The debate about what schools ought to teach emanated from ideological disparities. These differences on ideologies, on the other hand, resulted from the diverse assessment concerning the critique of the traditional belief of schools as an educational institution. This long-established principle holds that schools "taught fundamental skills and basic knowledge of the society's culture and institution, promoted cognitive development, and fostered such essentially modern attitudes and values as tolerance, respect for rationality, and openness to new ideas" (Hurn, 1993, p. 270). This view was challenged by three major educational ideologies: the conservative, the liberal or reform and the radical or reconceptualist.
The conservative educational ideologies, as expounded by Reitman (1981), strive to "perpetuate" the socioeducational status quo. Herein lies three rationales, provided by Reitman (1981), that explain education in the angle of the conservatives. The first one is the ideological view of education as human engineering. It explains schooling as a "utility" designed at making students just the way the society requires them to be and not the other way around by which these students would likely become the critics of that society. This ideology is greatly exhibited in the school's pedagogical measures and curricula such as career education, behavior modification, accountability, the competency movement (which subsumes competency/performance-based teacher education), programmed instruction and teaching machines, behavioral objectives, and performance contracting. The next rationale under the conservative ideology is centered on education as revival of the fundamentals. The idea of "revivalistic fundamentalism" fosters the back-to-basics principle such that supporters of conservatism eagerly demand for stricter school policies (i.e. hair and dress codes) as well as tougher academic standards and grading system. Such creed of conservatives is too extreme such that they even argued that new curricula and progressive teaching methods tend to undermine basic skills which may lead to educational "decline and decay" (Hurn, 1993). The third and last conservative belief is education as knowledge for the sake of knowledge. As the phrase implies, it basically advocates schooling as a tool directed towards guiding the students in their pursuit of personal intellectual development.
To further understand the conservative educational ideology, its basic difference to radical ideology would be helpful. Hurn (1993) stated that most of the arguments asserted by the conservatives negate the claims of the radicals. For instance, radical theorists argue that schools are "major props of the established order" while conservatives opposed it by claiming that schools, in fact, promote "cultural and moral relativism" which lead to the disintegration of the "homogenous set of cultural and moral ideals" of schools such that it further caused the decline of their authority "cajole or inspire the young to learn what they have to teach" (Hurn, 1993). Adding evidence to the divergence of both ideologies, Freire (1921) in his language of crisis and critique averred that conservatives claim that schools fell short in realizing its purpose to meet the demands and imperatives of the capitalist market economy, thereby, implying that conservatives preserve the status quo of the society, being capitalist in nature. Conversely, schools which act as "reproductive sites that smoothly provide the knowledge, skills, and social relations necessary for the functioning of the capitalist economy and dominant society" are merely "reflex of the labor market" in the viewpoint of the radicals (Giroux, 1985). In such image of schools, the means for critical thinking and transformative action are not embodied in the education they provide.
The second educational ideology was the liberal or reform type. Reitman (1981) categorized four conceptions about education under this ideological perspective which all seek to modify society as it changes continuously through time via educational processes. These are basically different from the conservatives in terms of their approach regarding norms and values that appear to be obsolete as time passes. Liberals or reformists prefer to preserve them and to integrate improvements for their continuity in contrast to conservatives who will insist in reviving such forgotten customs (Reitman, 1981).
The first one among the liberal/reform conceptions is the view of education as ethnic revitalization. This caters developments such as ethnic studies, multicultural education, bilingual education, and community control so as to represent schools as venues for the unification of the diverse nature of a pluralistic society in terms of ethnic differences. Next in line is the second belief which is education as social reengineering. Although this is somewhat similar to the notion of "human engineering" feature of education employed by the conservative theorists, liberals' "social reengineering" boils down to the goal of improving social conditions through technological means and management procedures. On the other hand, the third liberal idea sees education as therapeutic interaction. Contrary to the strict version of school rules and the traditional authoritarian mode of teaching advocated by the conservatives, reformists stress the need to "humanize" the school as an institution and to provide greater autonomy for teachers and students. Such academic freedom enables them to choose and apply among the variety of pedagogical methods the most suitable and most effective for them. The last one expresses education as exploration of the future. Simply put, it tries to explain education as one that prepares its students for the future, taking into account the incessant societal changes (Reitman, 1981).
Meanwhile, Hurn (1993) recognized another educational principle of the liberal/reformist ideology which was equally important to mention, that is functional paradigm of education. More than the role of schooling in adapting to social transformations, it also performs an important task which is to introduce and provide the students with educational credentials. Such qualifications gained by the students when they graduate make them eligible for jobs. Indeed, educational credentials serve as the "fair and rational way of allocating positions" according to the functional paradigm theorists (Hurn, 1993). However true this assumption is in reality, the functional paradigm is weak for it overgeneralized the tendency of all occupations to require among job applicants impressive educational credentials. It is not always the case that such happens. Despite the increasing complexity of work and the growing demand for a more extensive educational background in the present as well in the future, there will always be one among various occupations which will ascertain that the idea of functional paradigm will not, for all times, hold as true and viable (Hurn, 1993).
