The Role Of Education In Society (Perspectives)

Question 1

What view does Functionalism have?

Answer 1

based on the view that society is a system of interdependent parts held together by a shared culture or value consensus.

Question 2

What 2 features did Durkheim talk about in education?

Answer 2

Social solidarity
Specialist skills

Question 3

Explain social solidarity

Answer 3

• It is necessary in society to be part of a community that has shared norms and values, and that education provides it.
• Education system helps to create this by transmitting society’s culture (shared beliefs and values) from one generation to the next.

Question 4

Give an example of social solidarity. How does school prepare us?

Answer 4

School also acts as a ‘society in miniature’, preparing us for life in wider society.
E.G. both in school and work we have to cooperate with people who are neither friends nor family - teachers and students at school, colleagues and customers at work.

Question 5

Explain specialist skills

Answer 5

-Modern industrial economies have a complex Division of Labour, where the production of even a single item usually involves the cooperation of many different specialists.
- Education teaches individuals the specialist knowledge and skills that they need to play their part in the social Division of labour.

Question 6

What did Parsons say?

Answer 6

Argues that school bridges the gap between the family and wider society- children have to learn society’s principles.

Question 7

What is meritocracy?

Answer 7

Meritocracy at school helps us move from family to wider society. Meritocracy is where everyone is given equal opportunities and are rewarded through their own efforts/ability.

Question 8

What was Parsons viewpoint about status?

Answer 8

Believes school /wider society gives us achieved status gained through efforts/achievements, not through fixed characteristics like gender or class- ascribed status.

Question 9

What did Davis and Moore say about role allocation?

Answer 9

• Argue that education allocated pupils to suitable future job roles.
• They focus on the relationship between education and inequality – That important roles in society need to be for the skilled and talented, as some are naturally more talented than others.

Question 10

Give an example of Davis and Moore viewpoint.

Answer 10

It would be inefficient and dangerous to have less able people performing roles such as airline pilot or doctor.

Question 11

What was Davis and Moore point about functionally important roles?

Answer 11

Education is where students prove their ability and are then sifted and sorted by ability. The highest qualifications get the highest positions.

Question 12

1) Evaluation of functionalism - equality

Answer 12

There is ample evidence that equal opportunity in education does not exist. E.g. achievement is greatly influenced by class background rather than ability;

Question 13

2) Evaluation of Functionalism- Marxists

Answer 13

Marxists argue that education in capitalist society only transmits the ideology of a minority (the ruling class);

Question 14

3) Evaluation of functionalism- Wrong (1961)

Answer 14

Interactionalist Wrong (1961) says that functionalists have an ‘over socialised view’ of people as mere puppets of society, they imply that pupils accept everything they’re taught and never reject the school’s values;

Question 15

4) Evaluation of functionalism - New right + neoliberals

Answer 15

Neoliberals and New Right argue that the state education system fails to prepare young people adequately for work.

Question 16

What did Althusser say?

Answer 16

The purpose of education is to reinforce and legitimise inequalities through the myth of meritocracy.

Question 17

Althusser argues that education is an important ideological state apparatus, that performs what 2 functions?

Answer 17

1) Reproduces class inequality: transmitting it from generation to generation, by failing each successive gen of WC pupils in turn.
2) Legitimising class inequality: making sets of values/beliefs that hide their actual cause. The ideology persuades workers to accept that inequality is inevitable and that they deserve subordinate positions in society. This means WC pupils are less likely to challenge/threaten capitalism.

Question 18

What did Bowles and Gintis argue about the hidden curriculum?

Answer 18

Education prepares students for future roles through the hidden curriculum. This means school prepares WC pupils for the role of exploited worker, which reproduces capitalism and perpetrates class inequality from generation to generation.

Question 19

What is the correspondence principle?

Answer 19

argues school mirrors the workplace.
EG: schools/workplaces both have hierarchies- headteachers/bosses up top, workers/pupils obeying at the bottom. They argues that the correspondence principle operates through the hidden curriculum.

Question 20

What is the ‘myth of meritocracy’ ?

Answer 20

It is the legitimisation of class inequality. Meritocracy is a myth because no matter how hard someone works, rewards aren’t based on efforts.
Marxists see meritocracy as a way to justify privileges the higher classes have, and that others can ‘work hard’ and get them too.

Question 21

What did Willis say?

Answer 21

W/C pupils are aware of being exploited so they resisted the attempts of education that tried to get them to conform.

Question 22

Explain Willis’ study?

Answer 22

• He used qualitative research methods- unstructured interviews, participant observation to study the lad’s counter-culture of 12 WC boys.
  Found their counter-culture opposes the school, they are scornful to the conformist boys as they listen to teachers.
• The lads find school boring/meaningless, so they go against values & rules by smoking/drinking, truanting and disrupting class. Here they reject the idea that the WC can get MC jobs by working hard

Question 23

1) Evaluation of Marxism - postmodernists

Answer 23

Postmodernists say education produces diversity, not inequality, the correspondence principle is wrong because we need schools to make a labour force in today’s Post-Fordist economy.

Question 24

2) Evaluation of Marxism - deterministic

Answer 24

Principle is too deterministic- it assumes students are passive and accept indoctrination- fails to explain why pupils can reject school’s beliefs and values.

Question 25

3) Evaluation of Marxism - MacDonald (1980)

Answer 25

Marxism ignore that education reproduces patriarchy. It only focuses on a ‘class’ approach.

Question 26

How is the New Right view similar to Functionalist view?
3 points

Answer 26

1) some people are naturally more talented than others.
2) Favours the meritocratic system- principles of competition and preparing students to join the workforce.
3) Education should socialise us into shared values like competition and national identity.

Question 27

How do New Right viewpoints differ? 3 points

Answer 27

1) New right believes the education system fails to do these things because it’s run by the state.
2) Argues that education has a ‘one size’ fits all approach- this imposes uniformity and ignores local needs.
3) Consumers (parents, pupils, employers) have no say- making state education inefficient/unresponsive.
Overall, these factors mean lower achievement standards- which means a less qualified workforce.

Question 28

What did Chubb and Moe say about consumer choice?

Answer 28

They propose a ‘voucher system’ where parents ‘shop’ for a school to give their voucher to.
This forces schools to listen to what consumers want, and therefore raise education standards.
* Schools would have to compete to attract ‘customers’ with these changes because the vouchers would be their main source of income.

Question 29

Why is the New Right solution the marketisation of education?

Answer 29

This would create an ‘education market’.
* Having competition between schools and empowering consumers will give us more: diversity, choice and efficiency in schools.
* School’s ability to meet the needs of all consumers will also be increased if education is marketized.

Question 30

What 2 roles do the New Right say they can still see the state fulfil?

Answer 30

• The state imposing a framework that schools compete in. This gives parents more info so they can make an informed choice about schools. E.g. : Ofsted inspection records, league table of school’s exam results.
• The state ensures schools transmit a shared culture. Having 1 National Curriculum makes sure school’s social pupils into 1 cultural heritage.

Question 31

1) Evaluation of New Right - Ball (1994)

Answer 31

argues that competition between schools only benefits the MC because they can access better schools using their cultural and economic capital.

Question 32

2) Evaluation of New Right- funding

Answer 32

the real cause of lower education standards is lack of funding, not state control.

Question 33

3) Evaluation of New Right- contradiction

Answer 33

they support parental choice, but also want schools to have a compulsory national curriculum.