Theoretical Perspectives

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Ben McNicholl                9th November 2009

  1. Outline the main theoretical perspectives on education and evaluate their usefulness when analysing current issues.

Since the Education Reform(1988) there has been a compulsory national curriculum in place, which sets out guidelines for all state schools which they must follow, though Independent schools are free to set their own curriculum. Prior to this act, a school was free to set its own internal curriculum, allowing students and teachers to teach subjects which suit the students needs and play to their strengths. For example, it was possible for a student to drop maths if it was a weak subject. It also allowed schools to decide which subjects would be more important to students in the long run, for example, by not teaching wood work to girls, or not teaching needle work to boys. There are many different theoretical perspectives on education, namely Marxism and Functionalism, both of these have very different views on education and whether or not the education system is producing positive or negative results.

Marx argued that the society we live in, which he called capitalism, “divides everyone up into two basic classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat” (Cited by Moore et al. 2008: 17), also known as the bosses, or ruling class, and the workers, or working class. Thus, the education system we currently use is merely training the future working class of society, while the bourgeoisie, or bosses, are born in to their role within society and inherit all the benefits that come with it. The same structure is mirrored in education, with teachers adopting the role of the bourgeoisie and students taking on the role of the proletariat. This is also argued by Bowles and Gintis who stated that “the major role of education in capitalist societies is the reproduction of labour power.” (1976, cited by Haralambos et al. 2008: 602). Like Marx, Bowles and Gintis believed that if capitalism is to work then it is necessary to produce a workforce of docile, obedient workers. They believed that this is possible with an education system which puts the power in the hands of the teachers and government, whom could decide which subjects would be seen as compulsory. For example, in our modern day education system, ICT is considered compulsory and everyone in English must study the subject up to the age of 16, this is no doubt due to the huge demand that is in place for computer literate workers in industry in the 21st century. Since the Education Reform Act the government has essentially had the power to choose what kind of qualifications people will have once they finish their secondary education – if we need more computer literate people then ICT becomes compulsory, however, if the government needs a sudden increase in tradesmen then woodwork or resistant materials would become mandatory.

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One negative which can be taken from this is, due to the amount of people who would be leaving school with the same qualifications, work places can maintain a lower level of pay, this eradicates the threat of an employee raising questions over their pay due to the threat of dismissal – with a reserve army of similarly skilled workers ready to fill in any jobs that may become available, this almost forces a worker to accept his or her conditions even if they may not be happy with them, along with maintaining a high level of unemployment. However, ...

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