functionalist view on education

• Durkheim's view on education

  • Students are taught to practice different societal roles starting from preschool and kindergarten
  • Schools are "socialisation agencies that teach children how to get along with others and prepare them for adult economic roles"
• Socialisation


  Involves learning the rules and norms of society as a whole. Decides children/students' diverse skills for a diverse workforce by letting students specialise in school (eg for GCSEs)
• Education


  • Provides one of the major methods for upward social mobility
  • Schools and universities help students progress towards the careers they want
• Secondary functions of education

  • Unintended functions, learn a lot in school outside of your formal education
  • Introduces students to social networks that might last for years and can help people find jobs after they finish school
  • Learn to work with others in small groups, a transferable skill to the workplace
• Allocating functions of education

  • Sort or classify students based on academic merit or potential
  • Schools identify the most capable students through testing and classroom achievements
  • The most capable students are allocated to the most important and challenging jobs
• Functionalist view on education

  Education is a meritocracy where everyone has equal opportunity and personal effort of merit determines social standing
• Criticisms of functionalist theories of education
• Durkheim and Parsons' view on education

  Education promotes the norms and values of society as a whole
• Marxist view: education only promotes the values of powerful groups
• Hargreaves (1982) argues that education promotes competitiveness/competition and individualism and not shared values
• Durkheim's view on education

  Education promotes social solidarity. However, education can also be diverse because of the hierarchy of schools and unis, which can separate social classes
• Functionalist view: educational achievement is based on merit (meritocracy), yet research indicates that factors such as class, gender, and ethnicity also influence achievement
• Davis and Moore (functionalist): education selects the most appropriate people to do particular jobs, yet other factors aside from qualifications, such as social contacts (who you know) also influence the labour market