Theory Description For Education

Functionalism Emile According to Functionalism, Functionalists see education as

Durkheim, Talcott society is an organism, a system contributing to the smooth
Parsons, Herbert of parts, all of which serve a functioning of society.
Spencer, Robert function together for the overall Educational systems train the
Merton. effectiveness and efficiency of most qualified individuals for the
society. most socially important positions.
Education teaches people not
only the skills and thinking skills
Functionalism (also referred to in to maximize their potential, but
some textbooks as Structural- also teaches them to be good
Functionalism) is a consensus citizens and get along with
theory; a theory that sees society others. They would NOT see
as built upon order, interrelation, education as contributing to
and balance among parts as a inequality (along class, race,
means of maintaining the smooth gender, etc. lines) but rather as
functioning of the whole. serving the positive function of
Functionalism views shared norms the overall society.
and values as the basis of society,
focuses on social order based on
tacit agreements between groups
and organizations, and views social
change as occurring in a slow and
orderly fashion. Functionalists
acknowledge that c h a n g e i s
sometimes necessary to
c o r r e c t social dysfunctions (the
opposite of functions), but that it
must occur slowly so that people
and institutions can adapt without
rapid disorder.
Symbolic According to Symbolic Schools play a vital role in
Interactionism Interactionism society is a social shaping the way students see
Max Weber, George H. construct;socially defined by reality and themselves. Many
Mead, Erving Goffman,
Harold Garfinkel. people acting together in social Interactionists have
groups (with multiple realities argued that the
possible, depending who you authoritarianism prevalent in
hang out with). schools impedes learning and
encourages undemocratic
behavior later in life. Schools
Interactionists focus on the create serious difficulties for
subjective aspects of social life. For students who are ‘labelled’ as
interactionists, humans a re
learning disabled or less
p ra g ma ti c actors who
academically competent than
c o n t i n u a l l y must adjust their
their peers; these students may
behavior to the actions of other
actors. We can adjust to these never be able to see
actions only because we are able themselves as good students
to interpret them, i.e., to denote and move beyond these labels.
them symbolically and treat the Teacher expectations play a
 actions and those who perform huge role in student
them as symbolic objects. This achievement. If students are
process of adjustment is aided by made to feel like high
our ability to imaginatively rehearse achievers, they will act like high
alternative lines of action before we achievers, and vice versa.
act. The process is further aided by This is known as a
our ability to think about and to ‘self-fulfilling prophecy
react to our own actions and even
ourselves as symbolic objects.
Thus, the interactionist theorist
sees humans as active,
creative participants who
construct their social world, not as
passive, conforming objects of
socialization.
Marxism Antonia The system of political thinking Education does more than
Darder Rodolfo D. invented by Karl Marx, which produce skilled labour, it also
Torres Theodor explains changes in history as the reproduces class relations. It
Adorno Louis result of a struggle between social does so by shaping our ideas
Althusser Antonio classes. Marxism holds that the about society and our emotions.
Negri Antonio stratified labour economy and, School curricula encourage
Gramsci Herbert thus, class is at the centre of social children to accept society ‘as it
Bowles Samuel Gintis inequity and that while things like is’ - pervaded by competition
Richard Brosio racial/ethnic, gender, culture,
and structured by inequality
linguistic, and ability biases are
- or at least to believe that
factors, they are secondary to
fundamental change is
class. That is because
discrimination of all kinds is based impossible. Ideologies that
in economic power. serve capitalist interests are
accepted as common sense
curriculum values. They include
By identifying class as the basis propositions like ‘success
of power in our society, Marxism comes through hard work’; it is
also provides a framework for honourable to sacrifice for the
understanding the treatment of national good; competition is
oppressed groups and social natural; change can only come
conflict, as symptoms of a class through gradual reform; and the
divided society.
truth usually lies somewhere
between ‘extreme positions (the
The capitalist class (or
‘golden mean’). The education
bourgeoisie) is made up of those
system does not only
who own or control productive
promote o u r a c c e p t a n c e
resources and compete with each
other to make profits; people of inequality and
whose only means of making a exploitation by
living is to sell their ability to work inculcating the
to an employer are members of ideologies that justify or
the working class (or the disguise them. The experience
proletariat). This includes spouses of scho o l , college and
and children dependent on a university prepares us for the
 wage. world of work. This is called
the ‘hidden curriculum’. In the
Not everyone in the Australian c l a s s r o o m s t u d e n t s have
workforce is either a boss or a no power and have to follow
worker. There are middle layers the orders of their teachers.
which share some characteristics Subject, in turn, to the
with capitalists and others with the workplace discipline of
majority of wage earners. The principals and the senior
traditional middle class own small managers in the public or
amounts of productive resources. private education systems,
Often their ownership of a truck, a
teachers may not like what is
shop, computers or other kinds of
going on, but feel unable to
equipment is only possible
because of heavy indebtedness. change things.

A ‘new middle class’ also exists,

made up of diverse groups of
employees of large organisations in
a hierarchy of senior supervisors,
professionals and middle
managers.
Feminism Carol Feminist theory aims to
Gilligan, Betty understand the nature of Watch anyone meeting a baby
Friedan, Gloria inequality and focusing on gender for the first time. Invariably, the
Steinem luce irigary politics, power relations and first thing they ask is whether it
Susan Faludi sexuality. While generally is a girl or a boy. Then and only
providing a critique of social then do they feel comfortable and
relations, it also focuses on know how to relate to the child.
analyzing gender inequality and Studies have shown that boys
the promotion of women's rights, are handled in a more robust
interests, and issues. way than girls are. Boys are
expected to be rowdy, aggressive
and confident, while girls are
To group those who seek access assumed to be quieter, nurturing
and/or revision of systems under and passive. Children begin to
the umbrella term feminists, learn their gender roles at the
overlooks important distinctions earliest age, gaining approval
among the various feminist when they come up to
theories. "Just as there is no one expectations, encountering
woman's experience, there is no disapproval when they contradict
one feminist research method or their assigned role.
perspective" (Joyappa & Martin,
1996, p. 6). One's feminist stance
emerges from their unique
interactions with their world and
changes the way one looks at and
interacts with the world, research
topics and subjects, instruction, and
technology.
Postmodernism autobiographical; it reflects our
“personal narrative,” our particular
“site” in the world.
One of the slogans of
postmodernism is that “there is no
centre,” and in particular there is no
central tradition of scholarship
(namely Eurocentric, middle- class,
predominantly male) of which other
traditions — Native American, Afro-
American, Islamic, feminist,
working class, for example — are
mere colonies. Postmodernists
mean to question what they see as
the reigning politics of knowledge
that has marginalised, modified and
controlled language. In doing so,
they illuminate how profoundly
influential are knowledge and
power in determining how we
think.
Post- The aim of the post-colonial project
Colonialism is not to assert a newly defined
Edward Said, cultural power but to make visible
Franz Fanon, the relative and partial nature of all
Homi Bhabha, "truths"; to expose the ideological
Paulo Freire, biases underwriting any ethical and
Leopold Senghor, epistemological system which
Aimé Césaire, would otherwise regard itself as
Gayatri definitive and axiomatic. An
Chakravorty Spivak important question to be asked
about the post-colonial project then
becomes: to what extent does it
disrupt or question constructions of
political and cultural authority? For
any post-colonial nation, however,
this question is, to some extent,
problematic. After all, the post-
colonial project is located inevitably
within a framework of political
power, within which it seeks to
assert the validity of an
unrecognised nationalism.
For Australian nationalism in
particular, which was forged
upon an imported mythology of
Implications for schooling has to
do with the democratic and
dialogical emphasis of
postmodernism, its questioning of
the motives of authorities and its
downplaying of the role of
experts. We must think
increasingly in terms of teachers
and students ‘learning together,’
rather than the one telling the
other how to live in a ‘top-down’
manner. This is necessary both
so that the values and interests
of students are taken into
account, and so that the wealth
of their everyday experience is
made available to fellow students
and to the teacher.
According to Robert Young
(2003, p. 2), ‘postcolonialism
claims the right of all people on
this earth to the same material
and cultural well-being’; ‘it seeks
to change the way people think,
the way they behave, to
produce a more just and
equitable relation between
different peoples of the world’
(p. 7).
Franz Fanon regards as deeply
problematic any
characterization of colonialism
in terms of a binary opposition
of colonizer and colonized.
Instead, he insists that
colonialism may only be
understood as a complicated
network of complicities and
internal power imbalances
between groups within the
broader categories of colonizer
and colonized. Fanon thus
challenges the fixed ideas
 white masculine power, the
establishment of post-colonial
identity becomes all the more
problematic. Unlike some other
post-colonial nationalities, which
have been able to throw off the
weight of imperial dominance to
assert the validity of their own
culture, political system and
language, post-colonial Australia -
and it is important here to
recognise that this term is itself
politically loaded, referring as it
does to the socially, politically and
economically dominant group of
white Australians, who are both
victims and perpetrators of
different acts of marginalisation -
has no pre-existing systems to
reassert. Rather, it has a culture,
a political system and, most
importantly, a language which are
grounded in a European ancestry,
in imperialist imports.
On the one hand, post-colonial
Australia is involved in a struggle
to de-polarise the relationship
between Europe and itself as
socio-political centre to its
relegated margin, to destabilise
the very notions of centrality and
marginality which have up until
recently maintained Australia's
position of subordination to Europe.
But on the other hand, within the
national discourse which emerges
from this struggle, other
centre/margin relationships have
developed, regarding race and
gender, which recall an imperial
heritage and all its cultural
assumptions.
Critical Theory
Critical theory has its roots in the
Antonio Gramsci, Enlightenment period and in the philosophies
Michel Foucault, of Kant, Hegel, and Marx. In the 20th-
Paulo Freire, Henry century it is advanced in t h e w r i t i n g s o f
Giroux, Michael Apple the Frankfurt School of Social
Jurgen Habermas Criticism. The German
of settled identity and
culturally authored
definitions located within the
traditions of western rationality.
He contends that even after
independence, the colonial
subjects remain colonized
internally, psychologically. Their
ways of ‘reading’ the world and
their desires are carried across
into the desire for ‘whiteness’
through a kind of
metempsychosis: ‘their desires
have been transposed, though
they have never, of course,
actually become white. They
have a black skin, with a white
mask’ (Young, 2003, p. 144).
The implications for schooling in
Australia then are clear - the
quest for personal and national
identity is crucial for all
students, and is heavily
dependent on how they ‘view’
themselves, which in turn is
influenced by this theoretical
strand of thought.
This theory is largely aimed a
examining and deconstructing the
ideological nature of how social
inequalities get produced and
reproduced. They examine how
taken-for-granted or hegemonic
philosopher/sociologist Jürgen Habermas is beliefs (i.e. individualism,
the leading representative of critical theory meritocracy) and ways of being in
today.
the world (e.g. competitive,
stratified) as well as in school,
work are imposed upon people
through differential power
relations.