The role of education is to educate individuals within society and to prepare and qualify them for work in the economy as well as helping to integrate individuals into society and teach them the norms, values and morals of society. Yet there are three sociological theories that differ greatly between them on the role of education. These are Functionalism, Marxism and Liberalism.
Functionalists view the role of education as a means of socialising individuals and to integrate society, to keep society running smoothly and remain stable. Emile Durkheim, creator of the Organic Analogy, was a functionalist during the 1870’s. Durkheim believes that society can only survive if its members are committed to common social values and that education provides these to children and young people as well as raising awareness of their commitment to society. Durkheim also believed that schools teach young people that they must co-operate with their peers and be prepare to listen to and learn from their teachers. Individual pupils eventually learn to suspend their own self interests for those of society as a whole, work together and that success in education, just like in society, involves commitment to a value consensus. Similarly, Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, functionalists during the 1970’s, believed that education is strongly linked to social stratification by members of society and that education ‘sifts, sorts and allocates’ people to their correct place in the economy and society. By rewarding the most talented and most dedicated by allowing them into the highest paid and highest status jobs, education performs the function which is always necessary to Functionalists – differentiating all members of society so that the system runs smoothly.
Like the functionalists, Marxists agree that education is functional in that it maintains the dominance of certain powerful groups in society. Unlike the functionalists, however, Marxists do not believe that it works for the benefit of all. Instead Marxists argue that the education system sustains one small group’s ideas about appropriate forms of schooling and assumptions about what knowledge is. The system also maintains different levels of access to knowledge for different groups and thereby prohibits the widespread dissemination of knowledge to everyone. Bowles and...
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...cess in the economy of an individual is not always linked to success in school as well as the hidden curriculum being to restrictive as it does not allow society to gain a sense of self. The Marxist view that when the working class develops a class consciousness and realise that they are being exploited they will gather together to create a social revolution and overthrow capitalism and seize back the ruling class wealth and assets, does not apply to modern British society as there are very few people as the underdogs Marx describes are very few as the majority of society is fairly well off. Equally, the Liberalist view of the role of education is not applicable to modern British society as the majority of children are not yet ready for the responsibility to teach themselves, nor is society on a whole ready to accept the liberalists views on education. For these reasons Marxism is most applicable to modern British society as it takes into account the hierarchy within society and the inability to apply meritocracy due to our capitalist society. Therefore Marxism is the theory that has the most in common with modern British society and the theory most likely to apply to our society.
The validity of Marxist political theory has been seriously challenged by the realities of European civilization, both during the inter-war years and especially after WWII. The threat has been two-fold; on the one hand, was the refusal of capitalism to fail, a failure that Marxists had been predicting as immanent ever since the mid-twentieth century; on the other, was the failure of the Soviet Union to build a successful or humane society. Marxists living in the West, beyond the reach of Soviet suppression, have attempted to develop a comprehensive theory more in tune with the complexities of contemporary society than Classical Marxism.
Functional theory is the defined as a framework for building theory that sees society complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Augusta Comte and Herbert Spence looked at society as a living organism. For example, an animals or person has organs that function together so does society. Organic solidarity is social unity based on a division of labor that results in people depending on each other. Emile Durkheim developed organic solidarity to explain individuals’ workers to specific bodily organs and a group of people to a body. Different bodily organs serve different functions, without these organs the body would die, and so would the individual organs. Some of the different functions are education, religion, economics, and family. In a society individual workers perform different kinds of labor, without which society could not function, nor could individual workers succeed.
Derived from the works of Durkheim Functionalism theory emphasizes the role each social institution plays in society and how society as a whole seek equilibrium when one dysfunctions. His idea was that society is more than the sum of its parts similar to how each organ serves a specific role and contributes to the body as a whole that is how social institutions work in society. High school for example is one of the major social institutions of society serving the primarily purpose of education. In High school the primary goal is to prepare students for extended education after graduation such as college or a technology oriented school. If students do not wish to attend any further educational institutions they can instead fill in service and minimal skill jobs in society. On a smaller scale high schools also aims to give students a more extensive overview of sexual education and contraceptive or abstinence approaches to sexual relations. Since education up to a high school level is mandatory in the United States high school provides a common ground and minimal standard for society educationally speaking. Without educated and well informed voters our system of government would fail due to the major part voters have in government decisions. If we had fewer people entering the higher level workforce since they didn’t continue with their education past high school our soc...
From the functionalist's view, society is a system that all components can be worked and functioned together to create complete society as a whole part. In other words, a society needs the culture to exist and cultural function to operate and support the society. What’s more, cultural values give people chance to make choices on their own. Members in a society work together to fulfill the society’s needs, culture let members meet their basic needs. Functionalists also studied the cultural values, especially the education. Education plays an important role in the western countries. The culture of education, such as libraries and textbooks, supports the value of people’ education in a society. (Theoretical Perspectives on Culture, n.d.)
To academic bias, a long section of the film is devoted the teaching of economics and which theories of economics should be taught. As presented in the movie, by virtue of being taught, different theories represent a bias in and of itself. Student Charles Mitchell makes the unusual statement that Marxist study is a “value judgment.” To me, this is not a new breakthrough in thought: it could be argued that all education, throughout history, has been biased based on what has been taught.
Functional Literacy and the Working Class, technically belong to the social lower classes, and the individuals are just mandated to learn the minimal skills for dayli life survival. In Functional Literacy and Working Classs, the participants are being taught in a rigid way without any type af allowance to try other options or be creative. They are designed to function by followint the directions and play an especific role that has been choosen for them. And we can confifm this argument through the author's words in the article when she said "Work is often evaluated not according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps" (Anyon, 1980, p.3). Continueing to compare Knoblauch defitions with Anyon's types of classes we have the Cultural Literacy and the Middle Class. The Cultural Literacy promotes the awareness of cultural heritage, "citizens must learn to speak and write decorously, as well as functionally, and must also read great books," (Knoblauch, 1990, p.4) and the oportunity to a thinking level above the Functional Literacy. The Middles Class students get thier knowledge from the books, and the are there to support them. They are allowed to think or to
Marxism is a method of analysis based around the concepts developed by the two German philosophers Karl Marx and Fredrich Engel, centered around the complexities of social-relations and a class-based society. Together, they collaborated their theories to produce such works as The German Ideology (1846) and The Communist Manifesto (1848), and developed the terms ‘’proletariat’ and ’bourgeois’ to describe the working-class and the wealthy, segmenting the difference between their respective social classes. As a result of the apparent differences, Marxism states that proletariats and bourgeoisie are in constant class struggle, working against each other to amount in a gain for themselves.
The structural-functionalist perspective looks at society as a complex system composed of various parts much like a living organism. Each aspect of society contributes to society's functioning as a whole. Social institutions play a key role in keeping a society stable. All societies need certain things to survive (Newman 2010).
There are many distinct institutions which correspond to the different roles that appear in society. As time change, it seem that certain institutions stand out from the rest, and in this case education serves as an essential component in society. Educational institutions play an important role in influencing the choices of individuals from their early childhood; presenting people with the objectives and values that are instilled by society. Education impacts individuals, groups, and society, whether it’s a positive or negative one. The Conflict Theory by Karl Marx will serve as tool to explain the points in this paper.
In order to critically evaluate Marxism and its relevance it’s important to have an in-depth knowledge of the principles of Marxism and some of the key Neo-Marxist theories it inspired. Marxism is the brain child of Karl Marx (1818-83). The ideals of Marxism were influenced by the conditions of the working class of the nineteenth century. It puts human suffering and class poverty at the centre of analysis and explanation of world systems. In this respect it regards classes as the ‘key’ actors in International Relations and as class conflict as the main form of conflict opposed to war or economic competition.
Emile Durkheim’s Functionalist Theory is predicated on the ideologies that society is composed of components that are dependent on each other. Auguste Comte developed functionalism; Durkheim compared society to the human body. The body consists of different, interrelated organs that support it to survive; society consists of different workings that enable it to survive. There is a state of stability within society and if any component of that society alters it will reorganize itself to maintain stability. Functionalism will interpret the components of society in terms of contributions to the stability of the whole society. Social accord, direction and integration are paramount views of functionalism; society will endure and grow due to the shared norms and values; all individuals have a goal and vested interest to conformity and thus conflict is minimized (Pope, 1975).
The functionalist view of social stratification is being inevitable and also to perform a positive function for society. Their argument for this is that an unequal distribution of rewards and privileges found in the class system allows for its most talented members to be attracted from society and put in the most important roles (Davis and Moore). Howe...
One can gain insight through participation and observations of lectures. The concepts that I grasped are based on the individuality and interest of various topics and how I perceive them. Through taking the course of Sociology of Education I have been able to read and conceptualize how prominent education is in the United States; therefore projecting that education is an important tool the modern world correlates with success. Individuals that subject themselves to receiving an education through research validate that they can reach their optimal potential. Sociology of Education covered vast areas of vital informations which put educations and its functions into perspectives by stages.
It allows people to gain knowledge on skills society deems important like the three R’s, which are, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Education also prepares young people on entry into adulthood and is therefore a form of socialization. An education system was developed in order for every child to be able to know basic skill sets before having to be on their own. This is a way to partially guarantee that the general populous of a society is educated on all the same basic functions. It allows a society to run more efficiently and effectively if everyone knows a standard amount of skills. Surprisingly, a basic education for all is a relatively new system. Before the 19th century, education was only reserved for the rich, white, upper class. Most jobs back then did not require an education or the ability to read and write. Education overall has had many positive effects on people’s lives. It is directly linked to the type of job a person has and the amount of money they make. For the most part, the better a person’s occupational status, the higher likelihood of a greater formal education, and with a better occupational status comes a better
Education is a vital part of society. It serves the beneficial purpose of educating our children and getting them ready to be productive adults in today's society. But, the social institution of education is not without its problems. Continual efforts to modify and improve the system need to be made, if we are to reap the highest benefits that education has to offer to our children and our society as a whole.