Factors Influencing Childs Education - Essay Example

Education Higher education is a fascinating to analyze from a sociological perspective. Although the United Kingdom is home to some of the best colleges and universities in the world, access to higher education in this country is not always equal. Home to some of the best private/independent schools in the world such as Eaton College and the Exeter School, the UK is a country heavily stratified by economic and social forces. Through the application of theory, higher education in the United Kingdom will be thoroughly investigated. This essay will discuss the evolution of higher education with an eye to accessibility and how education has benefited certain people, groups and communities. It is true that a child’s education is increasingly dependent on the wealth and wishes of their parents, rather than the ability of pupils themselves? How accessible is education in the United Kingdom? What sorts of conflicts does the inaccessibility of education produce? These questions and many more will be addressed and applied to this holistic analysis of education in the United Kingdom. Education is supposed to be meritocratic in nature and the means through which people break through the cumbersome social barriers of class and privilege. Is it true that education is meritocratic and based upon the notion that education allows people to advance, progress and move forward in life? A basic premise of the sociology of education is that it promotes greater equality and is based upon merit and equal opportunity for all. The expansion of education in the past two hundred years in the United Kingdom remains an incredible advance which has purportedly increased social equality to the betterment of society. Less than one hundred years ago, the educational institutions of this country were effectively closed to women, ethnic minorities and a whole host of other groups. Incredibly, educational opportunities were denied to more than 50% of the population for centuries. The sociology of education emphatically argues that public schooling and universal education promotes social equality, social cohesion and is characterised by opportunities for progress and social growth. A fundamental underpinning of the sociology of education is that it is meritoocratically based and that it promotes great equlaity. Now that educational access has expanded across this country, is it true that education promotes social equality and is based upon the merits of individual students? According to scholars Persell & Cookson in their study of education and privilege, “the transmission of privilege is central to the reproduction of an elite class” (2005). Elite school influences have dramatically altered the structure of educational opportunity. Furthermore, the wealth, wishes and abilities of one’s parents or family connections is more important to these scholars than the individual abilities of desires of children. Private schools are notoriously expensive but are important avenues for privilege and the retention of an elite structure within the education system. Furthermore, The graduates of certain private schools are at a distinct advantage when it comes to admission to highly selective colleges because of the special charters and highly developed social networks these schools possess. Of course, other factors, especially parental wealth ,are operating as well (Persell & Cookson, 2005). Concurring in an article in the prestigious American journal Sociology of Education scholar Dalton Conley (2001) found that parental wealth has a direct influence on the educational attainment of a child as well as on college enrolment. Seeking to explore the primary research question with respect to its applicability in the British context, we now turn to a comprehensive analysis of an illuminating article highlighting the relationship between educational attainment and the role of a parental status and influence. In a groundbreaking article appearing in the British Journal of Sociology of Education, Philip Brown recently explored the relationship between the wealth and wishes parents and the resulting implications on a child’s education. Describing the “Third Wave” of education in the United Kingdom, he put forth a fascinating argument for the existence of what he eloquently described as the ‘ideology of parentocracy. Accordingly, in much of the Western world, including the UK, “the idea of the educational meritocracy in advanced industrial/capitalist societies had become part of the taken-for-granted landscape of the sociologist.” Brown takes issue with the supposedly meritocratic nature of the education systems in the United Kingdom and uses Marxism and Conflict Theory to demonstrate that the rise of the “educational parentocracy” represents a “Third Wave” in British education (Brown, 1990). From this perspective, pure merit alone is insufficient to account for educational opportunities. Charting the ascendancy of the ideology of parentocracy, this scholar argues that this occurred as the political right gain power in the UK (likely alluding to the rise of Margaret Thatcher and her rightwing coterie) and that the supposedly meritocratic nature of education in the UK was “largely symbolic given the structural correspondence which was assumed to exist between education and production” (Brown, 1990). Since Marxist-inspired Conflict Theory is so fundamental to this analysis of educational opportunity, we now turn to an overview of Conflict Theory in our theoretical analysis of inequalities in education. Conflict Theory and Education Conflict theory evolved from Marxism and focuses on what it perceives are inherent conflicts within society. Marxists perceive conflict to be endemic when resources are scarce and argue that our social system – capitalism – is the most unequal system when it comes to resource allocation and distribution. Private property, capital and social classes are all important characteristics of an inegalitarian society. An unequal division of labour and class exploitation is said to lead to conflict according to this theory (Wallerstein, 1974). With respect to education, a Conflict Theorist would immediately point out the inequalities surrounding education in the United Kingdom and argue that higher education promotes class difference and exploitation of the masses. According to Conflict Theory, yes it is true that a child’s education is increasingly dependent on the wealth and wishes of their parents, rather than on personal ability. Seeing higher education as a tool for upward social mobility, Conflict Theorists would assert that the lack of accessibility of education in the United Kingdom maintains the unequal status between social classes, ensuring that the wealthy remain wealthy and the poor in remain poor. Conflict Theorists point out that exorbitant costs to attend independent schools, colleges and universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, ensure that only the wealthy can access higher education and thus reaps the benefit of having a Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree or PhD. Affordability, or lack thereof, essentially promotes the existing class structure to the detriment of the greater society. The implication is a society stratified by class and educational attainment. Those without access to the elite ivory towers of the UK’s universities and colleges will forever remain in the bottom rung of society. Conflict will exist between those who have the means to attend university and those who do not, as well as among university and colleges students who are all seeking to obtain the same rewards in a society in which conflict is endemic and resources are inherently scarce. Accordingly, Conflict Theorists would postulate that due to intrinsic inequalities within the higher education system in the United Kingdom, conflict is endemic and inherent to the social system. Concluding Remarks Education is supposed to be the means through which people break through social barriers and advance, much of the supposedly meritocratic nature of the education system is an illusion. Is a child’s education is increasingly dependent on the wealth and wishes of their parents, rather than the ability of pupils themselves? According to the scholars analyzed above, yes. Although education is supposed to promote equality and is the means through which people attain higher social advancement and higher social standing, in fact a child’s education is increasingly dependent on the wealth and wishes of their parents, rather than the ability of pupils themselves. We have explored a variety of British and American scholars who have affirmed that one’s educational advancement is to due to factors exogenous to individual abilities. According to a Conflict Theorists, it is again true that a child’s education is increasingly dependent on factors other than personal ability. Conflict Theorists see education as propagating conflict in society and the stratified nature of the United Kingdom is the result of wealthy elites who send their children to private school, thus continuing the vicious cycle of inequality in this country. A fascinating subject to analyze from multiple sociological perspectives, education remains an important priority for most and is an increasingly controversial subject in an era of rising tuition and growing income disparity. References Brown, P. (1990). The Third Wave: Education and the Ideology of Parentocracy. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 11.1, 65 – 86. Conley, D. (2001). Capital for College: Parental Assets and Postsecondary Schooling. Sociology of Education 74: 59-72. Grauerholz, L. and Bouma-Holtrop S. 2003. Exploring Critical Sociological Thinking. Teaching Sociology, 31: 4, 485-496. Persell, C. & P.W. Cookson, Jr. (2005). Chartering and Bartering: Elite Education and Social Reproduction, Social Problems, 33. 2, 114-129. Wallerstein, I. M. 1974. The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. New York: Academic Press. Read More