the role of education

• Functionalists value education in the respect that it provides necessary functions for the rest of society. Similarly, the New Right determine in order to fulfil such functions, schools should be centred around the consumer and their choices. However, Marxists criticise both Functionalists and the New Right in arguing the education system merely serves the needs of capitalism, by ensuring the failure of working-class pupils. Feminists also reject the education system for producing gender inequalities.
• Who is the sociologist associated with the concept of functionalism in education?

  Durkheim
• What are the two main functions of education identified by Durkheim?

  Social solidarity and specialist skills
• How does the education system create social solidarity according to Durkheim?

  By transmitting society's culture from one generation to the next
• What does Durkheim mean by schools acting as a ‘society in miniature’?

  They prepare us for life in wider society
• What does Parsons argue about the nature of schools?

  Schools are meritocratic
• What does meritocracy mean in the context of Parsons' argument?

  All pupils have an equal chance to succeed through talent and abilities
• How does Parsons view the role of schools in socialization?

  As a bridge between the family and wider society
• Who are the sociologists that believe schools select and allocate pupils to future work roles?

  Davis and Moore
• What function do Davis and Moore attribute to schools regarding pupils' future work roles?

  They assess individuals' aptitudes and abilities
• How do schools help match pupils to jobs according to Davis and Moore?

  By helping to match them to the job they are best suited to
• What are the two main functions of the education system according to Althusser?

  Reproduction and legitimation
• How does the education system reproduce class inequality according to Althusser?

  The education system fails each generation of working-class pupils
• How does the education system try to legitimize inequality according to Althusser?

  The education system convinces people that inequality is inevitable and failure is the fault of the individual, not the capitalist system
• According to Bowles and Gintis, what is the purpose of schools?

  Schools create the new generations of workers to serve the capitalist system
• What is the "hidden curriculum" in schools according to Bowles and Gintis?

  Lessons that are 'learned' but not taught, which are used to serve the capitalist system (e.g. pupils accept hierarchy, competition, alienation)
• How does the functionalist idea of meritocracy differ from the Marxist perspective according to the material?

  The functionalist idea of meritocracy is a myth; success is based on class background, not ability or educational achievement
• How did working-class male pupils resist the ruling class ideology in schools according to Willis?

  They formed a distinct counterculture that flouted school rules
• FEMINISM

  LIBERAL FEMINISM

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  There has been a steady improvement in girls experience of school and girls achievement.

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  RADICAL FEMINISM

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  Radical feminists believe that one of the primary roles of education is to maintain gender inequality. 

  Gendered Language - school teachers and textbooks use gendered language 

  Gendered roles - textbooks present traditional gendered roles (for example, women as housewives)

  Gendered stereotypes - textbooks and teachers tend to stereotypes males and females (for example, girls are presented as more caring)
• the new right

  The new right believe schools should be centred around competition and choice, this is mainly done through marketisation. By creating an ‘education market’, schools are forced to respond to the needs of teachers, parents and pupils.

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  CHUBB AND MOE

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  ​State education has failed to create equal opportunity because it does not have to respond to pupil’s needs.

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  Parents and communities cannot do anything about failing schools when the schools are controlled by the state.

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  Private schools deliver higher quality education because they are answerable to paying consumers (parents).