Topic 5 - The role of education

• Functionalists value education in the respect that it provides necessary functions for the rest of society. Similarly, the New Right determine in order to fulfil such functions, schools should be centred around the consumer and their choices. However, Marxists criticise both Functionalists and the New Right in arguing the education system merely serves the needs of capitalism, by ensuring the failure of working-class pupils. Feminists also reject the education system for producing gender inequalities.
• Functionalism


  Sociological perspective that focuses on the functions or consequences of social phenomena
• Durkheim


  Sociologist who identified two main functions of education: social solidarity and specialist skills
• Functions of education (Durkheim)


  1. Transmitting society's culture from one generation to the next

  2. Acting as a 'society in miniature' to prepare us for life in wider society
• Parsons

  Sociologist who argued that schools are meritocratic, where all pupils have an equal chance to succeed through talent and abilities
• Meritocracy


  Belief that success is based on talent and abilities, irrespective of class, gender, ethnicity etc.
• School (Parsons)


  Agent of socialisation, acting as a bridge between the family and wider society
• Davis and Moore

  Sociologists who believe schools perform the function of selecting and allocating pupils to their future work roles by assessing individuals' aptitudes and abilities
• Schools help to match individuals to the job they are best suited to
• Marxist sociologists argue that the education system is designed to serve the interests of capitalist employers rather than meeting the needs of all members of society. In particular, Marxists claim that the education system produces inequality through the hidden curriculum. The hidden curriculum refers to the values and attitudes taught indirectly at school, including the importance of obedience and conformity. These values reflect the requirements of capitalist employers who need workers who are willing to follow orders without question
• Marxism


  A political and economic theory developed by Karl Marx, which analyzes the effect of capitalism on labor, productivity, and economic development and argues for a worker revolution to overthrow the capitalist system
• Althusser


  A French Marxist philosopher who argued that the education system serves to reproduce class inequality and legitimize the capitalist system
• Functions of the education system


  1. Reproduction - Failing each generation of working-class pupils, thus reproducing class inequality

  2. Legitimation - Convincing people that inequality is inevitable and failure is the fault of the individual, not the capitalist system
• Bowles and Gintis


  Theorists who argued that schools create new generations of workers to serve the capitalist system
• Hidden curriculum in schools


  • Lessons that are 'learned' but not taught, used to serve the capitalist system (e.g. pupils accept hierarchy, competition, alienation)
• The functionalist idea of meritocracy is a myth; success is based on class background, not ability or educational achievement
• Willis (Neo-Marxism)


  Theorist who argued that pupils can see through the ruling class ideology and resist attempts to indoctrinate it in school, with male working-class pupils forming a distinct counterculture that flouted school rules
• FEMINISM

  LIBERAL FEMINISM

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  There has been a steady improvement in girls experience of school and girls achievement.

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  RADICAL FEMINISM

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  Radical feminists believe that one of the primary roles of education is to maintain gender inequality. 

  Gendered Language - school teachers and textbooks use gendered language 

  Gendered roles - textbooks present traditional gendered roles (for example, women as housewives)

  Gendered stereotypes - textbooks and teachers tend to stereotypes males and females (for example, girls are presented as more caring)
• the new right

  The new right believe schools should be centred around competition and choice, this is mainly done through marketisation. By creating an ‘education market’, schools are forced to respond to the needs of teachers, parents and pupils.

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  CHUBB AND MOE

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  ​State education has failed to create equal opportunity because it does not have to respond to pupil’s needs.

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  Parents and communities cannot do anything about failing schools when the schools are controlled by the state.

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  Private schools deliver higher quality education because they are answerable to paying consumers (parents).