THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC THEORY ON ROLE OF EDUCATION
THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC THEORY ON THE ROLE OF EDUCATION
The social democratic theory is a political theory that advocates technocratic and meritocratic solutions to the problem of differential educational achievement. This theory looks at the relationship between education and the economy in terms of two related processes in modern societies:
-technological changes in the work place, involving the decline in traditional manufacturing and the rise of service industries in areas such as the finance, computing and information technology. In the UK for example the tripartite system produced a small percentage(15% ) of highly university entrants and a large number of poorly qualified school leavers. This situation failed to meet the economic need for a better qualified service industry workforce.
-social changes focused on ideas about equality in gender, sexuality, ethnicity and class. The tripartite system failed to meet the requirements of social fairness because it was based on ideas about intelligence that were increasingly divided along class lines.
The solution to these problems in the UK was comprehensive education which was designed to address social inequality and technological change. Social democrats believe that comprehensive schools fulfil the ideal of a meritocracy. These schools contain a broad class mix in which all children, regardless of prior academic achievement-receive the same secondary education. In the UK, their introduction of comprehensive schools was intended to establish a system of contest mobility. Turner(1960) states that its objective was to give elite status to those who earn it.
Equality of opportunity was not only seen as socially fair, but in addition, competition would produce larger numbers of better qualified workers to serve the new technological requirements of a changing economy. From this perspective, therefore education is the means through which the problems of technological change and social inequality can be addressed and managed. A truly meritocratic system would result in a fairer distribution of economic and social rewards, increased social mobility and a decline in social inequality.
More recently, social democratic theory has argued for the need to retrain and refocus the workforce in contemporary societies to address both economic and social changes. As Chitty (2009) notes, this involves seeing education and training as the means through which industrial societies are transformed from low skill, low wage economies into a high skill, high wage and technologically advanced economies.
Evaluation
-Marxists argue that the social democrats misunderstand institutional relationships in capitalists’ societies, for example their belief that education is a way of reducing class inequality by creating more opportunities for working class children. According to Marxists, fundamental economic inequalities are not affected by educational by educational changes.
Bowles and Gintis (2002) argue that the reverse is true, economic inequality drives educational inequality. Evidence of this idea can be considering the claim that comprehensive schools promote social mixing by abolishing selection by intelligence test.
Critics argue that this system has been replaced by even more unequal selection process, in which middle class children attend middle class schools and working class children attend working class schools.
In this respect, social democratic theory confuses change with equality: the idea that making schools more meritocratic or compensating working class children for their social disadvantages overcomes wider social inequalities and economic disadvantages. .
Comments
Post a Comment