the role of education in society

Question 1

the functionalist perspective on the family

Answer 1

functionalism is based on the view that society is a system of independent parts held together by a shared culture or value consensus - an agreement among societies members about what values are important. each part of society, such as the family, economy, or education system performs functions that help to maintain society as a whole.
functionalism = a consensus approach

Question 2

durkheim: solidarity and skills

Answer 2

the sociologist durkheim, the founder of functionalist sociology, identified two main functions of education: creating social solidarity and teaching specialist skills

Question 3

what is social solidarity?

Answer 3

durkheim argues that society needs a sense of solidarity, that is, individual members must feel themsleves to be part of a single ‘body’ or community. he argues that without social solidarity, social life and cooperation would be impossible because each individual would pursue their own selfish desires.

Question 4

social solidarity in education

Answer 4

the education system helps to create social solidarity by transmitting societies culture - its shared beliefs and values - from one generation to the next. e.g durkheim argues that the teaching of a countrys history instills in children a sense of a shared heritage and commitment to the wider social group.
school also acts as a ‘society in miniature’, preparing us for life in wider society. e.g both in school and at work, we have to cooperate with people who are neither family nor friends - teachers and pupils at school, colleagues and customers at work. similarly, both in school and work we have to interact with others according to a set of impersonal rules that apply to everyone

Question 5

what is specialist skills

Answer 5

modern industrial economies have a complex division of labour, where the production of even a single item usually involves the cooperation of many different specialities. this cooperation promotes social solidarity but, for it to be successful, each person must have the necessary specialist knowledge and skills to perform their role.
durkheim argues that education teaches individuals the specialist knowledge and skills that they need to play their part in social division of labour.
schools can provide a diverse range of qualifications which gradually becomes more specialised

Question 6

parsons: meritocracy

Answer 6

functionalist parsons draws on many of durkehims ideas. parsons sees the school as the ‘focal socialising agency’ in modern society, acting as a bridge between the family and wider society. this bridge is needed because family and family and society operate on different principles, so children need to learn a new way of living if they are to cope with the wider world

Question 7

parsons mertiocracy in family

Answer 7

within the family, the child is judged by particularistic standards, that is rules that apply only to that particular child. similarly, in the family, the childs status is ascribed, that is, fixed by birth. for example, an elder son and a younger daughter may be given different rights or duties because of differences of age and sex

Question 8

parsons mertiocracy in schools and wider society

Answer 8

by contrast, both school and wider society judge us all by the same universalistic and impersonal standards. for example, in society, the same laws apply to everyone. similarly in school each pupil is judged against the same standards (such as they all sit the same exam and the pass mark is the same for everyone.)
likewise, in both school and wider society, a persons status is largely achieved, not ascribed for example, at work we gain promotion or get the sack on the strength of how good we are at our jobs, while at school we fail or pass through our own individual efforst

Question 9

how does parsons see school

Answer 9

parsons sees school as preparing us to move from the family to wider society because school and society are both based on meritocratic principles. in a meritocracy, everyone is given an equal opportunity, and individuals achieve rewards through their own effort and ability.

Question 10

davis and moore: role allocation

Answer 10

functionalists argue that schools also perform the function of selecting and allocating pupils to their future work roles. by assessing individuals attitudes and abilities, schools help to match them to job they are best suited for.
d and m argue that inequality is necessary to ensure that the most important roles are filled by the most talented people. e.g it would be inefficient and dangerous to have less able people performing roles such as a surgeon or a pilot.
not everyone is equally talented and sp society has to offer higher rewards for these jobs. this will encourage people to compete for these jobs and therefore society can select the most talented individuals to fill these position.
education plays a very big part in this process since it acts as a providing ground for ability.

Question 11

human capital

Answer 11

similarly, blau and duncan argue that a modern economy depends for its prosperity on using its ‘human capital’ - its workers skills. they argue that a meritocratic education system does this best, since it enables each person to be allocated to the job best suited to their abilities. this will make most effective use of their talents and maximise their productivity

Question 12

evaluation of functionalism

Answer 12

• the education does not teach specialised skills adequately, as durkheim claims.
• there is evidence that equal opportunity in education does not exists, e.g achievement is greatly influenced by class background.
• functionalists see education as a process that instills the shared values of society as a whole, but marxists argue that education in capitalist society only transmits the ideology of a minority - the ruling class

Question 13

neoliberalism

Answer 13

neoliberalism is an economic doctrine that has a major influence on education policy. neoliberals argue that the state should not provide services such as education, health and welfare.

Question 14

the new right

Answer 14

the new right is a conservative political view that incorporates neoliberal economic ideas. a central principle of new right is the belief that the state cannot meet peoples needs and that people are the best left to meet their own needs through the free market. for this reason, the new right favour the marketisation of education.

Question 15

the similarities between the new right and functionalist views

Answer 15

• both believe that some people are naturally more talented than others
• both favour an education system run on meritocratic principles of open competition, and one that serves the needs of the economy by preparing young people for work
• both believe that education should socialise pupils into shared values, such as competition, and instil a sense of national identity.

Question 16

the difference between the new right and functionalism

Answer 16

the key difference with functionalism is that the new right do not believe that the current education system is achieving these goals. the reason for its failure, in their view, is that it is run by the state

Question 17

the new right and education

Answer 17

the new right argue that state education systems take a ‘one size fits all’ approach, imposing uniformity and disregarding local needs. the local consumers who use the schools - pupils, parents and employers - have no say. state education systems are therefore unresponsive and inefficient. schools waste money or get poor results are not awardable to their consumers. this means lower standards of achievement for pupils, a less qualified workforce and a less prosperous economy.

Question 18

whats the new rights solution?

Answer 18

the new rights solution to these problems is the marketisation of education - creating an ‘education market’. they believe that competition between schools and empowering consumers will bring greater diversity, choice and efficiency to schools and increase schools ability to meet the needs of pupils, parents and employers

Question 19

chubb and moe: consumer choice

Answer 19

an example of the new right perspective on education comes from the work of chubb and moe. they argye that state rub education in the united states has failed because:
- it has not created equal opportunity and has failed the needs of disadvantaged goods
- it is inefficient because it fails to produce pupils with the skills needed by the economy
- private schools deliver higher quality education because, unlike state schools, they are answerable to praying consumers - the parents.
chubb and moe base their arguments on a comparison of the achievements of 60,000 pupils from low income families.

Question 20

two roles for the state

Answer 20

while the new right stresses the importance of market forces in education, this does not mean they see no role at all for the state. in the new right view, there remain two important roles for the state.
- firstly, the state imposes a framework on schools within which they to compete. e.g by publishing ofsted inspection reports and league tables of schools exam results, the state gives parents information with which ti make a more informed choice between schools
- secondly, the state ensures that schools transmit a shared culture. by imposing a single national curriculum, it seeks to guarantee that schools socialise pupils into a single cultural heritage.
the new right believe that education should affirm the national identity.

Question 21

evaluation of the new rights

Answer 21

• Gewirtz and Ball both argue that competition between schools benefits the middle class, who can use their cultural and economic capital to gain access to more desirable schools.
• critics argue that the real cause of low educational standards is not state control but social inequality and inadequate funding of state schools.
• there is a contradiction between the new rights support for parental choice on the one hand and the state imposing a compulsory national curriculum on all its schools on the other
• marxists argue that education does not impose a shared national culture, as the new right claim, but imposes the culture of a dominant minority ruling class and devalues the culture of the working class and ethnic minorities.

Question 22

the marxist perspective on education

Answer 22

marxists see education based on class division and capitalist exploitation. marx described capitalism as a two class system:
- the capitalist class - are the minority class. they are the employers who own the means of production. they make their profits by exploiting the labour of the majority - the proletariat or working class
- the working class - are forced to sell their labour power to the capitalist since they own no means of production of their own and so have no other source of income. as a result, work under capitalism is poorly paid, alienating, unsatisfying over which workers have no real control.

this creates potential class conflict. e.g if workers realise they are being exploited, they may demand higher wages, better working conditions or even the abolition of capitalism itself.

Question 23

althusser: the ideological state apparatus

Answer 23

marxists see the state as the means by which the capitalist ruling class maintain their dominant position. according to althusser, the state consists of two elements or ‘apparatusses’, both of which serve to keep the bourgeoisie in power:
- the repressive state apparatuses (RSA), which maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by force or the threat of it. the RSAs include the police, courts and army. when necessary, they use physical force to repress the working class
- the ideological state apparatueses (ISA), which maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling peoples ideas, values and beliefs. the ISA include religion, the media and the education system.

Question 24

althuesser views on the education system

Answer 24

• education reproduces class inequality by transmitting it from generation to generation, by failing each successive generation of working class pupils in turn
• education legitimates class inequality by producing ideologies that disguise its true cause. the function of ideology is to persuade workers to accept that inequality is inevitable and that they deserve their subordinate position in society.

Question 25

bowles and gintis: schooling in capitalist America

Answer 25

the marxists bowles and gintis develop these ideas further. they argue that capitalism requires a workforce with the kind of attitudes, behaviour and personality type suited for their role as exploited workers willing to accept hard work, low pay and orders from above.
in this view, bowles and gintis, this is the role of the education system in capitalist society - to reproduce an obedient workforce that will accept inequality as inevitable

Question 26

bowles and gintis own study

Answer 26

from their own study of new york high schools students and findings from other studies, they conclude that schools reward precisely the kind of personality traits that make for a submissive, compliant worker.
they conclude that from this evidence that schooling helps to produces obediant workers that capilatism needs.

Question 27

the correspondence principle and the hidden curriculum

Answer 27

bowles and gintis argue that there are close parallels between schooling and work in capitalist society. both schools and workplaces are hierarchies, with head teachers or bosses at the top making decisions and giving orders, and workers or pupils at the bottom obeying.

Question 28

the correspondence principles - bowles and gintis

Answer 28

bowles and gintis use the term ‘correspondence principle’ to explain the way in which relationships within the school mirror those in wider society. the education system essentially reproduces the capitalist relations of production

Question 29

the hidden curriculum - bowles and gintis

Answer 29

bowles and gintis argue that the correspondence principle operates through the hidden curriculum. pupils began to accept hierarchy through the everyday workings of the school.
what we learn in school which is not part of the curriculum.
such as respect for elders and managers

Question 30

the correspondence principle table

Answer 30

examples
1. school - hierarchy of authority among teachers and between teachers and students
1. work - hierarchy of authority in the workplace e.g managers - supervisors - workers

2. school - alienation through students lack of control over education e.g what to study
3. work - alienation through workers lack of control over production e.g managers decide what, how, when and where to produce
4. school - competition and divisions among students e.g to come top of class, to be in a higher stream
5. school - competition and divisions among the workforce e.g through differences in status and pay

Question 31

the myth of mertiocracy: the legitimation of class inequality

Answer 31

because capitalist society is based on inequality, there is always danger that the poor will feel that this inequality is undeserved and unfair, and that they will rebel against the system responsible for it. in bowles and gintis view, the education system helps to prevent this from happening by legitimating class inequalities. it does this by producing ideologies that serve to explain and justify why inequality is fair, natural and inevitable

bowles and gintis describe the education system as ‘a giant myth making machine’.

Question 32

the hidden curriculum - bowles and gintis

Answer 32

bowles and gintis argue that the correspondence principle operates through the hidden curriculum. pupils began to accept hierarchy through the everyday workings of the school.
what we learn in

Question 33

Willis: learning to labour

Answer 33

all marxists agree that capitalist cannot function without a workforce that is willing to accept explotation. likewise, all marixists see education as reproducing and legitimating class inequality. that is, it ensures that working class pupils are slotted into the learn to accpet jobs that are poorly paid.
willis study shows that working class pupils can resist such attempts to indocrtinate them.

Question 34

the lads counter culture

Answer 34

using qualitative research methods including participant observation and unstructured interviews, willis studied the counter school culture of ‘the lads’ - a group of working class boys.
the lads find school boring and meaningless and flout its rules and values.
the ‘lads’ culture emphasised things such as masculinity, drinking, girlfriends, messing around.
the study done by willis still has relevance today when considering the underachievement of working class boys.
mac an ghaill conducted a similar study of the ‘macho lads’ who also rejected the values of the school and teachers authority.

Question 35

evaluation of marxist approaches

Answer 35

• marxists approaches are useful in exposing the ‘myth of meritocracy’. they show the role in education plays as the ideological state apparatus, serving the interests of capitalism by reproducing and legitimating class inequality.
• however, postmodernists criticise bowles and gintis correspondence principle on the grounds that todays economy requires schools to produce a very different kind of labour force from the described by marxists
• feminists make a similar point. for example madeleine mcdonald argues, bowles and gintis ignore the fact that schools reproduce not only capitalism, but patriarchy too.

Question 36

feminist perspective on education

Answer 36

feminist sociologists have large areas of agreements with functionalists and marxists as they see the education system as transmitting a particular set of norms and values into the pupil
however, instead of seeing these as either a neutral value consensus or the values of the ruling class and capitalism, feminists see the education system as transmitting patriarchal views.

Question 37

achievement by gender

Answer 37

historically girls underachieved in comparison to boys this was due to:
- lower expecations
- gendered subject choice
- sharpe - girls had aspirations to marry and have childrem

• since 1988 (the national curriculum) girls have started to achieve higher than boys
• the rise of feminisim has increased carrer aspirations
• feminism of education and educated female roles

Question 38

experience of different genders in education

Answer 38

• sexual harassment is not treated seriously enough in schools as it would be in the workplace
• the male glaze - mulery
• ‘boys will be boys’ some teachers are unwilling to challenge sexist behaviour from male to female students
• higher expectations of girls behaviour

Question 39

pupils sexual and gender identities

Answer 39

• double standards
• verbal abuse
• the male glaze - mac an ghaill
• male peer groups
• female peer groups
• teachers and identity