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Summary Sociology - paper 1 education and theory and methods
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Role of EducationFunctionalism
Durkheim
Society needs sense of solidarity with its members feeling like they belong to a community as without this,
individuals would pursue their own selfish desires, causing anomie.
Education system transmit society’s culture from one generation to next with Durkheim illustrating
teaching one’s country’s history as instilling sense of shared heritage, depicting social solidarity.
School acts as ‘society in a miniature’ prepping us for wider society (employment) through timetables
influencing time management and organisation while exams illustrate meritocracy.
Modern society have complex division of labour involving cooperation of many various specialists who
must have expertise to succeed, which is taught through education
Parsons
Depicts school as a focal socialisation agency acting as bridge between family and wider society as within
family, children judged by particularistic standards (rules only applying to child such as curfew, chores)
whilst at school, children judged by universalistic standards (rules applying to all such as exams).
School is meritocratic (everyone having equal opportunity to succeed, and rewards like a good job based
on talent and ability)
Davis and Moore
School performs function of selecting and allocating pupils to their future careers by assessing abilities and
aptitudes where they’ll uncover a suitable job match.
Argue inequality needed as not everyone is capable to become surgeon so offer higher rewards so people
must compete
Blau and Duncan: modern economy depends on human capital (worker’s skills)
AO3
Unlike how Durkheim claims, specialised skills aren’t taught adequately as high-quality
apprenticeships are rare
Marxists argue education only transmit ideology of ruling class
Wrong: functionalists depict people as mere puppets, wrongly implying that pupils passively accept
what they’re taught and don’t rebel
Bowles and Gintis: Meritocracy is a myth as achievements are influenced by one’s position in
society
Neo-Liberalism and TNR
, - Neoliberals argue state shouldn’t provide services like education as state shouldn’t try to dictate
how individuals of their own property and shouldn’t try to regulate a free market economy, instead
should encourage competition and privatise state run services.
- TNR believes state cannot meet people’s needs and should have minimal involvement, so
individuals take responsibility for themselves. They favour marketisation of education (creating
education market where schools compete for pupils and funding) as this will raise education
standards.
Chubb and Moe: US state run education has failed as:
- Hasn't created equal opportunities and failed needs of disadvantaged groups
- Inefficient in producing pupils with skills needed for economy
- Private schools deliver high quality education as answerable to paying consumers
When comparing achievements of 60,000 pupils from low-income families in state and private high
schools, private pupils did 5% better than state pupils so they argue for a market system in state education
where control would be in consumers (parents) hands as this would allow them to shape schools to meet
their own needs and would improve quality and efficiency. they proposed a system where each family is
given a voucher to spend on buying education from a school of their choice, which would force schools to
become more responsive to parental wishes since vouchers would be their main income.
AO3
This would result in inequality as schools would opt to enrol the highest performing students which
tend to correlate with a higher social class to maintain their performance, resulting in lower social
class students not being admitted.
Real cause of low educational standards is due to social inequality and inadequate funding of state
schools.
However, TNR value the state imposing a framework on schools which they must compete (Ofsted and
league boards) and the state transmitting shared culture through imposing national curriculum, imposing a
single cultural heritage. They believe education should affirm national identity where curriculum
emphasise British values so oppose multicultural education that reflect cultures of minority groups.
AO3 of TNR
Gerwitz and Ball: competition benefits MC as able to use cultural and economic capital to gain
access to desirable schools
Marxists argue education doesn’t impose shared national culture but dominant white centric, ruling
class culture, devaluing WC and EM culture
Contradiction with TNR supporting parental choice whilst also supporting state imposing national
curriculum.
Marxism
Education only benefits capitalist class
Education system teaches children to accept hierarchy and inequality without question to develop
obedient workforce
Argue for ‘myth of meritocracy’ as meritocracy is an illusion
,Althusser’s ideological state apparatus
State helps RC maintain their position through:
1. Repressive state apparatus (RSA) – control through force like army and police
2. Ideological state apparatus (ISA) - control over ideas, values and beliefs through institutions like
education
Education transmits class inequality from gen to gen and justifies class inequality by persuading pupils that
it’s inevitable.
- Hidden curriculum – teach pupils to respect authority (future bosses) and be obedient worker
(follow rules without question)
- Official curriculum – transmits idea capitalism is fair (accept hierarchy)
Bowles and Gintis
Capitalism needs workface with attitudes and behaviour best suited to their role as alienated, exploited
workers. In their study of 237 NY high schools, schools reward personality traits of submissive, compliant
worker which they help to produce.
Correspondence Principle = schools mirrors workplace:
- Structured Timetables mirror working day (breaks, lunch)
- Motivated by rewards like good grades and punishments like detention mirror good pay and low
pay
- Obeying hierarchy mirrored through teachers and bosses
This because capitalism requires low-skilled workers willing to do alienating work on mass production lines,
depicting Fordism (large scale production with mass produced, identical products by an unskilled
workforce).
Willis’ learning to labour -> The Lads
Uncovered WC pupils can resist indoctrination attempts by studying the Lads counterculture an anti-school
subculture who:
Opposed school and drunk, smoked and truanted whilst believing that school is boring and
meaningless, and took ‘the piss’ out of girls and ear’oles (conformists who obey teachers)
- However, by opposing school, this backfired into them entering inferior, unskilled manual labour as
they normalised lacking fulfilment and boredom, here conveying that they still fulfilled capitalist
agenda
AO3 of Marxists
Bowles and Gintis are deterministic as assume pupils have no free will and are passive to
indoctrination but doesn’t explain why many reject school’s values
Postmodernists, Morrow and Torres criticise Marxists for taking a ‘class first’ approach, neglecting
other inequalities like ethnicity, gender and sexuality
Feminists, MacDonald argues Bowles and Gintis ignore that school reproduces patriarchy and
McRobbie critiques Willis’ study for excluding females.
, Post Modernists
State Marxists are outdated as society has entered a postmodern phase where class divisions are no longer
important, and society is now diverse and fragmented with the economy based on flexible specialisation
where production is customised for small niche markets –> post-Fordist system requires skilled adaptable
workforce able to use advanced technology.
Post-Fordism (small-scale production for niche markets with flexible, rained workforce) aim for an
education system that encourages self-motivation and creativity and must provide lifelong retraining due
to technological growth.
Education now has a variety of options ranging from A-levels to BTEC, T-levels that pupils can qualify in.
Lifelong learning is encouraged for people of all ages to remain educated and keep up with rapid
technological growth of post-Fordist society and most employers will have work-based training (NVQ).
There are many ranges of schools for pupils to attend including academies, free schools and UTCs but there
are allegations of corruption in academies. This depicts society becoming fragmented, so education system
must replicate this to meet the needs of individuals with policies like Tony Blair’s Curriculum 2000
illustrating this.
However, there are proposed policies that go against this, as evident in Rishi Sunak proposing all students
should undertake maths until age 18, removing choice and the undermining of BTECs as less academic
through Russell group universities not accepting BTECs on UCAS.
Feminists
March of progress in education as more females in high roles (headteacher), same uniform for all students
and acceptance of women undergoing further education (university)
However, acknowledge education system reinforces gender roles and maintain patriarchy through sports,
sexuality policed, phrases like 'strong boys’ justifying male power and dominance, devaluing women.
Norman: from early age, boys and girls dressed differently and encouraged to play with different toys
(canalisation)
Bryne: schools depict this through teachers encouraging boys to be tough while girls should be quiet,
helpful and tidy.
There are double standards in sexual morality as boys can boast about their sexual exploits while girls are
called ‘slags’ if they have many frequent partners or dress or speak differently to what’s traditionally
expected. Male gaze is where girls viewed as sexual objects by male colleagues (teachers, pupils), which is
a kind of social control keeping women subordinate to men.
Women subjected to glass ceiling at the workplace as prevented from reaching top positions at work,
conveying women’s subordination at work.
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