Theories On Education

Functionalism

Neoliberalism/The New Right

Marxism

Durkheim

Parsons

Davis and Moore

Evaluation

Chubb and Moe

Two Roles for the State

Evaluation

Althusser

Bowles and Gintis

Willis

Evaluation

SOCIAL SOLIDARITY

SPECIALIST SKILLS

  • Argues that society needs a sense of solidarity, which the education system helps create by transmitting society's culture from one generation to the next
  • School acts as a 'society in minature', preparing students for life e.g both in school and work we have to cooperate with people who are not family or friends
  • Modern Society has a complex division of labour, and for this to enable social solidarity, each person must have the necessary specialist knowledge and skills to perform their role
  • Education teaches the specialist knowledge that is needed to play their part in the social division of labour

MERITOCRACY

  • 'focal socialising agency', bridge between the family and wider society
  • Child learns that they are going to be judged by universalistic rather than particularistic standards, and their status is achieved rather than ascribed
  • Both school and work are based on meritocratic principles

ROLE ALLOCATION

  • Argued that inequality is necessary to ensure that the most important roles are filled by the most talented people by offering high rewards for hard jobs --> encourages competition
  • Education acts as a proving ground for ability, shows individuals what they can do

Blau and Duncan argue that a modern economy depends on human capital, and that the meritocratic education system enables each person to be allocated to the job best suited to their abilities

Evidence that equal opportunity does not exist, e.g class background and ethnicity

Davis and Moore have a circular argument

Education does not teach specialised skills adequately, apprenticeships are rate and often do not lead to high education

Marxists argue that education does not instil shared values but rather the ideology of the ruling class

Wrong argues that functionalists have an 'over-socialised' view of people as puppets of society, implies that students passively accept all that they are taught

New Right argues that the state education fails to prepare young people adequately for work

CONSUMER CHOICE

Argue that state-run education in the US has failed because

  • Not created equal opportunity, failed disadvantaged groups
  • Inefficient, fails to create skills needed by the economy
  • Private schools deliver a higher quality education

Based on the comparison of achievements between those in state and private schools, found that pupils from low-income families consistently do about 5% better in private rather than state schools

Call for the introduction of a market system that would put control in the hands of the consumer, allowed consumers to shape schools to meet their own needs and improve quality and efficiency

Each teacher proposes a system where each family would be given a voucher to buy education with, this would force schools to be more responsive to parent's wishes, as vouchers would be the schools main income.

The state imposes a framework on school within they have to compete, shown with Ofsted inspection reports

Ensures that schools transmit a shared culture through the National Curriculum

Believe that education should affirm national identity, emphasis Britain's positive role in world history --> opposes multicultural education

Gerwitz and Ball argue that competition benefits the middle class, who can use cultural and economic capital to gain access to more desirable schools

The real cause of low educational standards is not state control but social inequality and inadequate funding

Contradiction between support for parental choice and the state imposing a National Curriculum

Marxists argue that education does not impose a shared national culture, but imposes the culture of the ruling class

THE IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUS

The state consists of two apparatuses that keep the bourgeoisie in power:

  • Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs) - police, courts
  • Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) - education religion
  • Education reproduces class inequality by transmitting it from generation to generation, failing each generation of w/c students
  • Legitimates class inequality by producing ideologies that disguise its true cause

Argue that capitalism requires a workforce with the kind of attitudes such as exploited workers willing to accept hard work --> schools rewards personality traits that make for a submissive worker e.d obediance

HIDDEN CURRICULUM

Parallels between school and work, both have hierarchies, these parallels are examples of the 'correspondence principle', that operates through the ''hidden curriculum' --> lessons that are taught without being directly taught e.g accepting hierarchy

Schools prepares w/c students for their role as exploited workers of the future

MYTH OF MERITOCRACY

Education produces ideologies that explain why inequality is inevitable --> the myth of meritocracy that means that everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve, rewards are based on ability and effort.

Justifies the privileges of the higher classes, making it seem like they succeeded fairly, they see inequality as legitimate, means that they are less likely to overthrow capitalism.