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Assess the Claim That ‘the Main Function of Education Is to Maintain a Value Consensus’ in Society

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Submitted By SheymaSA
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Value consensus is a term which refers to general agreement about norms and values amongst the members of society. Different theorists believe in different functions of the education system, some think it as promoting value consensus and some see as a method of control. Functionalists and Marxists have opposing views on the function of education which I will discuss in my essay, I will refer to sources from Durkheim, Parsons, Davis & Moore, Althusser and Bowles & Gintis and Willis and assess the function of education.
Emile Durkheim, a functionalist’s view of education is that it teaches us the norms and value of society. Education helps to unite all the individuals of society which creates a sense of belonging and commitment to that society which he calls social solidarity. The way to reach this stage of harmony in society is to have norms and values which everyone agrees on. A way to criticise this idea is that the UK has become a multi-cultural society in which different people from different parts of the world live together. This means that we all have norms and values from our cultures which might lead to a conflict rather than value consensus as our values will go against each other.
Another function of education in the case of Durkheim is that the school is a miniature version of school in which we are taught things in that prepare us for the future when we are in employment. Aspects such as ‘register’ throughout our school life teach us that punctuality is very vital. This helps in the future as we understand that it is important to be on time. Marxists such as Bowles and Gintis would argue against his idea of rules being good and would argue that they teach us to be subservient to the capitalist society.
Bowles and Gintis, Marxists, argue that the education is controlled by the capitalist society and serve their interests. This can be further elaborated

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