Transcript The Function of Education

The Function of Education
The Functionalist View
The Marxist View
7/17/2015
Andy Walker Learning Online
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A Functionalist view of
Education
 Functionalists view education in terms of the “functions”
it performs in society. This implies a non conflict view of
society
 Functionalists believe there are four main functions of
education
 the transmission of cultural values
 social control
 economic training
 social selection
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Transmission of cultural
Values
 Sociologists such as Durkheim and Parsons
emphasise this role.
 Parsons suggests school provides a bridge between
family and society at which universal values such as;
equality of opportunity, competition, individualism and
achievement are promoted. The school therefore
transmits the core values of society
 Durkheim identifies particular subjects as important in
enabling children to feel a sense of belonging to society
viz. History, English, Religious education.
 Cultural transmission is reinforced by other agencies family, mass media etc.
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Social Control
 Functionalists argue every society has a need to
regulate the activities of citizens to some extent
 School teaches us about acceptable and unacceptable
behaviour
 School also teaches a knowledge and acceptance of the
political and economic system in which we live
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Economic Training
 Functionalist argue that schools produce an adequate
supply of sufficiently trained labour for the modern
economy
 As the economy becomes more complex education must
provide a labour force to meet those needs
 Thus the “New Vocationalism” of the Conservatives in
the 1980s and 1990s was an acknowledgement that
perhaps this important function was not being
adequately carried out by schools.
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Social Selection
 Functionalists such as Davis and Moore suggest that an
important function of education is to allocate people to
occupations which best suit their abilities
 The exam system tests and sorts societies citizens in
such a way that society makes best use of its available
talents
 Both the talented and the less talented end up in useful
jobs that contribute to the smooth running of society.
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A critique of the functionalist
view
 The functionalist position suggests that everyone
benefits from the functions carried out by the education
system
 Conflict theories such as the Marxist approach argue
that this is not the case. Rather education is seen as
part of the apparatus that legitimises and reproduces
societies inequalities and divisions
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Examples of the Marxist
approach
 Louis Althusser sees the role of education as ideological.
 Capitalist values are promoted via the hidden curriculum
(informal learning)
 Althusser argue working class children never come into
contact with ways of thinking that challenge the status
quo. Capitalism is thus portrayed as the only possible
system
 Through rules, routines streaming and selection working
class children learn their “place” in society and are
conditioned to accept failure
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Bowles and Gintis
In “Schooling in Capitalist society” Bowles and
Gintis claim that schools reward conformity over
intelligence and achievement
In their study of American high school students
they found that the best grades were achieved
by hard working obedient children rather than
the creative, aggressive and independent ones
They also noted that schooling “corresponds”
with boring factory line production to prepare
future workers for their lot in society
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Marxists and the new
Vocationalism
Marxists have been especially critical of
this
Vocational schemes are interpreted as
helping legitimise class division because
they promote the idea that the middle
class receive education whereas the
working class receive training
EG Phil Cohen’s critique of YTS
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Conclusion
Functionalism is a non conflict model
Marxism is a conflict model
They are both structuralist in their approach,
paying attention to social institutions and
structures over individuals
They pay little attention to the interaction
between teachers and pupils or how teachers
and pupils interpret what is going on in schools
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