Education - Role and functions

Who are some key functionalist in education?

• Durkheim

• Parsons

• Davis and Moore

What did Durkheim say the role of education was (functionalist)

• Creates social solidarity

• Teaches specialist skills

What did Parsons say the role of education was (functionalist)

Socialising agency between family and wider society.

What did Davis and Moore say the role of education was (functionalist)

Role allocation - education allocates pupils to their future work.

What are functionalists view on education?

Education has a positive role on society.

What are some positive evaluations of the functionalist view on education?

• Education passes on society’s shared values and culture.

• Provides a bridge between particularistic values ascribed status of the family to the universal rules and achieved status of society.

• Creates a trained, qualified work force.

• Education is meritocratic.

What are some negative evaluations of the functionalist view on education?

• Ignores inequalities of power in society. The ruling class imposes their culture onto everyone else.

• Weak link between education and pay/ job status, many occupational skills are learnt on the job.

• Meritocracy is a myth. Middle class people work less hard and still do better.

What is the new right?

a conservative political view that incorporates neoliberal economic ideas.

Tell me about the New rights idea for education

The new right believes an unregulated free market encourages competition and choice which drives standards up. They argue the state should privatise state run businesses like: education, health and welfare.

Name 3 similarities between functionalism and New right?

1. Both believe schools should be run on open competition and meritocracy.

2. Both think education should meet the needs of the economy by preping pupils for work.

3. Both argue some people are naturally more talented than others.

State two differences new right has to functionalism.

1. New right believes education is not meeting the needs of the economy by prepping pupils for work.

2. New right doesn’t believe students are successfully socialised into shared “british” values.

New right believes education is failing to meet certain goals - How and why?

a) State education uses a ‘one size fits all approach’, disregarding local needs.

b) Consumers (parents, pupils) have little say. Therefore state school is unresponsive and inefficient.

c) schools waste money or get poor results and aren’t answerable to consumers.

When education fails to meet certain goals the new right believe what?

There is a lower standard of achievement, a less qualified workforce and a less prosperous economy.

What do the new right think the solution is to education failing to meet certain goals?

Marketisation - we should create an education market. competition between schools empowers consumers, brining a greater standard of choice, diversity and efficiency.

Who were Chubb and Moe (1990)

Chubb and Moe were sociologists who believed that the education system (U.S) had failed.

How did Chubb and Moe believe the U.S education system had failed?

They argued it did not adequately serve disadvantaged groups, failed to equip students with necessary skills for the economy, and that private schools perform better due to consumer accountability.

What was chubb and moe’s study about and what did they find?

They studied 60000 pupils from low-income families across 1015 state and private schools. They found that pupils from low income families do about 5% better in private schools.

What did Chubb and Moe suggest we do to help improve education?

They suggested we introduce a market to state education where each parent is given a voucher to spend on a school of their choice. They believed this would shape schools to the needs of the pupils and encourage schools to improve.

What are the two roles the New right believe the state should have?

1. The state should impose a framework within which they have to complete, e.g OFSTED.

2. Ensure schools transmit a shared culture and also impose a national curriculum to socialise pupils into national identity.

What do Marxists believe the role of education to be?

That education is a means of social control, teaching young people to be obedient workers in order to accept their social position and not upset the current inequality of power, income and status.

In SIMPLE terms what do marxists believe educations role is?

To reproduce existing class inequality.

What is an Ideological State Apparatus (ISA)?

A tool used by the government to control our ideas.

Why does Althusser (1971) believe education is a ISA reproducing efficient workers? (2 ways)

1. It reproduces class inequality by transmitting it from one generation to the next.

2. Education legitimises inequality by persuading workers to accept that inequality is inevitable. Also known as false consciousness.

What is false consciousness?

Proletariats failure to realise their social position.

The state we have consists of two elements…

1. The repressive state apparatus (RSA) = maintaining the rule of the rich.

2. The ideological state apparatus (ISA) = maintaining the rule through controlling people’s ideas.

What was Bowles and Gintis’ theory of schooling in capitalist America?

That the role of education is to reproduce an obedient workforce that will accept inequality as inevitable.

What was the method and results of Bowles and Gintis‘ study?

• Studied 237 New York high school students.

• They concluded schools reward submissive and compliant worker personality traits.

• Students who showed creativity and independence tended to get lower grades, whilst those who were obedient achieved high grades.

What did Bowles and Gintis conclude from their study?

That education doesn’t foster personal development and values an obedient workforce!

Define Bowles and Gintis’ Correspondence principle.

Bowles and Gintis believed that there are close parallels between schooling and work, such as: Punctuality, respect for the hierarchy, extrinsic motivation, ect. They believed that the correspondence principle operated through the hidden curriculum.

What is the hidden curriculum?

A set of unwritten rules, values and behaviours that students learn in school, often unintentionally and informally.

What is a class habitus?

Each class has its own set of ideas about what is considered ‘excellent’ books, films, activities, appropriate behaviour, values and ideas.

What is Bourdieu’s Cultural Capital idea?

The dominant social class imposing its own set of ideas on the education system, and general society. They pass these ideas onto their own children to give them an advantage in society.

According to Bourdieu, because of this cultural capital working class children tend to underachieve because they don’t posses the dominant (middle) class habitus.