Paper 1 (education with T&M)

• Functionalism view on education: Education plays a part in secondary socialisation, where children learn the norms and values of society ( passing on core value) and that the education sys sifts and sort people for the appropriate jobs (allocation function) and that education teaches the skills needed in work and by the economy.
• Durkheim said that education passes on norms and values in order to integrate individuals into society.
• Parsons described school as an bridge between family and adult roles of society. Schools pass on a universal value of achievement. Parson says that education selects children into appropriate roles because it’s meritocracy.

  parsons agrees with Durkheim that education helps to make people agree about norms and value.
• Davis and moore- the education system sorts its memberso into different positions called “principles of stratification”, they believe that there has to be a system of unequal rewards to motivation people to train for the top position.
• The functionalist perspective says that education is meritocratic. Talent+Motivation+Equal opportunity = qualification and high position in societ.
• Criticism of functionalist: Differential achievement in terms of class, gender and ethnicity suggests that education is not meritocratic.
• Criticism of functionalism: it can be argued that the education system doesn’t prepare people adequately for work e.g. the lack of engineering graduates indicates education is failing to produce what employers and the economy needs.
• Criticism of functionalism: is that it doesn’t look at how education may serve the interests of particular groups in terms of ideology and value. It does not explain conflic.
• Marxist says education legitimises inequality through ideology
• Bowles and Gintis (1976) say that there's a correspondence between pupil experiences of school and adult work. Pupils are prepared for the world of work by the school system:

  Pupils are taught to accept the hierarchy at school. Work also has a hierarchy.

  • Pupils are motivated by grades to do boring work. Workers are rewarded with pay to do boring work
  • The school day is broken into small units. So is the work day.
  • At school and work subservience (following the rules) is rewarded.
• 1. Bowles and Gintis say that the 'hidden curriculum' also prepares people for work.
• 1. Marxists claim that, as well as these skills and values, education also passes on captalist ideology. Allhuse,a neo-Marxist, sees education as part of the "ideological state apparatus : in other words, its a tool of capitalism which is used to pass on the belief that society is fair, even though it isn't - it legitimises inequality. Alhase. thinks education produces a docile and obedient workforce who will not challenge authority.
• Willis (1977) says that education doesn't turn out an obedient workforce. Some kids form an anti-school subculture and cope with school and then adult work by mucking about.
• Bourdieu used the concept of cultural capital (language, skills, knowledge and attitudes) to explain how middle-class children generally go on to fill the top jobs in society.
• 1. Marxists say that education legitimises this inequality through meritocracy. They claim that meritocracy is a myth, so working-class pupils are blamed for their poor results, when in fact they're a result of their social class.
• Criticisms of Marxism: Marxism assumes people are passive victims.

  It exaggerates how much working-class students are socialised into obedience. Willis showed how students actually resist authority.
• Criticism of Marxis view on education: ost people are aware of the inequality in education, and don’t think that this inequality is legitimate.
• Parsons said that schools prepare young people for adulthood. In his theory, he argued that schools give us the skills and knowledge we need to become productive members of society. This means that we can contribute to the economy and support ourselves financially.
• Durkheim believed that schools were needed to create a sense of solidarity between individuals. He thought that if there was no shared culture or common identity, society would break down.
• Functionalists believe that schools teach us the norms and values we need to be good citizens. Schools teach us respect for others, tolerance, loyalty and patriotism. These values are important because they keep society stable.
• Feminist say that the education system is patriarchal
• Someone feminist argue that the hidden curriculum unofficially reinforces gender difference
• Girls are now outperform boys at school and are more likely to go to university. But boys still demand more attention from the teachers.
• The hidden curriculum teaches girls to be passive and submissive while teaching boys to be active and dominant. Girls are taught to be obedient and quiet while boys are encouraged to speak up and take charge.
• Marxists argue that the education system reproduces inequality by preparing some pupils for higher status jobs and not others. They also argue that the education system socialises pupils into accepting their place in society. For example, it might encourage poorer pupils to accept low paid work as a natural part of life.
• Bourdieu argues that the middle class have cultural capital which gives them an advantage over working-class students. Cultural capital includes things like being able to read well, having a wide vocabulary and knowing how to behave in formal situations. The middle classes tend to have these qualities so they do better at school than working-class children who don't have this kind of cultural capital.
• Boys are often given physical activities like sports which encourages them to be physically strong and aggressive. This can lead to bullying behaviour as well as violence outside of school.
• Girls are often given domestic tasks such as cleaning and cooking. They may also be expected to look after younger children. This can reinforce traditional gender roles and limit their opportunities later on in life.
• men seem to dominate the top positons in school (head teachers, deputy head)
• women are more likely to teach primary age children
• the majority of teachers are women
• Teachers are mostly female because it was traditionally seen as a woman’s job. Women were encouraged into teaching by society and schools themselves. Teaching was not considered prestigious enough for men to want to enter the profession. However, there has been some change in recent years with more men entering the profession but still only around 30% of all teachers are male.
• Liberal feminist want equal access to education for both sexes
• Radical feminist believe men are bad influence and want female-centred education for girls
• Marxist feminist want to consider gender inequalities of class and ethnicity
• The new right believes that education should provide individual choice
• New right theorists believe in the power of individual choice and prefer this to the state intervening in peoples life. They claim that the role of a school should be more like the role of a business. They claim that this force of businesses to continually improve their standards
• state schools are run by the stat, so they don’t have to compété for their consumers (pupil, parents and employers). New right theorists say that this has caused poor standards. They want to accelerate the creation of an ”education market“, where a schools role is to provide what it’s community wants and needs.
• The social construction of the new: The GMG (Glasgow media Group) has shown that the selection and presentation of the new media is not a natural process but is influenced by social, political and practical factors
• the new media can shape our views on society and culture as well as reflect them