Durkheim on Education | A Level Sociology - Education

[0:00]Welcome to this tutor2u sociology topic video on Durkheim's views of education. Like all functionalists, Durkheim suggested that education performed a range of positive functions for society, two of which were the promotion of social solidarity and the teaching of specialist skills. Through promoting social solidarity in subjects like history and literature, students would gain a sense of their shared heritage, and this in turn would create strong social bonds as they learned about their common identity they had with their fellow students. A second function that Durkheim proposed was the teaching of specialist skills. With the birth of the modern era and a more complex and diverse division of labor, the need for specialist skills could be fulfilled through education according to Durkheim. So Durkheim suggested that education should promote social solidarity, but what is social solidarity? Well, according to Durkheim, it is the social ties that bind us together. Durkheim was writing at a time of dramatic social change following the impact of the industrial revolution and the birth of the modern era. He noticed that there were two distinct forms of social solidarity. Firstly, there was the more traditional form of mechanical solidarity, which was typical of the pre-industrial era. People living in small communities, believing in religion, the divine right of monarchs, working together in agriculture, had strong lifelong bonds of solidarity. But the industrial revolution created mass urbanization, industrialization, the beginnings of secularization, and the fall of monarchs, and this threatened these traditional bonds. Durkheim suggested this was being replaced by organic solidarity, as people formed new bonds with those of similar experience, whether that was work, the growth of new religious movements, or through new neighborhoods in towns and cities. Organic solidarity was threatening the traditional bonds of society. So Durkheim proposed that the emerging state education systems promoted a sense of social solidarity in order to promote moral education. So how does education achieve this? Well, firstly, through teaching students about their shared heritage, it gives them a sense of their place in society, a common identity. This is achieved through the teaching of subjects such as history, literature and religion, which focus on the great achievements of one's own culture. This ensures that students have a common identity, for example, in the UK, most students will have studied Shakespeare and Henry VIII at some point in their education, as well as learning Christian values, and this promotes a sense of shared identity. Secondly, social solidarity can be achieved through communal gatherings. A place to celebrate achievements, partake in rituals, and communicate messages. Assemblies, prize-givings, graduations, whole school gatherings, promote values of belonging to a community and being accepted into wider society. And finally, education promotes social solidarity through creating social cohesion or bonds. This is evident in house systems in schools, memberships of school clubs, enrichment activities and sports teams. It provides students with a sense of unity and belonging to something that is bigger than themselves. So how might we apply this to contemporary education? Well, educational policies often look to promote social solidarity in schools and colleges and this is no more evident than the changes to the curriculum introduced by the then Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove in 2013. Gove's plans to reform the history and to a lesser extent English literature curriculum to represent an island story of the UK from the Magna Carta to the British involvement in the development of the internet. Are evidence of education performing the function of social solidarity. By removing European and American history, as well as text by non-British authors from the literature curriculum, this looked to foster a sense of solidarity amongst students. Controversially, this also extended to the coalition government's introduction of compulsory teaching of British values into schools. While initially seen as a measure to counteract grooming of young people by extremist groups, the British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect for, and tolerance of, those with different faiths and beliefs, and for those without faith, reinforced elements of British culture and identity within schools, fulfilling the function of promoting social solidarity. Now, of course, we need to evaluate these ideas, and a common evaluation of functionalist ideas comes from the Marxist perspective. Marxism and functionalism are the opposite sides of the same coin, while they both agreed that education serves these functions, functionalists promote the benefits for society. Whilst Marxists suggest that the benefits do not serve the masses, but rather serve the ruling classes. Whose history are students learning? Whose literature? Whose values are being passed on to the next generation? Marxists would suggest it is those of the ruling class. Furthermore, Stephen Ball suggested that the British curriculum is centered on empire and conquest, that education is guilty of little Englandism, by failing to teach history and literature from India, Africa and the Far East, despite the diversity of contemporary society. And finally, it's been argued by many academics that the teaching of British values could further marginalize minority ethnic groups in society. For example, the use of the word tolerance when discussing other faiths has been controversial, implying that non-Christian faith are in some way inferior. A second function of education proposed by Durkheim was the teaching of specialist skills. Now, it's important to note that Durkheim proposed these ideas at a time of great social change. Before the industrial revolution, most people worked in agriculture, which meant they needed little formal education to perform their roles. However, with the increased mechanization of society, the modern era required a far more diverse and complex set of skills in order to be able to function. It's no coincidence that most state education systems came into being in the years following the industrial revolution, and Durkheim proposed that one of the most important functions of education should be to provide the next generation with the skills they would need in this diverse workforce. But how does education achieve this? Well, it may seem obvious to say that the education system teaches us skills, but we need to be more specific about how it does this to show a deeper understanding of the functions of education. For example, education sets up the knowledge and skills it requires students to know through the national curriculum. This helps to prepare students for future employment through teaching literacy, numeracy, and other skills and knowledge. Specialist skills and knowledge have also come through subject choices, for example, medical professionals are expected to have studied biology and chemistry, and schools will prepare students for these roles by offering these subjects at advanced level and universities at degree level. Similarly, training students for more vocational professions requires specialist skills. Workers in construction, electricians, plumbers, health and social care professionals, will have all undertaken specialist qualification in order to perform these roles. Usually through the form of BTechs, and from 2020 T-levels or technical levels. And beyond secondary education, the creation of Redbrick universities in the UK around the turn of the 20th century focused on the new technical and scientific skills. This was to make sure that the UK did not fall behind the rest of Europe. So let's look at some of the evidence of teaching the specialist skills through educational policy. Recently, the government has announced initiatives to give additional funding to schools if students are completing level three maths qualifications such as A-level maths or core maths level three. As maths is seen as a shortage skill, the state will respond by pushing additional funding towards that area and enabling more schools to provide for the shortage. In a similar fashion, other shortage subjects like chemistry, physics, modern foreign languages have initiatives for the training and recruitment of teachers, as these skills are increasingly in demand. Another policy which demonstrates a focus on specialist skills is standardized assessment. Educational policies have introduced standardized tests such as A-levels, GCSEs, and SATs to test students for specific skills, for example, in sociology, application, analysis, and evaluation. These tests are designed to see how successfully students have learned these skills, and therefore testing fulfills the function of teaching specialist skills. And finally, with the impact of globalization on employment, students are being taught skills that will enable them to compete in the global marketplace. Again, using sociology as an example, there is an increasing focus on the impact of globalization, which prepares students of sociology to study issues that impact on global society, rather than just localized issues such as the UK family. Of course, there are critics of Durkheim, and unsurprisingly, they come from a Marxist perspective. Marxists argue that students are taught fragmented knowledge that enables them to perform specific roles, rather than seeing the connections between subjects. Furthermore, they argue that students are often overqualified to take on some roles, which creates a reserve army of labor and excessive competition in job markets. Marxists would argue that as a result of this competition, wages are driven down as the supply of workers outstrips demand, thus forcing workers to be more obedient, submissive, and compliant. It also doesn't account for the high numbers of young people who are unemployed or underemployed. Despite having qualifications, NEETs or not in education, employment or training figures for 18 to 24 year olds are higher in the UK than many other Western nations, which demonstrates that having skills doesn't always guarantee employment. The teaching of specialist skills is also designed to ensure there are adequate numbers of qualified people to fill vacancies. Yet shortages in the UK in nursing and teaching along with IT and the sciences have led to increased immigration into the UK to fill these shortages, which illustrates a failing of the education system to teach specialist skills adequately. And finally, feminists would argue that the teaching of specialist skills has created hierarchies of employment, with girls being discouraged from many different subjects, particularly those on a traditional masculine in a traditional masculine domain. Subjects such as nursing and teaching may be seen as less skilled than things like engineering and chemistry.