Role of education

Fucntionalists

Society is a system of interdependent parts held together by shared culture or value consensus- each part of society performs functions to maintain society as a whole

Durkheim- socail

Durkheim: Social solidarity- teaches us the shared values and beliefs in society

Durkheim- skills

Durkheim: specialist skills- education teaches individuals specialist knowledge and skills they need to play their part in social division of labour 

Parsons

Parsons The bridge theory/ meritocracy- schools is the bridge between education and society

Home teaches particularistic standards but school teaches universalistic standards to teach people to enter the world of work 

The family helps to fix status at birth = ascribed status.

Education helps students to achieve status; their future roles are determined by how hard they work at school. Education is meritocratic.

Davis and Moore

David and Moore Role allocation- most important roles in society are filled by the most talented people, Education shows us who are the best people for the best jobs and roles in society by sieving those higher achievers to the top

Eval of functionalists

Eval:

• Rose tinted view ignores the inequalities which happen in education which can be negative for some groups

• Dont always have the same shared norms and values- multicultural society

• Education does not always teach us specialized skills which we need for work 

• Marxist education in capitalist society only transmits ideology of minority 

Marxists

Education works in the interests of capitalism and socialises children to accept,authority, hierarchy and wage labour.

Reproduces class inequality and legitimises it through the myth of meritocracy

Althusser

Althusser: State consists of 2 apparatuses which keep bourgeoisie in power

• Ideological state apparatus: maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling peoples ideas, values and beliefs- include religion, media and education system 

• Repressive state apparatuses- maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by force or the threat of it-include police, courts and army

He argues the education system is an important ISA. He argues that it performs 2 functions:

• Education reproduces class inequalities by transmitting it from generation to generation by failing each successive generation of WC pupils in turn

• Education legitimises class inequality by producing ideologies that  disguise its true cause- the function ideology is to persuade workers to accept that inequality is inevitable and that they deserve their subordinate  position in society- if they accept these ideas they are less likely to challenge or threaten capitalism 

Bowles and Ginits

Bowles and Ginitis- Correspondence principle: school mirrors the workforce- hierarchies and it’s achieved/ operates  through the hidden curriculum- in this way it prepares WC pupils for their role as exploited workers of the future- reproducing workforce capitalism 

Myth of meritocracy

Willis

Willis: learning to labour- participant observation of 12 WC boys- the lads form a counter culture opposed to the school. They are scornful of the conformists boys who they called ear’oles’. They take the piss out of the ear’oles’ and girls. They find school boring and meaningless and flout its rules and values- e.g by smoking, drinking and disrupting classes and playing truant-they reject the schools meritocratic ideology that Wc pupils can achieve MC jobs through hard work

Willis notes the similarity between the lads’ anti school counter culture and the shop floor culture of male manual workers. Both cultures see manual work as superior and intellectuals work as inferior and effeminate

However it explains why the lads counter culture of resistance to school helps them slot into the very jobs-inferior in terms of skill, pay and conditions- that capitalism needs some one to perform

for Willis the irony is by helping them resist the schools ideology the lads counter culture ensure they are destined for the unskilled work that capitalism needs someone to perform

Eval of Marxists

Eval:

• Too determinstic to assume that pupils have no free will and passively accept the indoctrination- approach fails to explain why many pupils reject the schools values

New right/ neoliberlaists

The state cannot meet people’s needs and people are best left to meet their own needs through the free market- they believe in marketisation 

Similar to functionalists by 

• believe some are more talented then others

• Both favour an education system run on meritocratic principles of open competition 

Chubb and moe

Chubb and moe consumer choice- introducing market system puts control in the consumer- this allows consumers to shape schools to meet their needs and would improve quality and inefficiency.  introduce market forces- schools should compete like businesses for better standards

Emphasize parental choice and schools accountability

To introduce a market into state education, Chubb and Moe propose a system in which each family would be given a voucher to spend on buying education from a school of their choice. This would force schools to become more responsive to parents' wishes, since the vouchers would be the school's main source of income. Like private businesses, schools would have to compete to attract 'customers' by improving their 'product.

These principles are already at work in the private education sector. In Chubb and Moe's view, educational standards would be greatly improved by introducing the same market forces into the state sector.