Role of education system

Durkheim: 2 main roles of education 

1. creating social solidarity 

• by transmitting society's culture- shared beliefs and values from one generation to the next, e.g. history: instils children a sense of shared heritage and commitment to the wider social group. 
• schools acts as 'society in miniature', preparing us for wider society. need to coorporate with people outside of our buble (neither family or friends) such as teachers. 
• without social solidarity, social life and coorporation would be impossible because each individual would pursue their personal selfish desires.

2. teaching specialist skills

• education teaches individuals specialist knowledge and skills they need to play their part in the social division of labour.

Parsons describes school as a bridge between the family and the adult roles in society. Schools pass on universal values of achievement. Parsons says that education selects children into the appropriate roles because it is meritocratic. 

Focal socialing agency: bridge between family and society (universalistic values and particularistic values)

School: same rules, same test, same pass rate. You gain promotion on how well you do, own personal efforts. 

He says that education is MERITOCRATIC

Davis and Moore say that every society sorts its members into different positions. They think that there are rules for how education does this- called "principles of stratification". They believe that there has to be a system of unequal rewards to motivate people to train for the top positions. 

Role allocation:

See education as a device for selection and role allocation. Focus on the relationship between education and social inequality. Schools assess individuals aptitudes and abilities and hence help them match them to a job they are best suited to. 

Education is a 'proving ground for ability'. It 'sifts and sorts' us according to ability- most able gain the qualifications.

Hargraeves: education promotes competition and individualism and not shared values 

Tumin: criticises Davis and Moore for putting forward a circular argument. How do we know a job is important? because it is higher rewarded. Why are some jobs more highly rewarded? because they are more important!

Wrong: functionalists have an 'over-socialised' view of people as mere puppets of society. They wrongly imply that all students passively accept all they are taught and never reject the schools values.         ___________________________________________________________________

Marxists: argue that education in capitalist society only transmits the ideology of the minority- the ruling class.  New Right: state education fails to prepare young people adequately for work. 

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The education system does not actually teach specialised skills adequately as Durkheim claims as the review of the vocational education show that high quality apprenticeships are rare and up to a third of 16-19 year olds are on courses that do not lead up to their talents. 

State run education in the United States has failed.

- not created equal opportunity and has failed the needs of the disadvantaged groups 

- inefficient because it fails to produce pupils with the skills needed by the economy. 

- private schools deliver higher quality education as they are answerable to paying consumers- the parents.

Competition between schools benefit the middle class who can use their cultural and economic capital to gain access to more desirable schools

critics argue that the real cause of low educational standards is not state control but social ineqaulity and inequate funding of state schools 

there is a contradiction between the new right's support for parental choice on the one hand and the state imposing national curriculum on all its schools on the other 

marxist argue that education does not impose a shared national culture as the new right claim. but imposes the culture of the dominant class and devalues the culture of the working class and ethnic minorities.

1. The repressive state apparatus:

- maintain the rule of the bourgeosie by force or the threat of ot. It includes the police, courts and army. 

2. ideological state apparatus:

- maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling people's ideas, values and beliefs. It includes religion, the media and the education system.

two functions of education:

1. reproduces class inequality by transmitting it from generation to generation, by failing each successive generation of working class pupils in turn. 

2. legitimates class inequality by producing ideologies that disguise its true cause. Function of ideology is to persuade workers to accept the inequality is ineviatable and that they deserve their subordinate position in society. therefore, when they accept they are less likely to challenge or threaten capitalism.

1. Produces obedient workers that capitalism needs. 

- found that students who showed independence and creativity tended to gain low grades. those who showed characteristics linked to obedience and discipline tended to gain high grades.

2. Correspondence Principle and Hidden Curriculum

There are parallels between school and the workplace. CP- e.g. head teachers or bosses at the top making top decisions and giving orders and workers or pupils at the bottom obeying.

The correspondence principle works through the hidden curriculum. Hidden curriculum teachers students to acceot hierarchy, competion and prepares them for roles being exploited as workers in the future.

Education does not turn out an obedient workforce. some kids form an anti-school subculture and cope with school and then adult work by mucking about.

Bowles and Gintis see education as a fairly straightforward process of indoctrination into the myth of meritocracy. The study shows that working class pupils can resist such attempts to indoctrinate them.

Lads couter culture

qualitative research, participant observation and unstructured interviews. 12 working class boys- as they make the transition from work to school. Well behaved boys called 'ear'oles' as they listen to what they are told.

Functionalism: secondary socialisation, allocation function, skills needed in work and by economy.

Marxism: Capitalism cannot fuction without a workforce that is willing to accept exploitation. Likewise, all marxists see education as reproducing and legitimating class inequality. 

New Right: Should provide individual choice, work as a business, should be competitive to increase standards.

Feminism: edu is patriarchal, reinforces gender differences through hidden curriculum, gender differences in schools, boys demand more attention, men seem to dominate top positions in school and universities.

Postmodernism: Argue that marxism view is outdated. Society has entered a postmodern phase where class divisions are no longer important. society is now very diverse and fragmented, economy based on 'flexible specialisation'. Correspondence principle no longer operate and edu is responsive to the eneds of different individuals and is more diverse. (post-fordist)