Education and Social Solidarity

• Functionalist research poses two questions regarding education.
• What are the functions of education for society as a whole?
• What are the functional relationships between education and other societal parts?
• The function of education helps maintain value consensus and social solidarity
• The relationships between education and the economic system lead to societal integration.

Emile Durkheim – Education and Social Solidarity

• Education transmits society's norms and values
• Education perpetuates and reinforces homogeneity by establishing essential similarities in children early on
• Essential similarities such as cooperation and social solidarity are so important that social life itself would be impossible without them
• Societies weld individuals into a united whole, creating social solidarity involving commitment, belonging, and valuing society over the individual
• To become attached to society, children must perceive it as powerful and dominating

The role of history

• Specifically helps link individuals to society, fostering a sense of commitment to the social group if taught engagingly

US educational practices:

• Curriculum helps instill shared norms and values in a diverse population, providing a shared language and history for immigrants
• American students learn about the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, and Abraham Lincoln
• Symbolism such as the "Stars and Stripes" socializes students into a commitment to society.

Education and social rules

• Schools serve functions that families and peer groups cannot provide in complex industrial societies Membership of society isn't based on kinship or personal choice
• Schools teach individuals to cooperate with non-kin/non-friends, acting as a miniature society where children interact under fixed rules
• These rules prepare children for societal interactions

School Rules and Punishment

• Strict enforcement and punishments reflecting the offense's damage teach pupils not to act against the social group's interests
• They learn self-discipline and realize misbehavior harms society
• Social sciences help children understand the rational basis for societal organization

Respect for Rules

• Respecting school rules teaches children respect for rules in general, fostering self-control and restraint
• This marks an initiation into the austerity of duty and the beginning of serious life

Education and the division of labor

• Education teaches specific skills needed for future occupations
• This is vital in industrial societies with complex, specialized labor divisions
• Pre-industrial societies had unspecialized labor, where skills were passed down without formal education
• Social solidarity is largely based on the interdependence of specialized skills
• Manufacturing requires specialist combinations, fostering cooperation and social solidarity
• Schools transmit both general values for social survival and specific skills for social cooperation
• Industrial society unites through value consensus and specialized labor

David Hargreaves – Durkheim and the Modern School

• Hargreaves critiques modern schools from a Durkheimian viewpoint, saying they overemphasize individual development over duties to group life
• Many schools fail to provide a sense of dignity for working-class pupils.
• Pupils who don't succeed in competitive exams may rebel and lack a sense of belonging, forming subcultures that reject the school and wider society's values

Improving Competence and Belonging

• Greater emphasis should be placed on the social role of the individual pupil within the school
• Acquiring dignity requires competence, contribution, and being valued by the group
• Pupils should have freedom to pursue fields of special interest or talent, fostering self-worth
• Community studies should be compulsory to clarify societal roles
• Expressive arts, crafts, and sports are also vital
• Plays and team games offer satisfaction through collective contributions
• Developing school loyalty and respect for individual contributions

Criticisms of Durkheim

• It's unclear if education in modern Britain transmits shared values, promotes self-discipline, or cements social solidarity
• Durkheim assumes the education system transmits society's norms and values, not those of a ruling elite/class
• Hargreaves shows awareness of diverse cultures/values, but his curriculum changes are controversial
• Contemporary education focuses on individual competition and vocational training
• Sport/community studies may not be the best preparation for working life

Talcott Parsons – Education and Universalistic Values

• Parsons outlined the accepted functionalist view of education
• Schools take over as the main socializing force after primary socialization within the family
• Schools bridge the gap between family and society, preparing children for adult roles

Family vs Wider Society

• Within the family, children are judged and treated by particularistic standards based on who they are to their parents
• Wider society judges individuals by universalistic standards, applicable to all members regardless of kinship

Ascribed vs Achieved Status

• Family status: ascribed, fixed at birth
• Advanced industrial societies: status is largely achieved
• Individuals achieve occupational status
• Children transition from particularistic standards in the family to universalistic standards and achieved status in adult society

Role of School

• Schools prepare young people for this transition, establishing universalistic standards
• Conduct is assessed against school rules, and achievement is measured by exams
• The same standards apply to all students, regardless of ascribed characteristics such as sex, race, family background, or class
• Schools operate on meritocratic principles where status is achieved through merit
• Parsons argued schools represent society in miniature
• Modern industrial society emphasizes achievement over ascription, universalistic standards over particularistic ones, and meritocratic principles for all members
• By mirroring society's operation, schools prepare young people for their adult roles

Education and Value Consensus

• Schools socialize young people into society's basic values
• Value consensus is essential for society to operate effectively
• Two major values instilled in American society are achievement and equality of opportunity

Promoting Achievement

• Encouraging students to strive for high academic marks and rewarding success, schools foster the value of achievement
• Placing individuals in similar situations to compete on equal terms fosters the value of equality of opportunity

Function of these Values

• Advanced industrial society needs a motivated, achievement-oriented workforce
• Necessitates differential reward for differential achievement
• Winners/losers will see the system as just/fair since status is achieved where all have an equal chance

Education and Selection

• Education is a mechanism for selecting individuals for future roles in society, allocating human resources within the adult social structure
• Schools test and evaluate students, matching their talents and skills to suitable jobs
• Schools are the main mechanism for role allocation

Criticisms of Parsons

• Parsons doesn't adequately consider that the values transmitted by the education system may be those of a ruling minority
• The view that schools operate on meritocratic principles is also open to question

Kingsley Davis and Wilbert. E. Moore – education and role allocation

• Saw education as a means of role allocation and linked the educational system more directly with the system of social stratification.
• Social stratification ensures the most talented/able members of society are assigned to function’s most important positions of society by offering high rewards, therefore ensuring competition among all people
• The education system is a ‘proving ground’ of sifting, sorting and grading individuals in terms of abilities
• High qualification are therefore rewarded with entry to the those occupations that are functionally most important to society

Criticisms

• Relationship between academic credentials and occupational reward is weak
• Income has very little connection from educational attainment
• The educational system grades people in terms of ability is questionable
• The influence of social stratification, influence of abilities is questionable