The next role of education is maintaining social order; schools are a microcosm of society. Pupils learn how some have more power than others, and mix with people, how to follow a set of rules and which certain behavior will help them later in life. In the future they will have to survive in society and accept social rules which school gets you ready for.
The final function Durkheim believes education provides is a range of specialized skills for a division of labour in complex society. For society to function specific skills and specialized knowledge is needed. Society would not survive if we didn’t have people doing different work. Schools provide general education which sifts and sort’s pupils and give them desired skills needed for future aspirations by this they will be playing a part in social division if labour.
Talcott Parsons (1902 - 1979) developed Durkheim's ideas. He believes the most important agency of secondary socialization is education, he see’s school as the focal point in society acting like a bridge between the family and wider society. Principles within the family and society work differently, the values we learn in school apply to all society not just our homes. However schools have a more serious function; that is to prepare us for life to do that they use ‘social selection’ choosing what students will do for their future job roles. He argues that best students will go far and get the best jobs whereas the weaker ones will get low pay and status work. In both school and wider society status is achieved not ascribed e.g. we gain a promotion depending on how great we are at the job, whereas at school we pass or fail because of our effort.
Parsons see’s school is preparing us for the wider society in a fair way, in the meritocracy approach everyone is given the same opportunities and individuals achieve through their own effort and ability. This means that students learn to accept that the system is a fair and equal one.
Davis and Moore (1945) followed up on Parsons Theory. They both also see education as a selection but they look at more the relationship between social inequality and education. They argue that inequality is necessary because all societies have inequalities; its existence shows it much be good for society.
They believe the adult roles that seem to be functionally important must be filled by most able, capable and competent members of society. E.g. having a weak able person as a surgeon would be dangerous. Everyone in society have different abilities to do things therefore the highest rewarded jobs should go to those who are able enough. This introduces competition between pupils within the school as everyone would want the jobs. Education is the place when individuals show how talented they are therefore it is a big part of this process.
Some jobs require specific skills that set them apart from others, but to gain these skills a lot of hard work and commitment has to be dedicated to the job, for the best jobs a lot of training and extra education. People work hard because they know it will bring them some sort of pleasure in the future, people wouldn’t do this unless they knew it would make them powerful than others. Therefore they would be rewarded with high pays which will act as incentives. Others in society would not have only those who deserve the best rewards will get them.
Schools provide economic training and social control, without this we would not be ready for the world of work. Society has a need to regulate the activities of citizens to some extent (people can’t do what they desire to) it all depends on social capability. Schools provide adequate supply of sufficiently trained labour for the modern economy; it is getting us ready for the world of work.
However functionalist views play down conflict in schools and dysfunctions e.g. bullying, failure and truancy. Whose values are promoted in schools? Some sociologists would say that these are whites, middle class values.
Marxist approach argues that rather education is seen as an apparatus that legitimizes and reproduces society’s inequalities and divisions (school just keeps society fair). Education is part of the bourgeois. Education is a crucial part of the system of social control where we are taught to believe in the dominant ideology of the capitalist state structures. Education socializes us into accepting the values of the capitalist system.
In addition Parsons wrote a lot, but hardly did any practical research. There is little evidence to support his ideas this is a weakness as it makes it difficult to test his theories.
Should education be about being prepared for our roles as our workers in the economy? What if skills we have learnt are not required? It questions whether sifting and sorting is fair.
Many researchers show there is no meritocracy in education, as evidence shows that your social class background has a big influence of achievement.