Outline Some Of The Key Tenets Of The Functionalist, Marxist and Interactionist Theories Of Education And Give Some Critical Evaluation Of Each

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Outline Some Of The Key Tenets Of The Functionalist, Marxist and Interactionist Theories Of Education And Give Some Critical Evaluation Of Each

This essay is going to look at the Functionalist, Marxist and Interactionist theories of education and outline the key points; it will also provide some criticism in relation to each of the theories. Although the theories are mainly very different, they all have the similarity of suggesting that a person's social class will contribute greatly to how well they will do at school and also on how this will affect the type and importance of a career they may take up.

Functionalism investigates institutions to consider the functions that they perform in society. The functionalist premise is that if an institution exists then there has got to be a reason for its existence. Functionalists assume that educational institutions serve some societal need; schools are examined for the positive contribution that they make towards maintaining society.

Talcott Parsons suggested that educational institutions provide the function of general socialisation of the whole of the population into the dominant culture, values and beliefs of a society. Parsons also suggested that schools select people for different types and levels