what is the functionalist view of education introduction functionalism views society as a system of codependent sections such as family economy or education which are united through a shared culture known as a value consensus value consensus is the agreed upon values that are important to a society based on each member's perspective these codependent parts perform essential functions for society thus holding it together in this perspective there's a desire to understand how education functions and helps society succeed durkheim social solidarity emil durkheim is the founder of functionalism who indicated education mainly creates social solidarity and teaches specialist skills durkheim indicated society requires its members to feel that they're an integral part of a community within that society known as a sense of solidarity without social solidarity each member would strive for their own personal desires rendering cooperation and socialization in society impractical education creates social solidarity by relaying a culture's beliefs and values from generation to generation such as the history of a country where children obtain shared heritage and deference to the larger society in fact school represents a mini society what durkheim called society in miniature that prepares members for living in a larger social group such as learning cooperation with unfamiliar individuals in the work and school environments in these environments members of a society are also required to interact with other members based on rules that apply to the entire society specialist skills in modern industrial economies there is a reliance upon many specialists of a complex division of labor to cooperate in order to produce tangible items though cooperation promotes social solidarity its success comes from each specialist's adequate knowledge and skills that enables them to perform their roles within the division of labor which comes from education key study the ously report durkheim's views were supported by herman ausley 2001 in his report into the bradford riots of 2001. many children had been educated in faith schools which means many white people were segregated from those of south asian origin ously identified a virtual apartheid and school's ultimate failure in teaching these groups to live side by side in a multicultural society this lack of social cohesion made tensions more likely after the report the government was less eager to promote faith schools parsons meritocracy talcut parsons the american functionalist views school as a focal socializing agency in modern society which is a bridge between the family and the rest of society this is needed because families and society are based in differing fundamentals requiring the children to learn new ways of living and coping with the larger society the family holds children to particularistic standards or rules that are specified for one particular child furthermore a child's family status is fixed by birth where a son or daughter is ascribed differing rights or responsibilities based on age and gender these standards run contrary to school and society standards where there are universal and impartial standards like how laws are applied to everyone equally in school students are all rated on the same standards such as taking the same test graded on the same system in society individual statuses are earned and not assigned as in the family unit for example individuals earn promotions and pay increases based on their performance at work while they earn passing grades in school parsons indicates school prepares individuals to transition from the family unit to society as a whole as school and society are rooted in meritocracy where each person has an equal opportunity to achieve success through their own effort and skills davis and more role allocation functionalists indicate schools can also select and disburse students to their future careers through assessing their skills and aptitudes and matching them to the best suited jobs kingsley davis and wilbert moore view education as a tool to select and allocate roles to students focusing on the relationship between education and inequality within society they see inequality as essential in having the most qualified people in the most important roles in society essentially it's not efficient and potentially harmful to have less qualified individuals to be surgeons or pilots in essence not every person is equally talented making it necessary for society to offer higher compensation for these important careers this philosophy encourages all members of a society to compete for important jobs and society selecting the most talented members for those jobs education is viewed as an essential piece of this process as the primary environment that cultivates a philosophy of working to achieve rewards in all education allows individuals to separate themselves from others on ability thus earning their way to the most highly rewarding positions based on their ability to learn and gain the proper qualifications human capital peter blau and otis duncan perceive a modern economy as one that becomes prosperous based on its workers skills human capital they view a meritocratic education system as the best way to achieve this by allocating individuals to careers that best suit their abilities and earned qualifications this system also makes the best use of their talents in order to produce maximum results methods in context researching meritocracy researching meritocracy in education can be easy or difficult based on specific characteristics for example schools want to uphold the image of equal opportunities for all students however teachers may not endorse research that undermines this image also teachers are not likely to disclose information about their school that diminishes the image of meritocracy a state education system provides data about testing results free meals for students gender and ethnicity which can be highly valuable to this type of research much of this data however does not correlate directly to meritocracy like when links between social class and children's educational and employment outcomes cannot be made private school education is not available overall and some parents and students may be cognizant of the level of inequality in the education system rendering it meaningless to ask them about that issue evaluation overall the education system does not teach specialized skills as durkheim suggests for example the wolf review of vocational education in 2011 found that high quality apprenticeships are uncommon with about a third of 16 to 19 year old students taking courses that do not lead to higher education or good jobs there's also evidence that equal opportunity does not exist in education based on achievement being influenced by social class and not ability melvin tooman also criticized davis and moore for what he claimed to be a circular argument built on knowing a job is important based on its level of rewards or knowing some jobs are more rewarded over others based on their importance david hargreaves agreed with durkheim that social cohesion was a desirable aim but felt it was neglected because schools encouraged individualism and competition for qualifications giving little time to cooperative activities uk governments have echoed durkheim's views by introducing citizenship in 2002 to encourage values of responsibility and cooperation and by inspecting schools for community cohesion since 2007. functionalists view education as a system producing shared societal values as a whole while marxists see education in a capitalist society only supporting the ruling class as an ideology of minority dennis wrong an interactionalist views functionalists as having over-socialized views of people as puppets of society thus wrongly implying that students accept everything they're taught and never rejects school's values finally neo-liberals and the new right indicate that the state education system does not prepare students for work summary functionalists hold a consensus view where education is responsible for the important functions of socialization into a shared culture as well as training individuals with specialized work skills for division of labor and selection of work roles they see education as based on meritocracy principles