Durkheim believed that Teaching specialist skills
education performs 2 main
The national curriculum standardised skills
functions… that are taught within schools.
1. Teaching specialist - HOWEVER…
skills Schools are not great at teaching direct skills
2. Creating social that are needed for work. Further/Higher
solidarity Education are better at this.
Underinvestment in schools has
in turn led to courses being cut
and areas of teaching like ICT
being neglected. Social Solidarity
Schools promote British
values through
assemblies.
PSHE creates shared norms and
values among pupils.
- HOWEVER…
This assumes that all pupils adopt the same values from
Education - school, when this is clearly not true.
Functionalism Large influences outside of school exist such as family, religion
and media. Education is limited in reach.
Higher levels of immigration mean
that not all students undergo the
UK’s education system so
cohesion and solidarity is not
necessarily shared.
Davis and
Moore - ‘Role
Allocation’
- Sifting and sorting
They do not believe that there’s a meritocracy
(equal opportunity), but instead students are sorted
by class and ethnicity in many cases.
- HOWEVER…
Education does this less now. With the
leaving age raised to 18, more people do
A-Levels and other extended courses.
More university students also means less
students at a lower level.
The idea of wishing to enter higher paying
jobs also mitigates ‘role allocation’.
education performs 2 main
The national curriculum standardised skills
functions… that are taught within schools.
1. Teaching specialist - HOWEVER…
skills Schools are not great at teaching direct skills
2. Creating social that are needed for work. Further/Higher
solidarity Education are better at this.
Underinvestment in schools has
in turn led to courses being cut
and areas of teaching like ICT
being neglected. Social Solidarity
Schools promote British
values through
assemblies.
PSHE creates shared norms and
values among pupils.
- HOWEVER…
This assumes that all pupils adopt the same values from
Education - school, when this is clearly not true.
Functionalism Large influences outside of school exist such as family, religion
and media. Education is limited in reach.
Higher levels of immigration mean
that not all students undergo the
UK’s education system so
cohesion and solidarity is not
necessarily shared.
Davis and
Moore - ‘Role
Allocation’
- Sifting and sorting
They do not believe that there’s a meritocracy
(equal opportunity), but instead students are sorted
by class and ethnicity in many cases.
- HOWEVER…
Education does this less now. With the
leaving age raised to 18, more people do
A-Levels and other extended courses.
More university students also means less
students at a lower level.
The idea of wishing to enter higher paying
jobs also mitigates ‘role allocation’.
