Theoretical

Perspectives
on
Education

«TAÑEDO, ANGELICA P. »
«BSED FILIPINO 1E - 4»
 Functionalism
Functionalists view education as one of the more important social institutions in a society.
They contend that education contributes two kinds of functions: manifest (or primary)
functions, which are the intended and visible functions of education; and latent (or
secondary) functions, which are the hidden and unintended functions.

Manifest Functions

There are several major manifest functions associated with education. The first is socialization.
Beginning in preschool and kindergarten, students are taught to practice various societal roles.
The French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), who established the academic
discipline of sociology, characterized schools as “socialization agencies that teach children
how to get along with others and prepare them for adult economic roles” (Durkheim 1898).
Indeed, it seems that schools have taken on this
responsibility in full.

This socialization also involves learning the rules and

norms of the society as a whole. In the early days of
compulsory education, students learned the dominant
culture. Today, since the culture of the United States
is increasingly diverse, students may learn a variety
of cultural norms, not only that of the dominant
culture.

School systems in the United States also transmit the

core values of the nation through manifest functions like social control. One of the roles of
schools is to teach students conformity to law and respect for authority. Obviously, such
respect, given to teachers and administrators, will help a student navigate the school
environment. This function also prepares students to enter the workplace and the world at
large, where they will continue to be subject to people who have authority over them.
Fulfillment of this function rests primarily with classroom teachers and instructors who are with
students all day.

Education also provides one of the major

methods used by people for upward social mobility.
This function is referred to as social placement.
College and graduate schools are viewed as vehicles
for moving students closer to the careers that will give
them the financial freedom and security they seek. As
a result, college students are often more motivated to
study areas that they believe will be advantageous on
the social ladder. A student might value business
courses over a class in Victorian poetry because she
sees business class as a stronger vehicle for financial
success.

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Latent Functions

Education also fulfills latent functions. As you well know, much goes on in a school that has
little to do with formal education. For example, you might notice an attractive fellow student
when he gives a particularly interesting answer in class—catching up with him and making a
date speaks to the latent function of courtship fulfilled by exposure to a peer group in the
educational setting.

The educational setting introduces students to social networks that might last for years and
can help people find jobs after their schooling is complete. Of course, with social media such
as Facebook and LinkedIn, these networks are easier than ever to maintain. Another latent
function is the ability to work with others in small groups, a skill that is transferable to a
workplace and that might not be learned in a homeschool setting.

The educational system, especially as experienced on university campuses, has traditionally

provided a place for students to learn about various social issues. There is ample opportunity
for social and political advocacy, as well as the ability to develop tolerance to the many views
represented on campus. In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement swept across college
campuses all over the United States, leading to demonstrations in which diverse groups of
students were unified with the purpose of changing the political climate of the country.

Another role of schools, according to functionalist theory, is that of sorting, or classifying

students based on academic merit or potential. The most capable students are identified early
in schools through testing and classroom achievements. Such students are placed in
accelerated programs in anticipation of successful college attendance.

Functionalists also contend that school, particularly in recent years, is taking over some of the
functions that were traditionally undertaken by family. Society relies on schools to teach about
human sexuality as well as basic skills such as budgeting and job applications—topics that at
one time were addressed by the family.

Conflict Theory
Conflict theorists do not believe that public schools reduce
social inequality. Rather, they believe that the educational
system reinforces and perpetuates social inequalities that arise
from differences in class, gender, race, and ethnicity. Where
functionalists see education as serving a beneficial role, conflict
theorists view it more negatively. To them, educational systems
preserve the status quo and push people of lower status into
obedience.

The fulfillment of one’s education is closely linked to social

class. Students of low socioeconomic status are generally not afforded the same opportunities
as students of higher status, no matter how great their academic ability or desire to learn.
Picture a student from a working-class home who wants to do well in school. On a Monday,
he’s assigned a paper that’s due Friday. Monday evening, he has to babysit his younger sister
while his divorced mother works. Tuesday and Wednesday, he works stocking shelves after

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school until 10:00 p.m. By Thursday, the only day he might have available to work on that
assignment, he’s so exhausted he can’t bring himself to start the paper. His mother, though
she’d like to help him, is so tired herself that she isn’t able to give him the encouragement or
support he needs. And since English is her second language, she has difficulty with some of
his educational materials. They also lack a computer and printer at home, which most of his
classmates have, so they have to rely on the public library or school system for access to
technology. As this story shows, many students from working-class families have to contend
with helping out at home, contributing financially to the family, poor study environments and a
lack of support from their families. This is a difficult match with education systems that adhere
to a traditional curriculum that is more easily understood and completed by students of higher
social classes.

Such a situation leads to social class reproduction, extensively studied by French sociologist
Pierre Bourdieu. He researched how cultural capital, or cultural knowledge that serves
(metaphorically) as currency that helps us navigate a culture, alters the experiences and
opportunities available to French students from different social classes. Members of the upper
and middle classes have more cultural capital than do families of lower-class status. As a
result, the educational system maintains a cycle in which the dominant culture’s values are
rewarded. Instruction and tests cater to the dominant culture and leave others struggling to
identify with values and competencies outside their social class. For example, there has been
a great deal of discussion over what standardized tests such as the SAT truly measure. Many
argue that the tests group students by cultural ability rather than by natural intelligence.

The cycle of rewarding those who possess cultural capital is found in formal educational
curricula as well as in the hidden curriculum, which refers to the type of nonacademic
knowledge that students learn through informal learning and cultural transmission. This hidden
curriculum reinforces the positions of those with higher cultural capital and serves to bestow
status unequally.

Conflict theorists point to tracking, a formalized sorting system that places students on
“tracks” (advanced versus low achievers) that perpetuate inequalities. While educators may
believe that students do better in tracked classes because they are with students of similar
ability and may have access to more individual attention from teachers, conflict theorists feel
that tracking leads to self-fulfilling prophecies in which students live up (or down) to teacher
and societal expectations (Education Week 2004).

To conflict theorists, schools play the role of training working-class students to accept and
retain their position as lower members of society. They argue that this role is fulfilled through
the disparity of resources available to students in richer and poorer neighborhoods as well as
through testing (Lauen and Tyson 2008).

IQ tests have been attacked for being biased—for testing cultural knowledge rather than actual
intelligence. For example, a test item may ask students what instruments belong in an
orchestra. To correctly answer this question requires certain cultural knowledge—knowledge
most often held by more affluent people who typically have more exposure to orchestral music.
Though experts in testing claim that bias has been eliminated from tests, conflict theorists
maintain that this is impossible. These tests, to conflict theorists, are another way in which
education does not provide opportunities, but instead maintains an established configuration of
power.

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 Feminist Theory

Feminist theory aims to understand the mechanisms and roots of gender inequality in
education, as well as their societal repercussions. Like many other institutions of society,
educational systems are characterized by unequal treatment and opportunity for women.
Almost two-thirds of the world’s 862 million illiterate people are women, and the illiteracy rate
among women is expected to increase in many regions, especially in several African and
Asian countries (UNESCO 2005; World Bank 2007).

Women in the United States have been relatively late, historically speaking, to be granted entry
to the public university system. In fact, it wasn’t until the establishment of Title IX of the
Education Amendments in 1972 that discriminating on the basis of sex in U.S. education
programs became illegal. In the United States, there is also a post-education gender disparity
between what male and female college graduates earn. A study released in May 2011 showed
that, among men and women who graduated from college between 2006 and 2010, men out-
earned women by an average of more than $5,000 each year. First-year job earnings for men
averaged $33,150; for women the average was $28,000 (Godofsky, Zukin, and van Horn
2011). Similar trends are seen among salaries of professionals in virtually all industries.

When women face limited opportunities for education, their capacity to achieve equal rights,
including financial independence, are limited. Feminist theory seeks to promote women’s rights
to equal education (and its resultant benefits) across the world.

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism sees education as one way that labeling theory is seen in action. A
symbolic interactionist might say that this labeling has a direct correlation to those who are in
power and those who are labeled. For example, low standardized test scores or poor
performance in a particular class often lead to a student who is labeled as a low achiever.
Such labels are difficult to “shake off,” which can create a self-fulfilling prophecy (Merton
1968).

In his book High School Confidential, Jeremy Iverson details his experience as a Stanford
graduate posing as a student at a California high school. One of the problems he identifies in
his research is that of teachers applying labels that students are never able to lose. One
teacher told him, without knowing he was a bright graduate of a top university, that he would
never amount to anything (Iverson 2006). Iverson obviously didn’t take this teacher’s false
assessment to heart. But when an actual seventeen-year-old student hears this from a person
with authority over her, it’s no wonder that the student might begin to “live down to” that label.

The labeling with which symbolic interactionists concern themselves extends to the very
degrees that symbolize completion of education. Credentialism embodies the emphasis on
certificates or degrees to show that a person has a certain skill, has attained a certain level of
education, or has met certain job qualifications. These certificates or degrees serve as a
symbol of what a person has achieved, and allows the labeling of that individual.

Reference:

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