Sociological Perspective of the Relationship Between Education and the Economy

Sociological Perspective of the Relationship Between Education and the Economy

There seems to be a direct link to what goes on in schools and what

takes place at work.

The functionalist approach to education and economy is that through

socialisation education helps maintain society by introducing young

people into values and beliefs such as achievement. They argue that

education teaches what is needed within the world of work like

numeracy and literacy skills or specific skills for particular jobs.

The education system allocates people to the most appropriate jobs,

which suits their abilities using examination results. Through the

eyes of the functionalists this is seen to be fair because there is an

equal opportunity for everyone, everyone has the chance to succeed in

society on the basis of their ability. If they work hard and try hard

at school then they will succeed and climb the social ladder obtaining

a higher social status. They see education as turning pupils into

model citizens that the most able pupils will succeed and obtain the

most important jobs.

Durkheim stated that education performs the function of making

individuals feel they are members of a social group. This can be done

through lessons such as history. He believes that school teaches

pupils how to co-operate and work with others. The subjects that are

taught in schools are related to skills that are required for work.

The education system sifts and sorts the people according to their

ability and that those who want to achieve can do so despite social

class or background.

Parsons thinks that the school is the first place where they are

taught universa...

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...yed was low. There was first an assumption that unemployment

was caused by a lack of skills amongst young people. In actual fact it

could be to do with lack of jobs. Cohen stated that this attitude and

discipline training made the post 16 people ready to except low paid

jobs.

In conclusion there is no one simple explanation about the

relationship between school and economy. All of the information

featured is theories and beliefs based on different perspectives. Up

to a certain point all of the theories are true and probable in

certain situation. No one can speak for the whole of society what

happens in one group might be completely different to another. I would

however be incline to put my trust in to a lot of what Paul Willis

says partly because of the way he carried out his study, it was very

in-depth.