In today’s society, education is a mandatory part of everyday life and a major concern to everyone who lives in contemporary society (Holmes, Hughes & Julian, 2012, pg. 167). Being educated is extremely important and valued amongst our nation. It is the basis for gaining skills, developing identities through socialisation and furthermore our future careers. There is a powerful link between an individual’s education level, their occupation and finally their income level hence why education is so relevant. Proven by a study conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2009, there is a direct link between higher education levels and higher income levels. Education serves the interests of not only individuals but society as a whole, Australia’s …show more content…
Functionalist accounts of education focus on the role played by compulsory education within society. Functionalism assumes that there are three different outcomes education serves. Firstly, from a functionalist point of view, education operates as a successful meritocracy, a place where the weak are distinguished from the strong. Meaning that those talented and intelligent individuals; regardless of what socioeconomic background they may come from, will achieve more than those without these traits.The reason the education system is being seen as an objective sorting house is that its major role is to develop a workforce capable of meeting the needs of the economy. This is precisely the reason why education is so important to everyone, in order for our nation to thrive. Secondly, vocational skills are taught at school to get students work-ready and in a more likely position to be employed. And lastly, the third significant role of education according to functionalism is the development of a shared culture or set of common values amongst the students. School is usually the first place children are exposed to socialisation situations outside of their own family subculture. It teaches them how to follow rules, respect their peers and elders and basically what is socially acceptable and what isn’t (Holmes, et al. …show more content…
Meaning that institutions such as schools are engaged in reproducing the status quo or the norms of the society in which we live. The most famous example of this approach was Bowles and Ginti’s book, Schooling in Capitalist America (1976). They believed that the role of education in capitalist economies is mainly to produce a compliant labour force with the necessary skills that benefit the economy. This is represented in the way in which the school day mimics a typical work day or how student’s studies are referred to as ‘work’. These subtle hints provide a very important result for capitalist economies – a work force that has the proper skills and is also submissive. This submissiveness is produced through the formal hierarchies that are in place within schools by students having to obey and respect their peers and teachers. And also in the informal hierarchies which exist amongst the students themselves; who fits in and who doesn’t fit in. In this way both the implicit and explicit ordering of power amongst students and staff in schools has a similar representation of those found in wider society (Holmes, et al.
Juveniles are being taught that in order to have a nice car, branded cloths and the house of their dreams, by getting into an expensive mortgage, they have to be an employee of a huge corporation. In addition, they have to undergo to a prestigious school, study hard, have excellent grades in order to become popular and respectable in the world. However, many people would not become those super leaders, but these majority of people have a great role in the capitalism society of the US. As Gatto says, “We buy televisions, and then we buy the things we see on the television. We buy computers, and then we buy the things we see on the computer. We buy $150 sneakers whether we need them or not, and when they fall apart too soon we buy another pair” (38). Such results are in part of a wrong education that teenagers have received trough many decades. In addition, Gatto highlights that modern educational system has been working in a six basic functions methods that makes the system strong and unbreakable: The adjustable function, indulge students to respect authorities. The integrating function, which builds the personality of the students as similar to each other as possible. The diagnostic and directive function, which allows a school to set permanent scholar grades in order to determinate his or her future role in society. The differentiating function, which gives to the student a good education and after his or her role is diagnosed, they prevent any educational progress. The selective function, function that the system has used to prevent academic growth for the non-selected students. The propaedeutic function, which works in the selection of specific groups of intellectual adults to keep perpetuating the system all over again making it a continuous sequence. (Gatto 34). Gatto’s facts revealed the survival of the educational system for decades,
The Australian Curriculum is fluid, ever-changing and highly politicised. There is constant debate surrounding what should, and should not be taught in Australian schools. The Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) Curriculum in particular, has undergone dramatic changes over the last few years. This essay will critically analyse two provocations relating to the HASS 7-10 curriculum, and some of the surrounding issues that HASS teachers contend with on a day to day basis. The first provocation, the purpose of Civics and Citizenship teaching is to teach about democracy, not for democracy, will be examined in relation to opinions regarding left-wing bias in the Civics and Citizenship curriculum, and the idea that the course teaches too much ‘for’
In modern democratic society school curriculum has become a prioritised concern for many citizens. It is a key factor in the shaping of future generations and the development of society. Decades have lapsed and numerous attempts have been made to produce a national curriculum for Australia. In 2008 it was announced that the Rudd government in collaboration with State and Territories would produce a plan to move towards a national curriculum (Brady & Kennedy, 2010). To date this has been realised in the deliverance of the Australian Curriculum v1.2 which will be examined in this paper.
We live in a society where we are surrounded by people telling us that school/education and being educated is the only way to succeed. However, the school system is not up to the standards we want it to uphold. There are three issues we discuss the most which are the government, the student, and the teacher. In John Taylor Gatto 's essay “Against School”, we see the inside perspective of the educational system from the view of a teacher. In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, an essay written by Mike Rose, we hear a student 's experience of being in a vocational class in the lower level class in the educational system when he was supposed to be in the higher class.
The Australian Curriculum has been a 'long time coming', but its great that it is almost here now. The Australian Curriculum has been designed with some relation to Tyler and Skillbeck's models. It is suspected that theorists such as Piaget were also considered during the development. The Australian Curriculum relates to Piaget's stages of progression, with curriculum being designed for specific levels of maturation and development. With students of this generation, it was incredibly important that an updated, curriculum was to be designed so that it could facilitate the needs of the 21st century learners. This new generation of learners seem to be almost born with basic computer skills, so the ICT program has been completely redeveloped. The curriculum has also expanded to make way for Asian studies which will help students as they move into their careers. The Australian Curriculum has been developed to cover a broad range of topics, concerns and values that will be discussed throughout this paper.
Rodney K. Smith’s mere opinion of his publication is that children with a higher level are more like to secure a job rather than those with no or little education. His view is upheld by the statistics of bureau that gives a clear statistics of the percentage of the salary earned by students with higher education and that of lower education. This makes his claim more reliable and credible because the bureau of labor and statistics is a reputable institution in the United States that deals with the percentage of people who work in United State. Smith’s own personal anecdote appeals to the feelings of the audience in which it ignites them with feelings of possibility.
Educators attempt to change that system to make it better, but their change was not that great as an example for the world. Also, did that change qualify education systems to compete with other systems or not? Some examples and reasons have made me agree with some of the points from Gatto’s and Edmunson’s and disagree with them. John Taylor Gatto, in his essay “Against School: How Public Education Cripples our Kids, and why,” argues that the contemporary purpose of education in public schools is to produce “harmless electorate,” “a servile labor force,” and “mindless consumers” (28). According to Gatto, he is blaming public schools for claiming that the purpose of education is to shape students to certain expectations and habits without their interests.
I believe that the aim of education is to create well-rounded citizens in a democratic society. This means that students are not only being taught just the academic standards by also being taught social skills. The students will be able to be a citizen that will improve their society and be a person who is diverse and who is open to the differences in people. With this comes a couple of barriers, such as the desire to learn new things in both teachers and students in the classroom is lacking and the worker-as-machine model.
College is necessary for numerous advantage and opportunities for those who seek a higher paying profession. In addition, those who achieve a college degree are more successful than those with only a high school diploma or GED. In fact, the article “On the Importance of Education” by Richard L Wobbekind, quotes that “Today, the average college graduate earns more than twice the amount of a non-college graduate” (2), further supporting the mentioned statement, as well as the importance of lowering tuition prices because by doing so more people increase the chances of ensuring a more successful
In the functionalist view, education serves a part in unifying society by focusing education on the socialization and skill development of children to prepare them to work in the interests of society. According to the functionalist perspective, education serves both primary and secondary functions. The secondary purpose of education is for children to learn social and networking skills that will help them to find jobs in the future. The primary goals of education are to teach students the rules and norms of society so they can get a job and be functioning members of society. Also, sorting is done in this form of education to separate the students based on how well they are doing in their school. Sorting is done by standardized tests that show how well these students do in academics, which gives an idea on which roles students will pay in society. Furthermore, functionalists think that any disruption to education can lead to distortions in society since some positions aren 't being filled. It is true that work should come from education, but this sociological model only sees education to be used for the will of society, which can lead to a totalitarian state where society dictates a person 's worth. Structural functionalism only focuses on the positives of education while neglecting that it can use to make people believe that their lives are only to work for money and serve their nations
According to Parsons, a leading functionalist, ‘schools, like the wider society, operate on a meritocratic basis where children achieve their status according to merit, or worth, rather than the basis of their sex, race, or class’ (Parson & Bales 1956, cited in Giddens & Sutton 2013, p. 871) and this follows the basic functional idea that society should have inequality, but based around a person’s individual worth to the society, and not by their socio-economic background or any other factor outside of their control. Conflict theorists reject this as they say an individual’s worth is consistently heavily influences by their lineage. Functionalists justify the resulting inequality of their meritocratic system as people receive what they deserve; a different kind of equality. Sadovnik (2011) continues to write that schooling provides the opportunity for the development and preservation of modern and democratic societies, particularly in regards to equal opportunities for everyone. Pierre Bordieu contradicts this, arguing that schools are only there for the advancement of middle and upper class families, leaving many working class children alienated from any education (Holmes 2015), and Sadovnik (2011) adds that many conflict theorists suggest functionalists are confusing reality with ideology in terms of education deliverance, with
Rich people assume that College is important, but it is not a one way ticket to success, and happiness. However, Middle class people believe that education is important to be successful in the future. Education for middle class student is an important tool that is applied in the modern world to succeed, as it reduces the challenges, which are faced in life. “With nearly half of the nation 's undergraduates enrolled in community colleges,…….are playing an increasingly important role in higher education.”(David Hosansky). The information gained through education allows individuals’ future life to be optimally utilized due to training of the human mind. This eventually opens doors of opportunities for individual to achieve better chance in career growth. Education has played a major role in the modern industrial world. “This is attributed to the fact prospective employees must be qualified adequately to perform various tasks effectively.”(David Hosansky) Industries entail resources that are sufficiently equipped with the modern technology to suit the needs and wants of the society. This makes education to become a norm for services in all industrial
The Functionalist perspective looks at education as a type of sorting station in which students undergo thorough training and testing so that they are given their appropriate place in society, this all depends on how well they perform in examinations. Functionalists also take into account that many societies come from a variety of national and cultural backgrounds. Their views also suggest that western society-based schools give awards on the basis of the individual ability, talent effort, etc. The function of education in a functionalist world would be selection. The education system selects people and allocates to them certain jobs according to their capabilities. The education syst...
So after studying the Functionalists, Marxists and Interactionists theories it would appear that the Functionalists views on education is useful in modern society as schools build a bridge between ascribed status and your achieved status even if it may be influenced by capitalism.
Functionally speaking, education serves as a venue to transmit culture and skills. “Schools supplement the family by passing on to youngster’s important elements of their culture, (Sullivan, T.J., 2007).” Functionalists see this as equipping the individual with the skills necessary to function in society and to promote success. Not only does it establish a soci...