Assessing the Role of Education From the Functionalist Perspective

Assessing the Role of Education From 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.

Emile Durkheim claims that schools perform two central functions,

relating to social cohesion and the division of labour

In order to exist, societal members must share common beliefs and

values, these are only partially taught by the family, he emphasized

the moral force of education, the way in which the school continues

this process and the way in which children internalise the values and

belief of society to became ‘social beings’. According to him the main

functions of educa...

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...ng things not relevant for work. Others argue that education

really only has a baby-sitting or control function. It’s a way of

controlling young people and of allowing parents to go out and work.

Functionalists are useful in drawing attention to the many functions

education can perform but they are probably wrong to see them as

well-being for the goods of individuals and society as a whole. For

example it may be only the ruling class who benefit from education

producing a docile workforce. From another perspective,

interactionists would argue that they have an over socialised view of

individuals and that we cant see education in terms of ‘functions’

anyway we should look instead at how individuals interact with schools

rather than seeing education as a thing which shape the individuals in

societies interests.