Study of Ivan Illich's proposal of `Deschooling Society? regarding functionalist and conflict theory approaches

Education is one of the foundational social institutions of society. It is the summation of the processes through which the individual develops his/her skills, manners and behaviors in the society he/she lives in. It is a process through which the individuals of a society socialize, and for the ones who join later, it is an opportunity to integrate and cohere. Contemporarily, the primary unit of educational institutions is the school. Schools facilitate the upbringing and providing of individuals according to the needs of society. Assuredly, like any other institution, school has functions that fail or doesn?t serve the benefit of the individual or the society. According to the radical social critique Ivan Illich, the functions of school that are for the social and individual good are far less in number than that are against them. Schools lead the individual to produce and consume towards the benefit of the institutional structures of the capitalist system; they indoctrinate the ideology of the system, legitimize the obedience to authority, fail to educate the individual duly and cause inequality. In Illich?s opinion, the abolishment of school means the end to these entire predicaments. While Illich proposes to countermand schools, he also suggests his own education techniques regarding the technology at hand. It will be beneficiary for schools and for the comprehension of their functions if Illich?s proposal is considered and analyzed through different approaches. The aim of this study is to explain the content of Illich?s `Deschooling Society? utilizing the concepts of `functionalist? and `conflict theory? approaches with hermeneutic reading.Key Words: Education, School, Institutional Structures, Technology, Inequality.