Theories of the role of education

Question 1

Functionalist- Durkheim

Answer 1

Social solidarity - education transmits society’s culture. society in miniature

Specialist skills - education teachers individuals the specialist knowledge and skills needed to play their part in the social division of labour

Question 2

Functionalist- Parsons

Answer 2

‘focal socialising agency’ - acts as a bridge between family and wider society.
Particularistic and universalistic standards/principles
ascribed status and achieved status
education selects children into appropraite roles because it is meritocratic. they have a universal value of achievement

Question 3

Functionalist- Davis and Moore

Answer 3

device for selection and role allocation - every society sorts its members into different positions.
‘principle of stratification’. needs to be a system of unequal rewards to motivate people to train for the top positions.

Question 4

Marxist- Bourdieu

Answer 4

cultural capital (language, skills, knowledge and attitudes) to explain why middle class go on to fill top jobs in society.

Question 5

Marxist- Bowles and Gintis

Answer 5

Correspondence principle- close parallels between school and work
operates through hidden curriculum (everyday workings of the school, pupils become accostomed)
meritocracy is a myth. class background determines how well an individual does.

Question 6

Marxist- Althusser

Answer 6

ideological state apparatus - peoples ideas; schools, media and religion
repressive state apparatus- by force; police, courtsand army

Education reproduces class inequality by transmitting generation to generation
education legitimates class inequality by reproducing ideologies. teach them to accept it so less likely to overthrow

Question 7

Neo Marxist- Willis

Answer 7

schooling in capitalist america- own study, 237 high schools students- schools reward based on personality traits.
students = creative, independent = low grades
students = obedience, discipline = good grades

education stunts and distorts students development

Question 8

New Right

Answer 8

conservative political view, incorporating neoliberal economic ideas
marketisation of education- state schools have poor standards and are not answerable to consumers. They want to run schools like businesses to provide what the community wants and needs.
CHUBB AND MOE
- state education fails to provide needs of disadvantage pupils and skills, fails to produce pupils with skills needed for economy. private school deliver higher qualities.

Question 9

Post modernism

Question 10

Feminism

Answer 10

Education system is patriarchal. Hidden curriculum reinforces gender differences.
Girls now outperfrom boys at school

Question 11

Functionalist sociologists - what did they say

Answer 11

Durkheim, Parsons and Davis and Moore

Question 12

Marxist sociologists

Answer 12

Bowles and Gintis, Bourdieu, Willis, Althusser

Question 13

Functionalist

Answer 13

three roles- secondary socialisation, sifts and sorts, skills

Question 14

marxist

Answer 14

education legitimises inequality through ideology

Question 15

Criticisms of functionalist perspective

Answer 15

Marxists argue that education benefits ruling class and promiting values of powerful groups. Hargraeves says education promotoes competition and individualism rather than shared values.
Feminists see benefits men
edu is divisive due to hierarchy of schools and unis, separate social classes
not based on meritocracy as ethnicity and gender also influences achievement
labour market- who you know not just what you know.

Question 16

Criticisms of Marxists

Answer 16

neo-marxists such as Willis argues that hidden curriculum isnt always accepted.
Some education encourages critical thinking
Research by Bowles and Gintis is dated and USA focused.
local education authorities and teachers have some independece and therefor not controlled entirely by capitalist system

Question 17

Neo-Marxist Giroux

Answer 17

working class pupils do not passively accept everything they are taught, they shape their own education and soemtimes resist discipline imposed on them by school

• schools are sights of ideological struggle for different classes, ethnic, religious and cultural groups.
• edu system possesses relative autonomy from the economic base (has some independence)