Function and role of education

• Functionalist perspective on education: society is system of interdependent parts held together by shared cultures or a value consensus.

  • solidarity and skills.
  • social solidarity.
  • specialist skills.
• Social solidarity DÜRKHEIM- individuals are part of a single body and without this individuals would pursue selfish desires. Education system transmits society’s culture.
• Specialist skills: a person must have necessary speacialist knowledge and skills to perform their role. Education teachers individuals specialist skills for their part in social division of labour.
• PARSONS meritocracy: school is focal socialising agency, bridge between family and wider society. School and wider society asses and judges us against the same universal standards. Same laws apply, equal.

  a persons success is achieved and not ascribed. Equal opportunities.
• Davis and Moore: role allocation.

  schools perform the function of selecting and allocating pupils to future work roles that they are best suited to.
• Davi’s and Moore- education as a device for selection and role allocation, focus on relationship between education and social inequality.
• Investigating meritocracy in schools:

  • teachers may feel unable to reveal anything about the school if it contradicts its meritocratic image.
  • headteachers unlikely to welcome research that undermines the image of offering equal opportunities.
  • education system provides lots of info on about exams, ethnicity, gender, highly relevant to the study of meritocracy.
• Davis and Moore argue inequality is necessary to ensure most important roles in society are filled by most talented people.
• Blau and Duncan- modern economy depends on its prosperity on using its human capital (worker skills) meritocratic education does its best to allocate each person best suited to their jobs.
• Evaluation of functionalist perspective:

  • WOLF- vocational education claims that high quality apprenticeship are rare and third of 16-19 year olds are on courses that do not lead to higher education.
  • evidence of inequality in education through backgrounds.
  • TUMIN- criticises Davi’s and Moore for putting a circular argument.
  • marxists argue that education in capitalist society transmits ideology Of ruling class.
  • WRONG- argues functionalist have an over socialised view and people are puppets. Wrongly implies pupils accept rules and don’t reject school values.
• Neoliberalism- a political and economic ideology that advocates for the free market and minimal government intervention. State shouldn’t provide education. Competition should be encouraged.
• The new right- belief that state cannot meet people's need and that people are best left to meet their own needs through a free market.
• SIMILARITIES BETWEEN FUNCTIONALISTS AND NEW RIGHT VIEWS:

  • both believe that some people are naturally more talented.
  • both favour an education system run on meritocratic principles of open competition.
  • education should socialise pupils into shared values such as competition and instil sense of national identity.
• new right- current education system doesn't believe that current education system is achieving these goals. While functionalists do.
• NEW RIGHT'S SOLUTION TO PROBLEMS: marketisation of schools- education market- competition between schools and empowering consumers for greater diversity- more ability to meet needs of people.
• CHUBB AND MOE: consumer choice.

  state run education has failed because:

  • no equal opportunities created and failed disadvantaged groups.
  • inefficient- fails to produce pupils with skills needed by economy.
  • private schools deliver better education due to being liable to paying consumers- parents.
• chubb and moe: call for the introduction of a market system in state education that would put the control in the hands of consumers. This would allow consumers to shape schools to meet their own needs.
• Chubb and Moe: introduce system of in which family would be given a voucher to spend on buying education from a school of their choice. Forces schools to become more responsive to parents wishes since vouchers would be the main source of income.

  EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS WOULD BE IMPROVED IF THE SAME MARKET FORCES INTO THE STATE SECTOR.
• TWO ROLES FOR THE STATE: by new right.

  • impose framework which they have to compete for. EG OFSTED REPORTS.
  • STATE ENSURES THAT SCHOOLS transmit shared culture, single national curriculum it seeks to guarantee that schools socialise pupils into a single heritage.
• NEW RIGHT: believe education should affirm the national identity by the curriculum instilling Britain's positive role in world history. Eg, christian act of worship in schools each day because it's Britain's main religion.
• EVALUATION OF NEW RIGHT PERSPECTIVE:

  • GEWIRTZ AND BALL- argue competition between schools benefits MC to gain access to more desirable schools with their capitals.
  • critics- real cause of low educational standards is not state control but social inequality and inadequate funding.
  • contradiction between parental choice and imposing compulsory national curriculum on all its schools on the other.
  • MARXISTS argue education doesn't impose shared national culture, but imposes culture of dominant minority ruling class and devalues WC and ethnic minorities.
• MARXIST PERSPECTIVE:

  capital class: minority class, employers who own the means of production and make profit by exploiting the labour force.

  WORKING CLASS: forced to sell their labour power to capitalists since they own no means of production. Work under capitalism is poorly paid, no control.
• MARXISTS: class conflicts. Education prevents revolution and maintain capitalism.
• ALTHUSSER: ideological state apparatus.

  THE REPRESSIVE STATE APPARATUSES (rsas) maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by force/ threat. Physical force is used to repress working class.

  THE IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUSES |(ISAS) maitain rule of bourgeoisie by controlling people's beliefs and values by using religion and media.
• Althusser: 2 roles of education.

  • EDUCATION REPRODUCES CLASS INEQUALITY BY TRANSMITTING IT from generation to generation by failing generation of WC.
  • Education legitimates class inequality by producing ideologies that disguise its true cause. Ideology persuades workers to accept that inequality is inevitable. Less likely to challenge capitalism.
• BOWLES AND GINTIS: schooling in capitalist America:

  capitalism requires a workforce with the kind if attitudes and behaviour suited to their role and exploited workers for hard work and low pay.
• investigating the reproduction of class inequality:

  • schools do not track and record careers of ex pupils so no ready made data.
  • contacting former pupils may be difficult because addresses the school hold may be invalid and researchers may not get this from the school.
  • schools may be defensive about futures of pupils of fear of being seen as having failed them.
• Bowles and Gintis: schools reward precisely the kind of personality traits that make for a submissive compliant worker. Schools help to produce the obedient workers that capitalism needs.
• The correspondence principle and the hidden curriculum: (PARALLELS BETWEEN SCHOOL AND WORKPLACES)

  • school and workplaces are hierarchies.
  • operates through the hidden curriculum- lessons that are learnt in school without being directly taught. Through everyday workings of the school- accustomed to accepting hierarchy and competition.
• COHEN- argues that youth training schemes serve capitalism by teaching young workers not genuine job skills but attitudes and values needed in subordinate labour force.
• The myth of meritocracy: the legitimation of class inequality.

  • fear of poor realising their inequality- education prevents this from happening by legitimating class inequalities. Produces ideologies that justify inequality.
  • Bowles and Gintis argue that meritocracy doesn't exist. Main factor for high income is class and not hard work.
  • myth of meritocracy serves to justify the privileges of the higher classes making it seem that they gained them through open competition.
• Willis: learning to labour.

  Bowles and Gintis see education as a straightforward process of indoctrination into the myth of meritocracy. WILLIS- WC pupils can resist such attempts to indoctrinate them.
• LADS counter culture: studied 12 working class boys from transition of school to work. Form a distinct counter culture opposed to school. ( ear'oles and taking piss out of girls) Lads drink, smoke, disrupt classes which were ways to resist the school. Their attitudes matched MALE MANUAL WORKERS.
• LADS COUNTER CULTURE of resistance to schools help them to slot into the very jobs inferior in terms of skill, pay and conditions. Capitalism needs someone to perform:

  • accustomed to boredom and to finding ways to amuse themselves, don't expect satisfaction from work.
  • acts of rebellion guarantee that they will end up in unskilled jobs by ensuring failure to ain worthwhile qualifications.
• EVALUATION OF MARXIST APPROACHES:

  • useful in exposing the myth of meritocracy, education system plays as an ideological state apparatus serving interests of capitalism.
  • marxists disagree with one another about how reproduction and legitimation take place. Bowles and gintis take a deterministic view. Believe pupils have no free will and can't resist school.
  • TORRES AND MORROW- marxists take a class first approach and sees class as key inequality. Society is more diverse, non class inequalities are important.
• Feminists: MACDONALD.

  ARGUES BOWLES AND gintis ignore that schools not only produce inequality but patriarchy too.
• MCROBBIE- points out females were excluded from willis's study.