Discuss the general approach and assumptions a conflict theorist may take when studying the educational system. Then explain Randall Collins's theory of credentialism. How does this theory illustrate the conflict perspective?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

From a conflict point of view, schools are similar to social battlefields, where students struggle against teachers, teachers against administrators, and so on. These antagonisms, however, are most often reduced due to the ability of schools to shape the ideas of the majority of students to support the system. In effect, the achievement ideology convinces both students and teachers that schools promote learning and sort and select students according to their abilities, not according to their social status. It disguises the "real" power relations within the school, which in turn reflect and correspond to power relations within the larger society (Bowles and Gintis, 1976).
Randall Collins (1979), in contrast, argued that the rise in credentials required in a highly technological society is not a natural response to the needs of the labor market. Instead it comes from status competition among groups battling over scarce cultural, political, and economic rewards. Collins demonstrated that educational credentials have increased far in excess of an increase in occupational skills and requirements. For example, while the actual knowledge and skills of the profession have not increased dramatically, pharmacists now need a 6-year college program leading to a doctorate rather than the apprenticeship program of the 1930s, or a baccalaureate degree as in the last decade. Similar changes are being pressed for teachers, with little evidence to suggest that those who enter teaching with master's degrees are more effective than others.
The rise of such credentials, according to Collins, is a result of middle-class professionals' attempts to raise their status and the stakes. As historically marginalized groups struggle to catch up, advantaged groups use professional organizations and higher credentials to increase their advantage in the competition for professional positions. Thus, for many conflict theorists, educational institutions are an instrument for perpetuating class differences, rather than a tool for promoting a democratic and meritocratic society.