Ethnicity and Gender Effect of Education - Assignment Example

A. With Particular Reference to the Functionalist and Marxist Perspectives Outline the functions of Education The relevance of education in modern society has grown in significance in keeping with the sweeping changes that are seen enveloping every society around the world. Educational institutions impart knowledge, skills and values as a part of their educational curriculum. The importance of education lies in its relevance to determining the position in society that an individual occupies. Education thus can become a leveller in disparities of class, gender and ethnicity amongst the members of any society or it can act as an enhancer of these disparities. Theories in sociology attempt to explain this function of education and the three most important theories are the functionalist, interactionist and Marxist perspectives on the function of education. (Burgess, G.R and Parker, A. 1999. Education. Pp.180-190). The Functionalist Perspective of the Functions of Education: The functionalist perspective on education finds its origins in the views expressed by Durkheim in the beginning of the twentieth century. These views of Durkheim laid stress on the significant manner in which could ensure an individuals commitment to society and in that manner contribute to the creation of social solidarity. According to Durkheim the contribution of the teaching of history could go along way in bringing about unity in society. For instance by giving stress to British history in the curriculum of educational institutions in Britain unity of British society could be achieved, Contribution to this perspective of the functions of education were further contributed to by Talbott Parsons in the middle of the twentieth century by his concepts on the manner in which divisions of labour were a result of the teaching of specialised skills. Teaching institutions provided the basis between the ascribed roles of the family and the achieved roles of the larger society and were thereby responsible for the occupational roles that resulted. Parsons concept included the functioning of schools as open to competition or based on meritocratic principles and thereby led to the allocation of roles appropriate to the skills and merit. This meant that education resulted in the most talented in society benefiting with the most important positions and in that manner got the best rewards. According to the functionalist perspective there exists only one set of values that need to be taught by the education and these set of values are those that belong to the ruling class or the elite class. This means that the functionalist perspective is blind to the possibility that there are other sets of values in society and these can be transmitted through education. Experience also shows that it is not necessary that educational institutions operate under meritocratic principles for generally all social classes do achieve good results. On the contrary there may be justification in the claim that educational institutions do tend to strengthen the class positions of society and not everyone has adequate opportunities for advancement in society. The exceptions to this have been extremely meritorious and stand out by a large margin. Success at educational institutions is more often finds its basis on the class one belongs to and seldom based on either ability or merit that is possessed by the individual. (Court, C. 1997. Introduction to Sociology. Pp. 103-104.). The Marxist Perspective of the Functions of Education: The Marxist perspective of the functions of education like the fundamentalist perspective of education also propounds that education socialises children, but the similarity ends there, as it extremely critical of the process. This is because the Marxist perspective of education as put forward by L. Althusser, believes that education causes the reproduction of culture and the values that the young are socialised into. According to this Marxist perspective education is the tool wherein the skills required for reproducing an efficient labour force are introduced into the young people and thereby socialising them into the acceptance of their role in the social order. This scheme of things is a must for the survival of the ruling class, as the use of brute force would not deliver the desired results. This could happen only through the use of the effective tools of education, religion and mass media. Education thus creates a submissive labour force that can be exploited by the ruling class. Support for these views of Althusser and the Marxist perspective of education comes from the study of S. Bowles and H. Gintis on the educational system in the United States of America and can be found in ‘Schooling in Capitalist America’, 1976. Their research on the basis of primary research and the results of other studies found that those students attaining high grades also showed a high level of conformity and submissiveness to authority. On the other hand those wit low grades were representative of originality and non-conformity. It was also seen that the teacher pupil relationship mimed the hierarchical divisions that were found among labour in the workplace. The difficulty with the Marxist perspective of education lies in its assumption that all teachers are role acting in an education system. This is not necessarily true as many teachers do not punish or reward pupils according to their family status in society in order to promote capitalism. Another issue is that even in the education systems of many of the socialist societies, equal opportunity and freedom is seldom seen. (Court, C. 1997. Introduction to Sociology. Pp, 103-104). B. How Might Social class, Ethnicity and Gender Affect Someone’s Educational Attainment? Social Class and Education: The definition of social class remains cloaked in controversy and yet we may assume that a social class in modern society is based on occupation, economic, status and wealth or income. From this point of view there are three classes of society namely the upper class, the middle class and the lower class, though the middle class as such displays wide disparity. From the Marxist point of view there are only two classes the bourgeoisie or capitalists and the working class. The middle class with the evolution of capitalism is expected to either coalesce into the working class or move up into the bourgeoisie. In any case society does consist of classes. The role of education in social class is that it is an important factor to social inequality and social mobility. Social mobility is the movement of people in between the various classes that exist in the society and the greater the mobility is indicative of the extent of openness and fluidity in these societies. Education plays an important part in social mobility, as it has become a critical factor in determining the occupation of an individual. This is more so in this new millennium with the concept of the knowledge worker and the deskilling that is seen in the workplace. In usual circumstances the higher the educational qualifications of an individual the better is the income generated and thus more education enables an individual to move from the class of birth to a higher class on the basis of higher education. (Burgess, G.R and Parker, A. 1999. Education. Pp. 180-190). A research study to give a better picture on link between the parental social class, educational qualification and social mobility in Scotland found that education has made it possible for upward mobility among the social classes. However, education has not been able to increase the social fluidity, as it has not been able to reduce the gap between social classes in the chances of securing occupations at the highest levels. This is a reflection of the domination maintained by the highest social class in their advantage is securing the highest educational qualifications. (Iannelli, C and Patterson, L. 2005. Does Education Promote Social Mobility?) Statistics on the status of education in Great Britain show that young people from the working class still find under-representation at the higher levels of education and that despite the increase in participation rate of eleven percent in 1991-1992 to nineteen percent in 2001-2002. This is in comparison with the non-manual classes of society, which showed an increase from thirty five percent to fifty percent over the same ten years. (Participation rates in higher education: by social class). Ethnicity and Education: Education does play a role in the better integration of immigrants into their new country of choice. Yet evidence does point to the general trend in ethnic groups not doing well as the others in their education as seen from their results. The Swann Report on ‘Education Fr All’ confirms. As per this report the Asians, with the exception of Bangladeshi’s are the only ethnic group to perform almost well as the local native white population. The West Indians perform worse than the local white population. This performance in their education may reflect the fact that the Asians in general tend to occupy higher positions. (Court, C. 1997. Introduction to Sociology. Pp 103-104). The educational performance of ethnic groups may be impaired by the medium of instruction, which is English and this to many be an alien language. They initially have to cope with this handicap. The best example of this is the United States of America, which sees a large influx of foreign students from all parts with different languages as their mother education. The educational system has necessarily introduced means of making these students comfortable with English as a part of their curriculum. (Strahinich, J. 1981. Ethnicity and Education). In the United Kingdom there is an increase seen in the percentage intake of minority ethnic groups. Indian students have increased their presence making up the largest proportion of undergraduates among the ethnic groups. This may reflect the greater demand for individuals of Indian origin in many area of employment. (Participation rates in higher education: by social class). Gender and Education: The female gender has historically found that they have not been treated on par with their male counterparts in the matter of education. This is because there has been the concept that the place of the woman is at home and not in building a career and as such the requirement of education was at a minimum. In the recent past women have been finding more equal treatment in the matter of education. Even so at times they are sidelined into subjects that are believed to be more suitable to them. This creates problems for them at the time, when they go looking for occupations and find the job opportunities are limited. This seems unfair when girls at schools and women in colleges are found to do better then their male counterparts. On the issue of models for education systems for girls there are three models that are normally put forth. The first has the traditional outlook in that they need to be educated to the extent that makes them fit be wives and mothers. The second model calls for equal treatment of men and women and women should be given the opportunity to compete with men on an equal footing in matters of education. The third model calls for differential treatment of women so that they may be capable of providing a better academic performance. Irrespective of the model that is used it is important to look at where they end up after their academic efforts. Irrespective of their academic performance, women tend to end up in the service sector, with lower wages and bleaker prospects than their male counterparts preferred in all other avenues of employment. This makes it difficult for women as such to aspire for higher employment and thus move up in society on their own. (Pamela, A and Claire, W. 1997. An Introduction to Sociology. FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES. Pp 83-115). Literary Works Burgess, G.R and Parker, A. 1999. ‘Education’, in S Taylor. (Ed.). SOCIOLOGY. Issues and debates. MACMILLAN PRESS LTD. London. Pp. 180-190. Court, C. 1997. Introduction to Sociology. Tudor Business Publishing Limited. London. Pp. 103-104. Iannelli, C and Patterson, L. 2005. Does Education Promote Social Mobility? Viewed 26 February 2006. . Pamela, A and Claire, W. 1997. An Introduction to Sociology. FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES. Second Edition. Rutledge. London Pp. 83-115. ‘Participation rates in higher education: by social class’. 2004. national STATISTICS, viewed 26 February 2006. . Strahinich, J. 1981. ‘Ethnicity and Education’, BOSTON REVIEW, viewed 26 February 2006, . Read More