The role of education in society

Question 1

Functionalist Durkheim 2 functions of eduction

Answer 1

1. Creating social solidarity
2. Teaching specialist skills

Question 2

How does the education system help to create social solidarity

Answer 2

transmits societies culture - shared belied and values from one generation to the next

Question 3

Why does functionalist durkheim believe social solidarity is important?

Answer 3

so that individual members fell themselves and part of a community, without it social life and cooperation would be impossible because everyone would pursue their own desires

Question 4

Why do functionalists think teaching specialist skills is important?

Answer 4

modern industrial economies have complex division of labour - education teaches the specialist knowledge and skills needed for individuals to do their part in the social division of labour

Question 5

How does functionalist parsons view school?

Answer 5

bridge between family and wider society

Question 6

Parsons standards and meritocracy

Answer 6

within family children are judged by particularistic standards (rules that only apply to them) and child’s status is ascribed (fixed at birth)

In school and wider society we are judges on universalistic standards - same rules apply to everyone and status is achieved

Question 7

Functionalists Davis and Moore

Answer 7

Schools perform function of allocating pupils to future work roles by assessing them and their abilities. Argue that inequality is necessary to ensure most important roles are fulfilled by most talented

Question 8

Wolf review of vocational education - Criticism of functionalist view

Answer 8

high quality apprentiships are rare and up to a third of old teenagers are on courses that do not lead to higher education or good jobs therefore the education system does not teach specialist skills adequately.

Question 9

Interactionis Wrong (1961) - Criticism of functionalist view

Answer 9

argues functionalists 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 10

What do neoliberals think regarding the state?

Answer 10

they should not provide services such as education, health and welfare - state must not dictate to individuals how to dispose of their own propertyW

Question 11

What do New Right think about state education?

Answer 11

believe it takes a “one size fits all approach” - imposes uniformity and disregards local needs

Question 12

What is the New Rights solution to the problems of state education?

Answer 12

marketisation - creating and education market - competition between schools will bring about greater diversity, choice and efficiency.

Question 13

How do Chubb and Moe (NR) propose to introduce a market into state education?

Answer 13

each family is given a voucher to spend on buying education from a school of their choice - forces schools to become more responsive to parents wishes - principles already work in the private education sector

Question 14

What 2 roles do NR believe the state should carry out?

Answer 14

1. Impose a framework on schools within which they have to compete eg publishing ofsted inspection reports
2. Ensure that schools transmit a shared culture eg impose a single national curriculum

Question 15

What do NR believe about national identity within education?

Answer 15

Curriculum should emphasis british history and teach british literature - should also be a christian act of worship in school each day

Question 16

Gerwitz criticism of NR perspective

Answer 16

competition between schools benefit the middle class who can use cultural and economic capital to gain access to more desirable schools

Question 17

Marxist criticism of NR perspective

Answer 17

education does not impose a shared national culture but imposes the culture of a dominant minority ruling class - devalues culture of working class and ethnic minority

Question 18

Name and explain Althusser (M) two elements of “ideological state apparatus”. Give examples

Answer 18

1. Repressive state apparatus - maintain the rule of the bourgeoise (minority class) by force or the threat of it. Include the police, courts and army
2. Ideological state apparatus - maintain the rule of the bourgeoise by controlling peoples ideas, values and beliefs. Include religion, media and education system

Question 19

What 2 functions does Althusser (M) believe education system perform?

Answer 19

1. Reproduces class inequality
2. Legitimates class inequality by producing ideologies that disguise its true cause - teaches inequality is inevitable

Question 20

What is meant by Bowles and Gintis (M) “correspondence principle”?

Answer 20

there are close parallels between schooling and work in capitalist society - both are hierarchies. School prepares students to be passive and obedient workers who will accept inequality as inevitable to reproduce a capitalist society

Question 21

Bowles and Gintis - “myth of meritocracy”

Answer 21

education system justifies poverty and makes w class out to be stupid and incapable of achieving and expanding their abilities - other factors such as labelling and streaming ensure they do not achieve and therefore make it difficult to succeed meritocratically.

Question 22

Willis study - learning to labour

Answer 22

working class boys actively chose to fail because of antischool subculture - benefitted capitalism because it reproduced inequality but at the same time workers weren’t passive and obedient but instead docile

Question 23

Postmodernist criticism of bowles and gintis (M)

Answer 23

todays post fordist economy requires schools to produce a very different kind of labour force from the one described by Marxists . Education now reproduces diversity not inequality.

Question 24

Feminist thoughts

Answer 24

Schools not only reproduce capitalism but also patriarchy
Lack of females from Willis’s study