Key theorists

    Cards (40)

    • Functionalism is:
      • a structural consensus theory
      • deals with the structure of society based on the idea we have a value consensus
      • see society as an organism as everything is interdependent and interconnected playing individual roles to maintain society
    • Functionalists argue education has three functions:
      1. Social solidarity (Socialisation)
      2. specialist skills
      3. role allocation
    • Functionalists believe education is good and plays a role in creating order in society and having shared and beliefs helps society work together
    • marxists believe that eduction only serves the interests of upper class minority rather than the whole of society
    • durkheim (1903) argued the two main functions of eduction are
      1. social solidarity- there are shared beliefs and values in society and education helps transmit societys culture
      2. teaching specialist skills- education teaches individuals specialist knowledge and skills to perform their role and contribute to society through the economy
    • parsons (1961) argue a persons status is achieved not ascribed. based on your own individual effort you will progress. this is called meritocracy
    • davis and moore (1945) argue that the third important function of education is role allocation. schools provide the function of assessing and selecting students, matching their skills and abilities to the correct societal role
    • ao3- Wrong (1961) argues that functionalists wrongly imply that pupils passively accept all they are taught and never reject school values
    • ao3- marxists argue that the education system transmits a ruling class ideology. Equal opportunity in education doesnt exist and achievement is based around class rather than ability. Therefore it reproduces class based inequality
    • A03- PISA (2012) produced research which suggests even if society needs eduction to provide skills to the workforce it does not always succeed in doing this. Uk is 26th out of 65 countries in maths ability among 15 year olds, 23rd for reading and 20th for science
    • compulsory education-
      • education was not available to everyone until 1880
      • education act 1870- implemented to establish school boards where schools were inadequate
      • by 1902 school boards were replaced with 300 LEA's
      • fisher act 1918- made the state responsible for secondary education
      • by 1997 education was compulsory until age 18
    • widening state education in britain:
      • education was necessary for economic success and creating a skilled workforce which allowed britain to compete with other countries
      • education plays a role in voting- the better the education the better choices for election
      • state education teaches the beliefs and values shared by society
      • education was seen as an escape from poverty, creating a fairer society and meritocracy
    • Marxism is
      • a structural conflict theory
      • deals with the structure of society based on the idea we have class divisions based on capitalist exploitation, subjugation of the wc by the ruling class
    • marxists believe the education reproduces class based inequalities by failing each generation of working class pupil, legitimising class inequalities by teaching students to accept that inequality is inevitable
    • marx-
      • capitalist societies are under the dominance of the bourgeoise, who have control over the means of production and the superstructure
      • the proletariat work for the means of production and are socialised to be oppressed in the superstructure eg education
    • Althusser (1971) The state maintains its power through RSAs and ISAs:
      • Repressive state apparatuses maintain ruling class dominance through threat or use of force eg the police
      • Ideological state apparatuses maintain ruling class dominance through controlling peoples ideas, values and beliefs eg religion, media, education
    • Bowles and Gintis (1976) concluded in their research of 237 New York High School students that the school rewards precisely the kind of personality traits that make a submissive, compliant worker. Those who showed independence gained low grades compared to those who showed obedience and discipline who received high grades. They concluded that education produces obedient workers that capitalism needs
    • Who defined the correspondence principle?
      Bowles and Gintis
    • what is the correspondence principle?
      school mirrors the workplace
    • The correspondence principles as derived from Bowles and Gintis is the idea that school mirrors the workplace (hierarchies) and competition. This means that lessons learned within school are also preparing students for the wider society and therefore they passively accept exploitation. This leads to generational class inequality
    • cohen (1984) argues that youth training schemes serve capitalism by teaching young workers not genuine job skills, but rather the attitudes and values needed in a subordinate labour force. it lowers their aspirations so they will accept low paid work. this supports the correspondence principle- a marxist idea outlined by bowles and gintis
    • Bowles and Gintis argue that the education system serves as ‘a giant-myth making machine.’ A key myth is that education promotes the idea that everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve- meritocracy. The main factor which determines whether or not someone has a high income is in fact class
    • marxist approaches are useful in exposing the myth of meritocracy (bowles and gintis). they show the role education as an ISA (Althusser), serving the interests of capitalism by reproducing and legitimising class based inequality (Marx)
    • Postmodernists criticise bowles and gintis correspondence principle because in a post-Fordist economy, schools produce a very different labour force than the one outlined by Marxists. Postmodernists argue education now reproduces diversity, not inequality
    • Marxists disagree with one another about how reproduction and legitimation of class based inequalities take place. Bowles and gintis take a deterministic view that pupils have no free will and will passively accept exploitation. This fails to explain why many pupils reject school values
    • Willis rejects Bowles and Gintis view that school brainwashes pupils into passively accepting their fate in the correspondence principle. by combining marxist and interactionist approaches, he shows how pupils reject school values and still end up in working class jobs
    • however, critics argue that willis account of the lads romanticises them, portraying them as working class heros. however, his small scale study of 12 boys in one school is unrepresentative of other pupils experience
    • critical modernists such as Morrow and Torres criticise marxists for taking a class first approach that sees class as the key inequality, ignoring other kinds
    • postmodernists like morrow and torres argue that society is diverse. they see non class inequality eg ethnicity, gender and sexuality as equally important- inequality is intersectional
    • feminists such as MacDonald (1980) argue that Bowles and gintis ignore that schools not only reproduce capitalism, but patriarchy too
    • The new right is a conservative political view that incorporates neoliberal and economic ideas. They believe the state cannot meet peoples needs and people are best left to meet their own needs through the free market. They favour the marketisation of education
    • the new right believe the role of education is to:
      1. promote social solidarity and teach specialist skills
      2. marketisation and competition to give parents a choice in their childs education
      3. LEA's are inefficient in providing this service
    • chubb and moe (1990) argue that state run education in the US has failed because:
      • it has not created equal opportunity and has failed the needs of disadvantaged groups
      • inefficient because it fails to produce pupils with the skills needed by the economy
      • private schools provide higher quality education because they are answerable to paying consumers- the parents
    • The new right argues there are two roles of the state:
      1. The state imposes a framework on schools- ofsted reports, league tables
      2. the state ensures the schools transmit a national curriculum which socialises children into a single cultural heritage
      • The New Right believe that education should affirm a national identity - British values
      • The curriculum should emphasis Britain’s positive role in world History and Literature
      • The aim should be to integrate pupils into a single set of traditions and cultural values
      • The New Right oppose a multi-cultural approach to education that reflects Britain’s diversity
    • the new right and functionalists believe that some are more talented than others and favour an education system based on meritocratic principles of open competition, ensuring it serves the needs of the economy
    • both new right and functionalists believe
      • Education should be run on meritocracy and competition
      • Education should socialise pupils into shared values, competition and instil a sense of national identity
    • Other criticisms of the new right include that the real cause of low educational standards is not state control but social inequality and inadequate funding of state schools
    • There is a contradiction between the New Right’s support for parental choice and the state imposing a national curriculum
    • Marxists argue that education imposes a culture of a dominant minority ruling class and devalues the culture of the working class and ethnic minorities- contradicting the new right view