role of education in society Flashcards
(15 cards)
functionalist
education:
promotes social solidatrity
prepares students for work
form of secondary socialisation
fulfils role allocation
social solidarity
durkheim –> teaches students the norms and values, common history, shared rituals and the same universalistic rules
specialist skills
education equips students with the skills needed for the workplace in modern society
meritocracy
parsons –>
individual achievment: status is achieved through effort and abilities
equal oopurtunities: everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential
secondary socialisation
parsons bridge:
school acts as a bridge between family (where the child is treated as special) and wider society (where there is less individualism)
its gives students the shared values to inetgrate easily into society
role allocation
Davis and Moore:
some are naturally more talented and there a some jobs that are more complex
for society to function, most talented people must have the more complex jobs
complex jobs reap higher rewards which provides motivation for all
a meritocratic education system allows equal competition and therefore jobs are allocated to those with the best qualifications successfully
evaluation:
implies that women and ethnic minorities who are less likely to recieve top jobs are naturally less talented.
bowles and gintis argue that the best grades actually are recieved by the most obedient students
neoliberalism
- argue that the state shouldnt provide services such as education, health and welfare for free
- the value of education lies in how well the country is able to compete in the global marketplace
- this can be achieved through schools running like businesses which empowers parents and students as consumers, using competition to drive up standards
new right
- favours of maketisation of education
- believe that the education system should enforce a sense of national identity through Christian practices and the National Curriculum
- agree with functionalist:
~ some are more naturally talented that others
~ favours a meritocratic system of open competition which serves economic needs by preparing students for work
~ education should socialise pupils into shared values - however modern day doesnt achieve these things as the education system is run by the state
- the education system takes a one-sixe fits all aproach which imposes uniformity and ignores local needs
- schools that waste money/ have poor results arent answerable to their consumers and so dont change their ways –> lower standards, less workforce
Chubb and Moe:
US education system has failed as:
- not created equal oppurtunity, failed disadvantaged groups
- fails to produces pupils with necessary skills
- private schools are actually efficient as they answer to paying consumers
- low income students do 5% better in private schools than state schools
so they propose a market system in education:
- each family would be given vouchers to buy education from schools
- this holds schools responsible as vouchers would be their source of income
Evaluation:
- marxists argue that a shared national culture isnt achived but rather education imposes a culture of dominant minority ruling class and devalues the culture that of the working class and ethnic minorities
-Gerwitz/ Ball –> argues that competition only benefits the m/c who can access better schools through their cultural and economic capital
marxism
education is based on class division and capitalist exploitation
creating the potential for class conflict but revolution is never achieved as the ruling bourgeosie controls the state, including the education system
ideological state apparatus
Althusser
a way capitalism is maintained:
ISA- the brainwashing aspects of society to force belief in ideas such as meritocracy (family and education system)
education is an ISA is two ways:
- reproduction = next generation of workers is reproduced through failing w/c students
- legitimation = making lies appear as truth, like meritocracy which causes blame to be placed on the individual rather than the capitalist society
correspondence principle
marxist, Bowles and Gintis:
school prepares students for the workplace and so school mirrors the workplace, ie through the hidden curriculum
hidden curriculum
things that schools teach outside of subjects and lesson time
bowles and ginitis [marxist] –> it is used to mirror the workplace, eg: uniform, puntuality, deadlines, assembly
Heaton and Lawson [feminist] –> it teaches patriarchal views, eg: traditional family structures and gender stereotypes in textbooks, subjects targetted to specific genders, gender divisons (in pe groups and of labor- female teachers and male managers)
myth of meritocracy
Marxism, Bowles and Gintis:
disagree with functionalists who say that sucess is based on hard work and talent, rather it is down to class background
learning to labour
neomarxism, Willis :
people accept that capitalism is exploiting them aand can knowingly develop resistance
- 12 school boys knew they were being exploited and would end up in factories like their fathers, and so developed a counter culture at school
disagrees with bowles and gintis as students see through the myth of meritocracy and aspire to manual jobs, but the end result is still the same as the boys still fail and become servants to capitalism
post- fordism
post-modernism
-the marxist view of capitalism exercising Fordism (training students to be low-skilled manual workers on production line) is outdated
society is now dverse and fragmented and class divisons are now longer important, so the economy is based on ‘flexible specialisation’
this post-fordism sytem requires a skilled, adaptable workforce with the ability to use advanced tech
this sytem calls for an education system of self-motivation and creativity
–> so education has become much more diverse to the diffrent needs of individuals, opposing the correspondence principle
