The Role And Functions Of The Education System Flashcards
(16 cards)
What do functionalists believe about the education system?
-functionalists emphasise the positive functions of the education system
-education system instills value consensus and social solidarity
-it is meritocratic
-provides human capital
What does Durkheim believe about education
-Durkheim believes the education system creates value consensus and social solidarity which is necessary for social life and cooperation because it avoids people perusing social solidarity.
-school acts as society in miniature
-schools provide people with specialist skills
What is some evaluation of Durkheim?
-Countries are now multicultural so there’s not one single culture to base curriculum off
-Marxists argue educational institutions aid the upper class culture
-Hargreaves found that instead of passing on shared values school exams created competition rather than social solidarity.
what are evaluations for Parsons theory of Meritocracy?
-Marxists criticise the view of sifting and sorting arguing that meritocracy is nothing but an ideology. they argue that the proletariat are made to believe the bougouisie achieved their status through hard work and ability rather than their at birth privileged. so they accept it as fair. This is how class inequalities are reproduced.
What does parsons believe about the education system
Parsons believes the education system is meritocratic and sees school as a bridge between family and wider society.
Within the family a child is judged to particularistic standards and has ascribed status but in school and wider society their status is achieved and they are judged by universal standards.
what is Davis and Moore’s theory of role allocation- functionalist?
evaluation?
- inequality is necessary to ensure the most important roles are filled by the most talented people. The education system sifts and sorts us based off our abilities so that unskilled people don’t end up in skilled jobs.
-however Marxists says the system manifests poorer people to fail. The children of those with well payed jobs overwhelmingly leave with better qualifications so the system is not meritocratic.
What is Blau and Duncan’s theory of Human capital- functionalist?
– a modern economy relies on human capital and so the education system enables each person to be allocated to the right job and promotes economic and social development
What are some evaluations of the Functionalist perspective?
-Interactionalists say students don’t just passively accept what they are taught instead they may reject schools values.
-Functionalists ignore the persistent inequalities that occur in education
- Consensus theories fail to consider the negative experiences some students have at school as it assumes the education system is organised in a way that is beneficial to all.
-The transmission of a common national culture is no longer possible in multicultural societies
What does Neoliberalism believe about the education system?
-State should not provide education-it should be privatised
-value of education lies in how well it competes in a global marketplace
What do the New right believe about the education system?
-some people are naturally more talented than others
-education system is meritocratic
-prepares young people for work
-they don’t believe key functions are being achieved because it is run by the state instead education should be left to the free market
-they believe state run schools do not pass down the right shared values- not patriotic enough and don’t promote right sexual orientation, too left wing
What is the New Right concept of the two roles of the state?
- there are two important roles for the state
-1, the state should impose a framework on schools in which they have to compete- eg Ofsted reports and league tables
-2, the state should ensure that schools transmit a shared culture- national identity and Christian culture.
What is Chubb and Moe’s concept of treat schools as businesses and parents as consumers.
-parents should have freedom of choice to choose which school they want to send their children o and these schools will have increased demand and have to meet the needs of their consumers
What is an evaluation of the voucher system?
- a merit based system where everyone gets vouchers will inevitably remove better off students from public schools and increase the class divide.
What are evaluations of the New right perspective on the education system?
-Gewirtz and Ball argue that the real cause of educational standards is not state control but social inequality and inadequate funding of state schools.
-Instead of power given to parents to ensure the new right values were passed down the main approach was legislation such as section 28 so it would remove the ability for the government to teach only the national ideology due to the fact parents would be in charge.
What is the Marxist perspective on education?
-it reproduces class inequality and benefits capitalism
what is Althusser’s concept about ideological state apparatus and repressive state apparatus?
-for capitalism to survive generations of annual workers must be reproduced who submit the norms values and beliefs of capitalism
-The repressive state apparatus -maintains the power of capitalism class by force or threat of force- eg police, courts , army… detentions, exclusion
-the ideological state apparatus- maintains capitalism by controlling peoples ideas, values and beliefs- legitimises class inequality
-Althusser puts the working class in a false state of consciousness
