Fucntionalists theory on education

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Amir Sheikh

Functionalist Theories on Education

Functionalist sociologists have identified education as a crucial part of the socialisation process as it transmits and re-enforces society’s norms and values. They have also considered society as a system of interdependent parts that would help to develop the culture and value in society. Education prepares children for crucial roles in the future as adults and they selected for different roles depending on their abilities.

Different groups in society teach different norms and values and these groups are called agents of socialisation. Each part of society has particular functions (education, religion, media and family, these four functions work together to construct and contribute to our societal and cultural norms and values.

The famous functionalist sociologist, Emile Durkheim, suggested education prevents anomie (a lack of norms). He stated this because the education system is an agent of socialisation which teaches the importance of norms and values in out society. Durkheim suggested two values which he considered extremely important in society, Social Solidarity and Specialist Skills. Durkheim suggested that every society needs and sense of solidarity, this is meant by each and every individual within a society must feel they are part of single community. An example of social solidarity within a school would be, students working together in groups, going on trips as a whole year group. Examples outside of school can be, out may feel a sense of solidarity with their own race, gender, culture, etc. Without social solidarity, everyone would become selfish and society would break down. Social solidarity is seen everywhere in our society. People work together to build up confidence and increase work pace. This is why social solidarity is use frequently in schools so the young are prepared for work force in the future.

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Furthermore, another value is specialist skills where individuals are taught specialised skills for a certain social division of labour. For example, a lawyer would need literacy and communication skills alongside certain qualifications, whereas a factory worker would need measurement and safety skills. So as result, the government introduced Vocation Education and Training (VET) to ensure the skills are provided to enter work. Qualifications are needed to enter the work force and so different schemes are set up to ensure this such as, NVQ and GNVQ qualifications and vocational A Levels. This value is very important as it ensures every individual ...

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