Education - The role of education
- Created by: pillowfields
- Created on: 27-02-21 15:07
The role and purpose of education in contemporary society
The education system is a major agency of secondary socialisation in contemporary society
Sociological perspectives on the roles of education in society
The Functionalist perspective
Functionalism is concerned with the links between education and other social institutions
It is concerned with the role of education for society
Functionalists see education as an important agency of socialisation that maintains social stability through:
- the value consensus
- social harmony
- and social cohesion
Education is seen to provide a key role in preparing children for
- adulthood
- citizenship
- and working life
It is seen as providing young people with the means to improve their life chances through upward social mobility
⚠️The 2 most important Functionalist writers were Durkheim and Parsons
They identified four basic functions of education
1. Passing on society's culture and building social solidarity
Education meets a key functional prerequisite by passing values down generations
This is achieved through the hidden curriculum and the actual overt curriculum
This unites people and builds social solidarity through value consensus and shared culture
2. Providing a bridge between the particularistic values and ascribed status of family and the universalistic values and achieved status of contemporary society
Durkheim said schools were a small scale version of society that prepares them for wider society
Parsons sees schools as places for secondary socialisation as they take over from the family
He said schools provide a bridge between the particularistic values and ascribed status of family and the universalistic values and achieved status of contemporary society based on meritocracy
3. Developing human capital - a trained and qualified labour force
4. Selecting and allocating people for roles in a meritocratic society and legitimising social inequality
The education system is a major method of role allocation
The New Right
argues school is for training the workforce and socialising into values, not concerned with equality
- CHUBB & MOE (1990, 1992):
should be a free market in education
should be run like private biz
this would lead to
higher quality education
more skilled workforce
this is related to the marketisation of education
Marxist perspectives on education
see education as
- a means of social control
- encouraging conformity
- discouraging questioning own social position
- discouraging upsetting current inequalities
- ALTHUSSER (1971):
the main role of education under capitalism is to reproduce an efficient and obedient labour force of 2 aspects
1. reproduction of technical skills
2. reproduction of ruling class ideology and the socialisation of workers into accepting this (false consciousness)
ALTHUSSER argues to prevent rebellion, the ruling class must persuade the working class to accept ruling class ideology
this is carried out by multiple ideological state apparatuses like family, law, education
ALTHUSSER argues in contemporary Western societies the main one is the education system, it
- passes on ruling class…
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