the role and functions of the education system ao2

ao2 to know

social solidarity (DURKHEIM)

• society needs a sense of social solidarity - individuals must feel apart of a single community

• education transmits beliefs and values from one generation to the next e.g shared heritage in history

• school acts as society in miniature, we have to interact with people like we would do in the world of work

• school also teaches specialised skills such as numeracy and literacy

meritocracy talcott parsons 1961

• school acts as a bridge between wider society and the family, as children need to learn a new way of behaving

• family = particularistic meaning your status is ascribed to you

• school = universalistic meaning your status is achieved

• by passing and failing school it prepares us for wider society as due to meritocratic principles everyone is given equal oppintuties

davis and Moore role allocation 1945

• school uses inequality to best match students to the job they are best suited to by assessing their abilities

• ‘sifts and sorts’

• social inequality is necessary as the primary roles must be filled by the most talented

Loui Althusser the main role of education is the reproductive ion of an efficient and obedient workforce 1971

• the bourgeoises ideology is pumped into you through school

• keeps you in a state of false consciousness through the ideological state appiratius → the reproduction of the ruling class ideology prevents an uprising and from them rebelling

Bowles and Gintis 1976

• school casts a long shadow of work

• hidden circuclum is the corrspondce between this

• justific action of inequality

• no equal opportunity → meritocracy is a myth

Paul willis 1981 how working class kids get working class jobs

• viewed a school in Birmingham of wc Boys and monitered their behaviour

• anti school subculture

• school went working effectively in socialisation their was no value consensus and instead there was a rejection to the norms and values

• actively chose to fail (exactly what capitalism needs) wasn’t a meritocracy instead their was class inequality

Ivan Illich schools are repressive intitutions which promote conformity 1995

• passive exceptance is promoted whilst critical, thinking is looked down upon

• schools reward those who accept the regemine with good jobs ]

• abolish schooling → deschooling

Friere 1996

• schools are repressive and teach students to obey and defer to teachers

• hegemony is created (the dominance and acceptance of society of the ruling class set of ideas