Functionalism + New Right Flashcards
(9 cards)
Functions of Education: Secondary Socialisation
- Education is an agent of secondary socialisation
- Children learn norms and values such as queuing up for lunch and respect
- Helps to maintain a value consensus, children are taught the values of society, ensures society runs smoothly
AO3 - feminists argue schools spread patriarchal values, disadvantaging young girls and women (radical feminists - male gaze)
Functions of Education: Social Solidarity
- Durkheim argues education encourages a sense of social solidarity (pupils feel part of society)
- Education ensures that children are fully integrated into society, creates a value consensus
- E.g. All students taught about WWI and WWII at some point in their education in history, learn about Shakespeare in English
AO3 - Marxists, schools are MC institutions and teach a middle class culture, WC culture has been devalued and ignored by the education system
Functions of Education: Focal Socialising Agency
- Parsons argues school is a focal socialising agency, acts as a bridge between the family and wider society
- Children judged by particularistic standards in the family (treated differently compared to others outside the family)
- People in wider society judged by universalistic standards (same standards apply to everyone equally)
- Wider society viewed as meritocratic, status earned through individual achievements and own hard work/effort
- Schools teach children the universalistic standards of wider society (exams marked to the same standard by teachers for all students - down to their own effort if they pass or fail)
AO3 - meritocracy is a myth, social class determines a student’s educational success, WC lack cultural capital so they perform worse compared to MC students (parents unable to help with homework)
Functions of Education: Specialist Skills
- To prepare students for paid employment
- Durkheim argues schools teach students specialist skills for work
- Qualifications gradually get more specialised as people progress into higher education
- GCSEs to gain a range of knowledge and skills, study fewer courses at post-16 to gain more specialised knowledge and skills
- Vocational education (BTECs), learn job specific knowledge and skills
AO3 - Marxists argue WC students are channeled into vocational courses (seen as lower skilled courses), end up in low paid, low status jobs
Functions of Education: Role Allocation
- Help to prepare children for the workplace
- Davis and Moore: schools ‘sift and sort’ students into their future roles through exams and assessments
- Example: Those who get an A in Biology will go on to become doctors etc.
- Role allocation is fair because society is meritocratic - depends on the individual’s hard work and effort if they want access to good jobs
- Will get a good job if they are talented and put in the necessary effort
- Inequalities in outcomes are not because of the education system but down to the individual’s own ability
AO3 - Marxists, argue there is no equality of opportunity, everyone does not start at the same point, do not have the same chances at success
New Right: Marketisation
- Schools should be run like businesses (marketisation)
- Parents should have the right to choose what school their child attends (parentocracy)
- Use marketing strategies to attract new parents and students (open days, prospectuses)
New Right: Competition
- Marketisation creates competition between schools
- Lead to standards of schools being raised - the schools with the best results will attract the most new parents and students
- All the schools will work hard to improve their teaching and exam results to entice new parents and students - means existing students leave with better exam results
New Right: Privatisation
- Aimed to make state education more like private education (a better model of education)
- Privatisation - take state-funded education out of state control and into the hands of private companies
- Example: Exam boards are private businesses, catering services
- Believe it would lead to a more efficient education system and improve standards
Evaluation of New Right
- Turned schools into ‘exam factories’ - focus is on grades (poor educational experiences and well being), increase in the number of students suffering from mental health concerns
· Marketisation has led to an A-C Economy (schools are judged on the number of A-C grades achieved) - Gillborn and Youdell, students that are unlikely to get a C or above are labelled at hopeless cases (receive little/no support, will not contribute to the image of the school), usually from WC, deprived backgrounds, limits their opportunities
· Marxists - parentocracy is a myth, MC parents only have greater choice due to having cultural capital (know how schools work, what questions to ask)
