Sociology Education assignment 1 Using material from item A and elsewhere assess the view that the education system exists mainly to prepare young people for their future work roles. (20 marks) Functionalist would agree with the original statement they see the education system as performing useful functions for society there are four that are thought as the most important they are maintaining social solidarity, teaching specialised skills, secondary socialisation and role allocation. On the other hand Marxists believe the education system is an ideological state apparatus. Marxists also believe there is a correspondence between school and work and of the counter school culture. Functionalism is a sociological theory society has certain basic needs the most important of which is social order.
Education is in the middle of the bridge. Education is an agency of secondary socialisation, it teaches us the norms and values within wider society and it also teaches us the skills we need for future occupational roles as well as providing us with qualifications. Functionalists argue that society is an organic analogy, meaning that society works like a human body and that everything is in consensus with each other. For example, the human organs work together to achieve consensus, just like society does with citizens, authority, norms, values etc. Durkheim argues that there are two main functions of education, these are social solidarity and specialised skills.
Assess the contribution of functionalism to our understanding of families and households Functionalists believe that society is held together by social consensus; shared norms and values into which society socialises its members, in order to achieve what is best for society as a whole. The functionalist theory views the family as a social institution that performs certain essential functions for the benefit of the society (not the individual). The family is the backbone of society and if it fails to carry out the functions and pass on certain values and attitudes to its members, the family is labelled as dysfunctional and society is affected as a result. Thus, functionalists argue that the family is vital to society, helping to maintain order and stability. George Murdock (1949), a well-known functionalist, argues that the family performs four essential functions to meet the needs of society and its members.
Many sociologists have studied the role of education and argued that the education helps its members in ways such as language and academic skills. Emile Durkheim the founder of functionalist sociology identified two main functions of education. These were the role of social solidarity and how schools teach specialist skills. Firstly Durkheim argued the role of social solidarity this is that the individual members must feel themselves part of a single body or community. He argues that without social solidarity, social life would be impossible as everyone would pursue their own selfish desires and not work together to get what they want out of life.
Assess the view that the function of the education system is to select and prepare individuals for their future work roles. Both Marxists and Functionalists agree that education is an institution of socialization to prepare individuals for future work roles, however they both have very different views on the extent to how well it works. This essay will explore those ideas. Functionalists say education is like training for working life, it is based on universalistic standards that will prepare children for their future by channeling norms and values to them through schooling. Parsons used the metaphor of education as a ‘bridge’ to work based on meritocratic principles.
Emile Durkheim, a leading Functionalist, believed that different institutions in different cultures teach us norms and values that make up our identity and personality. Our actions result in consensus of norms and values, which then gives us a sense of social order and installs order in society through man’s actions. Through culture, social order is achieved and individuals can begin to develop their personal qualities. However, Functionalists base their ideas on a traditional society, as opposed to today’s more multi-cultural society and this is a point to which Postmodernists disagree with. Other theories also have the idea that the Functionalists are exaggerating the consensus in society.
Functionalism is a structuralist theory that looks at society as a structure. They see society as more important than the individual, it is their belief that the individual are the product of society, the person is shaped by the norms and values that society teaches. Functionalists see religion, family, the political system and education as part of a complex system that has all the necessary parts in order to keep the system going. The modern day functionalism began with the work of Émile Durkheim. He started the work of positivism; this was biological analogies to explain how society should function.
However, other perspectives (such as Marxism and the New Right) would have different-not necessarily opposing- views. To begin with, one view on the role of education is that it acts as a ‘bridge between the family and wider society’ which is shown in Item A. This is because Education helps ease transitions between family life and society. For example, Talcott Parsons argues that this is the case because in the family there are particularistic standards, which means the child is judged on standards that apply only to them. On top of this, the child’s status within the family is ascribed because it’s what they’re born in to.
Education acts as a bridge between primary socialisation and secondary socialisation, therefore teaching us to adopt the same norms and values and socialising young people into the basic values of society. If education teaches a consensus then it teaches all the values and mannerisms that haven’t been learnt at home, for the wider world. This helps the transmission from one to the other. A criticism of this theory is that this theory could appear to be an ‘over-socialised view’ on society and the education system. It also implies that all students will agree and comply with the norms and values when that is not the case, the transmission of norms and values may not always be successful some pupils will openly reject them.
See, I wanna discover meself first.” This quote supports the idea that Rita believes that there’s more to life then what she is doing at the moment, she believes that in order to discover herself and her path in life she needs to further her knowledge and become more educated. Russell uses education as an influence to help bring about these important changes in Rita’s life suggesting the education is highly valued in terms of being able to get somewhere in life. Russell presents the idea that without a large and intelligent sum of knowledge it is hard to achieve your dreams in life or achieve anything further than just settling down and living the expected lifestyle of your social class. Another way Russell presents the value of education is through Frank’s apprehension in teaching Rita. When Rita first comes into Franks office, he is shocked by her willingness to learn having being used to dealing with students whom would rather be anywhere other than his classroom although he doesn’t appear to be please by Rita’s attitude in fact he seems intimidated by her eagerness.