Answer to Question #204433 in Sociology for Alicia Geel

Question

Discuss, from a functionalist perspective, how schools transmit norms and values to learners. Provide a school-based example of this transmission.

Answer 1

Education, according to the Functionalists, serves a positive function for all individuals in society and has a powerful influence over it. The education system meets the needs of an industrial society by providing a more advanced division of labor; socializing new generations into society's shared norms and values; and allocating roles in accordance with meritocratic criteria. Education is said to meet societies' needs through three interconnected economic roles: socialization, allocation, and vocational training.

The formal curriculum is more commonly known as the National Curriculum, and it includes the timetabled lessons that the state assigns to students. The hidden curriculum, on the other hand, teaches moral lessons such as the reward and punishment system, which requires students to conform to and obey more authoritative persons (teachers) and instills a sense of work ethic, such as punctuality and cooperation.

The hidden curriculum in schools transmits ideas and values. Schools, in various ways, not only teach the formal curriculum but also transmit ideas about discipline, conformity, manners, attitudes, and so on through their policies, procedures, and rules, as well as aspects of the formal curriculum. According to functionalist theorists, this internalization of norms and values results in social cohesion and stability, as well as continuity and order in society. They claim that by socializing future generations, the needs of society are met and that the instilling of what are perceived to be socially agreed shared norms and values in youths results in future respect for authority and conformity to society's rules, among other things. As a result, in theory, this will lead to social harmony, stability, and social integration.