Education and Economic Development

Functionalist Views

From a functionalist perspective, development is usually linked to the idea of modernization. Scholars and policy makers adopting this perspective stress that it is a normal and positive experience for undeveloped or developing nations' economies to come to model the economies of “modern” or “developed” nations (i.e., capitalist or “free market” systems). Based on assumptions of human capital theory, investment in education (schooling and nonformal education) is seen as building a nation's stock of human capital (the knowledge, skills, and values of its worker-citizens), and this along with investments in physical capital (e.g., machines) fosters economic development. Within functionalism, the education system is viewed as not only training but also selecting and sorting—meritocratically, based on their talents and motivations—future workers.

From this perspective, a developing nation's government officials, business leaders, educators, other professionals, and citizens can steer their education systems to facilitate their nation's advancement. Educational development to promote economic development is accomplished by using national human and financial resources as well as by arranging for financial and technical assistance from international organizations, such as corporations, philanthropic foundations, and bilateral and multilateral development agencies. The education systems of “developed”—and, particularly, “newly developed”—nations are taken as the models for other countries' educational development.

Debates among functionalists tend to be couched in technical terms and to focus on (a) what levels of the education system (primary, secondary, or higher) contribute most effectively; (b) what kinds of skills, knowledge, and attitudes are most productive to include in the curriculum; (c) what mix of public and private funding sources is most appropriate; and (d) whether formal or nonformal education programs represent a better investment.

Conflict Perspectives

In contrast to functionalism, which views human systems as performing certain necessary functions (determined by consensus), conflict perspectives conceive of human social relations as determined by the needs and interests of dominant groups or nations, which conflict with or contradict the needs and interests of subordinate groups or nations. At an international level, conflict perspectives include dependency theory and world systems theory and tend to employ terms like imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonialism.

[Page 314]Rather than assuming that some nations are “undeveloped,” scholars and policy makers adopting a conflict perspective highlight that some nations are underdeveloped. That is, the economies of societies in the periphery of the world system are constructed through exploitative, dependence-inducing relationships imposed on such nations by the dominant groups in more powerful, core societies. Thus, more powerful nations “develop” and their elites accumulate capital at the expense of less powerful nations. Moreover, from a conflict perspective, socialism (rather than capitalism) is often viewed as the desired goal of economic development.

In the conflict-perspective narrative, elite groups in more powerful, wealthier nations design educational systems to serve their own interests. They seek to educate youth and adults within their own countries with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes “needed” for producing wealth that elites can accumulate, while at the same time inculcating worldviews that justify inequalities in wealth and power relations within and between countries. Individual or group achievements in education and in the economy are viewed as based not on “merit” but on the possession of cultural capital recognized and valued by elites.

...