This paper discusses the sociological perspective of functionalism, and then uses it as a way of explaining why schools exist. It also offers an analysis of the functionalist approach to schools and education as a means of revealing the hidden social agendas of schools.
One of the most enduring questions that sociologists face is how to explain the reasons behind various social institutions and phenomena such as compulsory education, poverty, or war. One of the ways in which sociologists approach this problem is by applying different sociological perspectives. This paper will examine the social institution of schools, through the sociological perspective of functionalism.
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"Education: Why Do We Have Schools?".
In The Basics of Sociology, Kathy S. Stolley defines functionalism as a theoretical system which “views society as a complex system of interrelated parts working together to maintain stability” (Stolley, 2005, p. 23). What this means is that functionalism approaches society in terms of the ways in which different social systems fulfil different functions, in order to keep society as a whole running smoothly. This framework is often compared to the way in which a living organism’s body contains many different organs, all fulfilling different functions, but all working together to keep the body as a whole functioning. Stolley describes the way this model of society developed from the emphasis on scientific rationalism in the nineteenth-century (Stolley, 2005, p. 23); functionalism suffers from an inadequate emphasis on the reasons behind social change (Stolley, 2005, p. 25), but in terms of understanding the purpose of various social institutions, it remains very valuable.
When looking at the question of why so many societies provide education by means of schools, functionalism suggests that the purpose of education is to ensure that equilibrium and social order are maintained within society, with an emphasis on continuity (Bessant and Watts, 2002). What this means in practice is that schools function as a controlled means of allowing well-established ideas and values to be passed on an indoctrinated into new generations, thereby ensuring that those ideas and values remain continuous and established.
A good example of the way in which this work in practice might be the focus in the American school system on technology and its economic application. A functionalist approach to this issue would be to identify the school as a system for maintaining the key American value of economic progress, thereby explaining the emphasis on technology and economics in schools as supporting the demands of society that young people be prepared for social roles which are defined by their economic value (Gewirtz and Cribb, 2009, p. 28). By training pupils to value technology as a route to economic progress, schools maintain the social value of the primacy of economic progress, and entrench it in future generations.
Although cynical, I feel that the functionalist perspective does provide valuable insight into the reasons for organized educational establishments such as schools to exist within society. In an organized and controlled group-environment such as a school, it is easier to control the values and ideas which are promoted, while more independent forms of education, such as home schooling, are more likely to promote individual biases and values which have less benefit for social order as a whole. The functionalist perspective suggests the frightening possibility that schools exist as much as a means of social manipulation as they are a means of personal advancement, explaining why they have been fundamental to radical historical social movements such as the Nazis in Germany, Apartaid in South Africa, or segregation of the races in the United States. It particularly reveals the ways in which such manipulation may pass unnoticed, as it is entrenched in widely-accepted values and norms.
In light of this functionalist perspective, I feel that sociologists have a moral duty to examine the extent to which other perspective may balance this view of compulsory education, and to reveal situations in which institution such as schools might be used for immoral ends. The functionalist perspective therefore offers a valuable insight into the purpose behind the institution of the school.
