key theories

• Durkheim (Functionalist)


  The two main functions of education are SOCIAL SOLIDARITY and SPECIALIST SKILLS.
• Parsons (Functionalist)


  School is a FOCAL SOCIALISING AGENCY, a BRIDGE between family life and work life. The school is MERITOCRATIC. Children in the family are judged by PARTICULARISTIC VALUES but children in education are judged by UNIVERSALISTIC VALUES.
• Davis and Moore (Functionalist)

  Education is a device for ROLE ALLOCATION. Inequality is necessary to ensure the most important roles are for the most talented.
• Blau and Duncan (Functionalist)


  MODERN ECONOMY depends on HUMAN CAPITAL for it's success.
• Tumin (Criticism of David and Moore)


  CIRCULAR ARGUMENT: how do we know a job is important? Because it is highly rewarded. Why is it highly rewarded? Because it is important!
• Functionalist View


  VALUE CONSENSUS: everyone is society shares the same values, ideas and attitudes.
• Marxist Criticism of Functionalist View

  Education is in the capitalist society that only transmits the ideas of the minority: the ruling class (bourgeoise/cultural capital)
• Wrong (Interpretivist Criticism of Functionalist)

  Functionalists have an 'OVER-SOCIALISED' view of people as puppets in society. They imply that all students are passive and never reject school values.
• Chubb and Moe (Neoliberals/The New Right Criticism of Functionalist)


  Argues that the STATE education system fails to prepare children adequately for work. Argue that private schools deliver higher quality education as they are answerable to paying consumers (the parents)
• Althusser (Marxist Perspective)


  The REPRESSIVE STATE APPARATUS maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by force, including the police, army and courts to repress the working class. The IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUS maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling people's beliefs, values and ideas, including the media, religion and the EDUCATION SYSTEM. Education as an ISA REPRODUCES and LEGITIMATES class inequality.
• Bowles and Gintis (Marxists) Study:


  Studied 237 New York high school students and concluded that the schools rewarded precisely the personality traits that make for a submissive worker. Education stunts students' development, creating a capitalist work force.
• Bowles and Gintis (Marxists)


  CORRESPONDENCE PRINCIPLE and the HIDDEN CURRICULUM. The MYTH OF MERITOCRACY is their view that the education system is not in fact meritocratic.
• Willis (Marxist - 'Learning To Labour')


  Studied 12 working class 'lads' from an anti-school subculture who mocked the 'ear'oles' and girls who were conformist. Their resistance to following school values helped them get into to the 'inferior' jobs that a capitalist society requires: manual labour.
• Postmodernist/Morrow and Torres Criticism of Marxists (Bowles and Gintis' Correspondence Principle)

  Education reproduces diversity, not inequality. Bowles and Gintis ignore all other forms of inequality, it is not just class.
• Criticisms of Willis (general and Feminist)


  His portrayal romanticises them as working class heroes, despite their anti-social behaviour. A study of 12 is likely to be unrepresentative. Feminists such as McRobbie argue that his study females are largely absent from his study.
• Bernstein


  RESTRICTED SPEECH CODE working class and the ELABORATED SPEECH CODE middle class
• Douglas


  Working class parents placed less value on education, so children has lower levels of achievement.
• Bernstein and Young


  Found that middle class mothers were more likely to buy educational toys, books and activities.