EDUCATION

Education as a social and political issue

Education can be defined as a social
institution, which enables and promotes the
acquisition of skills, knowledge and the
broadening of personal horizons.
Education can take place in many social
settings.
Schooling on the other hand, refers to the
formal process through which certain types of
knowledge and skills are delivered, normally
via a predesigned curriculum in specialized
settings: schools.
Schooling in most countries is typically
divided into stages such as those in primary
and secondary schools, and in many societies
is a mandatory requirement for all young
people up to a specified age.
Education as a political issue
Providing education is a government
responsibility
Governments make laws about what age
children should start school and what they
should learn there
It is an incredibly expensive business, for
example, in Britain eating up around 84
million sterling in a year
Politicians spend a lot of time discussing
what the education system is for
Education as a social issue
Education is one of the most important issues
in contemporary societies
Parents want the best for their children, but
there are huge inequalities in educational
opportunities
Education is the key and the only means to
healthy, comfortable and secure adult life
Poor quality of education can have damaging
consequences for societies
The role of education in society
The school is an important agency of
secondary socialization
Education system plays a great role for
preparation for working life
Education provides social mobility
Education system is also about social control
Education aims at implementing government
policy
Education also prepares students for a
rapidly changing industrial society.
 For Emile Durkheim, education plays an important role in the
socialization of children because, particularly by learning
history, for example, children gain an understanding of the
common values in society, uniting a multitude of separate
individuals. These common values include religious and moral
beliefs and a sense of self-discipline.
 Durkheim argues that schooling enables children to internalize
the social rules that contribute to the functioning of society.
Durkheim was particularly concerned with upholding moral
guidelines, because in late nineteenth century France, an
increasing individualism was developing that threatened social
solidarity. Durkheim saw a key role for schools in teaching
mutual responsibility and the value of the collective good.
 As a 'society in miniature', the school also teaches discipline and
respect for authority.
In industrial societies, Durkheim argues
education also has another socialization
function: it teaches the skills needed to perform
roles in increasingly specialized occupations.
In traditional societies, occupational skills
could be learnt within the family, but as social
life became more complex and an extended
division of labor emerged in the production of
goods, an education system developed that
could pass on the skills required to fill the
various specialized, occupational roles.
Education as an agency of socialization
Education, according to consensus theory,
transmit from one generation to the next the
culture and shared values of a society.
According to conflict theorists, this is the
culture and values of the dominant and most
powerful groups in society.
Education system teaches students how to
develop relationships with others.
Citizenship is part of the national Curriculum
in most nations.
Education and the economy
The education system plays an important role
in preparing students for working life in two
respects:
1. producing a labor force with the skills
needed for working life
2. selecting people for different occupations.
Education and social mobility
Education influences people’s life chances.
Education affects people’s job opportunities
directly.
Equality of educational opportunity is
essential in order for all students to have the
same educational opportunities in life.
Education will influence the individual’s
eventual social class position and the life
chances they will have as an adult.
Education can be a means of upward social
mobility.
Education and social control
By means of the hidden curriculum education
aims to control students.
The hidden curriculum means that there are
no obvious courses in obedience and
conformity.
For example, males and females having
different dress rules, being expected to
conform to different standards of behavior.
Another example is that all students are
expected to respect authority of teachers
regardless of what they say or do.
Education and government policy
Schools have often been used as a means of
carrying out government policies.
By means of education system government
aims at imposing its own ideology on society.
For example, labor government in Britain
attempted to create more equal opportunities
in society and greater social equality.
Some governments support a state-led
education, while others give priority to
private education.
INEQUALITY IN EDUCATION
Not all children of the same ability achieve
the same success in education.
There are inequalities in educational
opportunity.
The failure of students to do as well in
education as they should is called
underachievement.
Social class origins, ethnicity and gender
have an influence on education.
Social class and underachievement
Social class is an important factor in
determining child’s success at school.
Working-class children are already behind in
their educational development even before
they get to school.
They are less likely to get places in the best
state schools.
They are less likely to go into higher
education.
Bernstein's explanation of codes
Basil Bernstein, was interested in the way
in which education reproduces class
inequalities in society Drawing on conflict
theory Bernstein (1975) examined the
problem through an analysis of linguistic
skills.
In the 1970s, Bernstein argued that children
from varying backgrounds develop different
language codes, or forms of speech, during
their early lives, which affect their
subsequent school experience. His interest
was in systematic differences in ways of using
language, particularly in the contrast
between poorer and wealthier children.
 The speech of working-class children, Bernstein contended, represents
a restricted code - a way of using language containing many
unstated assumptions that speakers expect others to know. A
restricted code is a type of speech tied to its own cultural setting.
 Many working-class people live in a strong familial or neighborhood
culture, in which values and norms are taken for granted and not
expressed in language.
 Parents tend to socialize their children directly by the use of rewards
or reprimands to correct their behavior. Language in a restricted code
is more suitable for communication about practical experience than
for discussion of more abstract ideas, processes or relationships.
 Restricted code speech is thus characteristic of children growing up in
lower class families, and of the peer groups in which they spend their
time. Speech is oriented to the norms of the group, without anyone
easily being able to explain why they follow the patterns of behavior
they do.
 The language development of middle-class children, by contrast,
according to Bernstein, involves the acquisition of an
elaborated code - a style of speaking in which the meanings of
words can be individualized to suit the demands of particular
situations.
 The ways in which children from middle-class backgrounds learn
to use language are less bound to particular contexts; the child
is able more easily to generalize and express abstract ideas.
 Thus middle-class mothers, when controlling their children,
frequently explain the reasons and principles that underlie their
reactions to the child's behavior. While a working-class mother
might tell a child off for wanting to eat too many sweets by
simply saying 'No more sweets for you ' , a middle-class mother
is more likely to explain that eating too many sweets is bad for
one's health and the state of one's teeth.
Education and cultural capital
The most systematic general theory of cultural
reproduction to date is, that of the French sociologist
Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002). Bourdieu devised a
broad theory of cultural reproduction, which connects
economic position, social status and symbolic capital
with cultural knowledge and skills.
Education is a central feature of this theoretical
perspective, but it is necessary to outline Bourdieu's
theory of forms of capital in order to grasp the
significance of his perspective for educational
sociology. The central concept in Bourdieu's theory is
capital, which he takes from Marx's ideas on the
development of capitalism.
 Marx saw the ownership of the means of production as the
crucial division in society, conferring social advantage on
capitalists who are able to subordinate the workers.
 But for Bourdieu, such economic capital is just one of several
forms of capital which individuals and social groups can use to
gain advantage. Bourdieu identifies social capital, cultural
capital and symbolic capital in addition to economic capital.
 Social capital refers to membership of and involvement in
elite social networks or moving within social groups which are
well connected.
 Cultural capital is that form which is gained within the family
environment and through education, usually leading to
certificates such as degrees and other credentials, which are
forms of symbolic capital.