The role of education in society Flashcards
Functionalist
- Stressed institutions were generally positive and usually ‘functioned’ to meet the needs of society. Focused less on inequality and social devisions.
- Comte (1798-1857) and Durkheim (1858-1917)
- then developed in the USA by Parsons (1902-1979) in the 20th century
Socialisation
The process by which individuals learn the norms, values and culture of their society; that is they learn how to behave in order to fit in with their society.
Primary socialisation is the earliest stage and it usually takes place in families.
Education is one of the most important agencies of secondary socialisation.
Meritocracy
A society or system in which success or failure is based on merit.
Merit is seen as resulting from a combination of ability and hard work.
This could be seen as a fair system but it is difficult to define and measure merit. Inequality makes it difficult to have a system which genuinely rewards merit.
Skills provision
Education teaches the skills required by a modern industrial society. These may be general skills that everyone needs such as literacy and numeracy, or specific skills needed for particular occupations.
Role allocation
Functionalists Davis and Moore (1945) argue that education allocates people to the most appropriate job for their talents, using examinations and qualifications.
Davis and Moore argue that some jobs are more important than others to society. Education helps to identify people capable of doing such jobs.
Marxist
For marxist, education is seen as an important part of the superstructure of society. It helps serve the needs of the ruling class who control the economic base.
Reproduction
Education reproduces the inequalities of production in the capitalist society. E.g it generally trains pupils from working class backgrounds to do working class jobs while providing elite education for wealthy children, preparing them to take up positions of power in society.
Legitimisation
It justifies the inequalities through the myth of meritocracy. It persuades members of society that their jobs and positions reflect their ability. While in reality they largely reflect class background.
Ideological state apparatus (ISA)
Althusser disagrees with functionalist views. He believes education’s main function is to maintain, legitimate and reproduce, generation by generation, class inequalities in wealth and power.
It does this by transmitting ruling class or capitalist views disguised as common values.
Correspondence theory
Bowles and Gintis (1976) argue that education is controlled by capitalists and serves their interests. They argue that there is a close relationship between schooling and work, because schooling is used to prepare children to work in capitalist businesses.
Hidden curriculum
The hidden curriculum can be defined as a set of lessons “which are learned but not openly intended” to be taught in school. This includes the norms, values and beliefs conveyed in both the classroom and social environment.
Criticisms of marxist perspective
Bowles and Gintis have been criticised as they tend to emphasise class inequality in education and pay little attention to inequality based on gender or ethnicity.
Myth of meritocracy (parsons)
It persuades people to believe that the capitalist ruling class obtained their positions through hard work, and not cause of their family ties, exploitation and access to top educational institutions.
New right view of education
New right views are in favour of private businesses and the free market because they believe that competition between companies drives innovation and encourages success.
See education as important to a successful economy but think that state education can be inefficient and a drain on a country’s resources.
They believe education needs to ran more like a business
Neo-Marist perspective on Education
Neo-Marxist perspectives on education argue that the education system, serves to reproduce and legitimize existing social inequalities by promoting a bourgeois ideology and preparing students for their predetermined roles in a capitalist society.
Social Democratic perspective on Education
Social democratic perspective are associated with educationalists and politicians who would like to see greater equality resulting from the education system. An example of this is the British Labour governments of the 1960’s and 1970’s, who introduced and expanded comprehensive schools.
Social democratic perspectives continue to influence those educationalists, sociologists and politicians who stress that schools must give extra help to those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
