Topic 6 Flashcards
Durkheim- social solidarity and teaching specialist skills
Social solidarity - The education system is designed to create social solidarity by transmitting society’s culture - shared beliefs and values - from one generation to the next. E.g. teaching a child about their country’s history instils a sense of shared heritage and commitment to a wider social group.
Teaching specialist skills - Durkheim argues school teaches individuals specialist knowledge that they need to play their part in the social division of labour.
Parsons - focal socialising agency
school is a ‘focal socialising agency’, that is that it bridges the gap between home and wider society.
Family - children are judged by particularistic standards - only apply to that child. Child’s status is also ascribed, fixed by birth e.g. an older boy may have more rights than his younger sister
School - and wider society judge us all by the same universalistic standards that are impersonal e.g. the same laws apply to everyone and in schools all children are judged against the same standards (same exam). Status is largely achieved e.g. we pass or fail based on our efforts, get a promotion based on hard work.
Parsons - Meritocracy
Parsons sees school as preparing us to move from the family to wider society because both school and wider society are based on meritocratic principles. In a meritocracy we all have the same access to opportunity and you are rewarded through your own efforts and ability.
Davis and Moore - role allocation
Davis and Moore build on the idea that education supports society through role allocation. In a complex modern society we need school to help ‘sift and sort’ pupils into roles best suited for their aptitude and ability.
They argue inequality is inevitable as not everyone is equally talented and should therefore not be rewarded as highly in pay.
Chubb and Moe (New Right) - consumer choice
In research conducted by them on 60,000 pupils from low income families in 1015 state and private schools they found pupils from low income families do about 5% better in private than state schools.
Based on this they believe that a free market system within state education should be introduced in order to give the consumers (parents) the control. This would allow consumers to shape schools to meet their own needs which in turn would drive up standards.
Althusser - capitalist power
Althusser argues there are two ‘apparatuses’ which serve to keep the bourgeoisie in power.
The Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs) - maintain the rule by force or threat of it, e.g. the police, courts, army etc. When necessary they use force or coercion to repress the working class.
The Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) - maintain the rule by controlling people’s ideas, values and beliefs. The ISAs include religion, family, media and education
Bowles and Gintis: schooling in capitalist America
Bowles and Gintis develop the work of Marx and Althusser further and argue that capitalism requires an obedient workforce that will accept that inequality is inevitable. From their study of 237 New York high schools they found that schools reward students who are submissive and compliant - the same as what is required in a worker. Likewise creativity and independence was penalised.
It happens through two processes:
1. Correspondence principle - close parallels with school and the workplace as there is a hierarchy between head teachers (bosses at work) who are at the top who make the decisions and pupils (workers) at the bottom obeying.
2. Hidden curriculum - correspondence principle operates through the hidden curriculum, lessons that are learnt outside of taught classes. E.g. pupils become used to accepting hierarchy and competition, working for extrinsic rewards etc.
Bowles and Gintis - myth of meritocracy
Bowles and Gintis argue the education system helps prevent people feeling like the system is unfair and rebelling by producing ideologies that legitimate and justify inequality.
They believe the system is a ‘giant myth-making machine’. The key myth is the myth of meritocracy, they do not believe that a meritocracy exists where the hardest workers gain the highest rewards. Instead they would argue that evidence suggests that the main factor that determines whether someone does well and earns a high income is family and class background, not ability or educational achievement.
Willis: Learning to Labour
All Marxists agree that education reproduces and legitimates class inequality and benefits capitalism, however Willis disagrees with Bowles and Gintis. He argues pupils are not just indoctrinated into the ‘myth of meritocracy’ instead his study shows that pupils can resist such attempts to indoctrinate them.
