Education Sociologists

• Consensus Approach - It is possible for everybody to get along

• Stucturalist - Institutions will influence individuals' behaviour

• Education should provide socialisation; teach skills needed for work; and perform role allocation.
  

CRITCISMS

• Only focuses on the positives of education and ignores the negative. (e.g. exams can create stress).
• Difficult to get a value consensus in a multicultural society.
• Deterministic - Not all students will follow what they have been taught.
• Rich, white female students have advantages.
• Many argue that schools do not provide skills needed for work.

• Education is a bridge between home and work - Prepares you for the next step.

• AGIL System - what society needs to be successful
• ↪ Adaptation - Can societies change to meet the needs of the people?
• ↪ Goal attainment - Can you meet goals you have set for yourself?
• ↪ Integration - How does society work together?
• ↪ Latency - Can we keep improving?

• Meritocracy - Hard work is rewarded

Criticisms

• Not all hard work is rewarded
• Deterministic
• Some will not lose their family's views
• Merton said that not every part of society is good and it is too complex which means it is impossible for schools to teach a value consensus. 

• History is important - Helps achieve social solidarity

• School is like a miniture society - Follow rules; Independence; Value consenus

• Division of labour - Individuals know what they are good at.

• If school failed to do these things, there would be anomie (no normal).

Criticisms

• Ineffective in teaching the same values.
• Deterministic - can't change what happens to you↪ Assumed that everyone would end up the same way.
• Unequal - Norms and values were not a true representation of everyone.
• Armchair theorist - No research to back his views up

• Key purpose of education is role allocation - Most talented get higher qualifications which leads to important jobs with high rewards/money.

• Inequality is necessary

Criticisms

• The education system does not always sort us well.

• We should spend money on improving education - End up with more qualified people that will be able to contribute more to the economy.

• We need to compete globally. 

Criticisms

• School cannot single-handedly teach values - Influences from family and media.

• Britain is 26th on the PISA scale, even though we invest a lot of money in education.

• Conflict theory - Society is in a state of conflict due to competition for limited resources (e.g. bourgeosie vs proletariat).
  
• Structural theory - Theory that institutions control an individual's behaviour.
• Education system reproduces (fails the working class each generation) and legitimises (makes people accept their inferior place in society as it is inevitable) class inequality.

Criticisms

• Reductionist - only focuses on class.
• Ignores the positives of education.
• Not every school operates the same way.
• Some courses require critical thinking.
• Most of the studies are outdated - Postmodernists suggest that a new type of flexible workforce is required. 
• Does not take gender or ethnic inequalities into account. 

• Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) - Control of ideas, beliefs and values.
• Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) - Physical force to keep society the way you want it (e.g. police)
• Society needs both of these, and they are both used to support capitalism. - Schools promote capitalism.
• If you work hard, you will get a good job that pays well.
• School prepares students to accept their future exploitation. 
• When you start working, you'll be working under a boss from a big company - Schools teach that managers have earned their ability to have power over others.
• Hidden curriculum promotes hegemony (When a culturally diverse society is dominated by ruling class values and ideas)

Criticisms

• Armchair theorist - He did no research to back up his views.
• Not everything in the hidden curriculum teaches hegemony - Teaching to share and look out for one another.

• Studied 227 schools in New York - Representative.
• Schools reward obedience - Not rewarding creativity or independence.
• Correspondence principle - School is like work↪ Attendence & punctuality, uniform, rules, deadlines, teachers are like bosses, tolerance, competition.
• Myth of meritocracy - Hard work is not always rewarded↪ Sometimes, lazy people are rewarded.

Criticisms

• Ethnocentric as it only focused on one area. 
• Some teachers do reward independence.
• School gives you more chances than work.
• Some school staff care more about you as a person.

• Education system reproduces the capitalist system - The poor are materially deprived (e.g. can't afford textbooks or tutors).
• Cultural deprivation - The rich have cultural capital (Ideas, habits and lifestyles of the rich).
• Education system values hegemony.
• Habitus - Certain habits of the rich and poor.

Criticisms

• Deterministic - The rich will stay rich
• Functionalists believe it is meritocracy. 

• The Lads Study - Studied 12 working class 'lads'; Looked at their last 18 months of school and first few months of work; They chose to fail; they formed a group who refused to conform to the system (being immature, talking over others, retaliating to teachers).
• Willis thought they exhibited this behaviour because of boredom - Called the behaviour 'having a laff'. 
• Called the conforming students 'ear'oles'.
• When the 'lads' started to work, they experienced 'shop floor culture' - This is the ability to mess around at work; School taught students to cope with the boredom.

Criticism

• Weaknesses in methodology - Impractical, as it took a long time; androcentric, as it ignored women; unrepresentative, due to its small sample size.
• A lack of manufacturing jobs in the UK means that they might not have been able to work today.