Education with Methods in context
Topic 1-
Role and purpose of education in contemporary society
major agency of secondary socialisation in advanced contemporary societies.
Sociologist perspectives on the role of education in society
Functionalists- Concerned with the links between education and other social institutions
(Family & Workplace)
See education as an important agency od socialisation to help maintain social
stability and social cohesion
Key in preparing young people for adulthood, citizenship and working life, providing
them means for improving their lives and life chances through upward social
mobility
Durkheim and Parsons (Four basic functions of education)
Passing on societies culture and building social solidarity - Education meets a key
functional prerequisite by passing on the central or core values and culture of a
society, this is achieved by the hidden curriculum and actual subjects. Citizenship
and PSHE are said to unite people and build social solidarity by giving them shared
values
Providing a bridge between particularistic values and ascribed status of the family
and the universalistic values and achieved status - (Durkheim) Schools are a small-
scale version of society that provides young people for life. (Parsons) schools are
important places of secondary socialisation providing a bridge between
particularistic values and universalistic values and achieved status which are based of
the values of meritocracy
Developing Human Capital- expansion of schooling and Higher Education is
necessary to provide a properly trained and flexible labour force, which arises from
the specialised division of labour. The education system prepares the labour force
and makes sure the best and most qualified people end up getting the jobs requiring
greatest skill.
, Selecting and allocating people for roles in a meritocratic society and legitimizing
social inequality- (Davis & Moore) The education system is a means of selecting or
sifting people for different levels of the job market. In a meritocratic society access
to jobs depends of educational skills and talents. Davis and Moore state in the
educational race for success there is equality of educational opportunity and
everyone who has the talent and ability and puts in the effort has an equal chance of
coming out ahead.
New Right- Education should be concerned with training the workforce making sure the
most able students have their talents developed and are recruited into the most important
jobs while others are prepared for lower level employment.
Chubb & Moe- an education system controlled by state and local authorities is the
not the best means of achieving these aims as it imposes a single type of school
regardless of the needs or wishes of the parent/local communities.
There should be a free market in education with a range of different types of
independently managed schools
Schools should be run like a private business tailored to the needs of local
communities (marketisation)
Marxists- Education is a means of social control which encourages young people to become
conformists, to accept their social position and not do anything to upset the current pattern
of inequality in power, wealth and income.
Althusser: education as an ideological state apparatus- Main role of education in a capitalist
society as the reproduction of an efficient and obedient labour force, this consists of the
reproduction of necessary technical skills and the reproduction of the ruling class ideology.
Althusser: the process of persuasion is carried out by several ideological state
apparatuses (Family, media, law, religion, education system)
School is the main ideological state apparatus as it passes on the ruling class ideology
justifying the capitalist system, selects people for the different social classes as
adults, workers are persuaded to accept and submit to exploitation, managers and
administrators to rule.
Bourdieu: reproduction of class inequalities - Key role of the education systems in
capitalist societies as legitimising class inequalities and reproducing the class structure.
, Each social class possess its own cultural framework or set of ideas (Habitus)
Habitus is picked up through socialisation within the family
Dominant class has power to impose its own habitus on the education system
Those who come from better off middle- and upper-class backgrounds have more
access to the culture of the dominant class (Cultural Capital)
Lower social classes do not in general possess cultural capital, therefore educational
failure is inevitable
Success and failure are really based on the possession of cultural capital as the
education system devalues working class culture and regards it as inferior to upper
and middle class culture, this then makes it more difficult for pupils from lower social
classes to succeed In the education system while upper and middle class pupils have
a built in advantage.
The education system legitimises and reproduces social class inequalities from one
generation to the next.
Illich & Freire; schooling, repression and hegemonic control
Schools are repressive institutions which promote conformity and encourage
students into passive acceptance of existing inequalities and the interests of the
powerful, rather than encouraging them to be critical and to think for themselves.
Schools do this by rewarding those who accept school regime with qualifications and
access to higher level education and better jobs. Those who do not conform are
excluded from further progress in education and end up in lower level jobs.
Freire; Schools are repressive institutions where learners are conditioned to accept
oppressive relations of domination and subordination and to listen to their betters.
Education system plays a main role in producing the hegemony and hegemonic
control of the ruling class, convincing the rest of society to accept the truth and
superiority of the ruling class’s set of ideas.
Bowles & Gintis; schooling and the long shadow of work
The major role of education is the reproduction of labour power, a hard-working
submissive workforce
This workplace is reproduced through the hidden curriculum and the similarity
between the social relationships at school and work, and throughout the
legitimisation of inequality and class structure
The world of work influences the organisation of education, this is like work casting a
long shadow over education with the hidden curriculum in schools responding
closely to many features of the workplace
The education system helps to maintain and justify the system of social inequality
Helps the people come to terms with their own position in it
, Helps reduce the discontent and opposition to inequality
Social class background, ethnicity and gender are the main factors related to success
or failure in education and job market
See equality of opportunity and meritocracy as myths that promote the idea that
failure in education arises from lack of ability or hard work.
Criticisms of Althusser, Bourdieu, Illich & Freire, Bowls & Gintis
Lack of detailed research into schools B&G and A assume the hidden curriculum is
influencing pupils.
Despite I&F pupils often have little regard for teachers’ authority, school rules and
discipline
B&G, I&F ignore some influences of the normal curriculum, the humanities subjects
produce critical thinkers while work related courses remain of relatively low status.
Employers often complain that the education system does not produce the well
qualified and conformist workers with suitable skills as suggested
They tend to be deterministic in the sense that they assume that people have no real
ability to make choices or have control over what happens to them.
Willis; Neo-Marxist (1977)
Learning to labour how working-class kids get working class jobs, helps to overcome some of
the weaknesses of more traditional Marxists approach. Willis adopts a Marxist approach but
also draws on the interactionalist perspective.
Schools do not produce a willing and obedient work force, students do not always
obey teachers, they can be disruptive and challenge the school.
It is easy to understand why MC young people willingly go into secure and well-paid MC
jobs
More difficult to explain is why working-class people go so willingly into dead end, low
paying, boring manual working class jobs.
Willis studied a group of 12 WC male pupils “the Lads”
They developed an anti-school subculture opposed to the main aims of the school,
they attached little value to the aims of the school, such as gaining qualifications.
The main priority was to free themselves from the school, disrupt lessons, to have a
laugh and to get into the world of work asap. They did not see school as relevant to
them
