Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate sociological explanations of the role of education in transmitting ideas and values.

Last Updated on October 24, 2026 by Karl Thompson

Below is a real AQA 30-mark essay question with an answer that achieved 28/30, together with the mark scheme and the examiner’s commentary.

The question is Question 04 from the AQA A-level Sociology Paper 1 (7192/1), Education with Theory and Methods, sat on 8 June 2017. It’s an interesting example of a question which looks like it’s asking you to evaluate a specific aspect of the Functionalist perspective on education. However, if you look more closely at the Item, you’ll need to do this by drawing on feminism and postmodernism to evaluate!

If you want to have a go at it yourself first, read the Item and the question, plan your answer, and only then scroll down to the student response.

The Question with Item

Item B

Sociologists agree that education transmits ideas and values. However, they disagree about the nature of these ideas and values, and who benefits from this process. For example, feminists argue that education transmits patriarchal ideology, and that this benefits men. Other sociologists argue that the education system has become fragmented and transmits a diverse range of ideas and values.

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate sociological explanations of the role of education in transmitting ideas and values. [30 marks]

Mark Scheme (Top Band Only)

25–30 marks

Answers in this band will show sound, conceptually detailed knowledge of a range of relevant material on the role of education in transmitting ideas and values. Sophisticated understanding of the question and of the presented material will be shown.

Appropriate material will be applied accurately and with sensitivity to the issues raised by the question.

Analysis and evaluation will be explicit and relevant. Evaluation may be developed, for example through a debate between different perspectives (eg Marxism, functionalism, feminism, the New Right, postmodernism), through consideration of the different ideas and values that education may transmit (eg patriarchal, capitalist, meritocratic, social solidarity, ethnocentric). Analysis will show clear explanation. Appropriate conclusions will be drawn.

The mark scheme also lists the concepts and sources an answer might use. They aren’t required for full marks, but they show the range examiners expect:

• Concepts and issues: patriarchy, male gaze, double standards, ethnocentricity, symbolic violence, capitalism, proletariat, bourgeoisie, class conflict, reproduction of inequality, legitimation of inequality, false consciousness, exploitation, ideological state apparatus, correspondence principle, hidden curriculum, myth of meritocracy, meritocracy, alienation, hierarchy, indoctrination, counter-culture, resistance, hegemony, habitus, cultural capital, social solidarity, value consensus, fragmentation and diversity.
• Sources: Marx, Althusser, Bowles and Gintis, Willis, Illich, Freire, Bourdieu, Durkheim, Parsons, Davis and Moore, Chubb and Moe, Schultz, Morrow and Torres, Macdonald, Ferguson, McRobbie, Archer.

Student Response (paraphrased by KT)

Item B states that education plays a role in socialisation. Feminists argue that education reinforces hegemonic masculinity. However, other sociologists such as Functionalists argue that education transmits shared values and post-modernists for example argue that education is diverse and transmits a range of values.

Feminists suggest that education transmits patriarchal ideology. Radical Feminists would say that male teachers/ pupils behave in ways that reinforce hegemonic masculinity. For example, male teachers tell boys off for ‘behaving like girls’ and they also ‘rescue’ female teachers when they are disciplining students. Radical feminists say that this makes females feel inferior to males and therefore means that the role of education is to reinforce the idea that males are the dominant gender. However, a specific evaluation is that the male teachers may rescue female teachers because they are in a more authoritative position. Additionally, post-modernists would disagree with feminists and argue that education is no longer based on inequality, but based on diversity.

Functionalists suggest that education transmits shared values. Durkheim argues that the role of education is to create social solidarity and value consensus. He argues that education achieves this via assemblies, teaching a common history (giving a sense of national identity and bringing people together) and teaching core values such as respect which bring social order. Parsons agrees and argues that education is the focal socialising agency and ‘Parsons’ bridge’ implies that education takes people from the particularistic values of the family/ home to the universalistic values of the work place. The New Right agree with functionalists that the role of education is to transmit shared values. However, Marxists disagree with functionalists and argue that the socialisation aspect of the role of education is not to create value consensus but that education is used as an ideological state apparatus, to transmit ruling class ideology.

Marxists suggest that the role of education is to ‘brainwash’ the working class. Althusser argues that education is an ideological state apparatus that transmits ruling class ideology in order to legitimise the inequality caused by the capitalist class. Bowles and Gintis argue that there is a ‘hidden curriculum’ that socialises the working class into obedient workers in order to benefit capitalism. For example, they are taught that being punished for minor issues is acceptable, the importance of punctuality, and that they have to obey the people above them in the social hierarchy — e.g. teachers, then the boss. However, a specific problem with the hidden curriculum is that a study by Willis showed that students can see through the role of education and reject the hidden curriculum.

Bowles and Gintis also argued that there is a correspondence principle where school mirrors work. Similarities such as extrinsic satisfaction (only doing something for rewards, not because you enjoy it — e.g. school to get GCSEs, work to get money) socialise working-class pupils to not expect a rewarding job when they leave school, and this benefits the capitalist class. As a result, Marxists argue that the role of education is to transmit ruling class ideology and benefit the bourgeoisie. However, functionalists and the New Right disagree and argue that values are shared to create a value consensus. They argue that Marxism is wrong for basing it on conflict when it is really consensus.

Functionalists such as Parsons suggest that education is meritocratic. This means that pupils are taught that they need to work hard if they want to achieve. He argues that the education system is based on this, which suggests people only fail if they do not try hard enough. However, Marxists such as Bourdieu argue that education promotes middle-class values, which means working-class students fail because their values are not wanted by the school — not because of meritocracy. Ball argued that meritocracy is a myth. However, the New Right agree and argue that it is down to the individual to work hard and achieve.

Perhaps the main strength of explaining the role of education in transmitting ideas/ values is the functionalist view that education is used to create shared values, because it can be applied to real-life education, because schools do have assemblies and promote core values. Perhaps the main weakness is the postmodern view because, although education is more diverse, each school still has an ETHOS that has been developed by middle-class individuals.

Post-modernists argue that Marxists, feminists and functionalists are out of date. Liberal feminists would argue that the role of education is no longer to reinforce hegemonic masculinity but that inequality/ patriarchy is improving.

Examiner Commentary

Mark: 28/30

Conceptually detailed and located within a broad theoretical framework. Sophisticated analysis and applied clearly to the question. Explicit evaluation throughout.

Did not score maximum as at times evaluation was not fully developed, e.g. postmodernism.

KT’s Commentary

An obvious strength of this answer, in addition to the above, is its clear use of the Item!

They also use phrases such as ‘a specific evaluation of this is…’, which make the evaluation explicit to the examiner.

This also shows you that you need a good depth of knowledge of the basics of functionalism and Marxism, but you also need to evaluate them with specific comments, and bring in postmodernism, to reach the top mark band.

It’s worth noticing what the Item is doing. Its first sentence (“Sociologists agree that education transmits ideas and values”) hands you functionalism and Marxism, the second (“who benefits from this process”) is the cue for the debate between them, and the last two sentences point you directly at feminism and postmodernism. A good answer uses every sentence of the Item, and this one does.

It isn’t a perfect answer, and the two marks it dropped are instructive. As the examiner says, postmodernism is asserted rather than developed: the student says postmodernists think the others are out of date but doesn’t explain what a fragmented system actually looks like (different types of school, faith schools, home education) or why that would mean a diverse range of values. The New Right also turns up three times without ever being explained.

There are a couple of slips I’d pick up as an examiner, too. Bourdieu is usually described as a cultural reproduction theorist rather than simply a Marxist, so “Marxists such as Bourdieu” is loose, and “Ball argued that meritocracy is a myth” isn’t what Stephen Ball is best known for. Neither cost this student much, because the rest of the answer is strong, but in a weaker answer that kind of imprecision adds up.

Notice too that the mark scheme’s list of ideas and values includes “ethnocentric”. Nobody is required to use it, but an answer that brought in the ethnocentric curriculum would have had another way of showing that the ideas and values schools transmit benefit some groups more than others — which is exactly what the Item’s second sentence asks you to think about.

How to plan this essay

The plan below uses the PEAC system (Point – Explain – Analyse – Criticise) and takes each perspective in the order the Item suggests.

Introduction

• Use the Item’s first two sentences: sociologists agree that education transmits ideas and values, but disagree about which ideas and values, and who benefits
• Set out the debate: consensus (functionalism, the New Right) versus conflict (Marxism, feminism), with postmodernism questioning whether there is a single set of values at all

(P1) Functionalism: shared values and social solidarity

• Durkheim: history and a shared curriculum create social solidarity; school as a society in miniature
• Parsons: school as the bridge from particularistic to universalistic values; the values of achievement and equality of opportunity
• Apply: today’s requirement to promote British Values
• Criticise: who decides what the shared values are? Marxists see them as ruling-class values

(P2) The New Right: a shared national culture

• Agrees with functionalists that school should transmit shared values, through a national curriculum
• Chubb and Moe: state schools fail, and competition would make schools more responsive to parents
• Criticise: a market in schools produces more diversity, which sits awkwardly with a single shared culture

(P3) Marxism: ruling-class ideology

• Althusser: education as an ideological state apparatus
• Bowles and Gintis: the hidden curriculum and the correspondence principle; the myth of meritocracy legitimates inequality
• Bourdieu: the school’s values are middle-class; cultural capital and habitus
• Criticise: Willis’s lads saw through the system — pupils are not passive

(P4) Feminism: patriarchal ideology (apply the Item’s third sentence)

• The hidden curriculum reinforces gender roles and male dominance
• Gendered subject choice and teacher expectations
• Criticise: girls now outperform boys on most measures — liberal feminists would say patriarchy in school is weakening

(P5) Postmodernism: fragmentation and diversity (apply the Item’s last sentence)

• A fragmented system — academies, free schools, faith schools, home education — transmits many sets of values, not one
• This undermines both the consensus and the conflict theories, which assume a single set of values
• Criticise: there are still national exams that every pupil sits, and state schools are all inspected by Ofsted

Conclusion

• Take a position. For example: education does transmit ideas and values, but less uniformly than functionalists and Marxists assume; which values, and who benefits, depends on the type of school and the pupil

For the theory behind each perspective, see the Functionalist perspective on education, the Marxist perspective on education, the New Right view of education and postmodernism and education.

Sociology of Education Revision Bundle

If you like this sort of thing, then you might like my sociology of education revision notes bundle, which includes essay templates and model answers on the sociology of education. It’s written by Karl Thompson, who taught A-level sociology for eighteen years and spent twelve as an AQA examiner, marking all three papers on the current specification.

Signposting and Sources

The question, Item B and mark scheme are from the AQA A-level Sociology Paper 1 (7192/1), June 2017, available from the AQA website. The student response and examiner commentary are from AQA, Feedback on the Examinations — Student responses and commentaries: Paper 1 7192/1 Education with Theory and Methods, published Autumn 2017. AQA material is reproduced for educational purposes.

For more on this paper, see my guide to AQA A-level Sociology Paper 1, and for more essays, my page on exam advice, short answer questions and essays.

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