The role of education (theories)

• Know the questions sociologists ask about the role of education
• Know the functions of education functionalists identify
• Understand the New Right view of the role of market in education
• Be able to evaluate these perspectives
• Be able to evaluate explanations of vocational training and education
• Understand different Marxist views of the role of education, particularly the reproduction and legitimisation of inequality
• Evaluate Marxist views of education
• Understand the impact of the post=Fordist economy on the role of education



We want to understand what the role of education is, for example does it provide everybody with equal opportunities for success, does it recreate social inequality, how does it serve the needs of the economy and what sort of skills does education transmit?



There are differing views on these which is what we want to examine. We will look at functionalism which is a consensus (agreement) perspective, Marxism which is a conflict perspective and the New Right which is a conservative approach.