Education’s Role in Industrial and Meritocratic Societies
Industrial Society and the New Role of Education
The origins of education date back to the eighteenth century, with Rousseau’s Emile, or On Education. However, the sociology of education was not consolidated until the publication of Durkheim’s work and the initiation of a primitive sociological analysis of education. The final consolidation of the sociology of education occurred with the publication of Parsons’ article “The Classroom as a Social System” in 1959. In the U.S., what is called Dewey’s educational sociology arose. For Dewey, education is viewed as essentially a social process and an active critic directly related to democracy. Lerena criticized the character of the sociology of education. Therefore, there is some gap in time between the epistemological development of sociology and the sociology of education.
Meritocratic Society
Emerging approaches of Parsons and the meritocratic Schelski tried to theoretically justify the social functions that education fulfilled in American society. The most significant part of Parsons’ contribution to the sociology of education is found in the analysis of school and society. Very similar are the inputs of Dreeben, who felt that in the classroom, learning the rules of independence, achievement, universalism, and specificity are fundamental. The continuity with this line of thought is found in techno-economic functionalism and the theory of human capital by Schultz, who defended the technological and economic function of education and the efficient use of resources. Also noteworthy is the work of Floud and Halsey. Becker’s human capital theory highlights the economic and social benefits of investment in education. There are two functions that basic education must fulfill in a meritocratic society: talent selection and equal opportunities, a social model advocated by Parsons and human capital theorists. The Coleman Report identified “family cultural deprivation” as the primary cause of educational inequality.
Education and the Contradictions of Industrial Society
Education and Society from a Macrosociological Perspective
Critical Sociology
Dahrendorf pointed out that the bureaucratic meritocracy model of society is a fallacy to the extent that it forgets the introduction of factors such as unequal educational opportunities between rural and urban areas. This author will give way to new empirical research. Special mention should be made of the work of Bourdieu and Passeron. The application of causal models for the U.S. by Blau and Duncan demonstrates that education and occupation of the father alone explains 18% of the variance, while in Spain, it is 44%. Research results seem to confirm the conclusions obtained by Jencks et al. The criticisms of Thurow, Doering, Piore, and Bowen of human capital theory are based on the fact that a one-way relationship cannot be established between education, productivity, and social mobility. The new critical sociological theory incorporates an explanation of the dynamics of education, the cultural group, and the dimension that considers education as contributing to the reproduction of class positions.
Cultural Reproduction Theory of Bourdieu and Passeron
Bourdieu and Passeron are based on the fact that the possession of cultural capital is unevenly distributed. In “Students and Culture,” they reflect the unequal situation of students starting in their home social environment. The objective is to show how these cultural constraints are translated into differential skills that affect success or failure at school. In the works “Cultural Arbitrary” and “Symbolic Violence,” they underscore the fact that school culture is not neutral. The analysis of Bourdieu and Passeron marked a major advance over the purely economistic analysis. Their interpretations are not exempt from criticism because they conceive of the education system as a fixed and unchangeable system of domination.
Ideological Reproduction Theory
Marx and Althusser argue that the modern school contributes to the reproduction of social inequalities embedded in the model of capitalist production. Althusser elaborates a theory of domination in which the school and the education system promote the dominant ideology. Gramsci says that it is a state system in which the hegemony of the bourgeoisie is based primarily on the intellectual and moral influence of this social group. In these Marxist perspectives, education is part of the political and ideological superstructure.
Economic Reproduction in the Theory of Networks and Baudelot
Baudelot and Establet are developing a theory on the selective function that the school performs. There are two different and closed school networks: primary and vocational education (PP) and secondary and tertiary education (SS). The ultimate objective pursued by both types of school is to analyze the culture offered to students in either network through what Althusser calls “practice.” In his last work, “The Educational Level Rises,” he criticizes the so-called bourgeois attitude that attributes the decline in teaching quality to increased schooling for all classes.
The Economic Theory of Correspondence
Following the failure of secondary education reforms, Bowles and Gintis try to give a more consistent theoretical paradigm of social networks. These authors took the theory of reproduction to the extreme, arguing that learning in school is a mimesis of the social relations of production. Bowles and Gintis revised their assumptions and acknowledged the existence of certain contradictions between the roles of democratization and reproduction that education fulfills in advanced capitalist states. Lewin broadens the focus of this perspective and recognizes that school has a dual function: to socialize certain social codes and enable the internalization of values that sustain liberal democratic culture. Correspondence theories try to incorporate the analysis of the educational reality of the contradiction between economic and political levels. The reproduction theory lays the foundation for the development of the new sociology of education, whose ultimate aim is to objectify the latent power relations existing in educational practice. Limited treatment of the idea of contradiction in the class struggle and the one-dimensional interpretation of ideology are some of the factors that have led to the emergence of new frameworks of analysis in the study of the relationship between education and society.