generation (reproduction of underachievement in the working class), and legitimises class inequality by producing ideologies that disguise its true cause (persuade workers to accept that inequality is inevitable so they’re less likely to challenge/threaten capitalism)

52
Q

What do Bowles and Gintins 1976 argue?

A

Capitalism requires a workforce with the kind of attitudes, behaviour and personality-type suited to their role as alienated and exploited workers willing to accept hard work, low pay and orders from above

53
Q

What did Bowles and Gintis find from their own study?

A

Schools reward precisely the kind of personality traits that make for a submissive, compliant worker eg students who showed independence and creativity tended to gain low grades, whereas pupils with characteristics linked to obedience and discipline tended to gain higher grades

54
Q

What do Bowles and Gintis conclude?

A

Schooling helps to produce the obedient workers that capitalism needs. They don’t believe that education fosters personal development, and instead stunts and distorts student’s development

55
Q

What similarity do Bowles and Gintis identify between schooling and work in capitalist society?

A

The presence of hierarchies-schooling takes place in ‘the long shadow of work’

56
Q

What do Bowles and Gintis refer to the parallels between school and workplace, as?

A

Examples of the correspondence principle-relationships and structures in education mirror or correspond to those of work

57
Q

How does the correspondence principle operate?

A

Through the hidden curriculum0lessons learnt in school without being taught directly eg in the everyday workings of school, pupils become accustomed to accepting hierarchy and competition, working for extrinsic rewards etc. So it prepares working class pupils for their role as exploited workers of the future, reproducing the workforce capitalism needs and perpetuating class inequality through generations

58
Q

What does Cohen 1984 argue?

A

Youth training schemes serve capitalism by teaching young workers not genuine job skills, but rather the attitudes and values needed in a subordinate labour force. It lowers their aspirations so they will accept low paid work

59
Q

What is the danger of capitalist society which is based on inequality?

A

That the poor will feel that this inequality is undeserved and unfair, and that they will rebel against the system responsible for it

60
Q

What do Bowles and Gintis say about rebellion against capitalist society?

A

That education prevents it from happening, by legitimising class inequalities. It produces ideologies that serve to explain and justify why inequality is fair, natural and inevitable

61
Q

What do Bowles and Ginits label education as?

A

‘A myth machine machine’

62
Q

According to them, what is one of the key myths that education produces?

A

The ‘myth of meritocracy’ because evidence shows that the main factor in determining whether someone has a high income is their family and class background, not their ability or educational achievement. By disguising this, the myth of meritocracy justifies the privileges of higher classes, making it seem as though they gained it through success in education, helping persuade the working class to accept inequality and make it less likely to attempt to overthrow capitalism

63
Q

How does the education system justify poverty?

A

Bowles and Gintis’ ‘poor-are-dumb’ theory of failure. Blames poverty on individual, rather than blaming capitalism, therefore plays an important part in reconciling workers to their exploited position, making them less likely to rebel against the system

64
Q

How do Bowles and Gintis, and Willis’ 1977 ideas clash?

A

Bowles and Gintis see education as a straightforward process of indoctrination into the myth of meritocracy, whereas Willis’ study shows that working class pupils can resist such attempts to indoctrinate them

65
Q

What did Willis study?

A

The counter school culture of ‘the lads’ and studied a group of 12 working class boys as they transitioned from school to work. The boys were a group that opposed school and the conformist pupils, and found school both boring and meaningless, so ignored its rules and values

66
Q

What does Willis make a similarity between?

A

The lads’ anti-school counter culture and the shop floor culture of male manual workers, both see manual work as superior and intellectual work as inferior and effeminate

67
Q

How does the study explain why the lads’ counter culture of resistance to school helps them to slot into the jobs that capitalism needs someone to perform?

A

They’re accustomed to boredom and finding ways to amuse themselves in school, so don’t expect satisfaction from work and are good at finding diversions to cope with tedium of unskilled worker. Also acts of rebellion guarantee they will end up in unskilled jobs by ensuring their failure to gain worthwhile qualifications

68
Q

What irony does Willis identify?

A

By resisting the school’s ideology, the lads counter culture ensures they are destined for the unskilled work that capitalism needs someone to perform

69
Q

Why are marxists approaches useful?

A

They expose the ‘myth of meritocracy’ as they show the role that education plays as an ideological state apparatus, serving the interests of capitalism by reproducing and legitimising class inequality

70
Q

Why do postmodernists criticise Bowles and Gintis’ correspondence principle?

A

On the grounds that today’s post fordist-economy requires schools to produce a very different kind of labour force from the one described by marxists. Postmodernists argue education now produces diversity, not inequality

71
Q

How do marxists sometimes disagree with each other?

A

About how reproduction and legitimation take place. Some take a deterministic view and assume their is no free will, and it’s a passive process of indoctrination, but this doesn’t explain why many pupils reject school rules. Others show how pupils may reject values but still lead to working class jobs

72
Q

What do critics argue about Willis’ account of the ‘lads’?

A

It romanticises them, portraying them as working class heroes despite their anti social behaviour and sexist attitudes. His small scale study of 12 boys in one school is also unlikely to be representative, so its harder to generalise the results

73
Q

Why do Morrow and Torres 1998 criticise marxists?

A

Criticise marxists for taking a ‘class first’ approach that sees class as the key inequality and ignores all other kinds, and see non-class inequalities (ethnicity, gender and sexuality) as important too, and so sociologists should talk about how education reproduces all type of inequality, and how they are interrelated

74
Q

What does the feminist MacDonald 1980 argue?

A

Bowles and Gintis ignore the fact that schools reproduce not only capitalism, but patriarchy too

75
Q

What does McRobbie 1978 point out?

A

Females are largely absent from Willis’ study

76
Q

What, however, is an advantage of Willis’ study?

A

It has stimulated a great deal of research into how education reproduces and legitimises other inequalities eg studies by Sewell, Evans and Mac an Ghaill

77
Q

What does Connolly 1998 look at?

A

How education reproduces both ethnic and gender inequalities