Social democratic perspectives on education
Functionalism and Marxism are quite extreme views of education, but many sociologists and educationalists take a more moderate view. They argue that education does need to be changed to improve, but that this does not require a revolutionary change in society. However, they disagree over the direction of change.
Social democratic perspectives are associated with educationalists and politicians who would like to see greater equality resulting from the education system.An example of this is the British Labour governments of the 1960s and 1970s, who introduced and expanded comprehensive schools (see Chapter 6).Social democratic perspectives continue to influence those educationalists, sociologists and politicians who stress that schools must give extra help to those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Supporters of social democratic perspectives believe that in addition to promoting economic growth, education is essential to promoting equality of opportunity in a meritocracy. However, they believe that education is not automatically meritocratic and that governments need to intervene to ensure that people from all social classes have the same chance to fulfil their potential in the education system. To achieve this, the government may need to make some changes in society as well as in the education system. From this viewpoint, a society that has too much inequality can never provide equal opportunities - the richest will always use their wealth to gain advantage (for example, by buying private education). To some extent however, this can be counteracted. By taxing the wealthy more and spending the revenue on state education, it is possible to give those from working-class backgrounds a good chance to succeed.
They believe this can be achieved, for example, by expanding higher education to make more places available for working-class pupils, by introducing comprehensive schools (so middle-class pupils can't gain an advantage by going to selective state schools), and by providing extra educational help for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Social democrats such as Halsey and Floud were very influential in the 1960s and 1970s when Labour governments followed some of these policies, but they have also continued to have some influence on Labour governments and the Coalition government since then.
Critics have argued that social democratic policies have not been particularly successful in helping the working class to do better in education. Despite the introduction of many new policies to achieve this, the gap in attainment between classes remains large (see Chapter 2).
Wolf (2002) questions whether more and more government spending on education will automatically lead to economic growth. For example, Switzerland has relatively low education spending but high economic growth.
The strongest critics of social democratic viewpoints have probably been neoliberals. According to many neoliberals, greater equality in education can lead to standards being undermined; education becomes levelled down, and the most able students (for example, in mixed-ability classes that progress at the pace of the slowest learners) are not given the chance to reach their full potential.
Social democratic views are also criticised by some feminists, who believe they concentrate too much on class inequalities and not enough on gender inequalities.
Social democratic approach
Social democratic perspectives on education
Functionalism and Marxism are quite extreme views of education, but many sociologists and educationalists take a more moderate view. They argue that education does need to be changed to improve, but that this does not require a revolutionary change in society. However, they disagree over the direction of change.
Social democratic perspectives are associated with educationalists and politicians who would like to see greater equality resulting from the education system.An example of this is the British Labour governments of the 1960s and 1970s, who introduced and expanded comprehensive schools (see Chapter 6).Social democratic perspectives continue to influence those educationalists, sociologists and politicians who stress that schools must give extra help to those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Supporters of social democratic perspectives believe that in addition to promoting economic growth, education is essential to promoting equality of opportunity in a meritocracy. However, they believe that education is not automatically meritocratic and that governments need to intervene to ensure that people from all social classes have the same chance to fulfil their potential in the education system. To achieve this, the government may need to make some changes in society as well as in the education system. From this viewpoint, a society that has too much inequality can never provide equal opportunities - the richest will always use their wealth to gain advantage (for example, by buying private education). To some extent however, this can be counteracted. By taxing the wealthy more and spending the revenue on state education, it is possible to give those from working-class backgrounds a good chance to succeed.
They believe this can be achieved, for example, by expanding higher education to make more places available for working-class pupils, by introducing comprehensive schools (so middle-class pupils can't gain an advantage by going to selective state schools), and by providing extra educational help for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Social democrats such as Halsey and Floud were very influential in the 1960s and 1970s when Labour governments followed some of these policies, but they have also continued to have some influence on Labour governments and the Coalition government since then.
Critics have argued that social democratic policies have not been particularly successful in helping the working class to do better in education. Despite the introduction of many new policies to achieve this, the gap in attainment between classes remains large (see Chapter 2).
Wolf (2002) questions whether more and more government spending on education will automatically lead to economic growth. For example, Switzerland has relatively low education spending but high economic growth.
The strongest critics of social democratic viewpoints have probably been neoliberals. According to many neoliberals, greater equality in education can lead to standards being undermined; education becomes levelled down, and the most able students (for example, in mixed-ability classes that progress at the pace of the slowest learners) are not given the chance to reach their full potential.
Social democratic views are also criticised by some feminists, who believe they concentrate too much on class inequalities and not enough on gender inequalities.