🎓 A-Level Sociology: Education – Topic Summary
Exam Board: AQA
- Includes: Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism,
Interactionism & Education Policy
Designed for: Grade 9 / A* Students
Created by: Hayrish Emin
📚 Contents:
1. Functionalist View on Education – pg. 2
2. Marxist View – pg. 3
3. Feminist View – pg. 4
4. Interactionist View – pg. 5
5. Education & Social Policy – pg. 6
, FUNCTIONALIST VIEW ON EDUCATION
🧠 THEORIST 📖 THEORY ❌ EVALUATION 👥 WHO BY
Durkheim
- Teaches shared norms/values
- Prepares for workplace via skills
📌
- Education creates social solidarity Teaches capitalist ideology, not
shared values.
Marxists
Parsons
society 📌
- School = bridge between family &
- Promotes universal values and
Ignores gender inequality;
assumes equal experience for
all.
Feminists
meritocracy
Davis &
Moore people by ability 📌
- Role allocation: education sorts
- Inequality is necessary & functional
Ignores how gendered
socialisation limits options for
girls.
Feminists
Blau & - Education builds human capital
- Matches skills to jobs for economy
📌 Class background still Marxists
Duncan determines outcome.
MARXIST VIEW ON EDUCATION
🧠 THEORIST 📖 THEORY ❌ EVALUATION 👥 WHO BY
Althusser
📌
- Education is an ideological state
apparatus (ISA)
Education is not about
reproducing class divisions
Functionalists
- Reinforces the capitalist system and
ideology & accept their place in
society
🏛️
but creating social cohesion.
Gramsci - Promotes hegemonic culture Gramsci's focus on class Feminists
- Education is a tool for the ruling class misses the impact of gender
ideological control 📌
to maintain power through in education
Bowles & - Correspondence theory: school Society is more diverse, and Postmodernists
Gintis mirrors workplace education doesn't function as
obedience and conformity 📌
- Education instills values like a "mirror" to the workplace
Bourdieu - Cultural capital: Middle-class Fails to acknowledge efforts Social
Exam Board: AQA
- Includes: Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism,
Interactionism & Education Policy
Designed for: Grade 9 / A* Students
Created by: Hayrish Emin
📚 Contents:
1. Functionalist View on Education – pg. 2
2. Marxist View – pg. 3
3. Feminist View – pg. 4
4. Interactionist View – pg. 5
5. Education & Social Policy – pg. 6
, FUNCTIONALIST VIEW ON EDUCATION
🧠 THEORIST 📖 THEORY ❌ EVALUATION 👥 WHO BY
Durkheim
- Teaches shared norms/values
- Prepares for workplace via skills
📌
- Education creates social solidarity Teaches capitalist ideology, not
shared values.
Marxists
Parsons
society 📌
- School = bridge between family &
- Promotes universal values and
Ignores gender inequality;
assumes equal experience for
all.
Feminists
meritocracy
Davis &
Moore people by ability 📌
- Role allocation: education sorts
- Inequality is necessary & functional
Ignores how gendered
socialisation limits options for
girls.
Feminists
Blau & - Education builds human capital
- Matches skills to jobs for economy
📌 Class background still Marxists
Duncan determines outcome.
MARXIST VIEW ON EDUCATION
🧠 THEORIST 📖 THEORY ❌ EVALUATION 👥 WHO BY
Althusser
📌
- Education is an ideological state
apparatus (ISA)
Education is not about
reproducing class divisions
Functionalists
- Reinforces the capitalist system and
ideology & accept their place in
society
🏛️
but creating social cohesion.
Gramsci - Promotes hegemonic culture Gramsci's focus on class Feminists
- Education is a tool for the ruling class misses the impact of gender
ideological control 📌
to maintain power through in education
Bowles & - Correspondence theory: school Society is more diverse, and Postmodernists
Gintis mirrors workplace education doesn't function as
obedience and conformity 📌
- Education instills values like a "mirror" to the workplace
Bourdieu - Cultural capital: Middle-class Fails to acknowledge efforts Social
