The Functionalist Perspective on Education Flashcards
Outline functionalist core beliefs
- Organic analogy: Society is similar to the human body. All institutions (organs) are needed to ensure a healthy society
- It is a structural/ macro approach, as we respond to the agencies of socialisation (top-down)
- It is a consensus approach, as society gives consent and is in agreement
Outline the functionalist view on education’s role
- The major function of education is the transmissions of society’s norms and values (social solidarity and specialist skills - Durkheim)
- Without a shared system of norms and values, cooperation and social solidarity (and therefore social life itself) would be impossible as everyone would pursue their own selfish desires
- Social solidarity requires a commitment to society, a sense of belonging and a feeling that the social unit is more important than the individual
- Education links the individual and society
Describe how education provides social solidarity
- Durkheim argues society needs social solidarity to ensure we don’t break down
- He argues the education system creates social solidarity by transmitting society’s culture
- Education helps to serve this need by: teaching of history implants a sense of shared heritage and commitment to wider social group. rewards and sanctions for going against /or not the rules which encourages certain behaviour, everyone should be treated equally with punishments/rewards, uniforms and subject create shared knowledge
- Individuals have to learn how to cooperate with those who are neither relatives nor friend. School provides a context where this can be learnt
- School is a microcosm of society that prepares us for wider society. In schools, a child interacts with others according to a fixed set of rules. In society, individuals interact with others according to society’s rules
Describe how education provides specialist skills
- Modern economies have a complex division of labour where specialist skills are required.
- Education helps with this as subjects provide specific skill sets
- In an industrial society, social solidarity is based on the interdependence of specialist skills, e.g. manufacture of a product may require the combination of a variety of specialists. This need to combine skills produces cooperation and social solidarity. Thus schools transmits: skill sets and values
Outline criticisms of Durkheim’s view
- Marxists argues that the norms that the are taught and don’t benefit the WC
- There isn’t a fair chance at learning specialists skills
Outline Parson’s view on the role of education
He sees the school as the ‘focal socialising agency’ in modern society, acting as a bridge between the family and wider society. This is needed as family and society operate on different principles so children need to learn a new way of living if they’re to cope with the wider world
Compare how children are treated within the family and then in wider society
- Within the family, child is judged by particularistic standards (rules that only apply to that particular child) while in wider society, we are judged by the same universalistic and impersonal standards (e.g. law applies to everyone)
- A child’s status is ascribed, fixed at birth, e.g. elder son and younger daughter may be given different duties while a person’s status is achieved, e.g. gaining a promotion at work
Describe Parson’s view on how school acts as a bridge
School establishes universalistic standards ad pupils achieve their status. Their conduct is assessed against schools rules; achievement is measured by performance in exams, which applies to all students. Schools operate on meritocratic principles; status is achieved on the basis of merit or worth
Define meritocracy
Ability to rise and fall based on merit when given equality of opportunity
Outline Parson’s view on role allocation
- He saw the education system as an important mechanism for the selection of individuals for their future role is society
- In his words, it ‘functions to allocate these human resources within the role-structure of adult society’
- Schools, by testing students, match their students, skills and capacities to the jobs which they are best suited. The school is then seen as a major mechanism for role allocation
Describe Davis and Moore’s view on role allocation as a function of education
They argue that inequality is necessary to ensure that the most important roles in society are filled by the most talented people. Schools encourage competition so society can select the most talented for specific positions.
Describe Davis and Moore’s view on how education provides role allocation
- High rewards, act as incentives, are attached to these position This means that students will complete for them and the most talented will succeed.
- In Davis’s words education is the ‘proving ground for ability and hence the selective agency for placing people in different statuses according to their capacities’
- It ‘sifts and sorts’ people according to ability
Describe Blau and Duncan’s view on how education provides role allocation
- Argue a modern economy depends on ‘human capital’ (workers’ skill.)
- They argue a meritocratic education system does this best, since it enables each person to be allocated to the best job suited to their abilities, which makes effective use of their talents and maximising their productivity
Give statistics that evaluate the functionalist perspective
- 40% of prime minister since 1721 attended Eton College but 1/6 of prime ministers attended state-funding schools
- 74% of top judges went to private schools (not representative of society so decisions are weak)
- Oxford and Cambridge educate less than 1% of the population but they occupy a lot of high skilled fields (law)
Give evaluation for the functionalist perspective (no specialised skills)
- The education system doesn’t adequately, as Durkheim claims.
- The Wolf review of vocational education (2011) claims that high quality apprenticeships are rare and up to a third of 16-19 year olds are on courses that do not lead to higher education or good jobs
