Functionalism

Question 1

Functionalists two key questions about education:

Answer 1

1) what are the functions for society as a whole?
2) what are the functional relationships between education and other parts of the social system?

Question 2

Achieved status

Answer 2

A status that is achieved through hard work

Question 3

Ascribed status

Answer 3

A status that is fixed by birth

Question 4

Meritocracy

Answer 4

An education system in which everyone has the equal opportunity to succeed

Question 5

Collective conscience

Answer 5

A shared belief, we all think in the same way

Question 6

Social solidarity

Answer 6

Individuals feel like part of a community or a single body

Question 7

Particularistic standards

Answer 7

Rules that only apply to one child

Question 8

Universalistic standards

Answer 8

Rules that apply to all children in a school

Question 9

Role allocation

Answer 9

Selecting students for future work roles by assessing their skills

Question 10

Bridge between the family and society

Answer 10

Education is the link between the family and society

Question 11

Consensus theorist

Answer 11

Functionalists look that the purpose education serves for society and for individuals. They argue that education acts as a way of allocating people to jobs on the basis of ability

Question 12

Durkheim identified two main functions of education:

Answer 12

1. To create social solidarity
2. To teach specialist skills

Question 13

Anomie

Answer 13

Maintaining nd creating social solidarity

Question 14

Creating social solidarity

Answer 14

-children must learn self-restraint
-children must fit in with patterns of behaviour adopted by others and accept discipline imposed by the school
-education system helps to create social solidarity by transmitting society’s culture (shared beliefs and values)

Question 15

Teaching specialist skills

Answer 15

-schools prepare students for wider society (cooperate with people, interact in different ways, and follow rules)
-schools now teach a wider range of qualifications such as NVQs and vocational qualifications (T Levels)

Question 16

Criticisms of Durkheim

Answer 16

-Marxists believe education is there to uphold capitalism by allowing the bourgeoisie to succeed and keeping the workers poorly educated and in low paid jobs
-Durkheim’s theory is no longer relevant in our multicultural society (theory of education promoting social solidarity doesn’t highlight how faith schools teach the values of a specific religion)

Question 17

David and Moore; sifting and sorting

Answer 17

-believe that education is a selective agency for placing people in different statuses according to their capabilities
-for society to operate effectively all the roles must be filled and they need to be filled by the most able
-some roles require considerable training and intelligence levels
-schools develop human capital to ensure that each job is filled effectively

Question 18

Sifting and sorting; differential rewards

Answer 18

society needs to offer incentives to those best able to fill positions that require making a sacrifice e.g. higher rates of pay, which encourages people to compete for jobs

Question 19

Parsons: the bridge

Answer 19

-school acts as a bridge between the family and wider society
-we need this bridge as families and society operate on different sets of principles and to cope in wider society children need to learn how to cope in the wider world through education
-in the family children are judged by particularistic standards and the child’s status is ascribed
-in education children are judged by universalistic standards and statuses are achieved, reflecting wider society

Question 21

Criticisms of Parsons

Answer 21

-social backgrounds can result in some students being treated differently, social class and ethnicity may result in poorer results due to lower expectations rather than lower ability
-some schools only teach the values of their faith which may not be universalistic
-school rules may not always apply in wider society, Marxists do not believe in meritocracy

Question 22

Criticisms of functionalism

Answer 22

-Marxists would argue that this view ignores the inequalities in wider society, there is no value consensus, education convinces us that the system is fair, we are in a state of false class consciousness
-feminists agregue schools pass on patriarchal values, girls are limited by the glass ceiling
-some people argue that society is no longer based on universalistic standards
-some jobs are based on ascribed status rather than achieved
-schools develop human content often has very little to do with the workplace