Education is one element of
society that has many functions. Some of the functions are readily observable
even by a woman or stone crusher in the village and yet some these need a student working
on her assignment to see and understand them. When students pass through these
institutions of learning they are subjected to many experiences. The output of
such experiences results into a variety of qualities or values, some of which
are clear and obvious to understand while others are not.
In this assignment effort will be made to
discuss the manifest functions of Education and show how a Zambian teacher can
help to achieve the function? First of all, to be manifest means to be clear or
to be observable enough to be grasped. The manifest functions of university
education are to use your education in order to advance your career. The latent
function of university education is to culture you. It allows you to become
more sophisticated and mature. Manifest functions are Robert Merton's terms for
the consequences of any social action/institution. A manifest function is the
conscious, deliberate result.
There are several major
manifest functions associated with education. The first is socialization.
Beginning from kindergarten, students are taught to practice various societal
roles. Schools as socialization agencies
teach children how to get along with others and prepare them for adult economic
roles. Indeed, it seems that schools have taken on this responsibility
aggressively. This socialization also involves learning the rules and norms of
the society as a whole. A manifest function is the conscious, deliberate and
intentional result. Kendall contends that from kindergarten through college
schools teach students the student roles, specific academic subjects and
political socialization, Kendall (1998). Socialization enables students to be
taught skills, social control, respect as well as reliability.So that the
skills and knowledge can be applied in future for the benefit of the individual
and society at large. Therefore the school with its education happens to be an
agent of change. As a matter of fact education is the social institution that
is responsible for transmitting knowledge, skills and cultural values in a
formally organized structure. Actually schools are sources of change
and innovation.
Since culture is increasingly
diverse, students may learn a variety of cultural norms. School systems also
transmit the core values of their particular nations through manifest functions
like social control. One of the roles of schools is to teach students
conformity to law and respect for authority. Obviously, such respect, given to
teachers and administrators, will help a student navigate the school
environment. This function also prepares students to enter the workplace and
the world at large, where they will continue to be subject to people who have
authority over them. Fulfillment of this function rests primarily with
classroom teachers and instructors who are with students all day.Godofsky,
Cliff andCarl (2011) here the function is to prepare the student for
integration into society and become useful members of society instead of being
useless misfits.
Education also provides one of the major
methods used by people for upward social mobility. This function is referred to
as social placement. College and graduate schools are viewed as vehicles for
moving students closer to the careers that will give them the finance and
securities they seek. As a result, college students are often more motivated to
study areas that they believe will be advantageous on the social ladder. A
student might value business courses over teacher education courses because she
sees business classes as being stronger vehicle for financial success.
The educational system, especially as
experienced on various university campuses, has traditionally provided a place
for students to learn about various social issues. There is ample opportunity
for social and political advocacy, as well as the ability to develop tolerance
to the many views represented on campus.Functionalists recognize other ways
that schools educate and help in the enculturation of students. One of the most
important values in the west is that students learn habits of individualism—the
valuing of the individual over the value of groups or society as a whole. In
countries such as Japan and China, where the good of the group is valued over
the rights of the individual, students do not learn as they do in the United States
that the highest rewards go to the “best” individual in academics as well as
athletics. One of the roles of schools in the Zambian is fostering self-esteem;
conversely, schools in Japan focus on fostering social esteem—the honoring of
the group over the individual argues the scholar; Mansfield, (2001).
In Zambian schools, teachers also fill the
role of preparing students for competition in life. By virtue of being teachers
they become specialist in performing the functions of education. The
competition during athletics is the analogue for community competition and
consequently there is integration into the society but even in the classroom
students compete against one another academically. Schools also do a great deal
by transmitting patriotism, mannerism, morality and orderliness to the
students. Students sing the national anthem each Monday and take history
classes where they learn about national heroes and the nation’s past. Clearly
it can be seen that school teachers provide an opportunity in which the
students socialize. After all, schools
are responsible for identifying the most qualified persons to fill the advanced
positions of society. The school system determines which people are to become
university lecturers or accountants and the
like. So teacher administrators
and the rest should endeavor to channel students into programs
according to their abilities.This is in that the students can be well qualified
for their various jobs in future. Kendall cements by saying that ‘graduates
receive appropriate credentials for entering the paid work’, Kandall (1998:276)
Another role of schools, according to
functionalist theory, is that of sorting, or classifying students based on
academic merit or potential leading to social placement. The most capable
students are identified early in schools through testing and classroom
achievements. Such students are placed in accelerated programs in anticipation
of successful college attendance, argues Mansfield (2001).
Conflict theorists point to tracking, a
formalized sorting system that places students on “tracks” (advanced versus low
achievers) that perpetuate inequalities. While educators may believe that
students do better in tracked classes because they are with students of similar
ability and may have access to more individual attention from teachers,
conflict theorists feel that tracking leads to self-fulfilling prophecies in
which students live up (or down) to teacher and societal expectations.To
conflict theorists, schools play the role of training working class students to
accept and retain their position as lower members of society. They argue that
this role is fulfilled through the disparity of resources available to students
in richer and poorer neighborhoods as well as through testing,Lauen and Tyson (2008).
IQ tests have been attacked for being
biased—for testing cultural knowledge rather than actual intelligence. For
example, a test item may ask students what instruments belong to an orchestra.
To correctly answer this question requires certain cultural knowledge—knowledge
most often held by more affluent people who typically have more exposure to
orchestral music. Though experts in testing claim that bias has been eliminated
from tests, conflict theorists maintain that this is impossible. These tests,
to conflict theorists, are another way in which education does not provide
opportunities, but instead maintains an established configuration of prophecyMerton
(1968).In his book, High School Confidential, Jeremy Iverson details his
experience as a Stanford graduate posing as a student at a California high
school. One of the problems he identifies in his research is that of teachers
applying labels that students are never able to lose. One teacher told him,
without knowing he was a bright graduate of a top university that he would
never amount to anything (Iverson 2006). Iverson obviously didn’t take this
teacher’s false assessment to heart. But when an actual 17-year-old student hears
this from a person with authority over her, it’s no wonder that the student
might begin to “live down to” that label. Instead of being who labels her
student the teacher should give credit where it is worth and always give the
students a positive picture thereby creating the atmosphere ‘the sky is the
limit’. The above is how a Zambian teacher can help to achieve manifest functions
of education.
With the above, it can
be summarized by saying that: starting from a day care teacher, through a
secondary school teacher to a university professor, all have a noble and great
task of making sure that education through various schools is able to perform
the manifest functions. These include social control, social placement,
transmission of culture, socialization and many others. Teachers should help
the education system so that each individual who passes through school can be
well groomed and be placed where his credentials and abilities allow him or her
with regards to configurations on the labor market. As a result of this, there
will be private returns and social benefits for both the individuals and the
society respectively.
REFERENCES
Godofsky Jessica, Cliff Zukin and Carl Van
Horn (2011)Unfulfilled Expectations:Recent College Graduates Struggle
in a Troubled Economy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University.
Iverson Jeremy (2006)High School
Confidential. New York: Atria.
Kendall Diana (1998) Social Problems in
a diverse Society.Boston, Allyn and Bacon Publishers.
Lauen Douglas Lee and Karolyn Tyson(2008). Perspectives
from the Disciplines:Sociological Contribution to Education Policy
Research and Debate.Area Handbookon Education Policy Research.
Mansfield Harvey. C (2001)Grade
Inflation: It’s Time to Face the Facts.The Chronicleof Higher Education
47(30).
Merton Robert. K (1968)Social Theory and
Social Structure. New York, Free Press.
