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Functionalist

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Submitted By krept
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Outline some of the functions the education system may perform

Many people in today’s society define education as an essential certificate in life. In almost every job you apply the most typical thing they filter you by is your, qualifications. Every year the government spends £65 billions on education. An average UK citizen spends 15,000- 20,000 hours in education.

In society the education system performs various functions, which all sociologist have different and conflicting views (depending the way they see society). According to functionalist they believe you should focus on the functions, which provides structure in society. Some of the functions are; teaching, social interaction, creating jobs. Functionalist use an ‘organic analogy’ to explain how society works (they see society as the human body). They state the structures like; religion, race social class, all shape us in society today. If these structures were to break down so would society itself. This is where the organic analogy fits in, as if the brain was to break down the human body would be dead. All functionalist approach it with a consensus perspective.

One functional sociologist is Durkheim he stated that in order for society to exist people needs to share similar norms and values. Which provides social solidarity. Durkheim argues the education systems help to create a social solidarity. So therefore we can norms, which means an accepted way of behaving (structure) for example wearing clothes, going to school, personal hygiene and good manners. Through the education systems we can all share values, which means something that is seen as good/ desirable for example, attractiveness, lots of money, hard work, participating in charity events. In addition social solidarity let’s us shares our norms and values from one generation to the next. As if we didn’t, society would break down. Which

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