Durkheim on Education and Morality

Introduction

According to Emile Durkheim, education is the influence exercised by adult generations on those who are not yet ready for social life. Durkheim asserted that moral values are the foundation of cohesive social order and that the education system has a responsibility to teach a commitment to a common morality. Education has an important role in the socialization by enabling children to internalize social rules which contribute to the functioning of society. Talcott Parsons argued that the role of education is to instil the value of individual achievement in a way that the family cannot (Hooton 75-81). Education is the main source of secondary socialization in the same way that the family is the main source of primary socialization.

Discussion

In the modern society, individuals are judged by what they have achieved and schools prepare pupils for this by measuring success with graded examinations. For Parsons, schools operate on meritocratic principles, where pupils are treated equally and if pupils work hard they will achieve the most merit. This teaches children through the values of achievement and the value of equal opportunity, which is important for functionalists because it ensures that the best people will fill the most important positions in future careers (Akers 34-96). Individuals will accept their position as they believe that everyone has been given the same opportunities through education. Pupils will achieve success through ability and hard work irrespective of other social factors, such as social background, ethnicity and gender. While the functionalist view of education is very positive, predominantly issues of inequality are denied (Durkheim 97-130). Marxists have a very different view of the purpose of education.

Firstly the different functionalist theorists or the consensus theorists ironically agree on the whole in their views of education. Functionalists generally focus on the positive contributions education makes to the maintenance of the social system. One major Functionalist thinker, Emile Durkheim, views education with three essential functions. These are that it provides social solidarity, where individuals learn the importance of society and are given a sense of belonging, the transmission of shared norms and values and that it provides specific skills applicable to future occupations.

However, David Hargreaves points out Durkheim's weak points within his theory. Hargreaves argues that education is far from succeeding in the transmission of shared values and that these values are only beneficial to a small minority of society, the Bourgeoisie (Akers 34-96). Overall, Durkheim believes that the education system represents society in miniature and Talcott Parsons agrees with this idea.

Parsons also believes that education has three main functions. That it is an agent of secondary socialization that it provides a bridge between family and society, teaching universalistic values and that it is a means of role allocation. Again like Durkheim, Parsons is criticized for failing to explain just whose values we are learning (the Bourgeoisie) and the idea that meritocracy is a myth.

Durkheim's religious faith had vanished by then, and his thought had become altogether secular but with a strong bent toward moral ...