The collective consciousness refers to the basic values and norms that people share in society.
For Talcott Parsons the education system and schools represents the internalisation of a of society’s values and norms is achieved through schools. This is secondary socialisation. Through exposure to others in the educational system the child begins to learn and internalise (adopt as part of their personality) wider social values. This is necessary as a way of integrating people into wider society and, for the promotion of social solidarity, value consensus and so forth. Therefore it benefits the individual by preparing them and giving them skills to use in society to fill their role in society. Society will therefore keep going and continue due to this.
There are criticisms of Functionalist theory as there are those theorists like Marxists, who see the role of the schools and educational system as being mainly an ideological one which only benefits the ruling class, and so only society can benefit not the individuals. They say the school is an institution whose primary purpose is that of ensuring the reproduction of Capitalist forms of economic production and reproduce social inequalities based on class, status, power, etc. Also the school encourages individual competition and the influence of social stratification largely prevents the school system from efficiently grading individuals in terms of ability this does not seem to favour the individuals. Theorists like Illich suggest schools create mindless, conforming and easily manipulated individuals. They are learning to defer to authority to accept alienation and to forget how to think for themselves. This then prepares the pupils for their roles as consumers to who the passive consumption of goods and services becomes an end in itself. This therefore means only society can benefit from this social solidarity and reluctance to question authority and routine, and the ruling class can keep power.
For Functionalists schools can produce social consensus, involving shared norms, values, beliefs and so forth. Society, in this respect operates for the ultimate benefit of all and individuals benefit from the skills and knowledge gained to fulfil their roles in society. For Conflict theorists the emphasis is placed upon the ways that a powerful, politically and economically dominant, social class attempts to use the education system and schools as a means of reproducing their domination over time.
Marxist Theories of Education suggest schools are agencies of socialisation that transmit an ideology beneficial to the basic interests of a ruling class. For Marxists, the role of education is considered in terms of the idea that there is always a basic “conflict of interest” in Capitalist society. The most-fundamental conflict is between Capital (the owners of the means of production) and Labour (people who sell their labour power in exchange for money). Marxists are mainly concerned with analysing the way education involves the transmission of ideas and beliefs about the nature of the social world. The reason for this is that education is a process that enables a ruling class to reproduce its domination of other social classes. It does this by trying to socialise children with ideas that legitimise the nature of society, that is, a society in which there are fundamental inequalities of wealth, income, power and status. A ruling class if it is to continue in power must ensure it reproduces itself over time. People have to be socialised into accepting the basic ideas of Capitalism, ideas such as inequality, wide gaps of wealth and income and so on. For a ruling class to maintain its economic domination, power and influence, it is vital that the education system reproduces the basic ideology of Capitalism. People have to be socialised into an acceptance of Capitalism as the best of all possible systems this is done through education mainly. From a Marxist perspective, children do not simply have to be “trained” for their future adult roles; they also have to be “trained” to accept the basic ideas of Capitalism. One aspect of educational training is to socialise children into an acceptance of these ideas. This can be a source of social control.
Althusser, suggest the role of education is that of the teaching of basic literacy and numeric skills. Also teaching of the rules of good behaviour, involving such things as maintaining level of order and respect for and deference to legitimate authority, this all benefits the ruling class. The role of education is therefore to give people the impression the educational system is based on merit and to control and limit people’s expectations. This is false class consciousness.
The main opposition to this theory of ruling class ideology and false class consciousness is that it seems to state that people have no choice and conform to the ideas they are presented with. But Paul Willis has shown that people may have some understanding of the way they are treated in school and they may try to resist in various ways. Willis argues that many working class children do resist the ideological messages transmitted through the education system. Some may argue that education produces students that can see through the system and rebel against it.
Overall there is a very strong argument that education is beneficial to the ruling class in a society and the ruling class can produce an ideology that all future generations will conform to thus keeping social order and control over them. This then can cover their true identities as exploited workers in the future. However education does not totally benefit the ruling class as it teaches pupils skills and values that may enable them to achieve a high status and may educate them into realising the situation they are in.
