functionalism

Question 1

what are the 4 functions education performs?

Answer 1

Social solidarity
Specialist skills
Secondary socialisation
Sifting and sorting

Question 2

Ao1 for social solidarity

Answer 2

Togetherness
Where a child learns to interact with other members of society and follow a fixed set of rules an example of this is the national curriculum

Question 3

Ao3 for social solidarity

Answer 3

Functionalism is rose tinted so they ignore the bad in society and only focus on the good.
School fails to pass on the shared culture and this is ethnocentric so ethnic minorities get excluded meaning there is a divide between people not unity

Question 4

Ao1 specialist skills

Answer 4

Durkheim argues that individuals must be taught specialist skills so that they can take their place within the highly complex division of labour.
The modern industrial society requires individuals to have specialist skills and knowledge so that they can perform their roles.

Question 5

Ao3 specialist skills

Answer 5

The wolf review of vocational education found that a third of 16-19 year olds have been doing courses that do not lead to a higher education or good jobs. The new right would support this view.

Question 6

Ao1 secondary socialisation

Answer 6

Parsons argues that the education system passes on the key norms and values of society, this means that children are socialised into the value of meritocracy whether they are taught that they can achieve status based on ability and effort.
This means that each person should strive to their full potential

Question 7

Ao3 secondary socialisation

Answer 7

The existence of private education undermines the view that everyone has an equal chance to succeed.
Bowles and Gintis say meritocracy is a myth as the children of the wealthy get high qualifications and good jobs only because of their status and that abilities do not matter.

Question 8

Ao1 the bridge

Answer 8

Parsons also argues that education helps students transition from home to work, this is because education teaches universal standards that applies to everyone and in doing this it acts as a bridge between home and society.

Question 9

Ao3 the bridge

Answer 9

The new right would argue that the functionalist perspective lacks contemporary relevance and that the system is failing to help students transition to work as too many young people are on benefits.

Question 10

Ao1 sifting and sorting

Answer 10

Davis and Moore say that the role of education is to sift and sort people according to ability and effort.
Education puts people on the career paths they are suited to based on abilities and effort. The most able students get high grades this leads to important jobs with higher rewards. This will lead to inequalities in society, but this is natural and desirable in the capitalist society.

Question 11

Ao3 sifting and sorting

Answer 11

David and Moore assume rules are allocated based on ability and effort, but evidence suggest that class, gender and ethnicity have a role in achievement. There are policies which undermines the ability of students to access top jobs using ability and efforts such as tuition fees. This will cause talented working class students from going to universities and getting the top jobs they want.