sociological theories of education

Socialisation function-

-schools are agents of secondary socialisation

-ensures social solidarity

-school is society in miniature

-importance of school rules:

  -social control

  -conform and obey in school transfers to society

  -bridge between family and society 

Economic function-

-school teaches skills and knowledge for workplace

-need to provide workers for the specialised division of labour

within the family...

Particularistic standards-

-parents know their children have particukar qualities that they judge them on

-society judges us by univeral standards

  -good grades=qualifications univerlistic standards

Ascribed status-

-gender

-ethnicity

-social class

Meritocracy-

-people who work hard and have ability will be most successful

-ability+hardwork=merit

-school teahces values and work ethic/competition

-value consensus=everyone agreeing what is best in society 

Equality of oppurtunity-

-every pupil has same chance of success

-taught to accept differential rewards for differntial achievement

-people who get A's work harder than people who get C's 

-middle class have more money for resources and nutrition for fighting off illness

-main role of education is role allocation=matching pupils with most suitable future job

-school sifts and sorts pupils according to abilities and talents

  -setting

  -tiered exams

-determines what jobs they will go on to do

-crucial that role allocation happens so that it is the only way the best students who go onto have the most important occupations

-it would be very bad for society if a less able person was allowed to become a doctor

-Marxists criticise 

  -schools don't teach the norms and values of society, only those of the ruling class (durkheim)

  -curriculum, especially History, focuses on a white, middle class view (durkheim)

  -they ignore the experience of ethnic minorities, goes against social solidarity

  -some social groups underachieve, eg, working class. if there was equality of oppurtunity,              failure would not be concentrated in specific groups (parsons, davis+moore) 

-New right criticises 

  -education system is failing to provide adequately educated workers, it isn't teaching the skills and knowledge needed in the workplace (durkheim)

-agree with marketisation of education

-improve the importance of schools, be in competition with each other

-make schools meritocratic

-critcising Parsons 

-state education failed to meet the needs of economy

-doesn't produce workers with skills that businesses specifically need

-failed to meet the needs of disadvantaged groups, no equality of oppurtunity

-private schools do much better becaused they need to satisfy the customers

-recommend the introduction of education vouchers for each pupil, parents can buy the education of their choice

-criticise Parsons

-social class determines how well you do in school

-idealogy is chief tool of social control in modern society

-education system is part of the idealogical state apparatus (family, school, media)

-schools are main agents of idealogical control (doesn't like this)

-repressive state apparatus (police, courts, army)

-ruling class want ISA to work

-school braiwashes to serve capitalism

-correspondance theory

-schools mirror workplace to prepare working class children for exploitation (capitalism)

  -hierarchy

  -lack of control

  -rules

  -external rewards

-education system promotes idea that ineqaulity is inevitable

-does this through hidden curriculum 

  -part of brain washing 

  -everything you learn at school that isn't on the official curriculum (obedience, punctuality)

  -functionalists think this is good 

-lack of control, timetable, terms and conditions

-rules uniform or dresscode

-doesn't matter if you don't like your job/school=get qualifications and wages

-get rid of capitalism is the marxists solution

-criticised by Davis and Moore/Durkheim

-updated marxist ideas

-use interpretivists methodology 'case study' 

-learning to labour

-'Lads' 12 boys in a comprehensive school (group interviews, participant observation, personal documents)

-anti school subculture

-having a 'laff'

-'pen pushers' 

-had prep planned career paths, failing already, group valued them which is a coping method

-raxist/sexist

-valued manual labour

-similarity to shop floor culture

-workers 'banter' 

-looked down at office workers

-learned this behaviour from male role models

-Willis found that the 'lads' hadn't been brainwaahed like other Marxists said (bowles and gintis)

-they had still been prepared for the workplace

-'laff' was a coping mechanism to deal with the dull school day

-marxists are accused of being too negative about the education system

-some working class pupils do get good grades and go to uni

-marxists are biased, as they assume that capitalism is unfair and exploits the workingg class

-HOWEVER

-marxists are right when they say that schools reward obedience and hard work

-pupils who conform to school rules and teachers expectations do much better than those who don't 

-labelling theory

  -teachers make a judgement about each student on whether they're going to be a success or a failure

-ideal student

-linked to social class

-self fulfilling prophesy 

-criteria for the ideal pupil is met more by middle class pupils

-students internalise the labels and live up to the expectations

-streaming

-teachers different expectations

-'A' stream students are hardworking, able, quiet

-'C' stream students are see as failures, challenging

-pygmalion effect (higher expectations lead to an increase in performance)

-field experiment with a class of students

-students performance imrpoved because they were treated differently by teachers

-suggesting to teachers they were going to be successes

-became the label given by the teacher

-ethical issue is that the students who were treated differently could have suffered due to neglect

-valid because field experimentd are covert so it is true to life

-collects quantitative data

-not representative

-no consent