Parson, who builds on Durkheim’s ideas, suggests that there are three main functions of education. Two of the three functions are: to bridge the gap between adult and family roles and to develop universal standards and values. Parsons suggests that education is necessary in bridging the gap between norms and values learnt as part of family and the norms and values expected in society. The bridge is needed because family and society operate on different principles so children need to learn a new way of living if they are to cope with the wider world. Education works as the bridge to develop universal standards and shared values (value consensus) from particularistic values we learn from primary socialisation in the home. Education helps to ease the transition and encourages us to value universalistic values. In summary, it can be argued again that value consensus is the main function of education as universalistic standards are built from value consensus (agreement about norms and values).
However, Durkheim suggests that another main function of education is to teach specialist skills. Durkheim believes that education should provide pupils with necessary skills to enter work as each individual must have the necessary specialist knowledge and skills to be successful in the social division of labour. Parsons argues that schools also perform another function: that of selecting and allocating roles in preparation for a meritocratic society. As stated in item A education socialises children to adapt to a meritocratic principle (which refers to the idea that everyone has equal opportunity and can achieve as long as they work hard). By assessing individuals’ aptitudes and abilities, schools help to match them to the job they are best suited to. Like Parsons, Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore (1945) also see education as a device for selection and role allocation, but they focus on the relationship between education and social inequality. Therefore, it can be argued that to maintain value consensus in society is not the main function of education.
As stated in item A, not all sociologists agree that the main function of education is to maintain a value consensus in society. Marxists argue that the main function of education is in fact to transmit values that benefit the ruling class. Althusser stated that through the hidden curriculum, certain norms and values are transmitted which aid the bourgeoisie. The two states in society that encourage these upper class values are called; the repressive state apparatus (RSA) which refers to maintaining the rule of the bourgeoisie by force or threat. The second is the ideological state apparatus (ISA); which refers to maintaining the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling people’s ideas, values and beliefs. This system promotes two main function, the first being that the education system creates class inequality by transmitting from generations, the education system does not aid the lower class children in giving them important skills required in society and as a result, the lower class have poor jobs and maintains the status quo. The second being that the education justifies class inequality by producing ideologies, which eventually persuade workers to accept that inequality, is inevitable and they deserve their position in society. Education system encourages poor achieving pupils that their educational failure is their fault due to them not working hard enough. Bowles and Gintis are also critical of the education system as they believe that the role of education in a capitalist society is to reproduce an obedient workforce that accepts inequality. They introduced the correspondence principle which suggests that there is a close link between schooling and work places in a capitalist society. Both school and work places are hierarchies with authority figures such as head teachers (schools) and bosses/managers (workplace). This correspondence principle operates through the hidden curriculum; pupils accept the unequal hierarchy of society. Therefore some sociologists would argue that infact the main function of education isn’t entirely to maintain a value consensus in society.
In conclusion, functionalists argue that value consensus is essential for the well being of society. Schools play a vital role by socialising young people into these basic values. In western societies, school stress the value of achievement and the importance of equal opportunity. For example, schools operate on meritocratic principles. Functionalists also see education as ‘sifting and sorting’ young people, matching them to the future work roles that suit their abilities. However, not all sociologists agree that the main function of education is to maintain a value consensus in society. Marxists argue that education transmits values that benefit the ruling class, not society as a whole.