1. Starter Think about how education has been useful (or not) to you.
Now think about how education is useful to society as a whole.
2 minutes discussion with partner.

2. What is the purpose of education?
Understanding the ideologies that underlie educational thinking
What is the purpose of education?

3. Provide an example of each type of education
Formal education – takes place in school or colleges. There is a curriculum and formal assessment of learning
Informal education – takes place in clubs or non-assessed situations
Non-formal education – learning that takes place in the home or a domestic situation.
Provide an example of each type of education

4. Sociological Targets
To know some of the reasons why the school system is important to the running of our society.
To understand that there are a variety of ideologies underlying the development of the education system.

5. What is the Purpose of education?
Socialisation of children
Control of children and young people
Protection of young people from exploitation by employers
Passing on of key knowledge and culture
Training children for future employment
Education is a route to social success
NB: Some of these points can be seen as negative for children as well as positive

6. Socialisation of children
Socialisation is the process of learning the rules and knowledge valued by a culture.
One of the most important agencies of secondary socialisation is the education system.
It is known as an agency of formal socialisation, because schools and education systems deliberately set out to influence people's behaviour.

7. Thinking for yourself
How do schools set out to control your behaviour and pass on norms and values? Think of two ways in which you are taught your cultural values.
Further thinking: In what ways do the values of the school clash with the personal values of your home and family?

8. Important Research Study
Hargreaves 1967
Investigated the teaching of cultural norms and values in schools
Used qualitative classroom observation
Concluded school did not succeed at teaching social solidarity but rather encouraged the development of ‘sub-cultures’
How can we evaluate this study ?

9. Control of children’s minds
Schools exist to control behaviour. Children are taught to obey authority and respect rules.
Jackson said that if they are to succeed, pupils do not just require knowledge, but also conformity to the socially acceptable behaviour of the school.
Pat McNeil (1986) says that this includes knowledge such as how to get on with teachers and other pupils, how to cope with boredom and how to conform.
This hidden control is known as the Hidden Curriculum.

10. Identify the Sexism in this
Mummy has taken the children to a fire station. Topsy and Kerry are girls and Tim is a boy.
When they came down from the ladder Mummy bought them each a little fire-fighter's helmet.
'I'm going to be a fire-fighter when I grow up' said Kerry.
'Can girls be fire-fighters?' asked Topsy.
'I don't think so' said Tim.
'Yes they can!' said the lady who was selling the toy helmets.
'I'm a fire-fighter, just like Kerry's Dad. Women can be fire-fighters, but they have to be as strong and as brave as the men.'
To show how strong she was, she gave Tim a fireman's lift.

11. Children’s Reading
Mummy has taken the children to a fire station. Topsy and Kerry are girls and Tim is a boy.
When they came down from the ladder Mummy bought them each a little fire-fighter's helmet.
'I'm going to be a fire-fighter when I grow up' said Kerry.
'Can girls be fire-fighters?' asked Topsy.
'I don't think so' said Tim.
'Yes they can!' said the lady who was selling the toy helmets.
'I'm a fire-fighter, just like Kerry's Dad. Women can be fire-fighters, but they have to be as strong and as brave as the men.'
To show how strong she was, she gave Tim a fireman's lift.

12. Protecting children
The first government Act imposing compulsory education in Britain was in 1880 and then partly it was designed to end child labour in factories and only affected children aged
It also served the purpose of providing a trained workforce who could operate new machines and technology.

13. Victorian coal miners

14. ‘Vocationalism’
In the 1976, James Callaghan, a Labour Prime Minister made a famous speech in Ruskin College, Oxford, where he said that Britain was falling behind its industrial competitors because the education system failed to produce skilled and motivated workers.
This has affected government policy and thinking for over 30 years. It influenced many of the changes made by the Conservative governments of It formed the basis of National Curriculum.
There is still a strong vocational agenda in British schools and colleges that involves examinations, key skills and portfolio approaches to learning.

15. Training children for work
Pierre Bourdieu (1930 – 2002)
Marxist critic of education system
Uses idea of cultural capital
Schools exist to advantage the children of the middle classes so they go on to take the best and most interesting jobs

16. Compensation What problems are we trying to fix? PSHE
Political education
Drugs education
Sex education

17. Summary of key points Learning is when people seek knowledge.
Education is when knowledge is provided for people.
Schools exist to
Protect children from exploition
Teach children cultural values
Train children for the work they will do in adult life
Socialise children to become acceptable adults
Control children
Depending on your perspective, some of these characteristics of the education system can be seen as positive, and others as negative.

18. Assessment mix and Match
Vocationalism is
Of acquiring a skill or knowledge
Learning is the process
Skills from people around us as we live our lives
Formal education systems are where
Is the highly valued knowledge of our culture
Informal education is when we learn
Refers to the values that a school teaches without necessarily intending to.
Socialisation is the process of learning
A route to high pay jobs and social mobility
If pupils are to succeed in school,
They need to learn to conform to the rules of the school
The hidden curriculum
Pass on gender roles through books and school organisation
Feminists say that schools
People are taught specific skills and then tested in their knowledge and understanding
Cultural capital
The preparation of students for the world of work
In Wales , education was seen as
The rules and knowledge valued by a culture

19. Assessment Answers Learning is the process
Of acquiring a skill or knowledge
Formal education systems are where
People are taught specific skills and then tested in their knowledge and understanding
Informal education is when we learn
Skills from people around us as we live our lives
Socialisation is the process of learning
The rules and knowledge valued by a culture
If pupils are to succeed in school,
They need to learn to conform to the rules of the school
The hidden curriculum
Refers to the values that a school teaches without necessarily intending to.
Feminists say that schools
Pass on gender roles through books and school organisation
Cultural capital
Is the highly valued knowledge of our culture
Vocationalism is
The preparation of students for the world of work
In Wales , education was seen as
A route to high pay jobs and social mobility

20. Independent study/extension
Discuss with as many people as you can the answer to this question:
Is it the role of schools to correct the problems of society?