Education and Life Chances in Modern Education Essay Example for Free

Education and Life Chances in Modern Education EssayPublic pedagogy, it can be argued, shapes society, instils social more thans and indoctrinates the impressionable with those philosophies the elites value. This essay go out commission upon three main areas intrinsic to the teaching method form. These are the social reading of ideas, the bearing chances created and instilled by dint of education, and the socialisation of the individuals undergoing the educational process. Two main sociological perspectives that are useful when studying the education system are Functionalism and Critical Theory, because they focus on macro issues and social structures more than the interactionist perspective. Functionalists believe that the instruct system is an broker of social reproduction, which operates to reproduce well integrated, fully operationing members of society (Webb, Schirato and Danaher, 2002 114). Critical theorists, conversely, hold that education is the most effec tive mechanism for promoting social change and for grownup opportunities to less privileged groups so that they can advance their social standing. However, education usually reproduces existing social divisions, maintaining the relative disadvantage of certain groups (Webb, Schirato and Danaher, 2002 106). Munro (1994 108) describes the polar approaches by stating that, functionalists tend to see education as synonymous with socialisation, while a conflict theorist is inclined to view education as ideological- that is, reflecting the interests of special(a) groups.Functionalists hold that the major institution for social reproduction is the education system, whereas, from a critical perspective, teachers, who oversee this reproduction, have been made into administrators of programs that provide manpower capitalisation through planned and directed behavioural changes (Illich, 1973 327). Illich (1973 327) comments, from a critical perspective, that teaching and learning remain sacr ed activities separate and estranged from a fulfilling life. This is because the things being taught do not line up with the necessary knowledge needed for life outside of education, and that learning from programmed information always hides reality behind a screen (Illich, 1973 324). This meaning that the knowledge provided is set to a secret agenda.The learning process, which supposedly passes on the values and mores necessary in society to students,is not, however, meeting these needs effectively. Relevant information, that is, knowledge, which will add skills to the labour commercialise, is becoming less practical and more theoretical, expanding the gap between study and work. Regardless of this, employers and social elites have attempted to use the schools for the reproduction of compliant workers (Davis, 1999 65). This double standard has been discussed in a best selling song, The Wall by Pink Floyd (1978) in which they enunciated that the reproduction received through the school system was set to a hidden agenda, and that society would be better off without it.Drucker (1973 236) equates the influx of educated people to the potential for producing wealth in any given country. By stating this, educational socialisation and the development of educated people is the most important function education can have. He goes on to state that while this may be the case today, throughout history, being uneducated provided the wealth of a given nation, due to the class differences, and that education was for the full and idle while the work was performed by the illiterate. This all changed with the Industrial Revolution, and the invention of moveable type in the 17th Century (Drucker, 1973 232). The moveable type meant that education could be performed at a reduced rate, and words became a commodity that was necessary for improving the quality of the labour force.Education is purported to provide the best doable life chances for its graduates, yet in reality, in many ways education diminishes these chances. Heinz (1987 132) points out that the life chances of graduates are in a state of flux, that when the labour market is depressed and work is difficult to find, then young people will opt for more education as a means of delaying their entry into a tight work force. The school then takes on the function of a warehouse it is a place to mark time. At the same time school acts as a socio-political instrument for reducing social and political conflict, and this function gains predominance over its main function of educating young people.In many cases the academic credentials earned are unnecessary for working-class jobs (Furlong and Cartmel, 1999 12), which changes the focus of education, making it oppressive and irrelevant (Davis, 1999 83). Heinz (1987 131) states secondaryschool-leavers face a worsening outlook when they involve to start in working life, and joining a preparatory program is increasingly becoming the only alternative to unem ployment. There are a outgrowth number of young people who are finding it harder to find a place, whose prospects on the labour market are poor, being qualified but underemployed, or drifting between unemployment and occasional jobs (Heinz, 1987 131). This increases social inequalities and the gap between rich and poor. By acting as a warehouse education is not preparing students for life but rather crippling their life chances.The alternative to this are to reassess the curricula and teaching methods, reintegrating skilled workers into vocational education, ensuring that knowledge will be of direct win to graduates in obtaining a place within the work force. There are fewer and fewer opportunities becoming available, and school leavers have to undergo more and more relevant vocational training. However, fewer school-leavers are able to go directly into the vocational training they want.Heinz (1987 130) noted a growing trend 16 geezerhood ago that Depending on the region, only be tween one-third and one-half of these school leavers succeed in getting a training place, and in 1994 Munro (1994 109) observed that the school-to-work transition had failed which had major ramifications for everyone involved, causing underemployment of school leavers (Munro, 1994 116). The seriousness of this trend is made even more apparent by the fact that school-leavers are even limit to enter apprenticeships that lead them into dead-end occupations (Heinz, 1987 129). Drucker (1973 232) however, states that while this may be so, to be uneducated is an economic liability and is unproductive, even though education is producing an unemployable, overeducated proletariat. (Drucker, 1973 233)According to Mehan (1973 240) education is a major socialisation agency, which moulds the individuals self-concepts into a socially accepted format, allowing each individual to be slotted into a specific function (Sargent, 1994 240). Sargent (1994 240) points out that in the function of educati on values are essentially involved and are taught beside worldly knowledge. However, this knowledge interprets the world, but does not necessarilycorrespond with any external state (Sargent, 1994 232).The transmission of knowledge, skills and values, helps to sort and rank individuals, that they might be better placed in the labour market (Munro, 1994 96). This raises a paradox, however, where education is seen by many as the best possible means of achieving greater equality in society (Sargent, 1994 233), yet it categorises the graduates into job specifications, personality types and the opportunities granted to each. Sargent (1994 231) furthers this thought by explaining that the education system is an integral part of determining position and power in our society (Sargent, 1994 231), and that through education the class structures are compounded, making it more difficult for those in the working classes from advancing in the social hierarchy. The education institution both absorb s and perpetuates the ideology, masquerading as knowledge, which legitimises inequality (Sargent, 1994 231). Regardless of the inequalities produced, it has become the absolute prerequisite of social and economic development in our world to have a highly educated pool of people ready for the labour market (Drucker, 1973 232).In conclusion, the failure of the education system to reduce social inequality and produce better workers, raises serious doubts as to its effectiveness. Life chances created through education appear to be diminishing, despite the accessory of education. The knowledge taught seems to be ineffective in preparing students to cope with life. Functionalists need to reassess the structure of education, as it loses its ability to effectively provide for graduates, becoming dysfunctional in its goals to remove inequality and give a head start to people entering the work force. When looking at the education system, it is necessary to ask if the damage spent on educati ng people is being effectively used, considering the increasing number of educated poor. The gap between knowledge taught and life experience needs to be bridged, for education to effectively function. If, as it appears, schools are to socialise and reproduce effective and functioning members of society, the curricula has to be addressed.BibliographyDavis, Nanette J. (1999). Youth Crisis Growing up in the High assay Society. Praeger Publications, WestportDrucker, Peter F. (1973). The Educational Revolution, Social Change Sources, Patterns, and Consequences (2nd ed) Amitai Etzioni and Eva Etzioni-Halevy (Eds). Basic Books Inc., New York. pp 232 238Furlong, Andy, and Cartmel, Fred (1997). Young People and Social Change Individualisation and Risk in Late Modernity. unaffixed University Press, BuckinghamHeinz, Walter R. (1987). The Transition from School to Work in Crisis Coping with Threatening Unemployment, Journal of Adolescent Research (Vol 2). pp 127 141Illich, Ivan (1973). The Breakdown of Schools A Problem or a Symptom, puerility and Socialisation Hans Peter Dreitzel (Ed). Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc., Canada. pp 311 336Mehan, Hugh (1973). Assessing Childrens School Performance, Childhood and Socialisation Hans Peter Dreitzel (Ed). Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc., Canada. pp 240 264Munro, Lyle (1994). Education, Society and Change A sociological Introduction to Contemporary Australia Brian whinstone and Christine Stafford (Eds). Macmillan Education Australia Pty. Ltd., South Melbourne. pp 96 128Pink Floyd (1978) The Wall, The Wall. Mushroom Records, California.Sargent, Margaret (1994). Education for equality? employment? emancipation?, The New Sociology for Australians. Longman Cheshire Pty. Ltd., Melbourne. pp 231 256Webb, J., Schirato, T. and Danaher, G. (2002). Bourdieu and SecondarySchools, Understanding Bourdieu pp 105 106 (Reprinted in Sociological Reflections on Everyday Life GSC 1201 Reader). Allen and Unwin, Sydney. pp 227 238