Functionalist perspective of education-revision notes
For functionalists the key functions (purpose) of the education system is to
- is to bind members of society together – Emile Durkheim
- this creates social unity and social solidarity
- therefore like the family, education is seen as a functional prerequisite.
- Talcott Parsons writing in the 1950s developed Durkheim’s ideas on the function of school
- Parsons’s argued any successful social system has four functional prerequisites – adaptation; goal attainment; integration and pattern maintenance
- and all four prerequisites occur through individuals being schooled – think hidden curriculum
sociologytwynham.com 
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