The role of the education system

Question 1

Who are the 4 main functionalist theorists for education?

Answer 1

Durkheim, Parsons and Davis + Moore.

Question 2

According to Durkheim, what are the functions of the education system?

And how are they carried out?

Answer 2

1) Socialisation - enforced in education by how others conform to what is expected; reinforced by positive and negative sanctions dependent on the expected norm and value.
e. g. sending people out.
2) Specialised skills for a complex work force: based on interdependence of specialised skills.
- People work together to make one end product.
- Pushing students to full potential; offering a wide range of courses.
- Without similarities, society wouldn’t function.
3) Role allocation for division of labour: teaches individuals specific skills necessary for future occupations.
- Grades show level of academia = experience influenced by how well they’re doing; narrowing usage in society so full potential is utilised.
- Best people for right job.
4) Social solidarity - ‘welding a mass of individuals in to a united whole’ = creating situations where individuals feel a commitment to their society.
- e.g. History - bigger picture, encourages patriotism.
- PSHE, Citizenship

Question 3

Give 2 criticisms of Durkheim’s theory

Answer 3

• Assumes norms and values are shared by society, not just ruling classes. Why would British nationals flee to fight for IS if shared values existed?
• Does education really set us up for future jobs?

Question 4

State everything that Talcott Parsons says about the role of education

Answer 4

1) Ascribed status - social rank a person is assigned at birth or assumed involuntarily.
2) Achieved status -a concept that a person can acquire a higher social position based on merit.
3) Meritocracy - everyone has an equal opportunity based on effort/ability rather than class/wealth.
4) Equality of opportunity - absence of discrimination so that everyone can potentially achieve the same.
5) Value of achievement - attaining good results and reaping the rewards.
6) Role allocation - judged on aptitude and ability –> suggested suitable career/work roles = best for the job.
7) Instrumental relationships - relationships based on what people can do for us in return for the things that we can do for them.
8) Particularistic standards - a child (in the home) is not compared to everyone else or judged by a clear measure of achievement.
9) Universalistic standards - judged by a clear measure of achievement/expectation of behaviour that is also applied to everyone else.

Question 5

Give as many criticisms of Parsons as you can think of

Answer 5

• Assumes schools are meritocratic - fee paying?
• Is role allocation in school effective? All people with degrees not in the job that suits their qualifications.
• Do all schools provide E of Opp? 7% go to private schools yet make up 71% of senior judges.
• Additional qualifications prevalent in society today, so does school really provide a good enough achieved status?
• Underestimates ascribed status.
• Universalistic standards of behaviour? Gender and ethnic differences in how people are treated.

Question 6

Why do Davis + Moore say there has to be inequality in education?

Answer 6

• Not everyone can get the best jobs.
• By sifting students according to ability; it encourages specialisation.
• High wages also attracts competition for the most important jobs in society.
• ALL jobs in society are useful.

Question 7

Name the 4 main Marxist theorists of education?

Answer 7

Althusser, Bowles + Gintis and Willis.

Question 8

What does the Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) do in the case of education? (According to Althusser)

How does the education reproduce and legitimate failure?

Answer 8

• It causes the w/c to think that their oppression is deserved and natural.
• Reproduce - failing w/c children year after year.
• Legitimates - deserve it by not behaving/learning in the right way.

Question 9

How do Kerabel + Halsey (1977) criticise the Marxist view of the role of the education system?

Answer 9

They notice that the performance of the education is similar in socialist countries.

Question 10

According to Bowles + Gintis, what type of workforce does Capitalism need?

Answer 10

One that is subservient, obedient and willing to work long hours and accept low pay.

Question 11

What is the ‘correspondence principle’, and who said it?

Answer 11

• The CP is a mirror between the school and workplace; i.e. teaching norms and values in school that’ll be essential for working life.
• Bowles and Gintis.

Question 12

Evaluate Bowles + Gintis views.

Answer 12

• Some pupils reject education and do not make/become good employees.
• Overemphasise correlation between school and work.
• B + G assume w/c students passively accept their fate; Willis? Chinese and Indian students?
• MacDonald (1980) - B+G ignore the fact that schools are reproducing inequality.

Question 13

Describe Paul Willis’ study.

Answer 13

Willis suggests that the w/c are in control of their own response to education.
- 12 boys, who called themselves ‘the lads’ created a counter-school subculture.
= norms + values against the school
= used their time to mirror the shop floor that they had heard about from their male relatives.
- Willis showed that the boys prepared themselves for the dull, unskilled low jobs that capitalism needed them to get in to.
- ‘The lads’ behaviour and values stopped them for getting exam results and qualifications needed for a higher status job in society.

Question 14

Criticise Willis’ study

Answer 14

• Study completed in the 1970s; society has moved on in terms available to the working class.
• 12 boys, one area –> representative?
• McRobbie (1978) - girls ignored in this study.

Question 15

What do the New Right believe about education?

Answer 15

• Some are naturally more talented than others.
• Education should be run on meritocratic principles of open competition.
• Education should socialise pupils into shared values and provide a sense of national security.

Question 16

Why has too much state control had a negative effect on education?

Answer 16

• Resulted in efficiency, national economic decline and a lack of personal and business initiative.
• Also led to the development of a ‘culture of dependency’.
• The state cannot meet the people’s needs; education is a ‘one size fits all’ that does not meet individual and community needs, or the needs of the employed for skilled and motivated workers.

Question 17

What’s the New Right’s solution to education’s problems? And how exactly does this solution improve educational standards?

Answer 17

Marketisation! (becoming more market like)

• Greater choice and opportunities available.
• Creating an education market forces schools to respond to the needs of the pupils, parents and employees.

Question 18

Describe Chubb + Moe’s (1990) study

Answer 18

• Compared the achievements of 60,000 pupils ffrom low income families in 1,015 state and private schools in the US.
  = low income families do about 5% BETTER in private schools.

Question 19

According to Chubb and Moe, why do private schools deliver a higher quality of education compare to state schools?

Answer 19

They respond to the need of the paying customers; the parents.

Question 20

Have a guess, what’s Chubb and Moe’s solution?

Answer 20

Marketisation!

Question 21

How would Gewirtz criticise Chubb and Moe?

Answer 21

Competition between schools benefit m/c most, they can get their children into more desirable schools as they know they system better.

Question 22

Apart from Gewirtz, criticise Chubb and Moe.

Answer 22

• Although school standards, shown by exam results, are rising, there are other possible reasons for this improvement.
• Low standards in some schools are the result of inadequate funding rather than state control.

Question 23

Describe the Post-modernist theory of education

Answer 23

• Students have no ‘true-self’ and that self-esteem is a pre-condition for learning.
  = Education helps individuals construct their identities, rather than discover them.
  = individuals and society progress when people empowered to attain their own chosen goals.
• Education should help students construct diverse and personally useful values
  = values are considered useful within a given culture, not true or right in any universal state.
  = teachers however cannot avoid teaching their own values and social agendas.
• Economy has shifted from ‘assembly line’ and now is based on flexible specialisation.
  = Post-Fordist system requires a skilled, adaptable workforce able to use advanced technology and transfer their skills rapidly from one specialised task to another.

Question 24

Who do Post-modernists criticise the most and why?

Answer 24

• Marxists.
• Usher + Thompson (1997) - reject the idea that inequality is fundamental to society and that education reproduces inequality
  = correspondence principle no longer operates.
• Morrow + Torres - class divisions are no longer important and society is now much more diverse and fragmented.

Question 25

Evaluate Post-modernism

Answer 25

• Exaggerates extent of diversity.
  = National Curriculum still one size fits all.
• Ignores continuing importance of inequality in education.
• Still a mass market for standardised products, e.g. fridges, that are produced on the assembly line.