Education Theorists Flashcards
(25 cards)
Durkheim - View on Socialisation
Functionalist View:
For society to operate effectively, people must become ‘social beings’ which happens through socialisation. Durkheim distinguishes between the formal and the hidden curriculum as processes of socialisation in education. The formal curriculum are the timetabled subjects such as English and History and the hidden curriculum is the informal learning process made up of teachers attitudes and expectations. These processes contribute to the sharing of norms and values and therefore reinforce social order and equilibrium.
Parsons - View on Socialisation
Functionalist View:
The classroom acts as a microcosm of society and is a bridge between the family and wider society. For example, while the family judges a child based off particularistic standards, wider society judges them based off universalistic standards. Schools acclimatise students to these standards. Another example of this would be that a child’s status is ascribed within the family but must be achieved in both school and wider society. Crucially, Parsons argues that schools work meritocratically and status can only be achieved through hard work and academic achievement.
Davis and Moore - View on Allocation
Functionalist View:
Education sifts and sorts students into appropriate roles and occupations based on their merit which is achieved through the certification system. This allows the most functionally important roles in society to be fulled by those who are best suited to them. As the occupational structure has become increasingly specialised, this allocation role has become more and more important for the economy.
Schultz - View on the Vocational Role
Functionalist View:
Human capital theory - the assumption that education is a productive investment through which society can bring about and sustain economic growth. Educational institutions act as catalysts for this economic growth by providing educated and trained workers with the required level of knowledge and skills. This highlights the need for a smooth working relationship between the different areas of society as the education system and the economy must remain in equilibrium in order to maintain social cohesion. This means that a change in the economy will bring about a change in the education system such as more practically skilled workers.
Dewey - Criticism of the functionalist view of education
Liberal View:
The main function of education should be the promotion of the well-being of the individual rather than society.
Wrong - Criticism of the functionalist view of socialisation
Interactionist View:
This views students as passive robotic empty vessels willing to be shaped and moulded by the education system which is ignorant of the fact that many students reject and resist the norms and values of the education system.
Althusser - View on Socialisation
Marxist View:
The education system is a part of the Ideological State Apparatus which reproduces class systems of inequality by creating the distorted belief that capitalist social arrangements are somehow natural. By ideologically conditioning the students, the education system ensures the reproduction of the capitalist system as it prevents the structure from being challenged. He argues that this is done through the formal curriculum. This is controlled by the ruling class and is manipulated to promote dominant capitalist ideologies such as competition as part of economic growth. The introduction of the national curriculum as part of the Education Reform Act in 1988 made the teaching of critical disciplines increasingly difficult.
Bowles and Gintis - View on Socialisation
Marxist View:
Correspondence Principle - The hidden curriculum instils capitalist norms and values which ideologically condition students into being passive workers. For example, the alienation that the students feel during school from not having control over their timetable is mirrored in wider society as workers don’t have any control over what they do either. Competition is also encouraged in both spheres which exists to drive up standards.
Willis - Criticism of the Marxist view of socialisation.
Neo-Marxist View:
Although the education system does reproduce class inequalities,not all working class pupils are passive or obedient in the process. Many students form subcultures that actively reject the school’s values and it’s authority.
Bourdieu - View of allocation.
Marxist View:
The education allocates people to distinct occupational positions however this is not done meritocratically. The education system is structured in a way which makes it appear that people have equal opportunity in education even though the system is built specifically to suit the middle class habitus. By justifying the inequality, this transfers the blame onto the individual and away from the system itself. Students from a working class background will self eliminate due to not feeling as though they fit the middle class education system. This is what Bourdieu calls the social function of elimination.
Bowles and Gintis - View on Allocation
Marxist View:
They argue that meritocracy is a myth created by the ruling classes to prevent any challenge to the capitalist system. Educational attainment is not earned based off merit for a multitude of reasons such as labelling or a lack of cultural capital. Similarly occupational reward is not based off merit because there is a larger concentration of middle class people holding the higher positions in society despite possibly not being the most qualified for the role which could be due to the existence of the old boys network.
P. Cohen - Views on the Vocational Role
Marxist View:
By teaching technical skills, schools serve capitalism by providing trained, passive workers who have been conditioned into the appropriate attitudes required for mundane work. This prevents them from reaching the top positions by not actually providing them with functional skills which would allow them to reach a higher level.
Chubb & Moe - Consumer Choice
New Right/Neoliberal Perspective:
They argue that the current education system does not suit the needs of the consumers (parents and students) and needs to run more like a private business by introducing competition and choice. They offer a solution to the problem by proposing that parents should be given an education voucher with which they ‘buy into’ a school which they choose. This would be the only funding that a school receives and so they must raise standards in order to gain popularity and in turn money.
Gewirtz and Ball - Criticism of New Right ideas
Competition between schools will only benefit the middle class who can use their cultural and economic capital to gain access to the more desirable schools.
Ball - Criticism of the Education Reform Act (1988)
Marketisation gives the illusion of parentocracy when in actual fact it simply reproduces and legitimates class inequalities. Good schools will end up having more choice than the parents have due to the fact that they will be oversubscribed and able to pick and choose which students they want in order to provide the best results for their school. Due to changes in the funding formula, this is important to them as they want the best league table position in order to bring in more pupils and therefore earn more money.
Allen - Criticism of Free Schools
20% of children attend Free Schools in Sweden however research there has shown that these only benefit middle class students. The country’s educational ranking has also fallen since their introduction so evidence suggests that they are socially divisive and lowers standards rather than raise them.
Ball - Criticism of Free Schools and Academies
The introduction of these institutions has lead to ‘fragmented centralisation’. Fragmented refers to the fact that the comprehensive system is being replaced by a patchwork of different types of schools which run based on different policies which will lead to greater inequality in educational achievement. Centralisation refers to the idea that the central government maintains all of the power to allow for the production of these institutions as the funding comes directly from them.
Ball and Youdell - Privatisation of Education
They identified several ways in which private companies have become increasingly involved in the education sector such as providing examination services and building schools.
Hall - criticism of privatisation
Marxist View:
The suggestion that privatisation drives up standards is a myth used to legitimate the turning of education into a private source of profit.
Mirza - criticism of policies aimed at tackling ethnic differences in achievement
There is little genuine change in policy. Instead of tackling the structural causes of ethnic inequality such as poverty and racism, education policies take a softer approach that focuses on culture, behaviour and the home.
Gillborn - criticism of policies aimed at tackling ethnic differences in achievement
Institutionally racist policies in relation to the ethnocentric curriculum, assessment and streaming continue to disadvantage minority ethnic group pupils.
Harker - Underachievement of working class students due to material deprivation
Found that poor quality housing could be a factor for educational underachievement. This is because it can lead to hazards to health, less study space and higher rates of stress to name a few.
Howard - Underachievement of working class students due to material deprivation
Young people from poorer homes have a lower intake in energy due to a poorer diet. This not only weakens their immune system but also leads to an inability to concentrate and even behavioural problems.
Wilkinson - Underachievement of working class students due to material deprivation
In his study of 10 year olds, he found that the lower the social class the higher the rate of hyperactivity and anxiety disorders.
