CONFLICTING
FUNCTIONS AND
PROCESSES IN
EDUCATION: WHAT
MAKES THE SYSTEM
WORK
ESE5013 WEEK 2
2.1 INTRODUCTION
● Each society educates its children in the ways of the group and skills necessary to prosper
in that society. The basic functions, or purposes, of education are the same in most
societies, but the importance of these functions and the means of achieving them vary
greatly across society.
● E.g. The type of political system will affect the content and control of the educational
process.
● Each of these institutional parts contributes to the functioning of society.
2.2 CONFLICTING FUNCTIONS OF
EDUCATION #3 SOCIAL
#2 CONTROL
#1
TRANSMISSIO AND
SOCIALIZATI
N OF PERSONAL
ON
CULTURE DEVELOPME
NT
#5
#4 SELECTION, CHANGE
TRAINING AND AND
PLACEMENT OF INNOVATI
INDIVIDUALS IN ON
A SOCIETY
2.2.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF PROCESSES IN
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
What are the processes involved in educational system?
Processes: the action part - what is happening in schools.
Structure: parts of the educational system that can be described and
diagrammed - roles of administrators, teachers, students, and others who
work in school systems; upper to lower social classes from which teachers
and students come; organizations, including individual schools and
administrative offices; institutions and their interaction with each other.
People who hold roles in the structure carry out processes in order to bring the
structure alive.
2.2.2 THE FUNCTION OF SOCIALIZATION: WHO
GET AHEAD IN THE PROCESS
• According to functionalism, in order to prosper a society, its members need to be
trained to be productive to perform required roles. However, there are
disagreements on how, when and for whom training should take place.
• Criticism on the role of education in the process of socialization includes early
childhood education and the role of media.
1. THE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION CONTROVERSY
• Who should provide early socialization: family or society?
• More than half the nations of the world have some formal centre-base early
childhood education for young children under five to help socialize children and
allow parents to work.
2.2.2 THE FUNCTION OF SOCIALIZATION: WHO
GET AHEAD IN THE PROCESS
Those favoring early childhood education (ECE) pose several arguments:
ECE provides valuable learning experiences not always available at home.
Young children need to interact with other children and with adults other than their parents.
Parents and siblings are not always the most capable of handling children.
For many families, day care is necessary because both parents must work – more necessary for
single parent.
More preferable as compared to leaving children with relatives or neighbours.
• Children from low-income families are more likely to be at risk of academic failure because
they enter school at a significant disadvantage.
• Those losses in early childhood make it very difficult for these children to catch up. Thus,
disadvantaged children are academically behind at the “starting gate”; they begin their
education with lower cognitive skills than children from higher socioeconomic levels.
2.2.2 THE FUNCTION OF SOCIALIZATION: WHO
GET AHEAD IN THE PROCESS
• Head start programme: government-funded “model” programs that include
provision for early childhood education for at-risk children.
• Head Start programs help to overcome problems such as lack of prenatal care,
parent isolation, substandard child care, poverty, inadequate health care, and lack
of crucial brain development.
• However, not all qualified children have access to Head Start programs.
At what age should early childhood education begin?
2.2.2 THE FUNCTION OF SOCIALIZATION: WHO
GET AHEAD IN THE PROCESS
2. ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN SOCIALIZATION
• The question for teachers and schools is whether to fight the technology
brought to school or to go with the flow.
The TV generation expect to be entertained in school or they turned off.
TV gives a simplistic and often distorted picture of what really happens.
Behavioral effects – increases the tendency towards aggressiveness or suicidal
behaviour.
2.2.3 THE FUNCTION OF CULTURAL TRANSMISSION
AND PROCESS OF PASSING ON CULTURE
● Some factors affecting learning Teacher
School setting
Student’s attitude towards
education
Student’s relationship
with her/his environment
HOW TO PASS ON CULTURE
• Dewey argued that what children learn in schools must be related with their lives.
• Others developed child-centered curricula that give the student the possibility to choose the course(s)
he finds interesting or important.
• Critical thinking is a progressive method in contrast to an educational system based only on facts.
• The nature of the course and abilities of students are decisive factors in what kind of and how much
homework has to be given.
2.2.3 THE FUNCTION OF CULTURAL TRANSMISSION AND
PROCESS OF PASSING ON CULTURE
WHAT CULTURE TO PASS ON
• While functionalist see education as a tool to prepare the young for society, conflict
theorists believe that educational systems dehumanize and alienate individuals through
giving them the values and norms that serve to perpetuate a capitalistic society.
• However, schools are not the only means of transmitting cultural values and it is
questionable how effective they are in this transmission.
• Uncontroversial curricula/staff and centrally planned education system are two factors
that prevent external interference in decision-making processes.
• Controversial issue, e.g. sex education, conflicting religious theories, may cause
extensive debates on who shall control what has to be taught is schools.
2.2.4 THE FUNCTION OF SOCIAL CONTROL AND
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
How to prepare the individuals for society?
Functionalists: expect students to learn the skills and values in helping them adapt to the society.
VIOLENCE AND DISCIPLINE IN SCHOOLS
• Schools are not necessarily a safe place for students. The rate of victimizations of students was higher in
schools than out of school, with males being victims more frequently (Ballantine, 2017).
• Power struggles between students and adults seem to be one of the sources of discipline problems in school.
• Teachers have different approaches in dealing with problematic students. Some believe that understanding
the student’s problem and supporting him/her is sufficient. Others prefer to limit student’s possible
behaviour choices to different extents.
Should potential troublemakers be removed to more secure environments, or can they be taught to behave
according to school rules?
2.2.5 THE FUNCTION OF SELECTION AND
ALLOCATION: THE SORTING PROCESS
THE TESTING GAME
• Testing: a widespread method used to assess students’ success and to determine their educational and
occupational orientation.
• IQ tests are controversial because:
it isn’t clear how we should define intelligence.
whether it is possible to devise culturally unbiased tests.
many other variables affect test scores: country region, sex of the test-taker, motivation of the test-taker etc.
Intelligence is not a fixed, inherited attribute but a variable depending on stimulation and on cultural and
environmental factors.
• The scores are important and controversial because they tap the core of how we evaluate and place people
in society.
• Another point of discussion: schools become less important due to private preparatory courses for the
university exam.
2.2.6 THE FUNCTION OF CHANGE AND
INNOVATION: THE FUTURE
• The last quarter of the 20th century revealed through dramatic technological advances that the
possessors of high-tech knowledge would rise in the hierarchy.
• Reliance on computer technology is prevalent in institutions of higher education.
• Educators and policy makers around the world must learn how to make effective use of computers and
the Internet in classrooms and how to equitably distribute technological expertise. If such issues are
not addressed, some students may be left back in the twenty-first-century digital divide.
Major trends in technology in schools:
• Increasing use of mobile devices in classrooms
• Use of video for classwork and homework
• Paying attention to the Digital Footprint
• Social media in schools
THAN
KS!
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