Answer to Question #208733 in Sociology for Lua

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 serves a constructive purpose for all members of society and has a significant impact on it according to functionalists. The educational system meets the needs of an industrial society by providing a more advanced division of labor, socializing new generations into shared norms and values, and allocating responsibilities in accordance with meritocratic principles. Education is said to interact with society in three ways: socialization, allocation, and vocational training. According to Durkheim and Parsons (1956-9), education entails the transfer to future generations of socially agreed norms and values, known as the "Value Consensus." This was accomplished through both the ‘formal' and ‘informal' curriculum, and the economic role of socialization or social control is referred to as socialization or social control.

Internalization of norms and values, according to functionalist thinkers, leads to social cohesiveness and stability, as well as continuity and order in society. They say that the demands of society are met through the socialization of future generations, and that the instillation of, what they perceive to be, socially agreed shared standards and values in adolescents results in future respect for authority and conformity to society's rules, among other things. As a result, societal harmony, stability, and integration should be possible in theory. Students, for example, are forced to a tight timetable to which they must observe without fail in schools. The tight commitment to time instills discipline in them, which is critical for societal development.