11 Critical Studies of Education

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Sociology of Education Unit 11 What critical theories of education have developed? Learning targets: • Neither Marxism or Functionalism offer good explanation of the education system. • Critical theorists have adapted Marxist ideas and developed them to explain educational inequality. • Neo-Marxists suggest that boys reject school for reasons of their own • Feminists see girls as victims of the education system Key questions (AO1) What are critical theories? (AO1) What do subcultural theories and feminists say about education? (AO2) What strengths and weaknesses are there to subcultural theories? (AO2) What strengths and weaknesses are there to feminist views of education? Summary of key points Functionalists have a view of education that seems optimistic and unrealistic to many sociologists. Marxists view the education system as being a form of mind control. Neither picture is entirely satisfactory. Sociologists have therefore looked at other ways of explaining how education works. These other theories are known as critical theories because they criticise society and attempt to change society itself and to examine how people look at the world. When studying education, the point is that pupils respond to their education in different ways. Some groups accept teachers' rules and authority unquestioningly, whilst others spend most of their time breaking the rules and avoiding work. In the 1970s, the media gave a great deal of attention to inner-city schools and to the misbehaviour of their pupils. This motivated sociologists such as Paul Willis to look into the reasons for the development of these working class groups of 'undisciplined' school pupils, or anti-school subcultures. Paul Willis's study entitled 'Learning to

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