Assess the Usefulness of Sociological Explanations for Patterns of Educational Achievement

It will be necessary in the course of this essay to view the different theoretical perspectives, and their explanations of varying levels of attainment across different sections of society.
Schooling is the means by which we are formally educated and falls under the wider process of socialisation, or how we learn to acquire the ideas and values of the society that we live in.
"Education is... the means by which society prepares , within the children, the essential conditions of it's very existence..."
(Durkheim, E.; "Education & Sociology"; 1968; p. 71)
The functionalist perspective dominated the sociology of education in the early post-war decades, and saw the differentiation of pupils within the education system as necessary, to develop the wide range of skills required for different occupations, within industrial societies.
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