Education

• The role and purpose of the education system according to Functionalism

  • Education promotes social solidarity by sharing norms and values
  • The whole is more important than the individual
  • History teaches shared values and interests
  • School is a mini society where children learn to fit in
  • Rules, hierarchies, exams, assemblies help in this process
  • School rules and punishments reflect crime and justice
  • Education teaches specialized skills for jobs
  • Schools support the smooth running of society
• Keywords related to Functionalism in education

  • Value consensus
  • Specialized labor
  • Society in miniature
  • Homogeneity
  • Whole more important than individual
• The stratification/class system prevents equality in education
• IQ and ability are not linked with achievement; money and power play a role
• Althusser views schools as replacing the church as the main agent of ideological control
• Marxist perspective on education

  • Schools replaced church as the main agent of ideological control
  • Prepares individuals for their roles in the workplace
  • School is seen as an agent of exploitation and oppression
• Bowles & Gintis (1976) discuss the Correspondence Theory in schooling in capitalist USA
• Davis and Moore (1967) mention sifting, sorting, and grading in schools
• Social class prevents the education system from sifting and grading according to ability
• Resistance to authority is present in education due to the illusion of equality of opportunity
• Schools teach students to be hardworking and obedient to not challenge authority in the workplace
• There is a myth of meritocracy in education based on social background rather than ability
• Most people are aware of the inequality in education and do not believe society is fair
• Students who conform receive higher rewards than those who are creative and independent
• Willis-Criticisms
• Blackedge & Hunt


  1984
• Sample is too small - Willis
• Postmodernists believe in changing job market, decline in manufacturing and traditional w/c manual work
• Small scale study unrepresentative, cannot generalise
• Since 1977 there are few jobs in manual work, therefore many such ‘lads’ stay on longer
• Willis ignores other cultures within the school
• Working class kids get w/c jobs
• Dealing with boredom, monotony and authority = same as the workplace
• Counter school culture / Anti school subculture
• ‘Lads’ and ‘earoles’ (Boffins)
• Paul Willis: 'Learning to Labour'
• Rejection of school prepares the ‘lads’ for rejection in their low status jobs
• Differs to Bowles and Gintis’ study in the way that the lads made a conscious decision to mess around (not subservient to school)
• New Right agree with functionalists- Education should socialise pupils into shared values and provide a sense of national identity
• Bourdieu 1977: 'Cultural Reproduction'
• Cultural Capital


  Refers to the knowledge, skills, education, and similar characteristics that are used to make social distinctions and that are associated with differences in social status
• Reproduction takes place via the socialisation of the young. In effect MC kids grow up to have MC jobs.. Who have more kids who grow up to be MC ... etc
• Chubb and Moe believe state education has failed lower class and EM groups- it is inefficient and fails to meet the needs of the economy. Private schools deliver better education because the parents and students are consumers. Need to introduce Marketisation. Tests, exams and league tables will improve competition. Has influenced both conservative and New labour education policy
• Gerwitz and Ball believe competition between schools benefits m/c who can use their cultural capital
• Feminism believes school and education reproduces patriarchy
• Haywood and Mac an Ghaill 1996: 'Schools reinforce gender identities- tell boys off for being girls and ignore boys verbal abuse of girls'
• Connell 1995: 'School reinforces ‘hegemonic masculinity’'
• Stanworth: 'Gender and subject choice'
• Spender: 'Invisible women'
• Boys are pushed into Science, Maths, Business and ICT while girls are pushed into English, Arts, Social Sciences, Design. Teachers take more interest in male achievement and are more attached to boys, pushing girls into lower status jobs