Education: Fairness or Social Control?
Think your school treats everyone equally? Think again. Halsey's massive study of 8,000 males revealed huge social class differences in educational achievement - service class kids had 4 times better chances than working class students of staying in education past 15, and 10 times better chances at age 18.
Functionalists like Durkheim and Parsons see education as brilliant for society - it teaches shared values, creates social solidarity, and fairly allocates people to jobs based on merit. Parsons argued schools bridge the gap between family (where you're loved unconditionally) and work (where you're judged on performance), preparing you for adult life through meritocracy.
Marxists aren't buying this fairness story. Bowles and Gintis studied 237 American students and found schools reward obedient, compliant behaviour rather than creativity or critical thinking. They argue the correspondence principle means school mirrors factory life - you learn to follow orders, accept hierarchy, and work for external rewards, perfectly preparing you for capitalist exploitation.
Reality Check: Ball's research on streaming showed teachers have different expectations for different sets, often based on social class rather than actual ability - this directly affects your opportunities.
Paul Willis spent time with working-class "lads" who rejected school values and created their own anti-school culture. Ironically, their resistance actually prepared them for manual factory jobs, showing how the system reproduces class divisions even when students rebel against it.