Education and Social

Reproduction
Prepared by: Cluster 11
I. Education and Social Perpetuation of
Inequalities
• Education refers to the formal and informal process of
transmitting the knowledge, beliefs and skills from one
generation to the next.
• Horace Mann, an American educational reformer, proposed
that education could cure social ills. He believed that education is
the great equalizer by giving people the knowledge and technical
skills to participate in national development. Education is one of
the most pervasive institutions that determine one’s future
status. Hence, many people believed in education-based
meritocracy or the belief that education is the great equalizer
and the key to succeed in life. Filipinos, for example, believe in
the value of education that they are willing to sacrifice everything
just to finish college.
• Randall Collins, a neo-Weberian sociologist, for
instance, argues that education functions as a
filter to perpetuate credentialism.
Credentialism refers to the common practice of
relying on earned credentials when hiring staff
or assigning social status rather than on actual
skills.
• In 1968, Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, both American
economist, published Schooling in Capitalist America. In
this classic textbook on the sociology of education, Bowles
and Gintis argued that education is a tool for capitalism to
equip the workers with the necessary skills so they can be
hired and exploited by the employers. The schools teach
their student the values necessary to the successful workers,
in other words, education reproduces social and economic
inequalities along racial, gender, and class division of labor.
• Pierre Bourdieu, a French sociologist, anthropologist,
philosopher, and renowned public intellectual. Bourdieu was
famous for his analysis of reproduction of inequalities in higher
education. Further advanced this analysis and combined it with
neo-Weberian analysis. Bourdieu, and his colleague Jean-
Claude Passeron, studying the French educational system,
showed empirically how education is advantageous to middle
class children by teaching and rewarding behaviors that are
generally expected from middle class families. Middle class
children possessed relatively more cultural capital. Cultural
capital is acquired in the family from which one belongs.
• The same analysis was extended by Basil Bernstein
in his analysis of the difference between the linguistic
code of the lower class and that of the middle class
students. Using Emile Durkheim’s structural
functionalist analysis, Bernstein arrived at the
conclusion that the lower class students follow the
restricted linguistic code, while the middle class
students follow the elaborated linguistic code. The
distinction is not between having limited vocabulary
(restricted) and flowery speech (elaborated) but
rather the usefulness of the code.
• The lower class children “are limited to a form of
language use, which, although allowing for a vast range
of possibilities, provides a speech form which speaker
from verbally elaborating subjective intent and
progressively orients the user to descriptive, rather than
abstract, concepts” (Bernstein 1960)
• The elaborated code, predominantly found among
middle class children, provides room for formal and
abstract reasoning, the middle class, being socially
mobile, has access to both the restricted and elaborated
codes.
II. Education and Economic development
• For children for poorly educated parents, the effects of social
deprivation manifest early in life. Lack of education has adverse
impact on the life course of individuals and their well-being. More
importantly, education serves as a human capital for society that
produces skilled and learned citizens. The benefits from education is
summarized by Brewer Hentschke, and Eide (2010):
Economic research has also found non monetary benefits, both
private and public, associated with educational attainment. Individuals
who have invested in education and job training often have more job
stability, improved health (e.g., exercise regularly, smoke less, and eat
better), are more like to receive employer-provided health insurance
and pension benefits, are more inclined to vote, and have generally
increased social and cultural capital that often enables upward
mobility.
• Economists, in general, agree that investments in education can
increase economic growth. Educational reforms can provide new
knowledge and re-tooling of existing skills of the people to expand
labor productivity. Education contributes to economic development
not only by producing well-informed citizens but also by amplifying
human capital or the potential of the laborers to improve the quality
of their work. Statistically, earnings rise with education level and at
an increasing rate in the immediate post education years, continue
to increase at a slower pace, and then flatten as individuals approach
retirement. Economic research has also found non monetary
benefits, both private and public, associated with educational
attainment. Individuals who have invested in education and job
training often have more job stability, have improved health.
 Women and Education

Every one has the right to education. Education shall be free, at

least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary
education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional
education shall be made generally available and higher education
shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit
Education shall be directed to the full development of the human
personality and to strengthening of respect for human rights and
fundamental freedom. It shall promote understanding, tolerance
and friendship among all nation, racial or religious groups, an shall
further the activities of the united nation for the maintenance of
peace.
 Sec. 13 Equal access and elimination of
discrimination in education, scholarships, and
training .
• The state shall ensure that gender stereotypes and images in
educational materials and curricula are adequately and
appropriately revised. Gender-sensitive language shall be used at
all times.
Capacity-building on gender and development(GAD), peace and
human rights, education for teachers, and all those involved in the
education sector shall be pursued toward this end. Partnerships
between and among players of the education sector, including the
private sector, churches, and faith groups shall be encouraged.
 Educational and Globalization
According to Joel spring, globalization of education refers to the worldwide
discussions,processes,and institutions affecting the local educational practices
and policies. The key in the previous statement is the word worldwide . This
means that events are happening on a global scale that affect national school
systems. The image is that of global educational policies and practices existing
in a superstructure above national and local schools,” with the shrinking of the
world into a smals village trough ICT, various economic trade agreements, and
political integration education is not spared from the currents of
globalization. Some critics have argued that the policies of the Organization
for Economic Co operation and Development(OECD), the UNESCO, the World
Trade Organization(WTO),and the General Agreement on Trade and Services
(GATS) operate as powerful forces,which,as supranational organization,shape
and influence education and policy around the world.