WESTERN THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE ON EDUCATION
Fatin Munirah Abd Latif Nurul Jannah Abd Razak
Rabeatuladelah Mohd RidzuanSiti Halimatun Saadiah Adnan
The Marxist, Neo-Marxist and Conflict Theorist view of society
• Functional and Conflict Theories of Educational Stratification
The Interactionist and postmodernist view of society
THE CONFLICT PARADIGM
Focus on the elites demand
Stress the connection between schooling and learning of docility and
compliance
Serving the interest of
elites
Conflict Theorist Argument
Group compete to control education system
Struggle between group is unequal
Employers are more concern with the attitudes and value of their future
employees.
Marxism
• The core concept of Marxism is materialism and social class.
• Marxism emphasizes the idea that social life is based upon "conflicts of interest“
• The basis of this conflict lies in the fact that although wealth is created by the Proletariat (the working class), it is taken away privately -by the Bourgeoisie - in the form of profits.
NEO-MARXIST Theories of Bowles and Gintis
• Marxist interpretation of schooling in modern society
• Schools serve the interests of the capitalist order in modern society
• Schools reproduce the values and personality characteristics necessary in a capitalist society
–Values and qualities required by :efficient manual worker vs. executive
of a large corporation
– The social organization of schools reflects the demands of the particular occupations
Schools(for low status occupations)• Minimal choice of tasks• Teach obedience toward authority• To follow instructions
Schools and universities (for elite positions)• Encourage independent work• To make intelligent choices• To internalize norms rather than to
follow external behavior
Bowles and
Gintis’s Major
argument
Reinforcing
inequalities
Reinterpreting
Educational History
The limit of school reform
Reinforcing Inequality
• Different social classes attend different neighborhood school
• school serving:
working class students vs. higher-status students
Reinterpreting Educational History
• The direction of educational change is predominantly shaped by the changing demands of capitalist elites for new values and skills
• Compulsory schooling was an agency of control
– The spread of factory system created demand for a loyal, obedient, and docile labor force
– Schools encouraged habits of punctuality, hard work, and respect for authority
Reject Meritocratic Idea
• According to meritocratic idea:– ability and effort count for more than social status – schools are efficient ways to select talented
people
• BUT, proposed that:– Success in later life is strongly related to social
class
The Limits of School Reform
• Schools are repressive because it must serve the interest of corporate capitalism
• A systematic reflections of economic reality
• The transformation of schooling must await a transformation in the nature of work in capitalist society
Stratification in Education
Functional theory VS Conflict theory
•Concerning in technical skills requirement in industrial society.•Education is necessary for the survival of the society.•Interdependent
•Theory derived from approach of Max Weber, stating of various outcomes in the struggles among status group.•Power is important to control over education ( eg; who is smarter can easily get job)
Technical-Function Theory of Education
• The skill requirements of jobs in industrial society constantly increase because of technological change.
•The proportion of jobs requiring low skill decrease and high skill increase. •Therefore, educational requirements for employment constantly rise and increasingly larger proportion of the population are required to spend longer and longer time in school.
Cont.• This will lead to two major questions :a) Are better educated employees more
productive ? -relationship between aggregate levels of education in a society and its overall economic productivity.
b) Are vocational skills learned in school or elsewhere ?
-most skilled manual workers acquire their skills on the job or casually.
Functional and Conflict Perspective• Functional : - demand for skills of various types, at any given
time, is basic determinant of who will be selected for the position.
-It is the need of the society that seen as determining the behavior and the rewards of
each individuals within it. • Conflict : - individuals want jobs primarily for the reward to
themselves in material goods, power, and prestige to maintain the position of power between workers and employers.
-On all levels, wherever informal organization exists, it appears that standards of reflect the power of the groups involved.
Conflict Theory of Stratification~Weber (1968)
Status group
Education as status
culture
Struggle for advantage
Status Group
• Share a sense of status equality based on participation in a common cultures
• Derived from 3 sources:i. Different lifestyle based on economic situationii. Differences in life situation based on power
positioniii. Differences in life situation deriving directlyfrom
cultural conditions or insitutions.
Struggle for Advantage• Continual struggle in society various “goods”-
wealth, power or prestige.• Carried out through organizations
Education as Status Culture
• Main activity in school is to teach particular status culture.
Education as Mechanism of Occupational Placement
a) Schools provide either training for elite culture or respect for it.
b) Employers use education as a mean of selection for cultural attributes.
Variations in the Linkage between Education and Occupation
1. The type of education most closely reflects membership in a particular status group
2. That group controls employment in particular organizational contexts
Historical Change
1. Education , high economic, status position from the colonial period on through the twentieth century.
2. Political decentralization
3. Technical changes:a) mass literacyb) reduction of unskill jobc) skill requirement
~ Education has become a legitimate standard.
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