1. The Part Played by Education in Society
Education: Topic 1

2. The purpose of Education
Today most young people spend approximately six hours per day in school, from aged four to at least sixteen
They gain knowledge, attitudes and skills via the formal curriculum and the hidden curriculum

3. The start of compulsory education
Forster’s Education Act 1870 brought in State responsibility for education of aged five to ten years
1880 Act made education compulsory for five to ten year olds

4. Compulsory education was introduced in 1880 in order to:
Create a more skilled workforce
Improve the effectiveness of our armies
Re-socialise the feckless (irresponsible) poor

5. Reduce the level of street crime
Ward off the threat of revolution
Provide education as a ‘human right’
(This is a liberal view of education)

6. Functionalist view of education (Parsons)
Socialisation into core values, e.g. equality of opportunity
Skills provision needed in modern industrial society
Role allocation (sorting the ‘right type’ of student for the ‘right type’ of job)

7. Marxists' view of education
Education is part of the ideological state apparatus
Education promotes ruling class values, (not common values as functionalists say)
Education justifies and reproduces class inequality (it does not produce equality of opportunity)

8. Louis Althusser
Education contains a hidden curriculum which promotes ruling class values and attitudes. This ensures that the working class accept their own failure, whereas in reality it is the capitalist education system which causes them to fail

9. Bowles and Gintis claim that:
School
Bowles and Gintis claim that:
Education reflects the needs of capitalism by giving pupils the appropriate skills and attitudes to make them ‘good’ and obedient workers.
There is a direct correspondence between school and work. E.g. teachers are the ‘bosses’ who control learning – pupils are the ‘workers’ who have no control over their learning
Work

10. Students are rewarded with success for their conformity not their intellectual ability
Students who conform do better than those who challenge the system.

11. Two views of education Functionalist view:
Education produces model citizens
Education is part of social structure
Does not look at behaviour in the classroom itself.
Marxist view:
Education turns working class pupils into conformists
Education is part of social structure
Does not look at behaviour in the classroom itself.

12. Criticism of both Functionalism and Marxism:
Paul Willis says that both Functionalism and Marxist theories are deterministic
Both theories ignore the ability of many pupils to resist the education system
Willis went into schools to observe and
understand what actually happens inside
the classroom which he linked this to Marxist
theory

13. Inside schools, Willis found:
a ‘pro school’ subculture (the ‘lads’) and an ‘anti school’ subculture, (the ‘ear ’oles’)
The “ear ‘oles” tended to be middle class and conformed, while the ‘lads’ tended to be working class and rebelled by “having a laff”

14. ‘having a laff’ was a coping strategy for the boredom of school
‘having a laff’ was a coping strategy for the boredom of school. Willis said this prepared them for coping with boring routine jobs in adult life
It was their very rebellion, (not passivity) which reproduced the capitalist workforce NB
Today such strategies as ‘having a laff’ tend
to lead to unemployment not routine jobs

15. The end Possible examination style question:
Discuss reasons why we have an education system
The end