The document discusses several key functions and aspects of the school system. It addresses how schools emerged due to industrialization and the need for specialized socialization and gender differentiation. It also covers how schools distribute social positions based on merit and qualifications. The document examines the history of school organization, from bureaucratic to technocratic to more modern flexible models. It analyzes critical views that schools correspond to employment social relations and how credentials act as symbols of power.

1. The functions of the school
Daniel Gabaldón-Estevan
Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, University of Valencia (ES)

2. 2
guard and custody
Changes in the families
Urbanization and migrations
Women emancipation
retention
Delayed working age
social cohesion
national identity
construction
Homogenization
Standardization
Centralization
Secularization
Bureaucratization
Language
Culture
Legal framework
Market (monetary and
measurement systems)
History and common
referents
capacitation and
socialization for
labour (Human
Capital theory)
distribution of
social
positions
Functions
The functions of the school [Granados Martínez, A. (2003) Las funciones sociales de la escuela. At
Fernández Palomares, F. Sociología de la educación. Pearson, Madrid 117-141]

3. Patriarchy: political
& economic unit
Industrialization causes privacy
and new institutions (like the
school system)
Specialization in the socialization &
breeding of children and gender
differentiation (public/private) (T. Parsons)
Generalized presence of
women: labour market &
education system (feminism)
Changes in the families [Obiol, S. 2011 El cambio familiar y el proceso educativo in Beltrán, J. &
Hernàndez, FJ. Sociología de la educación. McGraw-Hill, Madrid. 75-99]

4. 4
Childhood
theorist
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
l’Emilio (1762)
Karl Marx
Adolescence
theorist
G. Stanley Hall
Adolescence (1904)
Margaret Mead
Coming of Age in Samoa
Childhood
The emergence of childhood [Feito, R. 2003. Alumnado. At Fernández Palomares, F. (coord.)
Sociología de la educación. Pearson, Madrid 333-356]
Bakan points:
children labor legislation,
compulsory school
and legal age

5. 5
- merit (capacity, intelligence, effort, discipline, sacrifice)
- qualification (certifications, titles and credentials)
- formal education is the mean to obtain merit and qualification
- possibilities depend on preferences and capacities
- and capacities are randomly distributed
Education as distributor of social positions [Granados Martínez, A. (2003) Las funciones
sociales de la escuela. At Fernández Palomares, F. Sociología de la educación. Pearson, Madrid 117-141]
The distribution
of social positions
Is done through competences sanctioned by means of a
complex system of certificates, titles and credentials.
This mechanism is institutionalized in western
societies by means of universal, free and compulsory
education, which “guarantees” equality of
opportunity for all the population and pivots on:
The above implies the primacy of acquired status (due to merit)
over
inherited filiation or ascribed status (due to birth)

6. 6
History of school organization [Gómez Ferri, J. y Soler Panadés, V. 2011 Sociología del currículo
y de la organización escolar. At Beltrán, J. and Hernàndez, F.J. Sociología de la educación, McGraw-Hill,
Madrid,101-128]
Bureaucratic
organization M. Weber
Technocratic
model of
organization
Taylorism and Fordism
The School of
Human Relations
E. Mayo
Specialization (responsibilities, functions and tasks),
hierarchy (control system), rules (written and impersonal)
recruitment (merit and ability) [in school is evident in
legislation, administration, specialization, regulations,
discipline, schedules, and less than hierarchy or
impersonality]
(Post)modern
period
Scientific management via fragmentation of the
production process in its most basic elements increasing
efficiency, control and alienation.
[inertia of the past in terms repetition mechanism and
looking for a similar type of school product, rigidity of
hours, detailed planning and measurement (PISA)]
The SHR found that the performance of workers, rather
than the whole organization, the hierarchy, the control or
the wage increase was related to the incentives and
social norms of the groups within the organization,
especially relations among individuals within groups
[informal groups, democratic schools]
Calls for bridging less
hierarchical relationships,
reduced specialization,
adaptability and flexibility.
From the work by objectives to
competences

7. 7
Critical views on education

8. 8Frato Tonucci
Critical views on education

9. 9
Critical views on education [Granados Martínez, A. (2003) Las funciones sociales de la escuela. At
Fernández Palomares, F. Sociología de la educación. Pearson, Madrid 117-141]
Bowles and Gintis see a correspondence between the
social relations in the school and those required in
employment (obedience, discipline, respect) and
students lack of control over the content and rewards
Credentialist
(neo-Weberian)
Moderate see credentials not so much a guarantee of
specific knowledge but as a testimonial of personal
characteristics and disposition such as effort, discipline,
obedience, or organization capacity
Extreme see credentials like pedigree that act
as a symbol of power and are the key to
access reserved positions
What do critics say about school as a
distributor of social positions

10. http://youtu.be/DdNAUJWJN08 (original)
http://youtu.be/AsZJxDsd1Q8 (Spanish subtitles)
10
Noam Chomsky on Purpose of education [video]