education perspectives

• Marxism: Education legitimises class inequality

  In reality, money determines how good of an education you get, but people do not realise this because schools spread the 'myth of meritocracy' - the idea that we all have an equal chance to succeed and that our grades depend on our effort and ability, therefore if we fail we believe its our own fault.

  This then works to control the working class as children will grow up believing they had a fair chance and therefore are less likely to rebel against capitalism.
• Marxism

  Bowles & Gintis: Schooling helps produce the obedient workers capitalism requires. They studied high school students and found that schools reward the personality traits that make for an obedient worker: submissive & disciplined.
• Marxism

  Bowles & Gintis: There's a correspondence between values learned at school and the way that the workplace operates. These values are taught through the 'hidden curriculum'. this includes: acceptance of hierarchy (head teachers & bosses) which makes them accustomed to obeying orders, & passive subservience (pupils to teachers=workers to bosses).

  This hidden curriculum helps serve capitalism by teaching pupils the skills needed in a subordinate labour force.
• marxism

  Althusser: education is an important Idealogical state apparatus

  Idealogical state apparatus: system that maintains the rule of the bourgeosie through controlling peoples beliefs and values.

  Education does this by reproducing class inequality & makes WC students accept this inequality.
• Criticisms of marxism:

  • Deterministic: seems to assume that students have no free will, whereas not all students passively accept their exploitative future.
  • Limited: marxism criticises education but fail to provide an alternative
  • Overly negative. Fails to recognise that many individuals from working class backgrounds do succeed through education.
• Functionalism: Durkheim: education performs 2 functions.

  1. creates social solidarity. creates a sense of trust and connection between members of society. One way is through the schools curriculum. Learning british history creates a sense of shared heritage and culture. & prepares children for wider society by transmiting the attitudes and beliefs of society.
  2. provision and training of specialist skills. Helps pupils develope specialised skills and knowledge so they can play their part in the division of labour.
• functionalism

  Parsons: education is a 'focal socialising agent'. School is the bridge between the family and society, providing children with the required secondary socialisation. While there are different rules for children at home, in education rules are impersonal and universal. EG everyone has the same pass mark & uniform. This is good practice for joining wider society where everyone has to abide by the same rules and laws.
• functionalism. Parsons:

  • Education is meritocratic: power, rank, influence, and rewards are gained via individuals merits.
  • Everyone has an equal opportunity, regardless of ...
  • Reject ascribed status, instead posit 'achieved status'
• functionalism: Davis & Moore: role allocation.

  education is a useful device for future job selection & role allocation. Education identifies inequalities within students- this is necessary to ensure the most talented undertake important roles. Not everyone is equally talented, in reality people have different talents and are suited to different roles in life. The most talented will gain the highest qualifications which will prepare them to get difficult jobs.
• criticisms of functionalism:

  • Overly positive. ignores problems in education, such as patriachy and class discrimination
  • Bowles & gintis: meritocracy is a myth. other factors, such as class and ethnicity, heavily influences ones opportunities and achievement
  • Fucntionalists over-generalise the passive -ness of students. The idea assumes students are blank slates (Tabula rasa) and never push back or rebel is idealistic
  • marxists: only instils the values of the bourgeosie/ruling class (not of whole society) eg most textbooks are written by MC academics & system is MC and doesnt teach WC values.
• Neoliberal/new right: Similar to functionalists

  • Not everyone is equally talented
  • Favour an education system run on meriotocracy & one that prepares young people for work, serving the needs of the economy.
  • education should socialise children into shared values (such as competition) and instil a sense of national identity.
• Neo liberal/New right: Difs to functionalists

  • Education is not achieveing its goals. They believe the system is inefficient: wastes money, achieves poor results, demands little of teachers and ultimately results in a poor economy.
  • The 'one size fits all' approach disregards local needs are may be problematic.
  • This is because education is run by the state
• New right: Believes in the marketisation of education and promoting competition between schools. They believe empowering consumers will increase schools ability to meet the needs of pupils, parents, and employers.
• New right:

  Chubb & Moe: Researched into schools in the USA, finding that pupils from low income backgrounds consistently do 5% better in private schools than in state schools.

  Based on this, Chubb & Moe call for the introduction of a market system in education, which would allow consumers to shape schools to meet their own needs which will improve the quality and efficiency of schools because schools will be forced to be responsive to parents wishes as they need their children as pupils for income.
• NR believe theres 2 roles for the state:

  1. publication of league tables & ofsted results. state gives parents information to make a more informed choice between schools
  2. Ensures schools transmit a shared culture. Imposing a national curriculum guarantees schools socialise pupils into a shared heritage. Believe education should affirm the national identity. EG emphasising britians positive role in world history & teach british literature & christianity. This is to intergrate pupils into a shared set of norms and values
• criticism NR

  • Competition benefits the middle class who can use their cultural & economic capital to gain access into more desirable schools.
  • some say the real cause of low educational standards is not state control, but inadequate funding of state schools & inequality.
• Radical feminists: While they recognise girls are achieving more, they emphasise that the system remains patriachal.

  • Sexual harassment still continues at school. Demonstrated by 'everyones invited' list. SH is not treated as seriously in schools than other issues like bullying
  • Although there are more female head teachers in primary school, men are much more likely to become head teachers of secondary scools
  • Women are still unrepresented in many areas of the curriculum. For example, their contribution to history is largely ignored.
  • Hidden curriculum normalises marginalisation of women
• Liberal feminists: Celebrate the progress made in improving achievement for girls. They believe that further progress is needed and will be made by developing more equal opportunity policies EG in tripartate system (1940s&50s) girls had a higher pass grade than boys for the 11+ exams. Now policies such as the national curriculum and GIST & WISE are good. Now girls outperform boys in education.
• Example of women being unrepresented/ignored in the curriculum:

  Eunice Foot was a female scientist who discovered the 'Greenhouse Effect', however this discovery is often accredited to the male scientist John Tyndall
• Marx Paul Willis:

  • School was not working well as an agent of socialisation. There was no value consensus as pupils were actively rejecting the norms and values of society
  • Criticise Bowles & Gintis. His study shows that the boys were far from the disciplined, obedient workers they suggested. While being obediedent and hard-working is rewarded by the school, it is not rewarded by 'the lads', and it is the approval from peers that provides a more important reward than grades & qualifications for students who do not expect to do well.
• Marx Paul Willis 'learning to labour': recognises that the schools and policy-makers are not deliberatly working with the capitalist system to exploit the working class. Observed and group intereviewed working class boys from the midlands. 'lads' recongised that they were left out in the middle class habitus of the school and formed their own subcultures to deal with this. Anti-school laddish subcultures. Involved truancy, cheeking teachers, ect.