sociology aqa education

• Function of education


  Promotes social solidarity
• Education


  • Fulfils positive functions for society
• Social solidarity


  The ties that bind people together
• How education teaches social solidarity


  1. Passes on shared heritage in teaching

  2. Giving students a sense of place in society and a common identity through history, literature, music
• Ways education promotes values of belonging and acceptance


  • Communal gatherings to celebrate achievements
  • Assemblies, prize-gatherings
• Social cohesion & enrichment


  Promoted through school systems and a sense of unity, feeling of belonging to something bigger than themselves
• Contemporary applications include compulsory teaching of British values
• Critics argue this marginalises some groups in society, for example the word ‘tolerate’ when speaking about different religions or faiths
• Curriculum is Eurocentric, focused on 'little Englandism', failing to teach history and literature of India, Africa, despite diversity of contemporary society
• How education teaches specialist skills


  • Provides core knowledge through National Curriculum by preparing students for future employment through literacy, numeracy etc
  • Specialist knowledge subject choice at A level
  • Vocational skills through BTEC, T-levels • Creation of universities
• Contemporary applications for specialist skills


  • Additional funding for math students at Level 3
  • Teaching bursaries for shortage subjects
  • Standardised assessment (SATs) testing for key skills • students taught global skills to enable them to compete in the global marketplace
• Marxists argue students are taught fragmented knowledge which enables them to perform specific tasks rather than seeing the connection between subjects
• Students can become over-qualified to take some roles, creating excessive competition in job markets, resulting in wages being driven down and workers becoming more submissive
• Education has failed to adequately teach specialist skills shortage areas like sciences, nursing, engineering, leading to increased immigration to fill these shortages
• Feminists argue girls are discouraged from certain subjects, creating hierarchies for employment
• Marketisation of education


  Application of market forces to education system
• Marketisation of education


  • Promoting more choice in type of education students receive
  • Promoting competition between institutions for students
  • Raises standards
• Marketisation achieved under Conservative government 1979-97


  1. Education Reform Act 1988 created open enrolment, National Curriculum and standardised testing

  2. Formula funding, schools received certain amount per student

  3. League tables and OFSTED creating school comparisons
• Marketisation achieved under New Labour 1997-2010


  1. Introduction of city academies to replace failing inner city schools

  2. Expansion of specialist schools and faith schools

  3. Introduction of tuition fees for universities
• Marketisation achieved under Coalition government 2010-15


  1. Expansion of academies

  2. Introduction of pupil premium giving low income students additional funds

  3. Changes to curriculum to set more challenging targets

  4. Introduction of free schools

  5. Increase in tuition fees
• Impacts of marketisation


  • Increased choice of schools
  • More private assessment in education
  • Increased university attendance
  • Improvements in GCSE and A Level pass rates
• Myth of parentocracy (Ball) - education system only serves those with cultural capital
• Open enrolment has been replaced by covert selection policies in many areas
• Teaching focused on teaching the test rather than students developing deeper knowledge
• Process of educational triage has put increased focus on getting borderline pupils to achieve qualifications
• Off rolling and excluding students with low academic ability before tests to avoid negatively impacting school performance
• Globalisation


  Increased interconnectedness of different nations politically, culturally, economically
• Globalised aspect of education


  Performance ranking with international schemes e.g. PISA and TIMSS
• Governments look to other education systems

  To improve their own education system
• Policies derived from globalisation

  • Variety of schools e.g. city centre academies inspired by America, free schools inspired by Scandinavian countries
  • Skills for global marketplace introduction of national literacy and numeracy strategy
  • Additional funding for maths and science
  • Raising standards for teachers
• Other policies derived from globalisation

  • British values and PREVENT as a result of terrorism
  • Spread of privatisation and marketisation of education
  • eg Universities having overseas campus
  • Increased funding for EAL and ESOL
  • University entrance for overseas students, international students paying higher tuition fees
• Education (Parsons)


  Fulfils the positive functions of secondary socialisation
• Education (Parsons) essential for

  • Acts as a bridge between home and value consensus of wider society
  • Transforms particularistic values at home into universal values
  • Transforms individual's ascribed status into achieved status
  • Promotes individualism rather than collectivism
• How education achieves secondary socialisation

  1. Through the hidden curriculum

  2. Norms, values and beliefs of school

  3. Assessments as a way for students to gain achieved status

  4. Competition between students
• contemporary applications of secondary socialisation

  • School uniform policies
  • Disciplinary policies of school (e.g. getting detention) •OFSTED
• Education (davis and moore)


  Fulfils a positive function of role allocation
• how does Education achieve role allocation

  • Sorts students, allocating them to certain roles based on ability
  • Promotes ideas of social mobility and meritocracy
  • Most able pupils end up in higher positions in society, lower ability end up in low skilled positions
• Contemporary applications of role allocation

  • Setting and streaming
  • University entrance (e.g. UCAS, offers made to students based on predicted ability)
  • Subject choice - vocational and academic routes
  • Wage inequality
• New Right


  Less of a sociological perspective and more of a political ideology
• New Right


  • Agreed and developed functionalist ideas of social solidarity and teaching of specialist skills