Functionalism

• Functionalism social solidarity

  Durkheim

  the idea of a society where everyone shares norms and values - this can be done through education with history and learning a common language
• Functionalism value consensus

  Parsons

  there is a shared agreement on the values of society - 'value of achievement' and ' 'equality of opportunity'
• Functionalism organic analogy

  Parsons

  society is like the human body, both have proper parts that achieve an overarching goal
• Functionalism universalistic and particularistic judgement

  Parsons

  Universalistic- pupils are judged against their peer group

  particularistic- family judgement is biased towards their children
• Functionalism role allocation

  Davis and Moore

  education sift and sorts children to their future work, the functionally most important jobs supposedly go to the most intelligent pupils
• Functionalism criticism of role allocation

  Tumin

  argues what makes one job more functional than another and question if we need high levels of inequality to achieve this
• Criticism of functionalism

  • seen as dated and not as widely accepted
  • marxists argue that school is not meritocratic
  • feminists argue the institution of school is patriarchal and not as equal as functionalists believe
  • too deterministic and believe students are passive
• New vocationalism

  stress importance of vocational education- work related education that transfers job specific skills
• New vocationalism

  Cohen

  argues this education serves capitalism by teaching workers not genuine job skills, but the attitude and values needed for a subordinate workforce
• New vocationalism

  Carole Buswell

  found the YTS scheme channelled girls into traditional low paid 'womens' employment such as retail work
• Criticisms of functionalism/New vocationalism

  • the norms and values transmitted is not of society as a whole but the values of the middle class
  • it is doubted that all pupils internalise the same norms and values