Talcott Parsons (Functionalist) Education is an important

• Schools prepare children for the same universalistic standards- the agency of socialisation, it
opposite of the particularistic standards from homelife.

Functionalist
• Schools promote a value consensus: encouraged to achieve high
maintains social stability and
The role of education in society. The Hidden Curriculum:
and the rewards encourage them to maximise their potential. social cohesion. Prepares
1. Hierarchy: The hierarchy
1. The economic role-teaching skills for in school can be seen to Students are also competing on equal terms in the classroom. young people for working life
work. reflect the structure of • Meritocracy: students achievements are based on their abilities and and adulthood. Teaches
Functionalists: Teaches skills and efforts, not on social class, gender or ethnicity, specialist skills for work.
knowledge necessary for work.
society and in the
• Role allocation: matched to the correct job based on
Preparation for real world. workplace.
skill/knowledge.
Education is meritocratic.
Marxists: This is reinforcing the class system. 2. Competition: School
encourages competition Prepares young people for a
between students e.g. Arguments for vocational Arguments against vocational capitalist society. Education is
2. The selective role- Choosing the sports, exam results. education education
not meritocratic. Encourages
most able people for the most 3. Social Control: Rules,

Marxist
• It will lead to a more • The emphasis on skills conformity and acceptance
important jobs. regulations, obedience
skilled, better-qualified training disguises the fact of social position. The hidden
Functionalists: The system is a sieve. and respect for authority. that the problem is not that curriculum teaches young
Meritocratic system, everyone has 4. Gender role allocation: workforce that will young people lack
equal opportunities to succeed, those teacher expectations make Britain more people the expectations of
who work hard and achieve are necessary skills for work it’s society.
and subject choice competitive
rewarded with higher pay that there is no work for
5. Lack of satisfaction:
levels/status.
Preparing students for • Functionalists believe it skilled young people. There are inequalities in the
Marxists: Education does not provide
boring, meaningless and shows the importance • Marxists argue it is viewed as education system between
equal opportunities. Designed to lower status compared to
benefit the powerful. This is why
repetitive jobs is a similar the education system boys and girls. It plays a role in
purely academic

Feminist
working-class children underperform.
experience to has to provide skills and socialisation of boys and girls.
employees at work, qualifications.
expertise needed by • Seen as replicating the Even thought girls are
3. Social Control- teaching acceptance of
industry & the Tripartite system outperforming boys,
rules and authority
Functionalists: Society must be regulated Social Control: Formal economy. education still reinforces
by rules. Schools are an agency of social Discipline, patriarchal views.
control. De-schooling: Illich (1995) argues Home education (home schooling):
punishment, school
Marxists: Social control reflects social that schools repress children and Teaching children at home rather than Why are state
rules. Why are independent
schools favoured
control in the wider society which benefits promotes passive conformity in a state or independent school. schools favoured by some?
those in power. by others?
rather than developing creative Parents or tutors usually carry this out. It
Social Control:
individuals. He argues for de- is a legal option for people who with to • Lower teacher-student • Free and not
4. The political role- teaching people to be Informal ratio which means based on
schooling. School should be provide a different learning
effective citizens and creating social Peer-group pressure, smaller classes so ability
cohesion.
abolished and people should environment or ethos to local schools. students receive more More socially
learning to live and pursue knowledge and skills with Recently raised issues around standards
•
Functionalists: Acceptance of the political attention mixed
work with others. like-minded individuals and impact on social development. • Resources/ facilities are • Upward social
system and will exercise their rights wisely
(voting) better mobility
Secondary (11-16 Further & Higher • Academic culture • Students do
Marxists: Only certain political opinions Pre-School (3-5 years).
Primary (5-11 years). years). Most provided Education (16-18 • Parental input, not have to
and ideas are tolerated, radical ideas are May be provided
Refers to both infant & for by the state in years). Sixth Form, expectations and travel far on a
through the local
rejected. authority or private.
junior schools. comprehensive college or support tends to be daily basis
schools. apprenticeships. higher
 Emile Durkheim Bowles & Gintis (1976) Ball, Bowe & Gewirtz (1994)- Parental Choice & Halsey, Heath & Ridge (1980)- Social Willis (1977)- Learning to Labour
Ball (1981)- Banding & Teacher expectations
(Functionalist) (Marxist) Competition Class Inequality (Marxist)

In this classic text, Durkheim considers A classic Marxist analysis of education which A number of education policies and reforms, especially This was an extensive piece of research This classic case study into secondary education Paul Willis used a wide range of research methods -
how education is able to perform the describes how school prepares workers for a life of those brought in as part of the 1988 Educational Reform on the educational chances of sought to investigate why working-class pupils including observations and interviews - to really try and
role of socialisation: teach children exploitation in the capitalist system. Unlike Act, looked to create a market in state education. The schoolboys from different social classes. underperformed at school. see education from the children's point of view. As a
the norms and values of their society. functionalists like Parsons, Bowles & Gintis dismiss idea was that parents would have more choice and Marxist, he was interested in conflict in education and
the idea that the education system is meritocratic, control over their children's education. Ball, Bowe & Halsey, Heath and Ridge accessed a The classic functionalist argument is that the why working-class children went on to do working-class
Durkheim argued that, for society to instead describing a system that reproduces social Gerwitz investigated to see what impact the policies were large sample of 8000 men, to look at the education system is meritocratic: it helps sort jobs. But he reached quite different conclusions from
work, there had to be a value class inequality. having. extent to which social class had people into the most appropriate jobs. And yet Bowles & Gintis.
consensus. People in society had to impacted their experience of education. statistics show that people from lower-income
agree about what was important and A key aspect of Bowles & Gintis' famous study was One of the key marketization policies introduced in 1988 He divided people up into three social families consistently underperform compared with Willis' study of working-class boys in a Midlands school has
how to behave. That way society the correspondence principle. That is, that school is was league tables. This was the publication of how classes: those from wealthier families. Marxists think this is become a classic. His study focused on "the lads" - a
functions (works) without everything deliberately made to be similar to work. Like in the schools compared with each other in terms of the results 1. The service class deliberate: that the role of the education system group of working-class boys who were disruptive,
having to be controlled and managed workplace, school has a clear hierarchy (including pupils were getting - not just A Levels and GCSEs but also 2. The intermediate class is to reproduce class inequality. But lots of policies misbehaved and had a very negative attitude to
all the time. Education is a crucial agent some hierarchy among the pupils/workers to keep the new SATs. The idea was that parents could look at the 3. The working class have been put in place to try and support education. They had formed what Willis called an anti-
of socialisation. them divided). School work is fragmented into league tables and make an informed choice about children from low-income families in school. If school subculture. Within this subculture it was "cool" to
different subjects and disciplines, just as people which school their children should attend. While school The service class were professionals and Marxists are wrong that schools deliberately fail "mess about" and to fail. It really turned the values of the
Durkheim saw the teaching of History - in have separate tasks on a production line. People locations and the number of places meant that parents managers, the intermediate class other working-class children, and functionalists are school on their head. From the perspective of this
particular - as a key part of this work for extrinsic rewards (i.e. pay for workers in the did not have complete freedom of choice, the aim was "white-collar" workers and the working wrong that schools are meritocratic: what subculture, children who the school viewed positively
socialisation process. He argued that, capitalist system; grades and house points, etc. in to make schools compete for parents and strive to keep class included manual labourers. actually is going on? were the "ear’oles" ("swots"). The last thing you wanted
through learning the history of their school) rather than getting satisfaction from doing improving their standards and therefore improve their was praise from a teacher. Instead, children could get
country, people learnt to feel part of the work itself. position on the league tables and attract more pupils They found that the children born into the Ball spent three years in Beachside praise within the group for truancy, bad behaviour and
something bigger than themselves: part (and with that, more funding). service class did much better at school Comprehensive, carrying out a participant discriminatory attitudes (there was a lot of racism, sexism
of a community. This helps to encourage Bowles & Gintis argue that the aim of this is to then those from the intermediate class, observation. He particularly focused on two and homophobia within the group).
children to understand that society is create obedient, docile workers, who will not Ball, Bowe & Gerwitz identified a number of problems with and both did better than the working groups of students, one who had been banded or
important: that they should be question how things are arranged and will not work this approach. First, they identified the pressure that class. streamed by ability, and another that was taught With these findings, Willis does not only undermine the
interested in other people, not just together to change things. Separately, the children league tables, and the associated formula funding, put in mixed-ability classes. The banding was well- arguments of Parsons or Durkheim, but also of his fellow
themselves. of the ruling class are taught in private schools or on schools and how that pressure impacted on children's For example, people from the service intentioned. There was a concern among Marxists, Bowles & Gintis. First, he concluded that school
similar, to be confident and to expect to run things education. Some schools responded to the pressure by class were 11 times more likely to attend teachers that in mixed-ability classes the brightest was not working very well as an agent of socialisation:
Also, outside the classroom, school and be in charge. As such, for Bowles & Gintis the focusing their attention on the most able children, which university as those from the working class. pupils were held back and the weakest pupils there was no value consensus here: pupils were actively
encourages children to work together schooling system performs a vital function for arguably disadvantaged lower-ability pupils. Many The differences between the sons of were left behind, with a tendency that it was the rejecting the norms and values of society. As such, they
with all sorts of people - not just people capitalism: it keeps the children of working-class schools reintroduced policies of banding or streaming in service-class families and those from middle swathe of pupils who were focused on. were a long way from the hard-working, docile,
they are related to or are particularly parents working class, and ensures the children of order to best identify the pupils who would achieve and working-class families was found to be However, Ball found that the process tended to obedience workers suggested by Bowles & Gintis! And yet
close friends with. Again, as with bourgeois parents remain bourgeois. And it ensure help the league table positions. Ball, in his earlier research very great throughout, with service-class have a negative impact on working-class pupils. the outcome was much the same: the children of
teaching history, this helps children learn that those working-class children will continue to about Beachside Comprehensive, had concluded that children four times more likely to still be at working-class parents going on to do working-class jobs. In
to be a part of wider society. work hard and put up with low pay and poor streaming had a negative effect on working-class pupils. school at 16, eight times and 17 and ten He found that pupils who started school with this study they played an active role in this: they thought
conditions. It is the opposite of a meritocratic times at 18. (The school leaving age was similar attitudes to study began to diverge when school was boring and pointless and was something they
Durkheim was particularly interested in system. Bowles & Gintis talk about the myth of The researchers concluded that marketisation benefited raised to 16 in 1972). they were banded/streamed. That is when they had to endure until they could go to work. They had a
the teaching of morals: right and wrong. meritocracy. middle-class children, whose parents took advantage of were put in classes supposedly based on their similar attitude to work, and got through it using similar
This was an important part of teaching Bowles & Gintis also explore the idea of a hidden the system to reinforce their advantages. They found that While the differences described are very ability. Streaming is when pupils of a similar ability techniques: "messing about" and "having a laff".
values: it is important that there is broad curriculum - i.e. the things that education teaches schools contributed to this situation as they felt that clear, there are a number of possible are in the same, streamed class for all subjects
agreement in society about what is right us that are not part of the formal curriculum (what becoming an increasingly middle-school would help them problems with the research. One, the whereas with setting pupils could be in a high set Willis used a wide range of research methods (known
and what is wrong. Also, in school, we learn about the various subjects in the move up the league tables. Schools would also engage research did not consider girls at all, for Maths and a low set for English (for example). as methodological pluralism) to try and get as true a
behaviour can be strictly controlled. classroom). Functionalists also recognise that there in cream skimming and silt shifting to try and get the best which could have a significant impact on picture as possible. However, it has been suggested that
Durkheim thought it was important to is a hidden curriculum, but they see this is a positive pupils in their school and pass on lower ability pupils the findings. Second, there had been Working-class pupils gravitated towards the lower the boys may have acted up more to "show off" to Willis.
have strict discipline in school. That way, thing: part of what teaches people the norms and elsewhere. As such, working-class pupils and some significant changes in both the education bands and then became increasingly This might have occurred when they were being observed
children would learn what was values of society. Marxists like Bowles & Gintis think minority-ethnic groups found themselves in the system and society since many of the disinterested in education and "anti-school". The (the Hawthorne Effect - people behave differently when
acceptable or not. Through this, by the this only benefits the ruling class and capitalism. undersubscribed and under-funded schools lower down sample had finished school. Also, some net effect of this was that children from lower- they know they're being watched) and when they were
time children leave school, most will It is important to remember that Bowles & Gintis the league tables. The class divide that existed under the sociologists would question the way the income families left school with fewer interviewed (an interviewer effect).
have learnt self-discipline and not need were Marxists; they were critics of capitalism. This is old grammar school system was recreated in the study defined social classes. qualifications, therefore reproducing class
to be controlled. They should also have what they thought education was like, not what comprehensive system. inequalities, apparently by accident. He While Willis was coming from a Marxist perspective, his
learned that misbehaviour has negative they thought it should be like. describes a downward mobility - quite the study does suggest that working-class boys actively chose
consequences, both for themselves and Supporters of marketisation would point out that it was opposite of what Parsons or Davis and Moore to fail, rather than the system being designed by the
for society. Critics would argue that school has changed a lot parental attitudes at work here rather than the policies or imagined - where attempts capitalist class to have this outcome. He did suggest that
since the 1970s and so has the workplace. Others system, and middle-class parents should not be penalised at differentiation damage working-class pupils' this ultimately benefited capitalism, because there wasn't
Critics of Durkheim would suggest that would point out that working-class pupils do not for (apparently) taking a greater interest in their children's education and life chances. a meritocracy and instead class inequality was
these lessons do not benefit the whole always seem "docile" and "obedient" and often education. Some would also point out that policies since reproduced, and there would not be a revolution
of society but only powerful groups. seem quite the opposite! However, Willis 1994 have gone some way to resolving these issues, such because workers had learnt a coping strategy for doing
Marxists would suggest it is the ruling (in Learning to Labour) suggests that poor as the Pupil Premium that ensures pupils from low-income boring, unfulfilling work ("having a laff"). However, it did
class who benefits, and feminists would behaviour at school still benefits the capitalist households carry more funding and schools can invest not produce the productive, docile workers capitalists
suggest it is men who benefit. system. that money into activities that benefit those pupils. might ideally like to have working for them!
 Public Schools- State Schools-
Comprehensive- Older, more Free schools Independent Schools-
Grammar School- Private Schools-
One school for famous schools available for Public & Private
more academic Charge fees
everyone such as Eton & everyone of all Schools
Material deprivation: The ‘self-fulfilling’ prophecy Harrow. abilities
Costs of uniforms, sports If teachers have low
Material environment: expectations, or see a
kits and special materials
Living conditions such as poor child as only being The ‘Halo effect’ Home education-
may keep poorer children Streaming Feminist Movement
housing, overcrowding, lack of capable of reaching a Judging a student as teaching children at
away from school. Putting students into Change in attitudes towards
privacy or quiet places to do certain level of academic ‘bright’ while they tend to home using parents or
groups, based on women’s roles and expectations-
homework adversely affect achievement this can question the good tutors.
assessment of general encouraging educational success
performance and make students bring on performance of those
Parental attitudes: ability. This can lead to a and the ability to have a professional
attendance. their own ‘self-image’ into children who are less well
Middle-class Values: Desire for “counter-culture”. career. Vocational education-
line with the teachers behaved.
control over their lives, work-related
emphasis on future planning, judgement. qualifications and
Changing Job Opportunities Legal Changes
deferred gratification, Social Class: Decreases in ‘male’ jobs in The Sex training.
individual achievement stress. Statistics tend to show Paul Willis- Learning to manufacturing and engineering,
The School: Discrimination Act
Working-class values- that the higher a Labour- Anti School but an increase in ‘female’ jobs Specialist schools-
Teachers make judgments and (1975)
passive/fatalistic acceptance, student’s social class subculture in the service industry raise standards of
classify students. These judgments Raised awareness of
emphasis on present or past, background, the achievement based
can often affects a child’s chances equal opportunities.
present gratification, collection greater chance they on their strengths e.g.
action stressed. have of achieving high of educational achievement.
sport
educational Gender:
Middle class parents know how qualifications. Official statistics reveal Subject Choice.
to “work the system” such as some differences in Gender Faith Schools- Schools
how to hold disagreements with educational achievement stereotyping in that are run with a
teachers, which educational based on gender textbooks, or role religious ethos
Cultural Deprivation: Teachers expectations.
resources to purchase. They A middle-class students Home and Social Class Some teachers may have models of teachers
may also expect more from upbringing may put them at background. higher or lower expectations of in certain subject
Class position may influence Parental expectations. areas (male Academies- Taken out
their children and show more an advantage over working- certain ethnic groups.
achievement dependant on the Some research into different ethnic dominated maths & of local authority
interest in their progress. class students e.g. family
types of work offered to particular groups has concluded that some science) and control. Private
visits to libraries, museums or groups put more pressure on their
groups. In other words there is a continued gender sponsors help to raise
holidays, homes filled with
Social Capital: books, educational toys and ‘doubling up’ of factors. Some Ethnicity: children achieving at school, whilst stereotyping by achievement.
Middle-class children will differences could be accounted Statistics show some ethnic others show less interest. Some have teachers.
electronic media are the experienced poor education in their Free Schools- schools
socialise with children in a for due to class and home life. groups under achieve,
norm in middle-class homes. home countries and may therefore that can be set up
similar class to themselves. Their whilst others over achieve.
have a strong desire to help their and run by groups of
parents will be part of a
Cultural differences. children’s education more. However, parents, teachers,
network of social relationships
Cultural norms and values may be different to The Hidden Curriculum. a poor education may results in a businesses etc.
that give them benefits e.g.
‘mainstream’ British norms and values. The It is argued that certain subjects are biased lack of ability to help their children
friends with teachers, university
language spoken at home may also be an towards white European culture. Some books with homework.
lecturers, doctors etc.
important factor. may present stereotypical images of some
minority groups.

1944 Butler Education Act 1965: The Comprehensive 1988 Education Act 1997 New Labour Educational Policy Since 2010
• Equal chance to develop talents, free state run System • Introduction of the marketisation of • Raising Standards: providing nursery places for 3-4 year olds, educational policies.
education • One school for everyone- all education- consumer choice and reducing class sizes, national literacy & numeracy schemes, • New style academies
• Introduction of a meritocratic system in which children abilities and social classes. competition. Focus on parental choice, ‘special measures’, ‘value-added’ feature on league • Free Schools
received an education based on their academic • No labelling as a failure, funding based on student numbers and tables. • Pupil Premium
ability rather than the ability of their parents to pay. seen as fairer. more freedom for schools. • Reducing inequality: introduction of Educational
• Introduction of the 11+ exam and the Tripartite System: • Each school has a specific • The introduction of the National Maintenance Allowance (EMA), Aim Higher Programme,
 Secondary Modern ‘catchment’ Curriculum- core subjects for ages 5-16. The Sure Start programme and Connexions.
 Secondary Technical • Introduction of testing- GCSE • Promoting Diversity & Choice- Introduction of specialist and
 Grammar examination. faith schools.