Topic 1: The Role Of Education Flashcards
Functionalist view on the role of education
Believe that it has positive functions for society:
- Serves the need of the economy (teaches them skills that future workers will need in a competitive global economy)
- Selection (education system works as a sieve, allocating them to jobs based on their merit and abilities)
- Facilitating social mobility (Students from disadvantaged backgrounds have opportunities to move up the layers of the class system)
- Encourages social cohesion (pupils identify with British culture and schools help reinforce social bonds that unite different people in society)
- Secondary socialisation (pupils learn the cultural norms of society)
- Social control (schools teach pupils to conform to rules)
Functionalist perspective in education - role allocation
Parsons / Davis and Moore
Industrial societies are hierarchical so education provides a way of allocating people to appropriate job roles
Education is meritocratic - provides equal opportunity for all to achieve good qualifications
Functionalist perspective in education - bridge between home and school
Parsons
At home - kids are judged by particularistic values
At school - kids are judged by universalistic values
Functionalist perspective in education - social solidarity
Durkheim
Pupil feels as part of the community where people work towards shared goals
Achieved through:
Pledging allegiance to the flag - USA
Learning the same curriculum - history
Results in a value consensus
Functionalist perspective in education - teaching specialist skills for work
Durkheim
Schools provide a diversity of qualifications which gradually become more specialised
Many jobs are highly skilled in industrial economies
Functionalist perspective in education - positive evaluations (AO3)
Schools try to create solidarity:
Team sports / assemblies
Education has become more work focused with more vocational courses and apprenticeships
Functionalist perspective in education - criticisms (AO3)
Mx - education is not meritocratic = class background influences educational achievement, especially with private education
Interactionism - functionalism ignores the negative experiences some have in school (eg bullying / teacher labelling)
PM - Assumes we live in a hegemonic society
Deterministic
Parsons
Within family, particularistic values - treated more as an individual
Within wider society and education, universalistic values - applied to all
Ascribed status within family - born with it
Achieved status - education prepares students for this
Schools operate in a meritocratic manner - central to this is role allocation
Davis and Moore
Role allocation:
How does education achieve this?
‘Sifts and sorts’ students based on ability
Promotes social mobility and meritocracy
Contemporary applications:
Setting and streaming
Subject choice - vocational and academic routes
Criticisms (AO3)
Mx - meritocracy is a myth
Feminists : gender pay gap - feminine professions paid less
Privately-educated students more advantaged
Althusser
Education is part of the ISA
It’s main role is to accept the dominant ideology and to produce an efficient and obedient workforce
WC must learn to accept their position - this brainwashing leads to the class system being reproduced
Bowles and Gintis
Role of education - reproduce workforce
Achieved through the hidden curriculum - helps indoctrinate students into the world of work
Correspondence principle - school mirrors workplace
=How do schools do this?
Punctuality
Rewards / sanctions
Hierarchies and power
Uniform
Criticisms (AO3)
Functionalists : skills pupils learn is for the benefit of society
Bourdieu
Habitus - each class has its own set of ideas, beliefs and overall culture
The education system reflects the MC habitus - becomes accepted as the right way
= people with money can access this habitus and achieve better (cultural capital)
Also refers to the 4 capitals:
Economic
Social - connections / opportunities
Symbolic - status
Cultural
Marxist view of education
Sees education system as benefiting privileged groups and reinforcing social inequalities over time:
- Serving interests of the RC (by passing on ideas that benefit the RC)
- Reproducing the class system (favours pupils from more advantaged backgrounds)
- Secondary socialisation (socialises WC children to accept their position in a capitalist society - learn to accept hierarchy and become obedient)
Paul Willis (AO2)
Althusser, B+G and Bourdieu examined structural causes of inequality in the education system. Willis suggests that students are not passive, and were aware of exploitation
Study of the 12 lads - Neo-Mx
Observations and unstructured interviews
The boys opposed capitalist values so created an anti school subculture l and messed around - they knew they would end up in a poorly paid job - low aspirations and fatalistic attitude
This suggests that education does not always produce ideal works. Not everyone is passive to the system
Criticisms (AO3)
Observations - Hawthorne effect?
% of students in each system after 11+
Secondary modern - 75%
Technical - 5%
Grammar - 20%
What did labour advocate for? (Wilson as PM)
Comprehensive education - one school for all
Would mean social mobility for all and reduce class divisions
Disagree with grammar schools - they benefit MC students
Social democrats - education
Associated with Labour Party
Criticise functionalist idea that the tripartite system (11+ - grammar, secondary modern and technical) provided equality - argued this needed to be changed to a comprehensive system
Found that secondary modern was often occupied by WC who didn’t achieve their potential
Tripartite system abolished in 60s by labour government - replaced by comprehensive system where students of all classes got the same quality of education - more likely to increase social mobility and reduce class divisions
Criticisms:
Inequality of opportunity still remains and the attainment gap between the rich and poor remains - meritocracy still not created
New right view on education
Schools should run more like businesses - ‘marketise’ the system:
Get them competing with each other so standards rise
Give them more control over their issues and they can tailor themselves to the local communities
NR encouraged schools to compete, league tables, giving schools more autonomy, academies
1988 education act
Marketisation and parentocracy
Ofsted
League tables
SATS and GCSEs
NR beliefs for education
Parents should have choice - parentocracy
League tables mean schools will compete against each other and this will drive up standards
Education system should be run more like a business, schools should have more autonomy to set their own curriculum and salaries
Schools should have high standards and produce excellent workers to strengthen the economy
PM and education
Doesn’t see education as having one solution
Society is extremely diverse and there are too many groups to cater for this one solution
Education is more fragmented and diverse - we shouldn’t see it as so rigid
NR view on vocational education
Helps prepare a better and more effective workforce - not everyone is suited for academic qualifications
