Functionalist View On The Role Of Education In Education

Using material from item A and elsewhere assess the contribution of functionalism to our understanding of the role of education.

With landmark Supreme Court decisions in regards to education such as Brown v Board of Education, which made segregation within schools illegal, one would be inclined to believe that modern schools are void of any inequality. However, at a deeper glance, it is apparent that there is a glaring inequality within public school systems at the national, statewide, and even district-wide level. Such an inequality has drastic results as the education one receives has a high correlation to the college they will attend, and the job they will work. It is in society's best interest that public school systems be improved to equally supplement students with the tools necessary to succeed. While the public school system aims to reduce the inequality within it, they have proven ineffective in guaranteeing children of all races and economic classes an equal education.

How should society handle the perceived differences between races when it comes to education? The goal of both researchers is to narrow the academic gap between white and black students. Both authors attribute the gap between the academic scores of black and white students from opposite sides of racial identity. As Dr. Beverly Daniels Tatum, President of Spelman College and clinical psychologist has written an article entitled “Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” Her approach is from the perspective of the student and how they perceive their role and upper limits while maintaining their place in their peer group's expectations of their race. Dr. Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University, has written an article entitled "The Facts about the Achievement Gap.” Her approach is from the perspective of how schools and society implicitly or explicitly cast students into achievement tracks based on their race. Both approach the same idea about racial identity, but they have different solutions, such as peer groups, the school board, and who is right about the solution.

Education and economic justice were two forms of systemic inequalities that make inequality difficult to talk about. Education is a requirement if someone wishes to have a better life, but not everyone has access to quality education. In the U.S there has always been a battle, people of color have fought to be able to access quality education, (Philips, 2016: 130) they are constantly attending inferior and ineffective school where there are many distractions for students to be fully successful in the classrooms. Often these schools where children of color attend lack quality facilities, educational resources, and qualified teachers. Someone can’t help to notice that in general such unqualified schools are mostly in color people’s neighborhoods.

America’s education system is one of the most respectable, reputable and sought after commodities in our society, but it is also the most overcrowded, discriminatory, and controversial system ever established. Most people yearn for a higher education because it 's what 's expected in this society in order to get ahead. It means a better job, more money, power, prestige and a sense of entitlement. But this system has let down the children that are supposed to benefit from it. Education discriminates against minorities, and poorer class students are not expected nor encouraged to attain a higher education. The education system is set up to ensure that every child get a basic

The educational system has been around for thousands of years, and throughout time, there have always existed equality issues. From girls not being able to attend school as far as the boys, to children being separated into different schools because of the color of their skin, equality in education is an issue that has plagued humanity for far too long. Throughout the years, there have been some important decisions made in an effort to afford equality in education. Perhaps, as we move forward in our thinking and beliefs, we may find a way to make education a right that everyone who has the desire to grow through knowledge should be afforded, regardless of circumstance.

A school setting provides opportunities where issues of social justice, oppression, and discrimination can be addressed. According to Bemak and Chung (2009), students of color and economically disadvantaged students are likely to have low academic achievement, in comparison to their White middle class counterparts. These disparities in academic

Ever since the establishment of equal education in the United States, there has been a disparity in academic success between children of different races. The education of African American children has become a prime example of this. As discussed in the historical text, A Letter to My Nephew, which was written during the time of the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s, African Americans were not given equal opportunities to succeed educationally and could do little to change their futures for the better. They had to work much harder than whites to receive even a portion of the recognition and success that whites achieved (Baldwin 1). Although many today believe America has overcome this problem, it still remains a pressing issue in many aspects of society, arguably the most important being education. The racial achievement gap, an important term to familiarize with when discussing this topic, refers to the disparity in educational performance between students of different races (National Education Association 1). As of now, although the education achievement gap has been narrowing, there still remains a large disparity between African Americans and their racial counterparts. According to a study by Roland G. Freyer and Steven D. Levitt, professors at Harvard University and W.E.B Du Bois Institute, respectively, African American students enter kindergarten already significantly behind children of other races, and their test scores continue to drop

What is functionalist theory? The functionalist theory also called functionalism. The functionalism can be define is each part of society have their roles in terms of how it contributes to the stability of the whole society. Each part of society that have their own functional for the stability of around society. According to the functionalist perspective, each part of society is related to each part in the whole society. The different part of society is organized to fill different need and each of which has effect for the form and shape of the good society. The parts of society depend on each other. For example, the government is providing education for the children in their country. To running the education services, the government use the taxes income from the family of children, which in pays taxes. This family give responsibility to school to help children grow up to have good jobs in their future so that they can raise and support their own families. These responsibilities take over by the teacher to teaching the children. In the process, the children will in turn to support the state or government by law-abiding and taxpaying citizens. If all part in society

For more than 50 years black students lag behind their peers from other racial groups on achievement. Educators play a huge role in the equality of education for all students. Interventions, reforms, and legislation have been proposed in various forms for several decades. The question is what can educators do to assist African American students in being successful and having an unbiased educational experience? How do we create children to be new thinkers and inventors that tackle racial disparities? How do we destroy biased social structures in America?

Educational inequality is attributed to economic disparities that often falls along racial lines and much modern conversation about educational equity conflates the two, showing how they are inseparable from residential location and, more recently, language.Educational inequality between white students and minority students continues to perpetuate social and economic inequality.

The impact that the social problem of equity in education can be severe and affects not only certain minorities and the less affluent, but also the United States as a whole. From the conflict perspective, education is just like any other valuable resource, in that it is scarce and those with higher incomes have access to a higher quality of education. From the functionalist perspective, a schools failure to perform its functions stems from social disorganization within the community. Regardless of the perspective, when only a select group has access to a high quality education, it can leave entire segments of the population behind economically for generations, which only perpetuates the problem. This becomes a problem to society as a whole

Having attended public schools throughout my childhood and adolescence, I never was familiar with the term functionalism and its many elements. After observing and analyzing my field placement classroom I have come to understand the concept of functionalism to some extent. In general, functionalists “see schools as serving to socialize students to adapt to the economic, political, and social institutions of that society” (Feinberg, p.6, 2004). They also theorize that in order for societies to survive, they must carry out vital functions such as, attaining fundamental knowledge and acquiring essential skills and proficiency, acknowledging certain norms and values within their community, and recognizing authority figures. It is also

The opening to chapter 13 begins with the experiences of various families that have different problems with education that led them to the conclusion of homeschooling. Education contributes to what is known as the credential society that we have today, as the degrees earned in education determine jobs that people are eligible for. The certification that education provides a person is used as evidence that the individual is capable of certain tasks and has certain skills. The more developed a nation, the more extensive an education that they provide their people, and this trend is seen across Most Industrialized, Industrializing, and Least Industrialized Nations. Education is seen in many different perspectives, especially amongst sociologists. Functionalists focus on the major functions that education serves, such as teaching of knowledge and skills, cultural transmission of values, social integration, social placement, and mainstreaming. The conflict perspective, on the other hand, focuses on how education reproduces the social class structure through unequally funding and having schools exclusive to the elite. This is while the symbolic interactionist’s perspective focuses on the interaction of the classroom and how student performance typically conforms to the expectations that the teacher has over them. Like everything else in the world, education isn’t perfect by far, as there are many problems, such as mediocrity, grade inflation, social promotion, fake data, and

According to different sociologists the educational system is seen in many distinctive ways. When one thinks about the educational system many theorists refer to the approaches of education in which people are experiencing minor socialisation of relearning certain norms and values within society. Also, it is viewed as a driver in terms of social control as children are taught to follow societies expectations, which is taught through the hidden curriculum. This system of a meritocratic basis reflects on the fact that those who do well get rewarded and those who do not, will not get the best job. Thus, compulsory schooling that operates on a meritocratic basis means that the system supports all however, some sociologists disagree with this view due to inequality in which some people in terms of class and wealth tend to do better than others. Or in terms of race and gender tend to be another factor in terms of inequality within the classroom. In order words, the educational system indeed evolves and changes but it only reflects and extracts with the social system. This essay will firstly look at the history of the compulsory schooling in terms of a conservative approach from many theorists such as Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons. Then it will examine Marxists viewpoints towards the conservative approach then the labelling theory in terms of the hidden curriculum and symbolic interactionism and whether compulsory schooling operates on a meritocratic basis.