Revision summary
Durkheim: education methodically socialises; major function is moral transmission. Needed for organic solidarity and occupational ethics. School rituals still fit. Bourdieu and Althusser add class reproduction and ideology. Gender and caste ask whose values. Transmission is major, not sole.
Model answer
Introduction
Emile Durkheim treated education as the methodical socialisation of the young. Its major function is to transmit the moral rules that a differentiated society still needs. The sentence is the core of Moral Education and Education and Sociology. It is incomplete as a map of schools today.
Body
Durkheim’s claim
- In organic solidarity, the child must learn a common morality plus a specialised occupational ethic.
- The school is a social fact: discipline, attachment to the group, and autonomy as a modern ideal.
- Transmission is not a family leftover. The nation and the occupational group require a public teacher.
What the claim illuminates
- Uniforms, assemblies, and civics still ritually charge belonging, a cousin of collective effervescence.
- Exam systems transmit achievement values that Talcott Parsons later typed.
Limits in discussion
- Pierre Bourdieu: schools transmit class cultural capital while claiming a common morality.
- Louis Althusser: education as ideological state apparatus, closer to Karl Marx than to a neutral church of the nation.
- Gender and caste: whose norms? Ann Oakley and Indian classroom studies show a double curriculum.
- Conflict and change: transmission can fail, or transmit rebellion, which Robert Merton’s latent functions allow.
Discuss
- Major function, yes, for Durkheim’s problem of moral integration.
- Not the only function: allocation, credentialing, and exclusion are major too.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD EDU[Education] --> TRANS[Transmit norms values] TRANS --> INT[Moral integration] CLASS[Class caste gender] --> HIDDEN[Hidden curriculum] HIDDEN --> EDU
Conclusion
Durkheim is right that education’s classic function is to transmit society’s norms and values in a methodical way. Bourdieu, Althusser, and feminist and caste critique show that “society” is stratified. Discuss the sentence as a necessary moral function, not as the whole of the school.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
Critically assess social mobility in closed and open systems.
Next question in the 2020 paper (Q4). View answer →
-
Did Durkheim want a church school?
He wanted a secular moral education that still binds. The teacher stands in for society.
-
Is skill training a Durkheimian function?
Occupational specialisation is included. He still put the moral core first.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2020 · Q1(a) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
How did the intellectual forces lead to the emergence of sociology ?Discuss. -
2020 · Q5(a) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
In the context of globalisation, has the scope of sociology been changing India ? Comment. -
2020 · Q5(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
What are the problems in observing social facts in Durkheim's views? -
2020 · Q5(e) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Does the institution of marriage continue to be sacred in Indian society? Comments. -
2020 · Q6(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
According to Mills, "Elites rule in institutional terms rather than psychological terms." Comment. -
2020 · Q7(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
Critically assess the Marxian theory of 'Alienation'." -
2019 · Q1(a) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Discuss the historical antecedents of the emergence of Sociology as a discipline -
2019 · Q1(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
What is the Marxist concept of 'fetishism of commodities'?
More from this paper
Q1(a) · UPSC Mains 2020 · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
How did the intellectual forces lead to the emergence of sociology ?Discuss.
Sociology
Intellectual forces made society worldly, comparable, and criticisable. Montesquieu, Smith, Rousseau, and Comte prepared comparison, market, inequality, and a named science. Marx, Durkheim, and Weber filled the space with class, social facts, and action. Nisbet’s conservative problems also fed the tradition. Ideas licensed the discipline; industry made it urgent.
Q1(b) · UPSC Mains 2020 · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Is sociology a value-free science ? Discuss.
Sociology as Science
Weber: value-relevance in questions; value-discipline in proof. Marx, Gouldner, and Harding reject a personless science. Oakley: the interview is already a moral relation. Census categories carry values into counts. Verdict: not value-free; yes to disciplined demonstration.
Q1(c) · UPSC Mains 2020 · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Methodology is a system of rules, principles and procedures, which forms. scientific investigation. Comment.
Sociology as Science
Methodology is a system of principles, rules, and procedures. It forms scientific investigation by making claims checkable. Durkheim and Weber wrote method as discipline. Blumer and feminist standpoint show theory inside procedure. Census and NFHS are procedures, not theory-free machines.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.