Functionalism flashcards + criticisms

Durkheim (1903) - social solidarity

• Feeling that individuals are part of a single body/community

  • Required for social life and cooperation

Durkheim (1903) - social solidarity and modern industrial societies

• Complex division of labour

• Require cooperation of many specialists

  • Promotes social solidarity

Durkheim (1903) - social solidarity and education

• Education transmits society’s culture, shared beliefs and values to create social solidarity

  • E.g. history instils sense of shared heritage and commitment to wider social group

• Also gives individuals skills and knowledge to perform specialist roles in modern industrial economies

Durkheim (1903) - school as society in miniature

• Cooperation with teachers reflects interactions in the work place

• Both school and work are dictated by a set of blanket-applying impersonal rules

Parsons (1961) - school as a “focal socialising agency”

• School bridge between family and wider society

  • School more meritocratic than families and prepares us to move into a meritocratic wider society

Parsons (1961) - why we need school as a “focal socialising agency”

• Family and society operate on different principles

  • Family: children judged by particularistic (only apply to them) standards; status is ascribed

  • School and wider society: individuals judged by universalistic impersonal standards; status is achieved

Davis and Moore (1945) - role allocation

• Education acts as a proving ground for ability

  • ‘Sifts and sorts’ us to our future work roles through assessment of our aptitudes and abilities

Davis and Moore (1945) - necessity of inequality

• Needed to ensure the most important roles are filled by the most talented people

  • Society has to offer higher rewards for the most important jobs to encourage competition

• More academically able → more/better qualifications → entry to more important and therefore highly rewarded positions

CRITICISM of Davis and Moore (1945) - role allocation:

Tumin (1953)

• Cyclical argument

  • Jobs are important because they’re highly rewarded, jobs are highly rewarded because they’re important

Blau and Duncan (1978) - human capital and productivity

• Modern economy depends on the use of human capital (workers’ skills)

  • Modern education allows for maximisation of human capital and productivity by allocating jobs by ability

CRITICISM: Wolf review of vocational education (2011) (3)

• Education doesn’t adequately teach specialised skills

• High-quality apprenticeships are rare

• Achievement is influenced by class background, not ability and is not meritocratic

% of 16-19y/os on courses that don’t lead to higher education and/or good jobs

33%

CRITICISM of Durkheim (1903) - social solidarity:

Marxist

• Education doesn’t instil the shared values of the whole society, but that of the minority ruling class

CRITICISM:

Interactionist, Wong (1961)

• Functionalist view is ‘over-socialised,’ seeing people as puppets of society

• Wrong implication that students passively accept all are taught and never reject school’s values

CRITICISM:

Neoliberalism/New Right

• State education system fails to adequately prepare young people for work

3 similarities between functionalism and the New Right

1. Some people are more naturally talented than others

• The education system should be run on meritocratic principles of open competition

2. Should serve needs of economy by preparing young people for work

3. Education should socialise young people into shared values such as competition and a sense of national identity

1 key difference between functionalism and the New Right

• Functionalists believe the current education system is achieving the goals, but the NR believe it is not because it is run by the state