Functionalist – division of

labour
Education provides society with a
‘division of labour’ this means schools
help identify who will be the binman
and who will become the solicitor
Functionalist -
socialisation
Education socialises children
with society’s shared norms and
values. This process of
socialisation moves children
away from the particularistic
values of their home life to
towards the universalistic values
of society and helps establish
what functionalists term a value
consensus
Functionalist – hidden
curriculum
The hidden curriculum helps to
integrate future citizens into
society’s by ‘teaching’ and
reinforcing them with society’s
norms and values in order to
establish a value consensus
Functionalist –
meritocracy
Education helps provide the means for
people to make themselves upwardly
mobile. Therefore if you make the effort
you will be rewarded – meritocracy. This
process legitimizes social inequalities as
functionalists believe everyone has the
opportunity to get qualifications .
Education/school is a level playing field, if
you fail to achieve at school it is nobody's
fault but your own! - meritocracy
Marxist perspective
Having just read through the functionalist
slides, compare them to the content in the
following slides as there’s a massive
difference!!
Marxist – social class
Unlike functionalists positive
division of labour. Marxists
stress that education helps
meet the needs of society by
dividing it into distinct social-
classes the ruling (bosses)
and working class (workers)
Marxist – ‘socialisation’
Unlike functionalists, Marxists stress
that education doesn’t socialise in an
optimistic way like functionalists
believe to create a value consensus,
but the opposite is true. Education
socialises children into becoming
obedient workers as school simply
passes on ruling class norms and
values. In other words schools pass
on the dominant ideology of the
Marxist – hidden
curriculum
Unlike functionalists positive view of
the hidden curriculum as helping
establish a social consensus. Instead
Marxists argue the hidden curriculum
is tool or instrument of the ruling
class. Bowles and Ginitis argue it
teaches the children to accept their
position in society. And to accept the
society is unequal and exploitative.
Marxist – social
restrictions
Though functionalists see schools as a place
of opportunity for social mobility through
individual effort. Marxists point out that
schools simply reproduces social inequalities
as meritocracy is a myth. The ruling class
benefit from an education system which
meets their needs by limiting the
opportunities of the working-classes and
thereby legitimizes social-class inequalities.
For example few working class kids go to
grammar schools and then Oxbridge!
 By C Thompson christhomp@aol.com