FUNCTIONALISM AND HUMAN CAPITAL

● Context: after WW2

○ Educational expansion is linked to political changes. Transformation of the
role of the school.

● Economy: education is the main factor in the economy. If countries invest more money
in education, they will be more productive and Will gain more money.

● Politics: Cold War context. USA and the USSR compete for political-military
hegemony. The technological advance was very important to reach power. Training
(in Engineering) was key to reach that power.

● The population: aim for social mobility which means that the lower classes could
prosper. Education is seen as a tool to deal with poverty and inequalities. There was
a moment of social optimism and a big economical effort put into education. Low
unemployment. Hegemonic perspective until 1973 (petrol crisis).

1. MERITOCRACY

● Social positions are distributed according to merit and qualification, not according to
family origins.

● Formal education is the main tool to reach these better positions.

● The possibility of accessing formal education depends only on each capability and
preferences.

● These intellectual capabilities are randomly distributed among the population.

2. HUMAN CAPITAL THEORY, THEODORE SCHULTZ, 1960.

1. Education is an investment that supplies a rate of return (you get more salary than the
amount of money you invest in your education).

2. Positive correlation between the schooling rates and the economic growth in a country and
between the years of study and the individual’s income (productivity). The more
people within the education system, the more economic growth.
 3. The individual can know the yield of his/her educational investment, the learner as a
capitalist, can decide to invest (how and how much) in his/her education (the more
years in the educational system, the more salary you get. Education is your capital).

3. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

● Are all students equal if all of them have access to education? (Universal education
for all).

● Are the results equal?

● Rawls (1999): Those who have the same levels of talent and ability, and show the same
desire to use them, should have the same probabilities of success independently of their
initial position in the society.

● Education and cultural reproduction (Bonal, 1998): The functioning of the educational system
and the way in which cultural transmission occurs explains that certain groups have
practically guaranteed their success or failure in the education system.

● Bourdieu (social inequalities and school reproduction): the closer the family culture to the
school culture, the more students succeed. The most important obstacle to success
in the education system is the cultural capital (the social class you come from), not the
economic capital.

● The higher the school segregation (students separated by origin, gender and others), the
lower the results of all the students in the school.
4. GRAPHICS

4.1. ECONOMY

The average government expenditures in education (GDP)

constantly decreased from a share of 5.5% of GDP in 2009
Only three countries have increased their percentage of
to only 4.7% in 2018, despite the claims of the European
investment in education: Belgium, Sweden and Croatia.
Commission and national governments. We are talking
about a 17% disinvestment since 2009.

Reading, math and science vs. socio-economic status.

 4.2. EDUCATIONAL LEVEL AND WORK

People aged 15-34 who did not work while studying for their
highest qualification, 2009 and 2016.
4.3. EXCLUSION
4.4. PISA