Education

• Functionalist view on society

  - Society based on shared values, a consensus approach ( an agreement between members of society about which values are important

  - Positive view on education
• Marxist view on society


  - Society based on conflict not consensus and divided into upper (bourgeoisie who own the means of production and make money through exploiting labour of majority ) and lower class (proletariat who are forced to sell their labour power to the capitalists since they own and so have no source of income so work under capitalism where they have no real control

  - Creates class conflict as if workers realise they are being exploited they will demand for higher wages and abolishment of capitalism and overtime the lower class will overthrow the upper class and create a classless equal society

  - Upper class control the state like education system and Marxists see education as functioning fr

  - Negative role education
• Feminist view on society


  - Society reinforced patriarchy like schools
• 4 functionalist view of role of education

  - Social solidarity

  - Specialist skills

  - Meritocracy

  - Role allocation
• What sociologist viewed created social solidarity


  Durkheim
• Creating social solidarity and example

  - Durkheim says there needs to be a sense of solidarity where must feel themselves to be part of a community and without this social life would be impossible because each individual will pursue their own selfish desires

  - Education does this by transmitting society shared norms and values from one generation to the next .e.g.. Hidden curriculum

  - Society in a miniature preparing us for wider society. For example, both in school we have to corporate with people who are neither friends or family - teachers and pupils in school and colleagues and customers at work
• Criticism of social solidarity


  - Troyna and Williams say languages focus predominately on European languages (middle class) benefiting high class allowing them to succeed

  - Ball says national curriculum ignores ethic diversity and focuses 'Little Englandism' and ignores black Asian history which embracing 'mythical case of empire and past glories eg WW1)

  - Holidays benefit Christians eg XMAS and easter where children miss out on education and fall back
• What sociologist created teaching specialist skills

  Durkheim
• Teaching specialist skills and example


  - In modern industry companies they have complex division of labour where production of every items requires cooperation of many different specialists. Everyone needs to have the necessary specialist knowledge to perform their role

  - Education teaches individuals the specialists knowledge that they need to play their part in social division of labour
• Criticism to teaching specialist skills

  - Even though they are all thought the some skills for society not everyone will achieve inequality

  - Myth of meritocracy, Bowls and Gintis (parents of the bourgeoisie being able to maintain their hold over intergenerational wealth by giving their children access to stronger economic opportunities through higher educational achievement e.g. tutoring and books)
• What sociologist created meritocracy

  - Parsons
• Meritocracy


  - Parsons sees the school as a focal socialising agency in modern society acting like a bridge between the family and wider society because the family and society act on different principles so children need a new way to cope with the world

  - In the family the child is judged by particularistic standards and the child's status is ascribed

  - In schools and society we are judged by the same universalistic standards like laws and same exams and pass mark

  - In school and society status is achieved not ascribed. Work promotion or sack and school pass or fail

  - Schools prepare us to move from family to society where everyone is given equal opportunity and individuals achieve rewards through own effort and ability
• Criticism of meritocracy


  - Myth of meritocracy, Bowls and Gintis
• What sociologist created role allocation

  - Davis and Moore
• Role allocation


  - Schools select and allocate pupils to future work rules by assessing individuals abilities, schools help them to make jobs suited to them

  - Focus on connection between education and social inequality

  - Inequality is important to ensure most important roles in society are filled with most talented people. For example, it would bad to have inefficient people performing important roles

  - No one is equally talented so society has to offer higher rewards to the most able which will encourage everyone to compete for them and society can select

  - Education allows people to sow what they can do and sifts and sorts people according to their ability and the most able gain gain/ entry and rewards
• 3 Marxist view on the role of education

  - Correspondence principle eg Learning to labour

  - Myth of meritocracy

  -Althusser: the ideological state apparatus
• What sociologist created created the correspondence principle?


  - Bowls and Gintis
• Correspondence principle


  - There is a link, or correspondence between the relationships and interactions expected and valued in schools and those expected and valued in the workplace.

  - School mirrors workplace, the education system reproduces a workforce with the characterises ( Both schools and workplaces are hierarchies, with head teachers or bosses at the top making decisions and giving orders, and workers or pupils at the bottom obeying. ) to meet the needs of the capitalist economy.

  - Operates through hidden curriculum where all the

  'lessons' that are learnt in school without being directly taught. For example, simply through the everyday workings of the school, pupils become accustomed to accepting hierarchy and competition, working for extrinsic rewards and so on.

  In this way, schooling prepares working-class pupils for their role as the exploited workers of the future, reproducing the workforce capitalism needs and perpetuating class inequality from generation to generation.
• 2 examples of the correspondence principle

  - Hierarchy and rewards

  - sanctions
• Criticism of the correspondence principle


  - Too deterministic in assuming students will passively accept and value the values the school exerts, too generalised in peoples responses in school meaning school may not be the other thing that transmits values to students

  - Willis learning to labour (School doesn't prepare people for manual jobs it is anti school subculture)
• Myth of meritocracy


  - Bowls and Gintis describe the education system as 'a giant myth-making machine'. A key myth that education promotes is the 'myth of meritocracy'. Meritocracy means that everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve, that rewards are based on ability and effort, and that those who gain the highest rewards deserve them because they are the most able and hardworking.

  Unlike functionalists such as Parsons, Bowles and Gintis argue that meritocracy does not in fact exist. Evidence shows that the main factor determining whether or not someone has a high income is their family and class background, not their ability or educational achievement.

  By disguising this fact, the myth of meritocracy serves to justify the privileges of the higher classes, making it seem that they gained them through succeeding in open and fair competition at school. This helps persuade the working class to accept inequality as legitimate, and makes it less likely that they will seek to overthrow capitalism.
• What sociologist viewed learning to labour

  Willis
• Learning to labour


  - Willis' study of how WC boys reject the education system and turn to an anti subculture misbehaving, superiority to teachers and conforming students, no value to academic work, avoid lesson, not focusing and calling people names for revising

  - Willis studied the counter-school culture of 'the lads' which was a group of 12 working-class boys - as they make the transition from school to work.

  The lads form a distinct counter-culture opposed to the school. the counter-school culture of 'the lads'

  - a group of 12 working-class boys - as they make the transition from school to work.

  - Lads and shopfloor culture similar so they condemn themselves to low-paid, manual jobs that suit Capitalism

  - Lads created their own anti school subculture and their rejection of school made them ready for manual jobs

  - manual workers. Both cultures see manual work as superior and intellectual work as inferior and effeminate. The lads identify strongly with male manual work and this explains why they see themselves as superior both to girls and to the

  'effeminate' ear'oles who aspire to non-manual jobs.

  However, it also explains why the lads' counter-culture of resistance to school helps them to slot into the very jobs - inferior in terms of skill, pay and conditions - that capitalism needs someone to perform. For example:

  • Having been accustomed to boredom and to finding ways of amusing themselves in school, they don't expect satisfaction from work and are good at finding diversions to cope with the tedium of unskilled labour.

  • Their acts of rebellion guarantee that they will end up in unskilled jobs, by ensuring their failure to gain worthwhile qualifications.
• 2 similarities between functionalist and New right

  - Some people are more talented than others - creating specialist skills

  - Meritocracy
• Social policy


  - Plans and strategies for education introduced by government through acts of parliament to schools and local authorities
• Aims of educational social policies


  - Equal opportunities

  - Selection and choice

  - Control of education

  - Marketisation ( process of introducing markets forces of consumers choices and competition between suppliers into areas run by the state such as education
• Tripartite system


  - Based on meritocracy, involving children being selected and allocated to three schools based on abilities

  - Based on 11+
• 3 schools in the tripartite system

  - Grammer school

  - Secondary modern school

  - Technical school
• Grammer school


  - Academic curriculum

  - Access to non manual jobs

  - Passed 11+ exam

  - Middle class
• Secondary modern schools


  - Non-academic

  - 'Practical' curriculum leading to manual work for pupils who failed the 11+

  - Pupils were mainly working class.
• Technical schools


  - Existed in only a few areas

  - Mechanics, science and engineering
• 2 advantages of tripartite schools

  - Education that best met ability

  - Removed class barriers (allowed bright working class)
• 3 disadvantages of tripartite schools

  - Reproduced gender inequality expecting girls to gain higher in 11+ exam (feminists)

  - Middle class had more resources and encouragement

  - Reproduced inequality by channelling two different social class into different types of schools that offer unequal opportunities
• When was the comprehensive school system introduced?

  - 1965
• Comprehensive schools


  - Labour

  - Used to overcome class divide from tripartite system and make education more meritocratic. No 11+ children went to their local comprehensive school and mixed ability

  - Promote meritocracy

  - Reduce inequalities

  - All people in the area
• 2 advantages of comprehensive school

  - Functionalists attempt to break social barrier and bring social cohesion by bringing children of different social classes together in one class

  - Meritocratic because because it gives people a longer period to develop and show ability unlike the tripartite system which sought to select the most able pupils at 11+
• Disadvantage of comprehensive school


  - Marxists argue the comprehensive are not meritocratic as it reproduces inequality throw labelling and setting/streaming. This deny working class opportunity

  - More able students are held back by less able
• Policies created by New labour government inspired to fight inequality


  - National literacy strategy

  - City academy

  - Education maintenance allowance
• Educational maintenance allowance


  - payments to

  encourage students from low-income backgrounds to stay on

  after age 16 to gain better qualifications (£30 p/w)
• 2 critics' of New labour government policies

  - Contradiction between policies an d commitment to marketisation. New Labour also maintained or intensified the marketisation of education, with league tables. These policies increased competition and choice, but also created a hierarchy of schools and widened the gap between high- and low-achieving students. New Labour paradox - Benn sees a contradiction

  between Labour's policies to tackle inequality and it's

  commitment to marketisation e.g. introducing EMA to

  encourage pupils to stay in education but also

  introducing tuition fees which may deter people from

  applying to university (debt averse)

  - Higher education costs e.g. tuition fees make it hard e.g. textbooks and tutoring etc. will aid higher class