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streghth of functionalism in education
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The ‘Oxford English Dictionary,’ defines education as:
The UK’s education system has seen many reforms aiming to improve opportunities for children. Education was once a supreme priviledge, of which only the rich members of society would receive the right to. A significant change in the form of The Forsters Education Act 1870 began to address this, with the introduction of free compulsory schooling. At present, in England and Wales, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) states that:
The UK is a democratic, multicultural and diverse nation, which prides itself on equality. Each local authority is responsible for providing and funding a cross-national education for all children from five to sixteen years old. Based on this information, it would be reasonable to suggest that there is no inequality in education, because the law aims to provide the same opportunities through a universal system. In retrospect the reality seems to be very different. Through evaluating sociological perspectives and theoretical and empirical research, this essay will analyse the inequalities within the education system and how it affects society.
Overall, society places much importance on education, often regarding it as the main source of social mobility. Functionalist, Talcott Parsons (1959) believes the most important part of secondary socialisation is education, as it serves to pass on the norms and values of wider society which apply outside of the home. Functionalists argue that there is no inequality, since education is free and provides a formal curriculum of core subjects, such as: English; Maths; and Science. Parsons claims the education system passes on vital information and evaluates everyone through the same competiti...
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...tionally and these inequalities continue, although it does indicate that there is an element of bringing about equality beyond the meritocratic system. It is hard to envisage a Britain without an education system; however the survival of the meritocratic system by which success is measured is not so certain.
Works Cited
Haralambos, M. & Holborn, M. (1991) Sociology Themes and Perspectives. 3rd Ed. Harper Collins, London. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/education http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-and-guidance/before-the-equality-act/guidance-for-students-pre-october-2010/getting-into-education/the-right-to-education/ http://www.sociology.org.uk/sc_shop_pdf/sc_AS4AQA_educate_e.pdf http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072824301/student_view0/chapter15/chapter_summary.html
http://www.barnardos.org.uk/breakfast_clubs_report.pdf
Kendall, D., Linden, R., & Murray, J. L. (2008). Sociology in our times: The essentials (4th Cdn
The issue of equality in education is not a new problem. In 1787, our federal government required all territories petitioning for statehood to provide free education for all citizens. As part of this requirement, every state constitution included, “an education clause, which typically called for a “thorough and efficient” or “uniform” system of public schools” (School Funding 6). Despite this requirement, a “uniform” system of schools has yet to be achieved in this country for a variety of reasons, many of which I will discuss later on. During the early part of th...
Kendall, D., Linden, R., & Murray, J. L. (2008). Sociology in our times: the essentials. Toronto,
A second piece of education policy that could be said to have a main aim of reducing social class inequality is The Education Act of 1944. Before this, only the middle class children could go to grammar schools and receive prestigious education due to the cost. However, The Education Act of 1944 introduced the 11+ exam and the ‘Tri-partite system’. All children sat the 11+ exam. Those who passed could go to grammar school, those who failed went to secondary moderns, and those with special abilities went to the secondary technicals. This meant that even if a working class child didn’t have any money, but successfully sat the 11+ exam, they could then go onto grammar school. Although at face value it looks as though this policy is reducing social class inequality, the 11+ exam and the Tri-partite system have been criticised. This is because the 11+ exam was seen as being biased in favour of middle class pupils. In addition, there was supposed to be a parity of esteem between the 3 schools. However, Grammar schools were deemed much better. Further to this, working class children who secured a place at a grammar school by passing the 11+ exam couldn’t even go anyway, as the price of various uniform and sports attire was too much. In response to this, in 1965, Comprehensive education was introduced. This sys...
The Education system of England and Wales underwent a number of important changes since 1944. This essay seeks to concentrate on these major changes describing the rationale and impact they had on the British education system.
Before entering into defense of the argument, it is important to communicate that the current situation is one which demands reform. It must be understood that the state of the public school system is not simply confined to the domain of education but is instead very much interrelated with the distribution of wealth. The current opportunity gap-which affords those who are middle and upper class greater access to higher quality education-is the cause of the inequality seen in the distribution of income. “Children born into the top fifth of the income distribution have about twice as much of a chance of becoming middle class or better in their adult years as those born into the bottom fifth (Isaacs, Sawhill, & Haskins, 2008)”.
With reference to the secondary curriculum in England, emphasis is placed upon the aims, values and purposes of education. With the implementation of the curriculum, pupils should be given the foundations to develop and apply the knowledge, skills and understanding that will help them become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens; regardless of social background, culture, race, gender, differences in ability and disabilities (QCDA, 2010). In doing so, children will become more aware of, and engaged with, their local, national and international communities; and effectively widen their po...
Haralambos, M and Holborn, M (2000). Sociology Themes and Perspectives. 5th ed. London: HarperCollins Publisher Limited. p635-639.
The Quality of a child’s education often either limits or opens up a world of opportunities. Those who study the purpose of public education and the way it is distributed throughout society can often identify clear correlations between social class and the type of education a student receives. It is generally known by society that wealthy families obtain the best opportunities money can buy. Education is a tool of intellectual and economical empowerment and since the quality of education is strongly influenced by social class, a smaller portion of the American population obtains the opportunities acquired from a top notch education. Many people believe that educational inequalities are perpetuated from the interests of specific classes, but some researchers like John Gatto believe that there are even stronger social forces in play. In the essay “Against Schools” the author John Gatto presents three arguments: (1) that are educational system is flawed, (2) that the American educational system is purposely designed to create a massive working class that is easy to manipulate, and (3) alternative teaching methods should be applied to teach children to think for themselves. In this essay I will be summarizing and relating each of these arguments to other educational essays. Also, I will be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s argument.
[10] Kendall, Diana, et al. Sociology in Our Times. ITP Nelson and Co. Toronto, 1997. 126.
The implications for teaching presented by Connell’s article are immense. The concept of equality in education and the equality of access to education are matters that are determined by the social constructs of the society in which we live. The notion of equality in education means that educators must approach all material and subject matter with a premise of unbiased predetermination. Music, math, science, fine arts, English, Japanese, history, etc… must all be considered on a par. Our current educational system does not treat all subjects as equal in our public education system. The stereotypical reading, writing and arithmetic (primary subjects) take precedence over the fine arts and like subjects (secondary subjects). Social justice criteria as presented in this article, establish that economic variables are a means of determination for favouritism within the educational institution. Where the primary subjects receive ensured funding, the secondary subjects receive funding when deemed viable. This creates inequality at the very base of the institution itself. The result is degradation to all facets of the educational system.
Croxford, L. (1994) “Equal opportunities in the secondary school curriculum in Scotland”, British Educational Research Journal, 20, 371-91
Many people don’t want to believe that we are living in a social injustice environment in this country. They choose to ignore the fact that rich are getting richer while the poor are just getting poorer. The rich public schools are giving their students the necessary opportunities to live a decent life while the poor students are left out and have to struggle for those opportunities. The social injustice is visible to every citizen in this country and it continuing to grown; however, there is a few solutions to minimize and possibly to solve the social injustice problem we have in American. One of them is give equal education in all public schools so everyone can have an equal opportunities in getting the jobs and careers they choose. Second
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.
Definitely this system is not going to be successful if schooling and education do not stand in handy on each other: