Unit-5

Education

Topics
- The Function of Education
Unit-5: Education

The Function of Education

Informal and formal education

• Formal: Education that takes place in classrooms, where there is a syllabus and
set content to be taught and learnt.

• Informal: Education that takes place outside of schools and classrooms at home or
work or through daily interactions, such as Native American trained to be warriors by their
elders or living in the woods.

• Hidden curriculum: Attitudes and behavior that are taught through the way the
school is run and how teachers act, rather than through the taught content of the lesson.

• The United Nations has set primary education for all children as a goal to be achieved by
2015 but not all countries will succeed in reaching this and universal secondary
education is a long way off.

• Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world has major school attendance differences
between students living in Urban and Rural areas, people in urban areas are more likely to go
to schools and opt for higher education. But this was not the case for Indonesia who had almost
the same percentages of children attending primary and secondary education but more
percentage of people opted for higher education in urban areas.

Education and agency of socialization

• Education is an agency of secondary socialization. This is because children learn

not only what is taught in lessons, but also social expectations and, for example, how to get on
with other children who often have different backgrounds and abilities.

• Social control: Any way in which people are persuaded or forced to behave in
particular ways.

• Sanctions: Any way in which children are reprimanded or receive something

negative for something they have done such as detentions or scolding.

• Rewards: Any way in which children are praised or receive something positive
for something they have done such as certificates and medals.

• Marxists are interested in how the ruling class maintains its power by persuading
the working class to accept ideas and values that are against their interest. To Marxist
education portrays a capitalist ideology that helps keep the bourgeoisie power.
• Feminists argue that education can lead both boys and girls to have stereotypical
views and mistaken views of what the two sexes are like and achieve. To Feminists the
school portrays a patriarchal ideology.

• Functionalists sociologists focus on the ways in which education contributes to

the continued well-being of society and they believe that education has several function
such as:

- Schools pass on the norms and values of a society from one generation to
the next since they continue the process of socialization that begins in the family.

- Since children are socialized into a shared set of values, education can help
them believe that they belong to a shared value system and can particularly be important for
societies that are ethnically diverse.

- Some examples of ways in which individual may learn in school to

identify themselves with their society include:

o Same experiences, assemblies.

o Singing national anthem.

o National flag and symbols.

o Learning patriotic slogans.

o Being taught in lessons about their society (history).

- One of the main values that children learn is the importance of individual
achievement. At home each child has an ascribed status (for example gender) but at school
they are judged mainly by what they achieve, measured by universal standards such as
exams.

- A second function of the education system is to produce people with the skills and
abilities needed for the economy of the society. This is called sifting and sorting or the
allocation of roles for future life after school. By assessing the children's abilities and how
they do in tests and exams the school allows them to follow different paths. The system
seems to be fair as everyone seems to have an equal opportunity of succeeding.

- Criticism of the functionalist view include:

o There is no set of shared values to be passed on. For Marxist the

values passed on are those of the dominant ideology, for feminists they are patriarchal
values.
o There is no strong connection between schools and work. Pupils will
not need most of what they learn in school when they are working as adults.

o People are selected for jobs not by their ability but more by their social
class, ethnicity and gender.

• Marx View:

- For Marxists, working-class people are not educated so much as indoctrinated.

Working-class children are taught a set of values that will make them good workers for
the capitalist system.

- Much of this indoctrination is done through the hidden curriculum, for

example children learn in schools to be punctual and to do as they are told by those in
authority (teachers).

- Bourgeoisie go to fee paying public schools or private schools where they are
taught that they are special and they gain access to places at top universities and to well-paid
positions.

- Public schools now often take children from less privileged backgrounds on
scholarships but Marxists say that they do this to recruit the brightest working class children
to the ruling class.

• Feminist:

- Feminists see a division between the two sexes. Feminists argue that schools like
other secondary agencies of socialization, send the message to both boys and girls that boys
are superior, and girls may learn to lower their expectations and be more likely to accept
traditional gender roles. Division between boys and girls (gender discrimination). This may
happen for the following reasons:

o Girls are taught different knowledge, for example, subject seen as more
appropriate for traditional female roles such as sewing and needle
work. They maybe also be discouraged from taking 'harder subjects such as the sciences.

o Teachers have higher expectations of boys and encourage them to aim

for a career, while assuming that the future for most girls is marriage and motherhood.

o In schools the senior staff and head teachers are often males which
give the impression that men are better suited for leadership roles.

The relationship between social mobility and education

• Functionalists believe the education system permits social mobility. If there is
equality of opportunity people are able to reach the level they deserve based on their natural
ability and the effort they make to succeed.

• Meritocracy is a system in which individuals reach the social positions they deserve,
based on their educational achievement, talent and skills. In a meritocracy social background
should be irrelevant as a child from a working class background who works hard should be able
to move upwards in the class ladder and since a shared value system is taught in schools
people accept that education is fair.

• People from working class and underprivileged groups (ethnic minorities) can move
upwards if they merit success and work hard while the opposite could also be true for
privileged children who do not merit success.

• Marxists disagree, according to them middle class and upper class can provide
opportunities for their children such as private tuition access to books and provide other
resources which gives them an edge over children with a poor class background.

• Only if there are extra professional jobs then working class members get in
otherwise they can't and are stagnant since they are unable to find well-paid employment.

Different types of schools

Age:
- Pre-School: Before 5 or 6 years of age, designed to help children get used
to learning and a school-type environment.

- Primary education: 5/6 to 11, here children are taught basic language, math,
cognitive skills and emotional skills and all these subjects may be taught by one
class teacher.

- Secondary education 11 to 18, includes high school and is mostly compulsory

in some countries, here pupils study a range of subjects with different teachers for
different subjects.

- Tertiary education above 18 (adult), also called higher education, it is not

compulsory (post compulsory), universities offer undergraduate and post graduate
degrees, including doctorates.

• Who runs:

- Private schools are not run or controlled by the government. Private schools are
funded mainly from tuition fees. Success generally guaranteed for children attending private
schools and they are usually free from the restrictions placed on state schools and may not
teach certain subjects. An example is Eton British public school which is not public at all.
- State schools are run directly or indirectly by national or local government.
State schools are funded from taxation.

• Faith schools: Sometimes called parochial schools are schools controlled by religious
organization Students are members of the schools faith. They have their own distinctive
ethos based on their faith for example Krishna Avanti School in London involves a lacto
vegetarian diet.

• Primary schools take children in local areas where as in selective education a

school chooses their pupils usually by ability and may reject some student applications.

• Comprehensive system: Are non-selective secondary schools which accepted all

the children in the area for providing primary education.

• In England and Wales comprehensive schools were introduced from the1960s onwards.
They replaced three types of secondary schools known as the ‘Triparlite’ system:

- Grammar schools: For academic' children, selected at the age of 11 years or

afterwards. Grammar schools taught the classics, mathematics, sciences and other
demanding subjects for GCSE.

- Technical schools: Specialized in technical ion helping pupils prepare

tor manual occupations.

- Secondary modern schools: For most children, offering basic education

with often few opportunities to take exams.

• Grammar schools were able to attract the best teachers and recruited the best
pupils mainly from the middle class). These schools had greater social networking and
better life chances.

• There has been a move away from comprehensive schools and there are now
other types of schools including:

- Specialist schools: Secondary schools that specialize in one or more subjects

such as sports, arts, business and science.

- Academies: The government allows businesses and other sponsors to start

schools, usually to replace schools with law GCSE results. The sponsors decide how the
school is run. Academies are not under the control of the local authority as they are funded
directly by government and can set their own curriculum, salary levels and ethos.

- Free schools: Charities, parents and teachers funded by the government to set
up schools.
• The range of different schools now existing means that schools are increasingly
competing against each other for pupils are resources. Previously people used to go to specific
schools but now they have more choices. Nowadays parents can access more information
about schools to help them choose. Schools try to get the best pupils so because they will do
well and raise the schools name which is also why students with learning difficulties were not
selected.

• Parents with better economic and cultural capital send their children to better schools.
Working class parents are disadvantaged. Schools that cannot attract good pupils simply fade
away.

What factors help to explain differences in educational achievements?

• Patterns in educational achievement and experience.

• Gender, ethnicity and social class.

• Different groups have different treatment and educations.

• Gender:

- In the past most schooling was reserved for boys and most girls received very
little education, this is still true for some developing countries his is often because the future of
boys is seen in terms of successful career which is why education is necessary for them while
girls are expected only to marry. For a family with limited resources paying for a daughter may
seem an unnecessary expense.

- The United Nations and its member governments are strongly committed to
education for girls. To fulfil its second millennium development goal of universal primary
education, more girls need to be educated in schools. Educating girls also means that they will
have less children.

- In developed countries girls and boys follow the same subjects. In the past,
however, some subjects were reserved for girls such as domestic science and textiles while
other subjects like woodwork was thought to be only for boys. These differences come from
earlier socialization into gender roles, where for example, girls and boys play with different toys.

- There is also more mention of boys in science textbooks and laboratories are
dominated by boys. Science subjects are also often taught by males, giving girls the message
that the subject is not for them. Boys are also put off from dance subjects and home science,
also sociology.

Patterns in educational achievement and experience

o Gender:
- In UK before 1990 girls were better in primary years of education and not better
than boys for getting the required grades to go to university. But today girls perform much
better than boys in all educational levels. Girls better than boys at GCSE level and a study
in 2012 found out that 64% of girls got at least 5 passes compared to 54% boys.

- Why do girls do better than boys at GCSE level:

o Attitude and motivation of girls has increased since there are more
successful women as role models.

o Schools make an effort to ensure that girls get the same opportunities
as boys.

o Science subjects positive discrimination for girls for example by

ensuring that girls have priority over boys in accessing the laboratory.

o Girls spend more time in studying and are better organized. Girls
also seem benefit more from continuous assessments than boys.

o Girls mature earlier than boys thus understand the importance of

studying early on before they take their main exams.

- Why do boys underachieve compared to girls:

o Teachers consider boys to generally behave badly and boys are sent
out of class rooms more often than girls.

o Boys tend to be overconfident. They overestimate their ability and

believe they can do well without working hard.

o Laddish behavior: Boys may belong to be affected by an anti-learning

subculture. They may think they may think they will lose status in the eyes of their peers if
they work too hard or do well.

o In many modern industrials societies there are fewer traditional male

jobs such has mining. Boys may feel there is little point in working hard when there are few
job opportunities for them.

o Boys and girls different way of spending leisure time. Girls talk which
develop their language and reasoning skills while boys are more likely to play sports or
games.

o Most school work is based on reading and writing, boys would do better
it more school work was active and practical.

o Ethnicity:
- Many individual pupils from all ethnic backgrounds do well but in many countries
there is concern about how some ethnic minority groups do in the school system.

- For example, in the USA there has been concern about African-American pupils,
whereas in the UK children from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds achieve less on
average.

- Why do ethnic groups do less well than others?

o Ethnicity cannot be separated from class and gender, African

Americans from the working class backgrounds explain why they do less well in schools.
Pakistanis were from rural backgrounds that
immigrated also girls from India and Pakistan (Asian) are socialized into strong traditional
female roles and have limited aspirations.

o Wider social factors: If there is discrimination against a minority

group in wider social spheres, their children are more likely to rebel and achieve less than
average.

o Schools may themselves be racist:

- Allocating pupils into streams and sets (lower streams

allocated based on the generalization of ethnicity rather than individual ability).

- Ethnic minorities are labeled as trouble makers and

teachers presume they will do badly.

- Lessons taught may be ethnocentric which is when culture is

viewed from the lens of your own. Such as during History lessons in which minorities don't
learn about their own culture and lose interest.

- The authorities may not deal with racism by other pupils

against the minority.

o Cultural differences. If the values at the home clash with school values,
it may hold up a child's progress.

o Genetic differences. Different ethnic groups may have different levels of

intelligence and ability.

o Social class:

- Social stratification is the different levels into which societies are divided, such
as upper class, middle class and working class, based on differences in wealth,
power and status.

- Schools in the past were largely for the rich, until the 20th century even in
modern industrial societies privileged education was reserved for the rich and powerful.

- Even in the UK there were private schools for the wealthy, grammar schools
for the middle and secondary modern/technical schools for the poor.

- Comprehensive schools tried to remove this class divide but the existence
of private schools made it difficult.

- According to fact social class affects education more than ethnicity and gender.

- Governments used compensatory education to fulfill a perceived gap and

to attract foreign investors. Compensatory schools are given extra support to overcome
the disadvantages faced by working class pupils.

- Working class students may under achieve because:

o Labeling, streaming and setting may lead to underachievement.

o Inherited intelligence. Middle class parents have been successful in

their educational life and transfer their intelligence to their offspring.

o Material deprivation: which are the problems in the standard of living

in the home background of some children that prevent them from achieving in education.

o Children from working class background have low self-esteem and low
expectations of themselves which is why they end up doing badly by virtue of a self-fulfilling
prophecy.

o Language differences make it difficult for working class pupils to

understand lessons and comprehend questions in exams a

o Cultural deprivation: which are aspects of the value and attitudes

from the home and family background of some children that prevent them from achieving in
education.

o Class position: Middle class children aspire to go to a prestigious

university but lower class children might view clerical job is an achievement.

o Higher class has access to more facilities such as better schools,

private tutors and the cultural capital of their family.

Material, Cultural and linguistic influences on education al achievement

o Material influences:

- Social class:

o Standards of living of children (material deprivation) are a cause

for underachievement in schools.

o Middle class children still better off since their parents spend more on
their education.

o Disadvantages of working class or poor background include:

- Small home crowded and no place of quiet to study.

- Inadequate diet.

- Being unable to afford extras such as sporting kits and

school uniforms.

- Didn't attend preschools.

- Have few resources at home like educational b0oks, access

of computer.

- Having part time jobs which restrict their time to study.

- Attending disadvantaged schools with poorer average

results.

- Parents can't afford university education means that

children have lower ambitions to begin with.

- Ethnicity:

o Some ethnic minorities have a high proportion of their members in

the working class so they suffer from material disadvantages. This has often been the case
for immigrants who accept low-paid jobs.

o Some immigrants are from relatively poor backgrounds and this

disadvantage can continue in the new country

- Gender:

o Material deprivation is related more too social class and ethnicity than
gender.
o However where a family has limited resources to spend on education,
girl's education may be seen as less important than a boy which is why families with limited
budget educate sons rather than daughters.

o Cultural influences

- Social class:

o Working class has a culture or sub culture that is different from the rest
society. Cultural deprivation comes from values and attitudes rather than a lack of money
and resources.

o Factors than stand in the way of success in education include:

- Fatalistic attitudes; that is, not believing that you are in

control or your own destiny.

- The need for immediate rather than deferred gratification,

which is why working class children work for an immediate wage rather than going to
school which helps them in the future but not in the present.

- Boys liking thrills and excitement which may get them into
trouble.

- Parent's not valuing education results in negative

experience at school.

- Loyalty to your group it may be seen as wrong to move away

from your origins by going up the class ladder.

- Absence of successful role models in the family who

benefitted from education which makes children see education an unimportant.

o However the above theory is questionable as working class parents do

want to educate their children. But some parents just have a lack of contact with schools
and children may see this as less interest in education.

o Working class parents me also lack cultural capital that middle and
upper class parents have. For example parents from middle and upper class are more likely
to promote educational success than the working class.

- Gender:
o Girls may be influenced to see their future in terms of marriage and
motherhood rather than a profession and career.

o Girls may feel that qualifications are unnecessary for then and not work hard;
on the other hand, a good education can sometimes help the girl find a high-status
husband.

o In modern industrial societies there has been a shift away from traditional gender
roles and girls are now much more likely to have career aims and to be motivated to work
hard in school to reach them.

- Ethnicity:

o Ethnic background may place or not place a high value on learning and
academic success.

o Working hard at school was an essential part of the Chinese ethnic identity.
Children were socialized into seeing educational success as very important.

o Chinese children were told to be the best while White British children were told
do their best.

• Linguistic influences:

- Social class:

o The restricted code is used for informal everyday spoken

communication with family and friends while the elaborate code is used in formal occasions
and makes meanings explicit to express complex and abstract ideas.

o Teachers expect students to understand elaborated codes and be

proficient in its use but working class children generally aren't because they haven't been
socialized into a household that is good at using this code.

o Children are labeled due to their lack of skill with the elaborate code
and teachers think that these pupils are slow and don't work on them. This becomes a self-
fulfilling prophecy and hinders a child's educational success.

o Sometimes a is as self-negating prophecy may also occur where

children who are told they cannot do well react by doing well.

o Streaming is when pupils are in one class for all lessons with other of
similar ability to there is a top stream for those seen as high achiever and a bottom stream
for those seen as low achievers. Those who are
put in the top streams will become confident and do well while the opposite is true for
children in low streams. In most cases the higher the social class the higher the stream.

o Setting, which is a mixture between stream and mixed ability, is when

pupils are placed in a class based on their ability in one subject only. So a pupil might be in
a top set for math's but a bottom set for English. Setting is also known as Banding.

- Ethnicity:

o Teachers may make assumptions about pupils from different groups by

labeling them and by creating self-fulfilling prophecies. Pupils from minority ethnic groups are
more likely to be put in low streams and sets, perhaps because of language differences and
teacher stereotypes.

o In the UK higher percentages of African-Caribbean are excluded from

schools. While there may initially have been bad behavior in some boys in this group, this
can create expectation in teacher of poor behavior from all such boys and lead to a self-
fulfilling prophecy. Intrepretivists call these labels a master status which is why when labeled
as a
trouble maker it may, cape suspicion even when you are innocent.

o Chinese pupils also faced difficulties as teachers assumed that had

the best educational performance which is why they received little praise
for their efforts and teachers helped them less thinking they can do it on their own.

- Gender:

o Schools often treat boys and girls differently and some schools are
even single sex schools (schools for males or females only).

o Seating plans, registers, sports and subjects may be different and

based on gender. Individuality or creativity is praised in boys while girls are praised on their
appearance and good behavior.

o Exclusion policies are mainly based on boys as girls are less likely to
act out their problems and cause trouble.

o Lower level teaching dominated by females and higher level by

males which is why boys have less role models in primary schools teachers but more role
models within the senior staff.

o Female teachers are missing from science subjects. The outcome of

this may be that girls do not believe that science and technology are
subjects for them and choose other subjects.

o The use of resources such as science equipment can also be

dominated by boys.

o Teachers don't always challenge the physical domination of spaces by

assertive boys.

o Some schools have changed and adopted polices to overcome these

issues but still have a problem since these concepts are still present in the wider society.

Influence of peer group and pupil sub culture on educational achievement

• Social class:

- Schools place a high value on behavior and grades. One of the effects of
labeling is to divide students into those who highly achieve and those who underachieve which
is why those who are labeled as failures are deprived of status.

- In response pupils rebel against the school and develop an anti- school
subculture developed in an attempt to gain respect in the eyes, of their peers (this phenomenon
occurs in majority of the cases with boys.

- Culture of masculinity also develops in which the accepted ways of behavior for
males are taken too far.

- These sub cultures are: hating schools truanting, avoiding work and cheating
when doing work, aggressive towards teacher despising pupils who work hard, opening racist
and sexist, involved with serious crime outside.

- Working class pupils are the ones mostly involved in subculture formation
since middle class pupils believe in conformity.

• Ethnicity:

- Sometimes it is pupils from minority ethnic groups who are labeled as failures
and put into low streams.

- The same processes as for working class pupils can also apply to minority ethnic
groups, such as failing to meet the ideal pupil stereotype, being labeled and then conforming to
a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure.

- Chinese pupils are less in numbers in a school and are unable to form a peer
group. They would then be labeled geeks and hence would be more likely to stop working hard.
- African Caribbean boys in British secondary schools formed their own anti-
school subcultures and smoked in schools etc. but were also aggressively masculine.

- ‘Black sisters' was an ethnic minority who was successful in education but at the
same time did not support the educational system. They knew the importance of education.

• Gender:

- Girls develop their language skills more than boys because of talking and
also help each other out in studies since they take them more seriously.

- Girls peer groups were studied by Valerie Hey, and found that cliques (tight,
closed friendship groups) tended to form among girls from the same class background based on
a core of best friends. Girls from the working class used makeup and acted overly feminine to
get their way in school. They misbehaved as much as boys but were subtle about it.

- According to Carolyn Jackson, girls now are swearing, being aggressive, and
working hard by some girls is now seen as un-cool'. If pupils did not do well, they could always
claim that they could have done well had they tried?

Measuring intelligence

• It can be argued that some people are more intelligent than others. This would have
to mean that middle class children were always more intelligent than work class children since
their school achievements are higher. Sociologists say it is the material and cultural factors
that make this happen.

• It is likely that intelligence is partly inborn but that how it develop environment such as
a healthy diet for young children.

• There are also probably different kinds of intelligence. Someone might not be good at
math’s not be good at English. These intelligence are tested in verbal good and logical
reasoning.

• Other types of intelligence include emotional intelligence which involves how well
one can co-operate and emphasize with others.

• Intelligence is most commonly measured by IQ tests. A higher score is deemed to

be intelligent more intelligent. Working class on average less score and sometimes
ethnicities as African Americans scoreless too.

• Problems with IQ tests claims should be questioned:

- Intelligence depends on environment, higher scores would mean a very
good environment and vice versa for lower scores.

- IQ tests are based on a very narrow range of skills and exclude other types
of intelligence.

- IQ tests are made by a particular culture and those from the same culture do
well as they would find it easier.

- Intelligence develops and IQ tests only tell the intelligence of a person at

that particular moment.

- Performance in an IQ test can be effected by factors such as being ill etc.

- Performance in IQ tests improves with practice, so do they really measure

intelligence or just the skill of doing well in tests like these.

- Low scorers on IQ tests sometimes do well while high scorers sometimes do

badly.

The role of official and hidden curriculum

• Official curriculum:

- Consists of subjects taught and their content. In primary schools a focus is given
to reading and writing. Followed by specialized teachers for a subjects in secondary schools,
and usually only one subjects in university.

- Many countries have a national curriculum in which the subjects studied and
their content is decided by the government. National tests allow for comparisons between
school results and this has been helpful to parents in the UK who can the school with better
results for their children.

- Academies and private schools don’t have to keep a national curriculum as

more schools become academies the national curriculum will be compulsory for lesser people.

- National curriculum helps the government develop skills of the future workforce
but division of knowledge into subjects prevents students to understand the link between
subjects.

• Hidden curriculum:

- Pupils lean norms, values, and attitudes from their school experiences and this
is called the hidden curriculum.
- Schools are physically separate from the home and from places of work. The
classrooms are also set out so that the teacher is at the front and seem in control.

- Schools are also a hierarchy and pupils learn their place in this hierarchy and
the norms that go with the pupil role.

- Other features of the hidden curriculum include:

o Competitive sports and testing individuals that doing better is more

important than co-operation.

o Importance of punctuality by being on time for a lesson.

o Doing what you have been told by those in authority.

- Functionalists say that the hidden curriculum is important for the smooth
running of society as it integrates essential skills in the pupils.

- Marxists talk about social control when it comes to the hidden curriculum.
Working class learn not to have high expectations. Pupils become passive. They are also
made to believe that when they fail it is their own fault (manipulated).
Most of the important knowledge is reserved for pupils who pursue education after
16 years of age and this usually does not include the working class.

- Feminist argue that the hidden curriculum conveys gendered messages. For
example boys and girls have different uniforms. This encourages both boys and girls to
conform to gender stereotypes.

• Vocationalism:

- It is education in which you are prepared for a particular trade, craft or profession.

- Vocational education is received for work while secondary education

makes courses available that lead to careers in, for example health care.

- In UK students who take A levels and university education are considered to

be better than those who just learn a particular skill.

- Governments have tried to make vocational education better by introducing

new qualifications and assessments.

- Critics of vocational training have argued that:

o They keep young people occupied and avoiding counting them as

unemployed.
o They have been used by some employers as a source of cheap labor.

o The purpose of education not just to prepare workers but to increase

the potential of individuals which is why well rounded education is required.