Consensus Theories of Education

• Functions of education suggested by Functionalists

  • Secondary socialisation
  • Role allocation
  • Providing necessary skills for the economy
• Secondary socialisation


  Passing on universal norms and values that are shared by broader society
• Norms

  Behaviour and attitudes which are considered normal
• Values

  Things that people consider important to them
• Functionalists believe all members of society are socialised into norms and values, first through the family and later through institutions such as education, the media and religion
• Mechanical solidarity


  People have face-to-face contact with each other and have very little contact-socially or economically-with people in other parts of the country or the world
• Organic solidarity


  A more complex, large-scale society where it is necessary to learn the shared values of broader society
• In an industrial society, people have to learn certain skills in order to function and perform specific economic roles
• Education system's role in secondary socialisation

  • Instilling social solidarity
  • Teaching social rules and how to abide by them
  • Teaching specialist skills
• Marxists question where these shared values come from and whose interests they serve
• Postmodernists argue that contemporary society is diverse and multicultural, and schools do not produce a shared set of norms and values for the whole of society and nor should they
• The contemporary economy is no longer based around assembly lines and therefore the education model that Durkheim describes may not suit the modern economy
• Schools may not provide adequate training for work, as the knowledge-based learned at school is of limited usefulness and much more specific skills are taught through in-work training
• Hargreaves (1982) argued that the education system encourages individualism and competition rather than social solidarity and shared values
• Meritocracy


  A society whereby jobs and pay are allocated based on an individual's talent and achievements rather than social status
• Parsons sees the education system as helping society to be meritocratic
• Marxists criticise the functionalist view of role allocation and "sifting and sorting", arguing that the appearance of meritocracy is nothing but ideology
• Bowles and Gintis conducted a study which demonstrated how IQ played a relatively small part in academic success and then whether academic success translated into economic success also greatly depended on social class, ethnicity and gender
• Social stratification

  A system of unequal rewards
• Marxists argue that social stratification-or inequality-is precisely what means the education system manifestly fails to grade people by their ability or effort
• The New Right have a similar perspective to functionalists on education
• Parentocracy


  A system where parents are in control of education and set the value consensus
• The problem with excessive competition in education is that the losers are children
• The reasons why fee-paying schools get better results than state schools are more complex than just putting it down to market principles
• While giving more power to parents was one way the New Right argued that "the right values" could be imparted through education, the main approach to this was through central legislation, such as the development of the National Curriculum in the UK and also policies such as Section 28
• Education also plays a role in maintaining inequality as it reinforces class differences through tracking and streaming students into different educational paths based on their perceived abilities.
• Sociologists believe that education is an important social institution because it helps to maintain social order by transmitting values from one generation to another.
• The sociological perspective is the idea that society influences individuals, rather than individuals influencing society
• Tracking refers to grouping students according to ability or achievement level within a school, while streaming involves placing them into separate classes based on these factors.
• Critics argue that tracking and streaming contribute to the reproduction of social inequality because they limit access to higher levels of education and career prospects for those who are placed in lower tracks.
• Functionalists argue that education serves several functions in society, including preparing individuals for roles in the labor force, promoting social cohesion, and fostering cultural continuity.