This paper attempts to compare the usefulness of the functional and conflict theories as analytical models for sociological study in education, focusing on selection process and curriculum. Functional theorists tend to stress integration, stability, and consensus as fundamental attributes of a society. From the functional point of view, the primary function of education is to socialize new generation to become productive members of society. Education contributes to the maintenance of the social system and the conservation of the national character. Accordingly, functional theorists regard school curriculum as a central mechanism for the socialization which deliver unified and coherent systems of values and know¬ledge in a integrated society. Educational selection is also explained as a process of sorting and classifying people on the basis of ability and talent in order to supply manpower for industrial system. On the contrary, conflict theorists focus on the coercive nature of society and the perva-siveness of social change. Power struggle among various groups is the main dyarnic of social life. Conflict theorists view social systems as divided into Qominant and subordinate groups. The dominant group imposes its own values and beliefs on the subordinates. Schools serve, conflict theorists argue, primarily to legitimize existing inequality in society’ by selecting and labelling people in favor of the dominant group. Educational system appears to be open to all and reward people on the basis of ability. However, conflict theorists argue, the educational system rewards children differentially on the basis of their ascriptive backgrounds. Children from elite farnilies become the elite of the next generation. Consequently schooling serves for the repro¬duction of inequality. In addition, conflict theorists regard school curriculum as a socially organized system of beliefs and know¬ledge. They argue that the elite’s culture always dominates the curriculum. A review of the literature in sociology of education reveals that studies and arguements on the problems of educational selection and curriculum have inclined to functional persectives.