Sociology-Education-Role in Society

Question 1

What is functionalism based on?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What did Durkheim 1903 identify?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What is social solidarity?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What does Durkheim argue would happen without social solidarity?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

How does the education system help to create social solidarity?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What does school act as for children?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Why are specialist skills needed?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

How does Durkheim argue that education teaches specialist skills?

Answer 8

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

Question 9

What does Parsons 1961 say?

Answer 9

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

Question 10

How are children treated within the family?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

How are people treated in school and wider society?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

How does Parson view school?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

What happens in a meritocracy?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What is another function of education?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

How do Davis and Moore 1945 view education?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Why do Davis and Moore argue that inequality is necessary?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

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

Answer 17

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

Question 18

What do Blau and Duncan 1978 argue?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

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

Answer 19

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

Question 20

What is a criticism of meritocracy in education?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

How does Tumin 1953 criticise Davis and Moore?

Answer 21

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

Question 22

How do Marxists criticise the functionalist view?

Answer 22

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

Question 23

What does Wrong 1961 argue about functionalists?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

How do Neoliberals and the New Right criticise functionalism?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

What is neoliberalism?

Answer 25

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

Question 26

What is neoliberalism based on?

Answer 26

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

Question 27

What do neoliberals argue about the value of education?

Answer 27

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

Question 28

What is the New Right?

Answer 28

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

Question 29

What are the similarities between the New Right and functionalists?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

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

Answer 30

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

Question 31

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

Answer 31

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

Question 32

What is the new rights solution to these problems?

Answer 32

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

Question 33

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

Answer 33

Chubb and Moe 1990

Question 34

What do Chubb and Moe 1990 argue?

Answer 34

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

Question 35

What do Chubb and Moe base their arguments on?

Answer 35

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

Question 36

What do Chubb and Moe propose based on their findings?

Answer 36

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

Question 37

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

Answer 37

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’

Question 38

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

Answer 38

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)

Question 39

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

Answer 39

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

Question 40

What do critics argue about the New Right?

Answer 40

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

Question 41

What is the contradiction in the New Right?

Answer 41

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

Question 42

How do marxists criticise the New Right?

Answer 42

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

Question 43

What do marxists base society on?

Answer 43

Class division and capitalist exploitation

Question 44

What are the two classes explained by marxism?

Answer 44

The capitalist class and the working class

Question 45

What is the capitalist class?

Answer 45

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)

Question 46

What is the working class?

Answer 46

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

Question 47

How can the two class system cause conflict?

Answer 47

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

Question 48

What does Althusser 1971 say?

Answer 48

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)

Question 49

What are repressive state apparatuses?

Answer 49

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

Question 50

What are ideological state apparatuses?

Answer 50

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

Question 51

What two functions does Althusser say education performs?

Answer 51

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)

Question 52

What do Bowles and Gintins 1976 argue?

Answer 52

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

Question 53

What did Bowles and Gintis find from their own study?

Answer 53

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

Question 54

What do Bowles and Gintis conclude?

Answer 54

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

Question 55

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

Answer 55

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

Question 56

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

Answer 56

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

Question 57

How does the correspondence principle operate?

Answer 57

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

Question 58

What does Cohen 1984 argue?

Answer 58

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

Question 59

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

Answer 59

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

Question 60

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

Answer 60

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

Question 61

What do Bowles and Ginits label education as?

Answer 61

‘A myth machine machine’

Question 62

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

Answer 62

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

Question 63

How does the education system justify poverty?

Answer 63

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

Question 64

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

Answer 64

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

Question 65

What did Willis study?

Answer 65

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

Question 66

What does Willis make a similarity between?

Answer 66

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

Question 67

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?

Answer 67

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

Question 68

What irony does Willis identify?

Answer 68

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

Question 69

Why are marxists approaches useful?

Answer 69

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

Question 70

Why do postmodernists criticise Bowles and Gintis’ correspondence principle?

Answer 70

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

Question 71

How do marxists sometimes disagree with each other?

Answer 71

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

Question 72

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

Answer 72

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

Question 73

Why do Morrow and Torres 1998 criticise marxists?

Answer 73

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

Question 74

What does the feminist MacDonald 1980 argue?

Answer 74

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

Question 75

What does McRobbie 1978 point out?

Answer 75

Females are largely absent from Willis’ study

Question 76

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

Answer 76

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

Question 77

What does Connolly 1998 look at?

Answer 77

How education reproduces both ethnic and gender inequalities