The Roles and Functions of Education Flashcards
Which Functionalist Sociologists put forward ideas?
Durkheim
Parsons
Davis and Moore
What two functions did Durkheim identify?
Social solidarity
Specialist skills
How does education help social solidarity?
Members feel part of a community and are able to cooperate. It transmits culture and history from one generation to the next and gives them commitment to a wider social group
How does education provide specialist skills?
It teaches people specialist knowledge needed to play a part in the social division of labour since most industrial economies require a variety of different specialities.
What function did Parsons put forward?
Education is a bridge to wider society. In the family, the child has ascribed status but in education and life its achieved. They’re judged by a set of impersonal rules and meritocratic principles.
What are meritocratic principles?
Where everyone is given equal opportunity to succeed.
What function did Davis and Moore identify?
Education allocates children to their future work roles by making people compete for the best jobs to ensure they are filled by the most talented people. Inequality is therefore important.
What evaluative points can be made about functionalism?
The education system doesn’t teach specialist skills well enough
Myth of meritocracy
Turmin says we don’t know when a job is more important
Marxists argue it transmits the ideology of the ruling class
Interactionists say pupils are not passive
The New Right say the system fails to prepare them for work
How does Turmin criticise the functionalist view?
We don’t know when a job is more important
How do Marxists criticise the functionalist view?
It transmits the culture of the ruling class
How do interactionists criticise the functionalist view?
Pupils are not passive puppets that accept everything they are taught. They can rebel.
What points can be made about the New Right view?
Chubb and Moe: Marketization
Two roles of the state
What 2 roles do the New Right argue the state should fulfill?
Make a framework for schools to compete such as legue tables
Ensure schools transmit a shared culture through the national curriculum
What do Chubb and Moe argue? (New Right)
There should be a market system to put control in the hands of the consumers. Parents can then shape schools to suit their needs
What evaluative points can be made about the New Right’s view?
Gewirtz and Ball: Competition benefits the middle class
The real cause of low standards is lack of funding
Contradiction between parental choice and national curriculum
Marxists: Causes oppression
