the role of education in society Flashcards
The functionalist perspective on education
Functionalism is based on the view that society is a system of interdependent parts help together by a shared culture or value consensus - an agreement among society’s members about what values are important. Each part of society, such as the family, economy or education system, performs functions that help maintain society as a whole
Durkheim - solidarity and skills
Founder of functionalist sociology identified 2 main functions of education - creating social solidarity and teaching
- Social solidarity
- Durkheim argues that society needs a sense of solidarity - individual members must feel themselves to be part of a ‘single body’ or community
- argues that without social solidarity, social life and cooperation would be impossible because each individual would pursue their own selfish desires
- the education system helps create social solidarity by transmitting society’s culture - its shared beliefs and values - from one generation to the next
- eg Durkheim argues the teaching of a country’s history instils in children a sense of shared beliefs/heritage and commitment to the wider society
- school acts as a ‘society in miniature’ preparing us for life in wider society
- Specialist skills
- industrial economies require a complex division of labour, many jobs are highly skilled
- Durkheim argues education teaches individuals specialist knowledge and skills that they need to play their part in the social division of labour
- schools provide a diverse range of qualifications which gradually become more specialised
Parsons - meritocracy particularistic standards
- functionalist draws on many of Durkheim’s ideas
- parsons sees the school as the ‘focal socialising agency’ acting as a bridge between the family and society
- this bridge is needed because family and society operate on different principles so children need to learn a new way of living if they are to cope with the wider world
- within the family, the child is judged by particularistic standards and status is ascribed because of differences of age and sex, the oldest son or youngest daughter may have different rights/duties
Parsons - meritocracy universalistic standards
- both school and wider society judge us all by the same universalistic and impersonal standards
- both in school and wider society, a person’s status is largely achieved and not ascribed
- PARSONS sees school as preparing us to move from the family to wider society because school and society are both based on meritocratic principles
Davis and Moore - role allocation
Functionalists argue that schools also perform the function of selecting and allocating pupils to their future work roles. By assessing individuals attitudes and abilities, schools help to match them to the job they’re best suited to - DAVIS and MOORE see education as a device for selection and role allocation. They focus on the relationship between education and social inequality - D+M argue that inequality is necessary to ensure that the most important roles are filled by the most talented people - not everyone is equally as talented and so society has to offer higher rewards for these jobs and therefore society can select the most talented individuals to fill these positions - education plays a key part in this process since it acts as a providing ground for ability - the most able gain the highest qualifications, which then gives them entry to the most important and highly rewarded positions
Human capital
- DUNCAN argues that a modern economy depends for its prosperity an using its ‘human captial’
- they argue that a meritocracy education system does this best since it enables each person to be allocated to the job best suited to their abilities. This will make most effective use of their talents and maximise their productivity
Evaluation of the functionalist perspective
The education system doesn’t teach specialised skills adequately as DURKHEIM claims. There is a lot of evidence suggesting that equal opportunity in education does not exist. Functionalists see education as a process that installs the shared values of society as a whole, but Marxists argue that education in capitalist society only transmits the ideology of a minority - ruling class. Interactionist may argue that functionalists have an over socialised view of people as puppets of society. Functionalists wrongly imply that pupils passively accept they are taught and never reject the schools values. Neo liberals and the new right argue that the state education system fails to prepare young people adequately for work
The new right
Is a conservative political view that incorporates neoliberal economic ideas. A central principle of new right thinking is the belief that the state cannot meet people’s needs and that people are best left to meet their own needs through the free market. For this reason, the new right favour the marketisation of education
Similarities between new right and functionalist views
- Both believe some people are naturally more talented than others
- Both favour an education system run on meritocratic principles of open preparing young people for work
- Both believe that education should socialise pupils’ into shared values, such as competition, and instil a sense of national identity
The new right do not believe that the current education system is achieving these goals. The reason for its failure, in their view, is that it’s run by the state…
They argue that state education systems take a ‘one size fits all’ approach, imposing uniformity and disregarding local needs. The local consumers who use the schools have no say. State education systems are therefore unresponsive and inefficient. Schools that waste money or get poor results are not answerable to their consumers. This means lower standards of achievement for pupils, less qualified workforce and a less prosperous economy
Marketisation of education
Creates an ‘education market’ - the new right believe that competition between schools and empowering consumers will bring greater diversity, choice and efficiency to schools and increase schools’ ability to meet the needs of pupils, parents and employers
Two roles for the state
- The state imposes a framework on schools within which they have to complete. Eg by publishing OFSTED inspection reports and league tables of schools exam results, the state gives parents information with which to make a more informed choice between schools
- The state ensures that schools transmits a shared culture. By imposing a single national curriculum, it seeks to guarantee that schools socialise pupils into a single cultural heritage
The new right believe that education should affirm the…
National identity - eg the curriculum should emphasise Britains positive role in world history and teach British literature and there should be a Christian act of worship in school each day because Christianity is Britain’s main religion. The aim is to integrate pupils into a single set of traditions and cultural values. For this reason they oppose multicultural education that affects the cultures of the different minority groups in Britain
