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The Role of Education - Coggle Diagram
The Role of Education
Functionalist
They focus on the functions education performs to maintain and reproduce society over time. This means what functions does education performs to meet the needs of society as a whole.
It is argued that there are 4 key functions of the education system;
Social Solidarity (Durkheim) - He argues that society needs to have a common link to have social solidarity (community), and says that when there are no community individuals will pursue their own desires. Education allows creating this by teaching us about society's culture and having to follow sets of rules.
Teaching Specialist Skills (Durkheim) - He argues that school teaches us the specialist skills and knowledge we need to play our part in the social division of labour. This will allow us to work in terms of working to reproduce the right outcome.
Role Allocation (Davis and Moore) - Schools select and allocate us into specific jobs and roles.
They focus on the relationship between education and social inequality, arguing inequality is necessary to ensure the most important roles in society are filled by the most talented people.
Not everyone is equally talented so society has to offer higher rewards for these jobs, this will encourage everyone to compete for them and society can then select the most talented individuals to fill those positions. Education is a key part as it acts as a proving ground for ability.
Promoting Meritocracy (Parsons) - He draws on Durkheim's ideas, but sees school as a focal socialising agency and acts as a bridge between family and wider society, with the child having to find a way to merge the two. In a family you're judged by certain standards. This means the harder you work the more you're rewarded.
Criticisms
- Functionalists see education as passing on shared values of society, but Marxists argue that education only passes on the ideology of the bourgeoisie.
- Interactionists such as Wrong (1961) criticise functionalists for their over-socialised view of pupils that sees them as passively accepting all they are taught. He argues that functionalists wrongly assume that students never reject the schools' values when in reality it is likely that some will.
- Functionalists have been criticised for suggesting the education system promotes meritocracy. It is argued by others that we do not have a meritocracy as functionalists suggest. Ability and effort are not the only factors that determine achievement, and other factors such as class, gender and ethnicity may also play a part.
- Whilst functionalists suggest that the role of education is to teach specialist skills required for the workplace, some sociologists argue that the skills and knowledge taught in school are not particularly useful for life at work. The Wolf Review 2011 of vocational education claims that high-quality apprenticeships are rare, and up to a third of 16-19-year-olds are on courses that do not lead to higher education or good jobs. This argument is also supported by neo-liberals and New Right.
Marxists
Althusser - argues that society controls the proletariat in 3 ways:
1. Economically - people are forced to work long hours for low wages in order to survive in a capitalist society.
2. Politically - people are controlled physically in capitalist society by key institutions such as the police and the army. If you break the law or threaten the government these institutions step in to physically stop you. Althusser calls th.ese institutions the Repressive State Apparatus.
3. Ideologically- Marxists argue capitalism socialises into accepting ideas, which benefit the bourgeoisie and stop us from wanting to improve society. Ideas such as 'do not question inequality', 'the rich deserve their wealth' and 'if you work hard, one day you can be rich too' are all ideas Marxists argue are not true but we are forced to believe. These ideas are taught to us through institutions such as the media, the family, and the education system and he offers to these organisations as the Ideological State Apparatus.
Bowles & Ginits - argues that there is a hidden curriculum in capitalist education.
- And that the real purpose of the school is to pass on beliefs and values, which keeps capitalism going.
- This is not openly stated as part of the curriculum, but is hidden and subtly and covertly based on:
. Rules of good behaviour
. What is valuable in capitalist society (money)
. When a WC child fails. they are told it is their fault not social inequalities.
. Reproduce class inequalities
Marxists are critical of the role of education in capitalist society. As they see society as a conflict between the Bourgeoisie (ruling class) and the Proletariat (working class). This means they view the functions of eductions identified by functionalists and the new Right in a negative way. They believe that the functions of education turn you into a passive, obedient puppet of capitalist society.
Willis - Learning to Labour (1977): lads' study
- WC pupils can resist the hidden curriculum identified by Bowles and Gintis.
. By adopting a counter-culture pupils can avoid capitalist socialization.
- This suggests a flaw in Marxist theory
. WC do not necessarily fall into WC jobs
BUT
- Their subversion steers them into WC labour.
Feminism
- Feminism is a conflict approach to sociology
. They argue society is dominated by the patriarchy
Henton and Lawson (1996)
- Education system promotes patriarchal values through the hidden curriculum.
. Nuclear family and sexist stereotypes promoted in tetbooks
. Gendered subject images
. Sexism in schools (male gaze, lad culture)
. Education leaders tend to be male and working teachers female.
Liberal Feminism
Fight for equal rights and opportunities within the existing legal system.
Young and Willmott - education is on a march of progress
. Gender equality can only be won through legal reforms.
. Laws can change people's attitudes to girls in education.
- Girls now out perform boys due to changes in laws:
. GIST (girls into science and technology)
. WISE (women into science and engineering)
. Removal of sexist textbooks
. Open enrolment
. More female teacher role models
Radical Feminism
Banyard (2011)
- The education system remains patriarchal and is not improving.
. The education system normalizes sexism through the hidden curriculum.
- Male gaze - women are viewed as sexual objects by heterosexual men.
. Girls experience sexual harassment by male students and teachers.
. Sexual harassment is not taken seriously in schools.
Difference Feminism
Sharpe
- Not all women have the same experience of school
. Girls from ethnic minority backgrounds are also likely to experience racism
. Schools are likely to promote different career option to girls from ethnic minority backgrounds.
New Right
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New Right & Education
- The New Right argue that the value of education lies in how well it enables a country to compete in the global economy.
. For the New Right, education should only give you skills for a job.
- Can only be achieved if schools are run more like businesses.
. Empowering parents and pupils (the consumers)
. Marketisation - schools and students should compete with each other to drive standards up.
- Schools should compete through
. Regular testing
¬ SATS, mocks, GCSE, AS/ A Level
. Increasing vocational, BTEC, and T-Level courses
. Teaching a shared heritage through the national curriculum
. Focus on STEM subjects
¬ Science, Technology, English and Maths
- The government should reduce their involvement in the education system
. Individuals are best left to meet their own needs.
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