...elsewhere, assess the view that the main function of the education system is to reproduce and legitimise social inequalities. 20 State education began in 1870 and a significant feature of education in Britain is the difference in achievement between pupils from different social classes. Despite many improvements to the education system, social class differences continue. Social class background has a powerful influence on a child’s success in the education system. For example, children from middle class families on average perform better than working class children. Functionalists see education as based on value consensus where as Marxists see it as based on class division and capitalist exploitation. Althusser saw schools as part of the ideological state apparatus, where people are persuaded to accept their exploited position in society. This maintains the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling people’s ideas, values and beliefs. Althusser also argues that the bourgeoisie do not need to use the repressive state apparatus, this includes the police, courts and army. The bourgeoisie does not need to use the RSAs because they are used to maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by force, therefore can manipulate the ways in which people think. Therefore the main function of the education system is to reproduce and legitimise social inequalities as in Althusser’s view education transmits class inequality from generation to generation and legitimates class inequalities by producing...
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...Assess the contribution of Marxism to our understanding of society (33 marks) - June'13 A popular group of sociologists , who have conducted various amounts of research in regard to society, are Marxists, who believe that power in society is largely stemmed from wealth, which has created a capitalist society (a society in which people are employed for wages, and businesses are set up with the aim of making profit). In capitalism the working-class employees (proletarian) are exploited by the bourgeoisie (the ruling-class), because they were not paid the full value of their work since the bourgeoisie kept surplus value. According to Marxism, family developed so that men were able to feel certain of the paternity of their children. Engels (Marxist) believes that marriage would allow men to control women's sexuality and minimise the chances of women having an affair. This is supported by Murdock (Functionalist) who believes there are 4 functions to the family, one being the sexual function, which states that family prevents disruption to society by limiting sexuality to monogamous relationships, therefore preventing any conflict that may arise from sexual desire. This suggests that Marxists believe that society created the idea of family in order for men to feel confident they are passing down their property to their biological offspring. In addition, Marxist Feminists believe that society is controlled by men and the ruling-class; and that family encourages the working-class...
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...Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess functionalist views of the role of education in modern society (20 marks) The consensus functionalist approach is just one of many that attempt to explain the role of education in modern society. Functionalism is based on the view that society is a system of interdependent parts held together by a shared culture or value consensus. Each part of society such as the family, economy and education system performs functions that help to maintain society. Functionalists such as Durkheim and Parsons seek to discover what functions that educations performs and what is does to meet society’s needs. Marxists such as Althusser and Bowle & Gintis disagree with functionalists and argues that education in modern society continues to uphold the capitalist system. The French sociologist, Durkheim (1903) argued that education provided two main functions. Firstly, social solidarity; some of the subjects taught as part of the national curriculum such as History and Citizenship helps students to understand the complexity of British culture. This sense of shared culture between children creates a strong sense of unity and commitment to a wider social group. Without social solidarity, society would fall apart as there would be no cooperation as each individual would pursue their own selfish desires making education a vital role for modern society. The second function that education has is that it prepares young people for work. Industrial societies...
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...Introduction Assess the role of education form the functionalist perspective Functionalists believe that education performs very important roles for individuals, the economy and the wider social structure. It provides secondary socialisation, passing on shared culture enables individuals to develop their potential and regulates their behaviour. Functionalists argue that education has three broad; socialisation where education helps to maintain society by socialising young people in to key cultural values, such as achievement, individualism, equality of opportunity, social solidarity and democracy. The second one is skills provision in which education teaches the skills required by a modern industrial society. These may be general skills that everyone needs such as literacy and numeracy or the specific skills needed for particular occupations. And the final function is role allocation, where education allocates people to the most appropriate jobs for their talents using examination and qualifications. This is seen to be fair because there is equality of opportunity, everyone has the chance to achieve success in society on the basis of their ability. ...read more. Middle Educational mechanisms such as grades, examinations, references and qualifications are used to sort individuals. Society is this a meritocracy in which people are rewarded for intelligence, ability and effort. Functional importance is decided by length and specialist training required for particular occupations...
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...material from item A and elsewhere, assess the view that the education system exists mainly to select and prepare young people for their future work roles. Across the UK, it is now compulsory for everyone under the age of 18 to be in full time education. This, according to the government, allows enough time for students to become fully socialised and ready to go out in to the work place and keep young people off the streets. However, there are many arguments that claim the education system does not do what it is meant to do. The education system was originally introduced to ensure that everyone could be properly socialised, as family can only equip children with the basic skills. So the education system is there to continue the process of socialising children and allocate them for the necessary work roles. Marxists, however, would strongly disagree with that statement. They believe that the education system was created by the middle class for the middle class, and therefore it only benefits middle class students. Louis Althusser (1971) argues that education is only there to maintain each generation by transmitting the ruling class views in to the working class students, and disguising them as common values. This causes the conditions needed for capitalism to flourish without having to use force. Marxist believes that there are two main functions of the education system. They argue that education reproduces the inequalities and social relations of a capitalist society...
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...0 8 Assess the contribution of Marxism to our understanding of society. (33 marks) http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/subjects/AQA-SCLY4-QP-JUN13.PDF Marxism is a conflict theory which was developed by Karl Marx. It is a structural approach to society, meaning that it looks at the large-scale societal structure in order to see how society functions and operates. They believe that structure is categorized into two kinds of structure; the infrastructure and the superstructure. The superstructure is the culture, institutions, political power structures, roles, rituals, and norms that influence how we behave in society. The infrastructure means the basic systems and structures that a country or an organization needs in order to work properly. Marxism is useful to our understanding of society as it shows us how society is based on capitalism which caused the division of two opposed classes. Marx believed that in society we have two main classes; the bourgeoisie or the ruling class and the proletariat or the working class. The bourgeoisie are the owners of the means of production (factories e.g.). Marx argues that the bourgeoisie’s ownership of the means of production also gives them ideological and political power that they to exploit the proletariat. The proletariat are the working class in capitalist society. They own no means of production and are wage slaves who are forced to sell their labour power to the bourgeoisie in order for them to survive. The bourgeoisie construct the relations...
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...Section A: Education 0 1 Explain what is meant by the term ... (2 marks) • Meritocracy: such as equal opportunity or a system in which rewards are based on achievement/ability or similar. Partial answer: [fair rewards] • Immediate gratification: wanting rewards now, or leaving school as soon as possible to get a job, or similar. • Cultural capital: the values, etc that the middle class transmit to their children or that confer advantage in the education system. • Compensatory education: additional educational opportunities/resources directed at deprived or under-achieving pupils. • Cultural deprivation: a lack or deficit of values (or of norms, attitudes, skills or knowledge). Partial answer [immediate gratification / a lack of culture] • Vocational education: relating to a career or specific work roles. • Ethnocentric curriculum: the subjects taught in school being biased towards one particular culture. One mark for a partially satisfactory answer. 02 Suggest three ways/reasons ... (6 marks) Two marks for each of three appropriate ways. One mark will be awarded where there is a partially appropriate answers. Marxists see school as being similar to the world of work: • A hierarchy of authority • Fragmentation of work/learning • Extrinsic rewards • Based on competition • Alienation • Status differences. Boys’ educational under-achievement: • Lack of male teacher role models • Feminisation...
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...Outline and assess the view that the role of the education system is to reproduce and transmit culture. This essay will outline and asses the view that the view that the role of the education system is to reproduce and transmit culture. According to Bourdieu, the major of the education system is cultural reproduction. This does involve society as a whole, as Durkheim argued, but, instead, the reproduction of the culture of the ‘dominant classes’. These groups have the power the power to ‘impose meanings and to impose them as legitimate’. They are able to define there own culture as ‘worthy of being sought and possessed’, and to establish is as the basis for knowledge in the educational system. The high value placed on dominant culture in society as a whole simply stems from the ability of the powerful to impose their definition of reality in other. The possession of dominant culture is referred to as cultural capital by Bourdieu. This is because via the education it can be translated into wealth and power. Children of dominant classes acquire skills and knowledge from pre-school which puts them in an advantage because they have the key to understanding what is being transmitted in the classroom. Bourdieu claims that, since the education system presupposes the possession of cultural capital, which few students in fact possess, there is a great deal of inefficiency in teaching. This is because working students simply do not understand what their teachers are trying to...
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...Outline and assess the view that the role of the education system is to reproduce and transmit culture. This essay will outline and asses the view that the view that the role of the education system is to reproduce and transmit culture. According to Bourdieu, the major of the education system is cultural reproduction. This does involve society as a whole, as Durkheim argued, but, instead, the reproduction of the culture of the ‘dominant classes’. These groups have the power the power to ‘impose meanings and to impose them as legitimate’. They are able to define there own culture as ‘worthy of being sought and possessed’, and to establish is as the basis for knowledge in the educational system. The high value placed on dominant culture in society as a whole simply stems from the ability of the powerful to impose their definition of reality in other. The possession of dominant culture is referred to as cultural capital by Bourdieu. This is because via the education it can be translated into wealth and power. Children of dominant classes acquire skills and knowledge from pre-school which puts them in an advantage because they have the key to understanding what is being transmitted in the classroom. Bourdieu claims that, since the education system presupposes the possession of cultural capital, which few students in fact possess, there is a great deal of inefficiency in teaching. This is because working students simply do not understand what their teachers are trying to...
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...have changed, and many feminists use the term ‘dual burden’ to describe the woman’s role in the family today. Item 2B Government policies and laws include tax and benefit policies as well as legislation such as relating to divorce and marriage. Sociologists have different views on the impact of these policies and laws on families. For example, feminists argue that social policies assume that the ideal family is a patriarchal nuclear family, and that government policies and laws therefore favour this sort of family. On the other hand, the New Right argue that the benefit system undermines traditional nuclear families by actively encouraging lone parents. 0 6 Explain what is meant by the ‘dual burden’ (Item 2A). (2 marks) 0 7 Explain the difference between the expressive role and the instrumental role (Item 2A). (4 marks) 0 8 Suggest three ways in which the differences between children and adults are becoming less clear in society today. (6 marks) 0 9 Examine the reasons for, and the effects of, changes in family size over the past 100 years or so. (24 marks) 1 0 Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess sociological views of the impact of government policies and laws on family life. Item 2A Over the past 40 years or so, there has been a decline in the number of first marriages in the United Kingdom. One of the reasons for this decline is the change in the role of women in society. In order to develop their careers, women may be rejecting the notion of marriage...
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...[Writer’s Name] [Institute’s Name] Introduction Employment law Employment law is the branch of law which governs the creation, operation and termination of employment, determines the mode of co-workers; the measure establishes safety and disposition of labour disputes. Labour law regulates not processes, and social relations of subjects of labour relations, that is, the social forms of labour. From this point of view of work of the scientist, inventor, writer, and other individual forms of labour are not subject to the regulation of labour law, as performed outside of public relations. Employment law contains rights and obligations of workers and employers. Employment law is characterized by a combination of centralized and local regulations. In the local regulations adopted by agreement of the parties shall be determined daily working hours, set at rest (break), consistent recording of leave and other issues in detail regulate the working conditions of employees. It is important that the rules of local acts do not conflict with federal law. The principle of equality has evolved into demands real equality of opportunity in all areas of life, necessitating the implementation of a full and comprehensive approach to gender equality. It has been important developments in the work related to equality, to equal results, because if people got only equal opportunity, not the liability of government and society in general to guarantee the result and the effectiveness of policies...
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...One strand of the research focuses on centralization/decentralization to answer questions about what responsibilities within education systems (such as recruitment of teachers, control of budgets, design of curricula) are most appropriately located at national, provincial, district and/or school levels in countries of different sizes and cultures. The research also takes into consideration the distribution of responsibilities within particular levels, e.g. at the national level between national ministries of basic education, higher education, finance, planning, etc. A second strand focuses on management of skills development and training. Expansion of opportunities for young people who have completed basic education does not imply exclusive attention to traditional models of formal education. Attention is given to alternative models and to non-formal modes which can serve out-of-school youths. Learners in modes of post-basic education pay attention to the demands of the labour market. This requires examination of the types of skills offered by different modes of training for both in-school and out-of-school youth. Systems of higher education also require attention. The issues of governance include mechanisms for governments to achieve appropriate accountability and coherence even in societies which grant high degrees of autonomy to higher education systems. Planning and management are...
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...everything, because essay questions will focus on more than one area of the specification. The specification: The relationship between religious beliefs and social change and stability * Functionalism: conservative force, inhibition of change, collective conscience, Durkheim and totemism, anomie; civil religions * Marxism: religion as ideology, legitimating social inequality, disguising exploitation etc * Weber: religion as a force for social change: theodicies, the Protestant ethic * Neo-Marxism: religion used by those opposing the ruling class, liberation theology * Feminism: religious beliefs supporting patriarchy * Fundamentalist beliefs: rejecting change by reverting to supposed traditional values and practices. Religious organisations, including cults, sects, denominations, churches and New Age movements, and their relationship to religious and spiritual belief and practice * Typologies of religious organisations: churches, denominations, sects and cults, with examples of each New Religious Movements and typologies of NRMs eg world rejecting/accommodating/affirming; millenarian beliefs, with examples of each * New Age movements and spirituality, with examples * The relationship of these organisations to religious and spiritual belief and practice. The relationship between different social groups and religious/spiritual organisations and movements, beliefs and practices * Reasons why people join NRMs, NAMs and other organisations * Gender...
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...because essay questions will focus on more than one area of the specification. The specification: The relationship between religious beliefs and social change and stability * Functionalism: conservative force, inhibition of change, collective conscience, Durkheim and totemism, anomie; civil religions * Marxism: religion as ideology, legitimating social inequality, disguising exploitation etc * Weber: religion as a force for social change: theodicies, the Protestant ethic * Neo-Marxism: religion used by those opposing the ruling class, liberation theology * Feminism: religious beliefs supporting patriarchy * Fundamentalist beliefs: rejecting change by reverting to supposed traditional values and practices. Religious organisations, including cults, sects, denominations, churches and New Age movements, and their relationship to religious and spiritual belief and practice * Typologies of religious organisations: churches, denominations, sects and cults, with examples of each New Religious Movements and typologies of NRMs eg world rejecting/accommodating/affirming; millenarian beliefs, with examples of each * New Age movements and spirituality, with examples * The relationship of these organisations to religious and spiritual belief and practice. The relationship between different social groups and religious/spiritual organisations and movements, beliefs and practices * Reasons why people join NRMs, NAMs and other organisations ...
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...and annexation and along on its way brought new meanings to citizenship. Such change in definition, for example, can be found in suffrage granted to women and the nonpropertied classes. Paupers, convicts and soldiers are another example of how political and civil rights were once a privilege of certain classes only (Dahrendorf, 1974, p. 11). With the introduction of mass democracy and social protection as well as introduction of welfare state a need in the new conception that would look on the relationship on an individual and the state appeared consequently. The norms of citizenship, therefore, have improved with the development of state and citizenship became a multination concept, which implies different things to different nations (Dahrendorf, 1974, p. 12). According to Michael Ignatieff (1995), the introduction of the welfare state can be explained as an attempt to make citizenship “a real as opposed to a purely formal experience” (Ignatieff, 1995, p. 67). The experience of World War Two has demonstrated that that the concept has to be changed and since then the “security” became of the main value for the new conception of citizenship. Civic solidarity had to be built on the principles of “presumption that the more a citizen received from the state the more...
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