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 marginalisessomegroups in society, for example the word ‘tolerate’ when speaking about differentreligionsorfaiths
Curriculum is Eurocentric, focused on 'littleEnglandism', 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 nationspolitically, 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. citycentreacademies 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
Increasedfunding for EAL and ESOL
University entrance for overseas students, international students paying higher tuition fees
Education (Parsons)
Fulfils the positive functions of secondarysocialisation
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 socialsolidarity and teaching of specialistskills