topic five - education - the role of education in society.

Question 1

What did Durkheim believe in?

Answer 1

social solidarity and skills.
society in miniature.

Question 2

What does Durkheim believe about social solidarity?

Answer 2

> education system creates social solidarity through transmitting society’s culture, norms and values.
the teaching of a country’s history instils in children a sense of a shared heritage and a commitment to the wider social group.
society needs a sense of solidarity so individuals feel a part of a single body or community.
without this everyone would pursue their own selfish desires.

Question 3

What shows that school is like society in miniature?

Answer 3

prepares us for life in wider society.
both in school and work we have to cooperate with people who are neither family or friends.
have to interact with others according to a set of impersonal rules that apply to everyone.

Question 4

Why does Durkheim believe individuals need specialist skills?

Answer 4

> complex division of labour
↳ a single item involves the cooperation of many different specialists.
everyone must have the necessary specialist knowledge and skills to perform their roles.
education teaches skills needed to play their part in the social division of labour.

Question 5

What does Parsons believe in?

Answer 5

Meritocracy.

Question 6

What does Parsons believe education is?

Answer 6

The bridge between family and wider society needed as family and society operate on different principles so children need to learn a new way of living to cope with the wider world.

Question 7

How are standards different in schools and families?

Answer 7

in family’s, children are judged based on particular standards
↳ ascribed.
➝ elder son and younger daughter may have different rights and duties due to sex and age.
schools and wider society judge us all by the same universalistic and impersonal standards
↳ achieved.
➝ laws apply to everyone in society.
➝ everyone sits the same paper with the same pass mark in school.
[parsons]

Question 8

How is status different in schools and in families?

Answer 8

status is achieved in schools
↳ we pass or fail through our own individual efforts.
➝ at work we gain promotion or get sacked based on how well we do the job.
[parsons]

Question 9

How does school prepare us for wider society?

Answer 9

School and society are based on meritocratic principles therefore everyone is given an equal opportunity and individuals gain rewards through their own efforts and ability.
[parsons]

Question 10

What do Davis and Moore believe in?

Answer 10

Role allocation.

Question 11

How do schools prepare students for their future work role?

Answer 11

By assessing individuals’ aptitudes and abilities, schools help to match them to the job they are best suited for.
[davis and moore]

Question 12

Why does Davis and Moore believe inequality is necessary?

Answer 12

ensures most important jobs are filled by the most talented people as it would be inefficient for the less talented to perform high end jobs such as surgeon or pilot.
not everyone is equally talented therefore those jobs have to offer higher rewards
↳ encourages people to compete for them allowing society to select the most talented to fill these positions.

Question 13

Who said “education is a proving ground for ability”?

Answer 13

Davis and Moore.

Question 14

What did Davis and Moore mean by “education is a proving ground for ability”?

Answer 14

That education is where individuals show what they can do.

Question 15

How does school ‘sift and sort’ based on talent?

Answer 15

According to our abilities
↳ most able gain the highest qualifications giving them entry to the most important and highly rewarded questions.

Question 16

Which sociologists support the work of Davis and Moore?

Answer 16

Peter Blau and Otis Duncan.

Question 17

What do Peter Blau and Otis Duncan believe?

Answer 17

In human capital
↳ modern economy depends on human capital which are its workers’ skills for prosperity.
➝ meritocratic education system does it best since it enables each person to be allocated to the job best suited to their abilities
↳ makes most effective use of their talents and maximise their productivity.
[1978]

Question 18

What is neoliberalism?

Answer 18

An economic doctrine that has had a major influence on education policy.

Question 19

What do neoliberals believe?

Answer 19

The state should not provide services such as education, health and welfare.
[influenced all governments since 1979 all conservative, labour or coalition]

Question 20

How is New Right linked to neoliberalism?

Answer 20

The state can’t meet people’s needs and that people are best left to meet their own needs through the free market.

Question 21

What are the similarities between the New Right and Functionalists views?

Answer 21

some people are naturally more talented than others.
education system runs on meritocratic principles of open competition which serves the needs of the economy by preparing young people for work.
education should socialise pupils into shared values, such as competition, and instill a sense of national identity.

Question 22

What is the difference between the New Right and Functionalists view?

Answer 22

New right don’t believe the current education system is achieving their goals as it is run by the state.

Question 23

What does New Right believe is wrong with state education systems?

Answer 23

one size fits all approach imposing uniformity and disregarding local needs.
consumers have no say.
schools that waste money or get poor results are not answerable to their consumers.
↳ results in lower standards of achievements for pupils, less qualified workforce and a less prosperous economy.

Question 24

What do New Right suggest is the solution to the failed education system?

Answer 24

Marketisation of education by creating an education market
↳ competition between schools and empowering consumers will bring diversity, choice and efficiency and increase school’s ability to meet the needs of pupils, parents and employers.

Question 25

What do Chubb and Moe believe in?

Answer 25

Consumer choice.

Question 26

What does Chubb and Moe argue?

Answer 26

That america’s state schools have failed in their goals and should therefore be placed in the free market.

Question 27

Why do Chubb and Moe believe America’s state schools should be placed in the free market?

Answer 27

not created equal opportunity and has failed the needs of disadvantaged groups.
inefficient as it fails to provide pupils with the skills needed by the economy.
private schools deliver higher quality education as they are answerable to paying consumers who are the parents.

Question 28

What do Chubb and Moe believe should be done to solve the problems?

Answer 28

Introduce a market system putting control in the hands of the consumers who are the parents and local community
↳ allows consumers to shape schools to meet their own needs and would improve quality and efficiency.

Question 29

Why do Chubb and Moe believe the market system will work?

Answer 29

Already works in the private education sector.

Question 30

What are the two roles that the New Right believe are important from the state?

Answer 30

state imposes a framework on schools within which they have to compete.
↳ such as publishing ofsted ratings and league tables of schools’ exams results.
state ensures that schools transmit a shared culture by imposing a single national curriculum
↳ guarantees that schools socialise into a single cultural heritage.

Question 31

Why do New Right not believe in multicultural education?

Answer 31

They believe education should affirm the national identity.
↳ curriculum should emphasise british values and its role in world history, teach british literature and perform christian acts of worship each day.

Question 32

What do Marxists believe in?

Answer 32

class division.
capitalist exploitation.

Question 33

What do all Marxists agree on?

Answer 33

capitalism cannot function without a workforce that is willing to accept exploitation.
all see education as reproducing and legitimating class inequality.
↳ ensures that working class pupils are slotted into and learn to accept jobs that are poorly paid and alienating.

Question 34

What does Althusser believe in?

Answer 34

Ideological state apparatus.

Question 35

What two apparatuses keep bourgeoisie in power according to Althusser?

Answer 35

the repressive state apparatuses.
the ideological state apparatuses.

Question 36

How is education an important ideological state apparatus?

Answer 36

reproduces class inequality
↳ transmitting it from generation to generation by failing each successive generation of working class pupils in turn.
legitimates class inequality
↳ producing ideologies that disguise its true case.

Question 37

What does Bowles and Gintis believe?

Answer 37

capitalism requires a workforce with the kind of attitudes, behaviour and personality type suited to their role.
education plays a role of reproducing an obedient workforce that will accept inequality as inevitable.
the correspondence principle
↳ close parallels between schooling and work in capitalist society.
➝ operates through the hidden curriculum the ‘lessons’ which are learnt in school without being directly taught.

Question 38

What do Bowles and Gintis believe in?

Answer 38

The myth of meritocracy: legitimation of class inequality.

Question 39

Why does Bowles and Gintis promote the ‘myth of meritocracy’?

Answer 39

describe the education system as ‘a giant myth making machine’.
unlike functionalists such as parsons, bowles and gintis argue that meritocracy does not in fact exist.
↳ evidence shows that the main factor determining whether or not someone has a high income is their family and class background, not their ability or educational achievement.
justifies the privileges of the higher classes, making it seem that they gained them through succeeding in open and fair competition at school.
↳ helps persuade the working class to accept inequality as legitimate and makes it less likely that they will seek to overthrow capitalism.

Question 40

What are the two class system in capitalism according to Karl Marx?

Answer 40

the capitalist class or bourgeoisie are the minority class
↳ employers who own the means of production.
➝ make their profits by exploiting the labour of the majority aka the proletariat or working class.
the working class are forced to sell their labour power to the capitalists
↳ they own no means of production of their own and so have no other source of income.
↳ work under capitalism is poorly paid, alienating, unsatisfying, and something over which workers have no real control.
[1818-1883]

Question 41

What did Bowles and Gintis find in their study?

Answer 41

Study of 237 new york high school students.
↳ they conclude that schools reward precisely the kind of personality traits that make for a submissive, compliant worker.
➝ found that students who showed independence and creativity tended to gain low grades.
➝ those who showed characteristics linked to obedience and discipline such as punctuality tended to gain high grades.
➝ schooling helps to produce the obedient workers that capitalism needs and do not believe that education fosters personal development and rather stunts and distorts students’ development.

Question 42

What are Bowles and Gintis’ beliefs on ‘poor ar dumb’ theory?

Answer 42

the education system also justifies poverty, through the ‘poor are dumb’ theory of failure.
does so by blaming poverty on the individual rather than blaming capitalism.
plays an important part in reconciling workers to their exploited position, making them less likely to rebel against the system.

Question 43

What does Willis’ study show?

Answer 43

the working class pupils can resist such attempts to indoctrinate them.
interested in the way schooling serves capitalism.
combines this with an interactionist approach that focuses on the meanings pupils give to the situation and how these enable them to resist indoctrination.

Question 44

What are Willis’ research methods?

Answer 44

qualitative.
participant observation and unstructured interviews.

Question 45

What did Willis study?

Answer 45

Studied the counterculture of ‘the lads’ - a group of 12 working class boys - as they make the transition from school to work.