functionalist

• Durkheim

  social solidarity 

  • achieved through education by transmitting a shared heritage (in history, PSCHE, tutorial lessons) and cultural values
  • we have to cooperate with people at school and work, interacting according to impersonal rules which apply to everyone

  specialist skills

  • division of labour in modern society
  • education provides this specialist knowledge in academic (leading to university -> white collar jobs) and vocational (leading to work -> blue collared)
  • cooperation promotes solidarity
• Parsons 

  meritocracy 

  • school acts as a bridge between the family and wider society
  • children need to learn norms and values to help them cope outside of family
  • everyone has equal opportunities meaning everyone can access white collar jobs - everyone has the same starting point
  • people are made equal by impersonal rules that put everyone in the same level

  Meritocracy - Everyone is given equal opportunity and reward based on

  achievement

  Universalistic standards - All judged by same exam criteria

  Achieved status - We pass or fail depending on our own efforts
• Davis + Moore

  inequality is necessary

  • role of education is ’sifting and sorting’ individuals by streaming pupils into jobs that are most suitable for them
  • ensures that the most talented people can occupy the most important roles
  • necessary because lower end jobs need to be occupied 
  • high salaries are attractive and cause competition meaning that the best person can occupy the role
• Blau + Duncan

  Human capital

  • determines the value of a person 
  • used in modern economy
  • meritocratic system is most efficient for this system as it makes the most out of a person’s talent, maximising productivity, by allocating that person to higher jobs 
• Evaluation

  Timan

  • circular argument:
  • how do we know a job is important? → because it's highly rewarded: why? because it's important

  Meritocracy

  • achievements = affected by class, gender and ethnicity
  • myth of meritocracy - not everyone has the same starting point which means some pupils need extra support, meritocratic systems don’t allow this
  • equity not equality
• Evaluation

  Marxists and social solidarity

  • no shared cultural values being transmitted - education transmits ruling class ideology to create obedient workers

  interactionists

  • functionalists have an 'over socialised‘ view of people as puppets and is challenged for being oversimplified