The functionalist theory of education focuses on how education serves the needs of society through development of skills, encouraging social cohesion and sorting of students. According to functionalists, the role of schools is to prepare students for participation in the institutions of society.

The functionalist perspective sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation and broadly focuses on the social structures that shape society as a whole.

For functionalists, the family creates well-integrated members of society and instills culture into the new members of society. It provides important ascribed statuses such as social class and ethnicity to new members. It is responsible for social replacement by reproducing new members, to replace its dying members.

Conflict theory posits that conflict is a fundamental part of the social order, and that schools are a critical site in the reproduction of social inequality, particularly class conflict and racial stratification. Schools are not meritocratic; individual talent and hard work do not necessarily guarantee success.

A theoretical perspective is important for research because it serves to organize our thoughts and ideas and make them clear to others. Often, sociologists use multiple theoretical perspectives simultaneously as they frame research questions, design and conduct research, and analyze their results.

Three paradigms have come to dominate sociological thinking, because they provide useful explanations: structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. Sociological Theories or Perspectives.

Your perspective is the way you see something. If you think that toys corrupt children’s minds, then from your perspective a toy shop is an evil place. Perspective has a Latin root meaning “look through” or “perceive,” and all the meanings of perspective have something to do with looking.