The Role of Education in Society

Question 1

Social Solidarity

Answer 1

Durkheim argues that the teaching of a country’s history instills in children a sense of a shared heritage and a commitment to the wider group

Question 2

Society in miniature

Answer 2

The school acts as a society in miniature preparing us for life in wider society, for example, both in school and work we have to cooperate with people who aren’t our family according to a set of impersonal rules.

Question 3

Specialist skills

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Meritocracy

Answer 4

Parsons sees school as the focal socializing agency acting as a bridge between the family and wider society.

Question 5

Role Allocation

Answer 5

Functionalists argue that schools also perform the function of selecting and allocating pupils to their future work roles. Davis & Moore (1945) see education as a device for selection and role allocation. They argue that inequality is necessary to ensure that the most important roles in society are filled by the most talented people

Tumin critises as a circular argument

Question 6

Neoliberalism

Answer 6

Neoliberals argue that the value of education 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 and use competition to drive up standards.

Question 7

Consumer’s choice : The New Right

Answer 7

Chubb & Moe (1990) call for the introduction of a market system in state education that would control the hands of consumers and would allow consumers to shape schools to meet their own needs and improve quality and efficiency.

Question 8

Two roles for the state: The New Right

Answer 8

1. The state imposes a framework on schools within which they have to complete, such as Ofsted
2. The state ensures that schools transmit a shared culture, by imposing a single national curriculum.

Question 9

Evaluation of the New Right

Answer 9

Gewritz & Ball both argue that competition between schools benefits the middle class

Question 10

Ideological & Repressive State Apparatus

Answer 10

Althusser (1971)
1. RSAs maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by force to repress the working class

2. ISAs maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling people’s ideas values and beliefs

Question 11

Althusser’ two important functions of education:

Answer 11

1. Reproduces class Inequality
2. Legitimates class Inequality

Question 12

Bowles & Gintis

Answer 12

From their study of New York high school students, they found that students who showed independence and creativity tended to gain low grades, while those who showed characteristics linked to obedience and discipline tended to gain high grades. They concluded that schooling helps to produce the obedient workers that capitalism needs and stunts & distorts students’ development

Question 13

Hidden Curriculum

Answer 13

Bowles & Gintis found that simply through the everyday workings of the school, pupils become accustomed to accepting hierarchy and competition working for extrinsic rewards.

Question 14

Myth of meritocracy

Answer 14

Bowles and Gintis argue that meritocracy does not in fact exist.

Question 15

Lads’ counter-culture

Answer 15

Willis notes that lads have intimidatory humor and reject as a ‘con’ the school’s meritocratic ideology that working-class pupils can achieve middle-class jobs through hard work.

Question 16

Evaluation of Marxist approaches

Answer 16

Postmodernists criticize Bowles and Gintis’ idea that the economy requires schools to produce a different kind of labor force, they argue that it now reproduces diversity.