Education - GCSE Sociology AQA

• Functionalist perspective


  Views the education system as performing a range of key roles for society that are beneficial and necessary for a society to perform effectively
• Emile Durkheim


  • Founder of functionalist sociology
  • Saw the main function of education as the transmission of society's norms and values to individuals
  • Argued that schools prepare us for the wider society where we have to cooperate with people who are neither family nor friends
  • Believed that one function of an education system was to provide specialist skills needed for cooperation in complex industrial societies
• Durkheim believed that punishments should reflect the seriousness of the damage done to the wider social group or society
• Durkheim's ideas about the importance of history in creating social solidarity


  Learning the history of a country could have the opposite effect
• Criticisms of Durkheim


  • Assumes there is a shared culture that can be transmitted through education and the hidden curriculum, which may not be the case in a multicultural society
  • The education system may not adequately teach specialised skills useful in the workplace
  • The culture being transmitted may benefit the ruling class and not society as a whole
  • The culture being transmitted is patriarchal or male dominated
  • Assumes students will come to accept the values of society that are being taught, which may not be the case for all students
• Talcott Parsons


  • Argued that schools prepare children for entry into the wider society by treating everyone according to the same universalistic standards, unlike the particularistic standards of the family
  • Believed that schools promote the importance of achievement and the value of equality of opportunity
  • Saw the education system as a meritocracy where status is based on merit alone
  • Argued that the education system is an effective device for sorting people out so that they are matched to the correct job for their abilities
• Criticisms of Parsons


  • Does not fully consider whose values are being transmitted via the education system
  • Questioned the idea that the education system is meritocratic
  • Role allocation has been criticised as those with the best qualifications don't always get the top jobs
• Marxist view of education

  • See it as a form of social control that creates obedient and passive workers for the capitalist economy, teaching ruling-class values rather than shared values
  • Argue that education reproduces the existing social class structure by ensuring working-class students are less likely to achieve good qualifications
• Bowles and Gintis


  • See the key role of the education system as creating and reproducing a workforce with the correct characteristics to meet the needs of the capitalist economy, such as being hard working, disciplined, submissive, and obedient
  • Argue that there is a close link, or correspondence, between the relationships and interactions expected and valued in schools and those expected and valued in the workplace
  • Reject the idea that the education system is meritocratic, arguing that social class background, not intelligence or achievement, is the main factor affecting income
• Bowles and Gintis are accused of taking a deterministic view, assuming students have no free will and passively accept the values taught via the hidden curriculum
• Modern economies and businesses can be seen as requiring a different kind of workforce to the one Bowles and Gintis describe, with a need for creative and independent workers capable of taking on responsibility and developing new ideas
• The Butler Education Act was introduced in Britain


  1944
• Aims of the 1944 Butler Education Act


  • To give all students an equal chance to develop their talents and abilities in a system of free, state-run education
  • To introduce a meritocratic system where children would receive an education based on their ability and not their social class
• The 1944 Act introduced a tripartite system of secondary education with grammar schools, secondary modern schools, and technical schools
• The 1944 Act also introduced free secondary education for all children up to the age of 15
• Comprehensive system of secondary education introduced in Britain

  1965
• Comprehensive system


  • Aimed to provide a common curriculum and equal opportunities for all children, regardless of their ability or social background
  • Abolished the tripartite system and the 11+ exam that determined which type of secondary school a child would attend
• The comprehensive system was introduced to address concerns about the 11+ exam and the tripartite system reinforcing social class divisions
• The Education Reform Act was introduced in Britain


  1988
• Education Reform Act


  • Introduced a National Curriculum with compulsory core and foundation subjects
  • Introduced national testing at ages 7, 11, 14 and 16
  • Gave parents more choice over which school their child attended
• The Education Reform Act aimed to raise standards and improve accountability in the education system
• Correspondence principle


  Marxists such as Bowles and Gintis identify how the hidden curriculum prepares students for entry into the workforce with the correct values
• Meritocracy


  Can be seen as a myth
• The 1944 Education Act aimed to give all students an equal chance to develop their talents and abilities in a system of free, state-run education
• Tripartite system


  Children's ability was tested at the age of 11 years by the 11-plus exam. Based on the results, children went to one of three types of school: secondary modern, secondary technical, or grammar
• The 11-plus exam still exists in some areas of the country where grammar schools still exist, and much of the private sector uses entry tests
• In 1965, the then Labour government asked Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to reorganise secondary education so that all students, regardless of academic ability, attended the same type of school - a 'comprehensive' school
• Comprehensive schools


  • Social reasons: break down social barriers
  • Educational reasons: cater for children of all abilities, no entrance exam or selection
  • Geographical reasons: each school has a specific catchment area
• Comprehensives are not really of mixed social class, as they are based on a local neighbourhood - for example, inner-city comprehensives are usually working class and suburban ones are usually middle class
• Some argue that most comprehensives are not really comprehensive at all because, for instance, they stream or band students within the school according to ability
• Pre-school education refers to the care and education of children under the age of 5 years, and may take the form of day nurseries, playgroups, or nursery education
• Primary education refers to infant and junior schools, which are usually co-educational and take students from age 5 to 11 years
• Secondary education refers to schools that take students from the ages of 11 to 16 years, although many may also provide sixth form education up to the age of 18
• Further and higher education refers to education outside schools, beyond the compulsory age of 16 years
• The independent sector refers to schools that charge fees, including private schools and public schools
• Around 7 per cent of all schoolchildren attend independent schools
• Ex-independent school pupils made up around 40 per cent of accepted places at Oxford University in 2016, even though only around 7 per cent of all children are educated at independent schools
• Advantages of independent schools

  • Lower teacher-student ratio, better resources and facilities, academic culture, highly motivated students, parental input, boarding school benefits
• Advantages of state schools

  • Free, more socially mixed, route of upward social mobility, local provision
• 61 per cent of top doctors were educated at independent schools with only 16 per cent educated at comprehensives