The Theories of Education

The Theories of Education

This essay is going to look at the Functionalist, Marxist and

Interactionist theories of education and outline the key points; it

will also provide some criticism in relation to each of the theories.

Although the theories are mainly very different, they all have the

similarity of suggesting that a person’s social class will contribute

greatly to how well they will do at school and also on how this will

affect the type and importance of a career they may take up.

Functionalism investigates institutions to consider the functions that

they perform in society. The functionalist premise is that if an

institution exists then there has got to be a reason for its

existence. Functionalists assume that educational institutions serve

some societal need; schools are examined for the positive contribution

that they make towards maintaining society.

Talcott Parsons suggested that educational institutions provide the

function of general socialisation of the whole of the population into

the dominant culture, values and beliefs of a society. Parsons also

suggested that schools select people for different types and levels of

education. He believed that education meets the needs of the system

by making sure that all children have a basic commitment to their

society’s values and beliefs and also by preparing individuals for

their specific roles within the social hierarchy.

Both of the functions achieve different but overlapping goal.

Transmitting norms and values promotes social solidarity.

Differentiation matches skills to societal needs and supports

society’s economic needs.

Another theory of the functio...

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...as how they are expected to

act and live up to the label placed on them, but this doesn’t mean

that all pupils who are labelled and streamed will behave in the same

manner.

In conclusion, all of the theories that have been outlined in this

essay seem to agree that social class background plays a major role in

educational achievement. Both functionalist and Marxist theories

agree that the school plays the role of socialising students into the

prevailing norms and values of a society. Interactionist theories are

mainly concerned with the interactions that a student has with their

tutor and fellow peers at school, if a pupil has negative interactions

with a tutor, it will encourage them to perform badly in the subject.

Bibliography

Sociology Themes and Perspectives by Haralambos and Holborn

www.scool.com