Functional Theory and Schools

1
Functional Theory and Schools
2
Functionalism

• To understand a social practice or institution,
  you need to see how it contributes in the
  survival of the social system as a whole (like
  the organs of the body)
• TWO PRIMARY REQUIREMENTS OF SOCIAL LIFE role
  differentiation (jobs, even unpleasant and
  demanding, get done) and social solidarity
  (development of a shared value system and
  cognitive orientation)

3
Schooling

• Schools socialize and adopt students to the
  economic, political and social institutions of
  the particular society.
• The school is an organ of society, like the
  heart or lung of the human body, functioning
  properly to keep the body politic going.

4
School Failure

• the historical impediments argument - a liberal
  response (Minorities and other discriminated
  against groups do not lack talent)
• the intellectual impediments argument - a
  conservative response (Historical discrimination
  has a minor effect on school performance)
• the cultural impediments argument - a
  conservative response (Culture and family
  backgrounds play a very important role in
  motivating a child to perform well in school)

5
Functional Theories(examples)

• Robert Dreebens norms
• norm of independence children learn to be
  responsible, hence accountable, for their actions
• norm of achievement children learn that they will
  be judged for performance not their effort or
  good intentions, hence they learn to acknowledge
  failure and success as signs of abilities
• norms of universalism and specificity children
  learn standards of comparison and treatment
  according to some categories or exceptions from
  categories.
• See Chapter 5 (pp. 63-90) in On What is Learned
  in Schools (Addison-Wesley,1968)

6
Functional Theories(examples)

• Schultz investment in human capital accounts
  for most of the impressive rise in the real
  earning per worker
• economists have not stressed the simple fact that
  people invest in themselves because of moral and
  philosophical restraints (looking upon people as
  a capital good debases them and is associated
  with slavery)
• See Investment in Human Capital by Theodore
  Shultz, in American Economic Review, vol. 51
  (March 1961) 1-17.