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EducationConsider ‘macro’ or

structuralist approaches

Today:

- Background

- Functionalist Theories- Critical views re Hidden

Curriculum

Tomorrow:

- Bernstein, Bourdieu

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Structuralist Approaches

Last term – more on individuals/groups

Now – more structural - institutions, power relations, inequalities etc

E.g. – consider – on education:- functions/roles of schools, Unis- power relations – who shapes

educational institutions? Who gains from them?

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Historical BackgroundEducation in Britain:- Compulsory since

1870s/1880- Leaving age up from

10 to 16 - Mass higher/further

education –

2000 – Scotland: 32% in universities, 19% in colleges

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Continuing InequalitiesFee-paying schools keep

advantages

70% rich kids enter University; under 10% in poorest areas

Ethnic minorities – schools fail young black males

Females – higher grades, but career inequalities

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Functionalists - DurkheimEducation promotes social

solidarity, social system

ED - French, early 20thC

Education:

- promotes group commitment - learn rules, procedures- teaches special skills for

complex, industrial society

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Functionalists - Parsons

1950s, US sociologist

Education socialises children

Schools are:- Universalistic - Pro achievement- Meritocratic

And enable ‘role allocation’

Different rewards seen as fair

Education promotes democracy, modernisation

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CriticismsSchools don’t transmit shared

norms, solidarity?

Power issues: Who gains? Dominant classes?

Schools not meritocratic or pro-achievement?

Need more critical focus on inequalities

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Illich‘Hidden Curriculum’Schools:- teach key values, promote

social orderBUT: promote passivity,

conformityproduce obedient consumerspublic lack influence over what

is taught Pro ‘deschooling’, ‘learning

webs’

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Bowles & GintisUS Marxists‘Correspondence Principle’

(education and work are similar worlds)

‘Hidden curriculum’ produces:- Obedient workers- Accept hierarchies- External rewards as normal- Fragmented subjects – world

makes little sense

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Bowles & Gintis

Schools legitimise inequality

Pupil results: Class/family more influential than IQ

Criticisms?- Employers don’t control

schooling?- Formal curriculum?- Children not passive (Willis)?

Potent critique of inequalities

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GenderGirls long excluded from higher

education Post-war – greater participationBut ‘hidden curriculum’ -

gender-role expectations – e.g. boys in science

Recent studies: girls ‘out-perform’ boys

But – differences remain- glass ceiling

e.g. Unis and female pay!

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SummaryConsider structural aspects of education

- Functionalists: benefits social system

- Illich: many negative effects, notably passivity

- Bowles/Gintis: sustains exploitative system

- Gender: school and gender inequalities

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Education - Inequalities

Structuralist theories of Education:

- Bernstein- Bourdieu

Educational inequalities rooted in class divisions

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BernsteinClass differences linked to language

Two ‘speech patterns’/Codes:

Elaborated - Restricted

Middle-class - Working-class

Codes linked to classes and educational success

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BernsteinElaborated codes – universalistic• Meanings explicit• Longer, complex sentences• Context free

Restricted codes – particularistic• Meanings implicit• Fewer words, simpler sentences• Context bound – situational,

know other speakers

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BernsteinMiddle classes:

elaborated codesneed in work e.g. salesperson-centred relationships in family

Working classes: restricted codespositional relationships in family

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BernsteinEducation:

Emphasises elaborated codes for success

Suits middle-class children

Working-class kids learn elaborated codes, not as familiar for them

They need to change how see world to succeed in school

Overall – BB ties education to class/language

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BourdieuCritiqued reproduction of class divisions

through education

Key concept – ‘Cultural Capital’- varied forms e.g. educational

certificates, knowledge of arts and world, cultural ‘tastes’, etc.

- cultural resources dividing groups- can use for economic gain- helps success in work, social life

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BourdieuDominant classes claim

more cultural capital

Lower classes have less experience, ‘out of place’

Children of dominant classes enter school with CC, where CC is appreciated

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BourdieuDominant classes set

educational standards

Schools emphasise symbolic (e.g. talking) not practical (making) – favours dominant

As move up educationally - pupils from dominated classes eased out

Dominant classes – their children claim ‘better ability’

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BourdieuInequalities seem fair –

education is ‘open’, ‘free’

Lower-class children – failure is ‘their fault’

Some succeed, promoting ‘fairness’ illusion

Recent times: Mass education:

Lower-class dilemma:

i) Gain devalued certificates OR

ii) Stay outside and ‘fail’

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Critical Views

Bernstein/Bourdieu:

- Crude division of classes?

Bernstein exaggerates limited speech of working classes?

Bourdieu ignores lower class advances? Offers no scope for change?

BUT: overall – structuralist accounts explain continuing inequalities, strong fit re theory and evidence