skills

Skills for the workplace – Durkheim

explanation

Durkheim believed a second role of the educations system, is for schools to pass on and teach pupils crucial skills which will equip them for the workplace.

evidence

for example

• punctuality

• respect for authority

explanation

The aim has been to tailor the skills of school leavers to the needs of the economy and raise the level of expertise of the work place. Often these skills are passed on through a hidden curriculum. The skills taught in schools which reflect the workplace, adhere to the value consensus.

evaluation

• Marxist Finn would criticise Durkheim as he argued that the real function of the education system is to pass on capitalist skills which keep the social classes segregated.

• Feminist Skeggs would criticise Durkheim as she argues that education reproduces and reinforces a combination of gender and social class inequality. In her study she found that females come to see themselves both as suited to feminine caring work and as incapable of middle-class professions. This prepares them for low-paid work such as care assistants and also for unpaid women’s work in the home.