Functionalism

• Role of education

  • Secondary socialisation > pass on core values
  • Allocates people for appropriate job
  • Teaches skills needed in work and economy
• Durkheim

  • Education passes on norms and values to integrate individuals into society
  • Strengthens social solidarity = transfer societies norms and values to next generation > creates social order based on cohesion
  • Teaching specialist skills = individuals with specialist skills use them in complex division of labour where people co-operate
• Criticisms of Durkheim

  • Marxists = education system teaches to serve ruling class rather than society > transmits dominant culture
  • Willis = transmission of norms and values maybe rejected
• Parsons

  1. Through socialisation, education bridges between family and wider society > family = children judged based on particularist standards, wider society = individual judged based on standards applied to everyone, education = selects children into appropriate roles because it's meritocratic
  2. Education socialises young people with basic values of society, school transmits: achievement = achieve status through effort, equality = every student achieves
• Criticisms of Parsons

  • Wrong = over socialised view > assumes people are puppets and never reject school values
  • Marxists = hidden curriculum prepares students for exploitation > transmits values of capitalism
  • Post-modernists = fragmented nature of society means socialisation by various agents
• Davis and Moore

  • Principles of stratification = education sorts people (according to ability) into different positions
  • Talent = high achievement > functionally important jobs > unequal rewards so people aim high
  • Desirable in capitalist society > limited talent > persuaded to stay in education > society offers incentives (high salaries)
• Criticisms of Davis and Moore

  • Intelligence and ability = limited influence on educational achievement > tied to class, gender and ethnicity > not everyone has equal chance
  • Bowles and Gintis = capitalist societies are not meritocratic, those denied success blame themselves rather than the system so wealthy obtain successful jobs
  • Feminists = gender pay gap, feminine professions paid less
• Meritocracy


  Social rewards allocated by talent rather than position someone was born in
• Example, Education the East End

  • Some children reject norms and values
  • Misbehave die to family problems, mess around to distract
  • Teachers get exhauster
• Overall strengths of functionalist

  • Acknowledges role of education in secondary socialisation
  • Recognises importance of structured workforce in modern economy need to be allocated efficiently in those roles
• Overall of functionalist

  • Marxists = small chance on equality for opportunity > education system serves to confirm people in social classes > values of school = interest of ruling class
  • NR = system doesn't prepare people for work > discourages efficiency/competition