The sociology of education

Revision Workshop

THE ROLE OF EDUCATION

Role of educationwhat are the questions all about?

• Who benefits from education? – individual, society, a powerful minority?

• How is education linked to the economy?

• What do we learn in school and why?

Functionalist View of Education

(consensus)

Basic Functionalist concepts

• Value consensus• Socialisation• Social order• Social integration• Functional

prerequisites• Organic analogy

• Positive contribution of institutions

• Shared values• Fairness• competition

Durkheim – ‘linking individuals

to society’• People learn to ‘feel’

part of a larger group (conscience collective)

• Teaching ‘social rules’ that apply to all (norms/values and expectations)

• Specialist work skills (division of labour)

Parsons – ‘values and fit’

• Schools teach ‘universal values’

• All judged fairly by a common standard

• Value consensus achieved by education

• Role allocation – pupils matched to roles that fit abilities

Davis & Moore – ‘meritocracy’

• Some individuals have greater talents

• Different social positions require different talents

• The most able need to fill the more demanding roles

• Schools identify the most able and ensure that they are trained for demanding tasks

• Greatest rewards = most able

Davis

Moore

Overall – education is beneficial

• Unifies people

• Maintains social order

• Teaches work skills

• Bridges home and outside world

• Role allocation

• Meritocracy

Critique of functionalist view

• Interactionists note – education is a two-way process – choice – negotiate meaning

• Is there a shared agreement on a shared set of values being supported by school?

• Many school subjects are irrelevant – do not teach work skills

• Why do class inequalities persist if schools are really meritocratic?

• Schools ‘crush individuals’ into conformity

The Marxist view of education(conflict)

Basic Marxist Concepts

• Class conflict• Ideological

conditioning• False consciousness• Agent of reproduction• Social control• exploitation

• Power• Correspondence

principle• Hidden curriculum

Karl Marx

He never really exploredthis topic, but would emphasise:

• Ideological conditioning• Reproducing social

relations of production• Legitimation of social

order and maintaining class divisions in society

Louis Althusser

• School is an ‘ideological state apparatus’

• Pupils learn:Deference/submission ‘a smokescreen’ – so

we cannot see inequality and the lie of meritocracy

Bowles & Gintis – Schooling in Capitalist America

Bowles

• The correspondence principle

• The hidden curriculum

• Social reproduction

• The illusion of meritocracy

Gintis

The correspondence principle

Capitalist economy education

boss headteacher

worker pupil

Social Reproduction

Schools ensure that future workers learn their

place in capitalist society!

The working class learn their roles as workers.

The hidden curriculum

• ‘the norms,values and attitudes within the organisation of the school’

• What we learn besides formal lessons

• How schools mould, shape and control our beliefs and actions

Hidden Curriculum (ctd)

Schools create ‘good workers’:• Conformist• Docile• Obedient• Punctual• Respect authority• Believe in hierarchy• Be instrumental – accept

work as boring

Hidden curriculum and work• School rules,detentions, merits,

prizes

• School assemblies

• Competitive games/sports day

• Respect authority of teachers

• Be punctual to lessons

• Complete boring tasks at school

• Value hard work/achievement

• Grading by ability – success and failure

• Promote conformity and encourage obedience

• Mass conformity,respect for authority

• Competitive in the work place

• Respect employers without question

• Respect time at work

• Put up with boring work

• Work hard/be industrious

• Differences in pay at work

The myth of meritocracy

• Schools are not meritocratic

• The middle classes have more opportunity

• Schools teach working class pupils to blame themselves for social failure (instead of society)

Another Brick in the Wall?We don't need no education

We don't need no thought controlNo dark sarcasm in the classroomTeachers leave them kids alone

Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!All in all it's just another brick in the

wall.All in all you're just another brick in the

wall.We don't need no education

We don't need no thought controlNo dark sarcasm in the classroomTeachers leave them kids alone

Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!All in all it's just another brick in the

wall.All in all you're just another brick in the

wall.

Criticisms of Bowles and Gintis

• Does capitalism really want docile workers?

• The hidden curriculum isn’t so hidden anymore

• Many pupils do not accept their treatment by schools – rebellion – choice

• How do capitalists control the curriculum? (a bit of a conspiracy theory!)

Paul Willis – Learning to Labour

• Neo-Marxist (blended Marxism & labelling)

• Saw Bowles & Gintis as too deterministic

• Many working class pupils ‘rejected school values/ideology’

• They are still destined for ‘working class’ jobs

Counter school culture and shop floor culture

Counter school culture

• Feeling superior to teachers

• Look down on conformist students

• No value to schoolwork

• Avoid doing work (skiving)

• Have a ‘laff’/distractions

• Win ‘symbolic space’

• Sexist/racist/macho behaviour

• Manual work better than academic ‘cissy work’

Shop floor culture

• Feeling superior to bosses

• Look down on conformist workers

• No value to work

• Avoid doing work (skiving)

• Have a ‘laff’/distractions

• Win ‘symbolic space’

• Sexist/racist/macho behaviour

• The value of manual work

Overall – education serves capitalism

• It reproduces social inequality and divides people (unifies is a myth)

• Social order is more a case of social control and conditioning (hegemony)

• Schools are not meritocratic• Schools ensure that we accept the social order as

it is (legitimation)• Working class take on blame for their social

failure

Liberal Views of Education

• Education meeting the needs of the individual

• Individual skills• Progressive learning• Self-discovery

John Dewey•Encourage individuals to fulfil their potential

•Develop the ‘whole child’

•Critical of ‘rote learning’ of facts - exam factories

•Need ‘experiential learning’ through doing (praxis)

•Motivate pupils to be critical and challenge world (vital for democracy)

Ivan Illich – Deschooling Society

• Schools are bureaucratic – like factories

• Individuality is crushed• Conformity promoted• Abolish schools• Learn alongside mentors• Not follow a stifling

curriculum

Views on….

For

• Functionalism• New Right

Against

• Marxism• Liberals

National curriculum

Views on…

For

• Functionalism• New Right• Liberals

Against

• Marxism

Vocational Education

Why functionalists are for vocational education…

• Promotes work values• Bridge home and real world of work• Social order/integration• Organic analogy• Encourage and support competition - meritocracy• Motivated workforce• Role allocation

Why Marxists are against vocational education…

• Conditions workers to fill roles• Agent of social reproduction• Ensures workers are docile and obedient – a

form of hidden curriculum• Trainees are a cheap pool of labour• Schools should be about enabling

individuals to be creative and not just prepare them for work

So what do you think?.....

• Schools develop skills?

• Schools bind people/unity?

• Schools empower people?

• Schools help us be able to get jobs?

• Schools brainwash us?

• Schools maintain the power of capitalists?

• Schools make us conform?

Past Questions

‘Explain briefly what is meant by ‘reproduction of social class inequality’

(2 marks)‘Suggest three functions of education….’

(6 marks)

‘Explain what is meant by the ‘hidden curriculum’ (2 marks)

‘Examine the different fucntions performed by the education system’

(20 marks)

‘Suggest two ways in which school mirrors features of the workplace’

(4 marks)

‘Examine the Marxist view that the role of education is to reproduce and justify the existing class structure’ (20 marks)

‘Explain what is meant by meritocracy’

(2 marks)

‘Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the Functionalist explanation of the role of education in modern society’

(20 marks)