This document provides an in-depth exploration of the interplay between gender, education, and policy, designed to support students aiming for academic excellence.
Key Features:
1. Detailed Analysis of Gender and Education:
• Explore how societal changes since the 1970s have influenced g...
Sociology 30 Markers consolidation:
Education: Paper 1
The role and functions of the education system:
Emile Durkheim (Functionalist, social solidarity)- Identified two main functions of education:
creating social solidarity and teaching specialist skills. Firstly, Durkheim argues that society needs a
sense of solidarity; that is, its individual members must feel themselves to be part of a single ‘body’
or community. He argues that without social solidarity, social life and cooperation would be
impossible because individuals would pursue their selfish interests rather than work towards
common goals. Education helps to instil shared norms and values, fostering a sense of belonging and
collective consciousness among members of society.”The education system helps to create social
solidarity by transmitting society’s culture- its shared beliefs and values- from one generation to the
next. For example, he argues that the teaching of a country’s history instils in children a sense of a
shared heritage and a commitment to the wider social group. School also acts as a ‘society in
miniature’, preparing us for life in wider society. For example, both in school and at work we have to
cooperate with people who are neither family nor friends- teachers and pupils at school, colleagues
and customers at work. Similarly, both in school and at work we have to interact with others
according to a set of impersonal rules that apply to everyone. Secondly, specialist skills. Modern
industrial economies have a complex division of labour, where the production of even a single item
usually involves the cooperation of many different specialists. This cooperation promotes social
solidarity but, for it to be successful, each person must have the necessary specialist knowledge and
skills to perform their role. Durkheim argues that education teaches individuals the specialist
knowledge and skills that they need to play their part in the social division of labour.
Eval (Wolf review of vocational education 2011)- This undermines Durkheim’s view that the
education system teaches specialist skills as it claims that high-quality apprenticeships are rare and
up to a third of 16-19 years olds are on courses that do not lead to higher education or even good
jobs.
Overemphasis on Consensus:
Criticism: Durkheim’s focus on social solidarity and the transmission of shared norms and values can
be seen as overly optimistic. It assumes a homogeneous society where everyone subscribes to the
same values, which may not reflect the reality of diverse, pluralistic societies.
Marxist Critique: Karl Marx and Louis Althusser argue that education serves to perpetuate (causes
something to carry on indefinitely) existing class structures rather than unify society. They contend
that the values transmitted in schools primarily reflect the interests of the ruling class, thus
maintaining social inequalities.
Neglect of Conflict and Inequality:
Criticism: Durkheim’s view largely ignores the ways in which education can reinforce social
inequalities. For instance, the curriculum and school practices might favor certain groups over
others, thus reproducing social stratification.
,Feminist Perspective: Feminists such as Anne Oakley and Heidi Hartmann point out that the
education system often perpetuates gender inequalities by promoting traditional gender roles and
expectations, which can limit the opportunities available to women and girls.
3. Limited View of Specialist Skills: Criticism: While Durkheim highlights the importance of specialist
skills for the economy, he may underestimate the role of critical thinking and creativity in modern
economies. An overemphasis on vocational training can neglect broader educational goals that are
also crucial for individual and societal development.
Contemporary Relevance: In today’s rapidly changing job market, the ability to adapt and think
critically is increasingly important. Therefore, education systems need to balance vocational training
with the development of these broader skills.
4. Functional Alternatives - Criticism: Durkheim’s perspective on education as the primary means of
socialization and skill development overlooks other important socializing agents, such as families,
peer groups, and media. These institutions also play a significant role in transmitting norms and
values and teaching necessary skills.
Interactionist View: Interactionists such as Howard beckher and Erving Goffman emphasise the
active role individuals play in interpreting and negotiating the meanings of their educational
experiences. This perspective highlights the variability in how different students experience and
respond to schooling.
Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore (Functionalist, role allocation)- Functionalists argue that schools
also perform the function of selecting and allocating pupils to their future work roles. By assessing
individuals’ aptitudes and abilities, schools help to match them to the job they’re best suited to.
Davis and Moore see education as a device for selection and role allocation. They focus on the
relationship between education and social inequality. They argue that inequality is necessary to
ensure that the most important role s in society are filled by the most talented people. For example,
it would be inefficient and dangerous to have less able people performing roles such as surgeon or
airline pilot. Not everyone is equally talented, so society has to offer higher rewards for these jobs.
This will encourage everyone to compete for them and society can select the most talented
individuals to fill these positions. Education plays a key part in this process, since it acts as a proving
ground for ability. Education is where individuals show what they can do. It ‘sifts and sorts’ us
according to our ability. The most able gain the highest qualifications, which then gives them entry
to the most important and highly rewarded positions.
Eval (Melvin Tumin)- Criticised them for putting forward a ‘circular argument’: how do we know a
job is important? Because it’s highly rewarded. Why are some jobs highly rewarded? Because they’re
important! This creates a loop where the importance of a job is justified by the reward it receives,
and the reward is justified by the job’s supposed importance, without providing any independent
criteria or evidence for either claim. This circular reasoning doesn’t actually explain why some jobs
are considered important or why they receive high rewards; it just repeats the same assertion in
different forms.
John Chubb and Terry Moe (New Right, consumer choice)- They argue that state-run education in
the United States has failed because: it has not created equal opportunity and has failed the needs
of disadvantaged groups, it is inefficient because it fails to product pupils with the skills needed by
, the economy, and private schools deliver higher quality education because they are answerable to
paying consumers (unlike with state schools). They based their arguments on a comparison of the
achievements of 60,000 pupils from low-income families in 1,015 state and private high schools,
together with the findings of a parent survey and case studies of ‘failing’ schools apparently being
‘turned around’. Their evidence shows that pupils from low-income families consistently do about
5% better in private than in state schools. Based on these findings, , Chubb and Moe call for the
introduction of a market system in state education that would put control in the hands of the
consumers (parents and local communities). They argue that this would allow consumers to shape
schools to meet their own needs and would improve quality and efficiency. To introduce a market
into state education, they proposed a system in which each family would be given a voucher to
spend on buying education from a school of their choice. This would force schools to become more
responsive to parents’ wishes, since the vouchers would be the school’s main source of income. Like
private businesses, schools would have to compete to attract ‘customers’ by improving their
‘product’. These principles are already at work in the private education sector, educational standards
overall however would be greatly improved by introducing the same market forces in the state
sector.
Eval (Sharon Gerwirtz and Stephan Ball)- They both argued that competition between schools
benefits the middle class who can use their cultural and economic capital to gain access to more
desirable schools.
Louis Althusser (Marxist, the ideological state apparatus)- Althusser believes in the ideological state
apparatus, which maintains the rule of the bourgeoise by controlling people’s ideas, values and
beliefs. The education system is an important ISA, he argues it had two functions: to reproduce class
inequality (by transmitting it from generation to generation, by failing each successive generation of
working-class pupils in turn), and through legitimising inequality (by producing ideologies that
disguise its true cause; the function of ideology is to persuade workers to accept that inequality in
inevitable and that they deserve their subordinate position in society, and if they accept these ideas
they’re less likely to challenge or threaten capitalism).
Eval (Raymond Morrow and Carlos Torres, Postmodernists)- Argues that society is now more
diverse. They see non-class inequalities, such as ethnicity, gender and sexuality, as equally
important. They argue sociologists must explain how education reproduces and legitimises all forms
of inequality, not just class, and how different forms of inequality are inter-related.
Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis (Marxist, correspondence principle and hidden curriculum)-
They argue that capitalism requires a workforce with the kinds of attitudes, behaviour and
personality-type suited to their role as alienated and exploited workers, willing to accept hard work,
low pay and orders from above. From their study of 237 New York high school students and the
findings of other studies, they concluded that schools reward precisely the kind of personality traits
that make for a submissive, compliant worker, like how they found pupils who showed
independence and creativity tended to gain low grades, and those who showed obedience were
rewarded. They also argue there are close parallels between schooling and work in capitalist society.
Both schools and workplaces are hierarchies, with head teachers or bosses at the top making
decisions and giving orders, and workers or pupils at the bottom obeying. Schooling takes place in
the ‘long shadow of work’. This is known as the ‘correspondence principle’; the relationships and
structures found in education mirror or correspond to those of work. The correspondence principle
operates through the hidden curriculum- that is, all the ‘lessons’ that are learnt in school without
being directly taught. For example, simply through the everyday workings of the school, pupils
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