Sociology: Education Revision Cards (JUNE)

Social cohesion

we bonds that integrate people into a united society

Functional prerequisites

the basic needs for a society to survive

the hidden curriculum

the informal teaching done in schools that socialises children to societal norms

Particularistic values

Rules and values that give priority to personal relationships

Universalistic values

rules and values that apply to everyone regardless of their status

Parsons

Schools are important places of secondary socialisation which bridges the gap between particularistic values and ascribed status of the family, and universalistic values and achieved status of society based on an meritocracy

Durkheim described education as (and give an example)

society in a miniature which prepares young people for life in the wider adult society e.g., hidden curriculum

Schultz (1971)

higher education is necessary to provide a properly trained, qualified and flexible labour force. This makes sure the most qualified people end up with the jobs requiring the greatest responsibilities via division of labour

Davis and Moore (1967)

education system is a means of selecting and sifting people, ensuring the most talented and qualified individuals are allocated to the most important jobs. e.g, streaming. They also believe in equality of educational opportunity giving everyone a fair chance of success ahead.

Role of education to functionalists

Schultz, Parsons, Durkheim, Davis and Moore

Chubb & Moe (1990) - New Right

education system should be free market with schools running like private businesses tailored to the needs of students, competition for places and free choice for parents known as marketisation

Althusser (1971) view on education (3)

main role of education in a capitalist society is to reproduce an efficient and obedient labour force through:

• reproduction of necessary technical skills,

• the reproduction of the ruling class ideology

• the socialisation of workers accepting the dominant ideology (false class consciousness).

Althusser: Ideological State Apparatus:

includes family, law, religion and education system which pass on ruling class ideology and selects people for different social classes

Bourdieu (1977)

role of education system in capitalist societies is legitimise class inequalities and reproduce class structure. -This is done by the dominant class imposing its habitus (cultural set of ideas) on the education system whereby higher/middle class do better as they can access more of the habitus known as cultural capital

Illich and Freire (1995)

schools are repressive institutions which promote conformity and encourage students into passive acceptance of existing inequalities rather than thinking for themselves known as hegemonic control (for example obeying teacher superior knowledge)

Illich solution to education system

Deschooling - abolishment of schooling altogther

Bowles and Gintis (1976)

role of education in a capitalist society is to reproduce a hardworking, submissive and disciplined workforce by:

• the hidden curriculum (schooling mirroring 'the long shadow of work' hours) known as correspondence principle,

• education system justifying inequality and class structure

examples of the hidden curriculum (3)

school punctuality mirrors good time keeping at work, respect for teachers mirror respect for bosses, competitive sports mirrors competition for wages

Willis (1977) - Interactionist/Marxist

Found 12 working class male pupils 'the lads' developed an anti-school subculture with aims to leave schooling as soon as possible and desired manual labour due to the oppressive nature of education

three ways schooling prepares young people for the world of work

work experience programmes to ease students into the transition from school to work, an expansion of post-16 educational courses and apprenticeships, a stronger emphasis on key skills in problem solving in subjects like Core Maths

Focus of Vocational Education (2)

reducing unemployment by improving basic skills of the workforce, ending status division between academic and vocational qualifications to create level play field

criticisms of vocational education (3)

-Work experience seen as boring and repetitive -Vocational qualifications still seen as lower status than academic courses -Birdwell et al (2011) said schools neglect those with vocational aspirations

Underachievement

The failure to fulfil ones potential.

Interactionist approach

micro or small scaled studiers about what happens within schools and classrooms

Becker (1971)

discovered teachers evaluate pupils in relation to their stereotypes of the ideal pupil

Rist (1970)

found that when teachers grouped students the middle class were more likely to be placed in groups given higher level work with more attention than groups containing working class students

Harvey and Slatin (1975)

Showed photographs of different ethnic and social class children. Found white middle class children identified to be more likely to be successful students than non white, poorer backgrounds where teachers had lower expectations

Gillborn (2011)

ideal pupil stereotype favours those who are white and teachers do not see black children as likely academic successes. Teachers denied Black Caribbean pupils opportunities regardless of their ability

Hartley and Sutton (2011)

ideal pupil stereotype more likely to be applied to girls than boys due to negative gender stereotypes e.g., why can't you sit like a girl, silly boys

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)

Students that were told were bright achieved a higher grade than students with the same ability but were not praised

Smyth et al (2006)

found students in lower stream classes have more negative attitudes to school, find teaching pace slow and spend less time on homework

Gillborn and Youdell (2000)

Found schools divided pupils in an educational triage to produce more EBacc certificates, whereby lower stream students left a die an educational death

Educational triage

This consisted of those who were likely to do well with little additional help, those who were likely to perform average with extra help and those who were unlikely to do well whatever was done. The first two groups were focused on with the last left to die an educational death

Lacey (1970)

Schools differentiate students on exam success known as differentiation A consequence of this was polarisation whereby those in the top streams achieve high status and perform best whereas bottom streams labelled as failures in the eyes of teachers

Ball (1981)

Studied Beachside Comprehensive School and found top stream students were encouraged to go for higher academic courses, whereas lower stream students encouraged to for lower status, vocational courses

Mac an Ghalil (1994)

found two conformist pro-school subcultures which he called 'Academic Achievers' and 'New Enterprisers' who were skilled working class white and Asian males aspiring middle class careers either through academic success or vocational subjects.

Sewell (1998)

found a pro-school subculture among black pupils who sought to achieve academic success and avoid racist stereotyping by teachers by conforming to school values

Outline three material factors that may affect social class differences in educational achievement.

Lack of finance available to afford textbooks, accessing higher education may prove costly for low income families , young people from poorer areas have part time jobs so have divided attention

Outline three cultural factors that may affect social class differences in educational achievement

upper and middle class have better understanding of school curriculum so can assist with subject choices, upper and middle class parents may have better attitude towards school so visit more to discuss child progress, use of language at home - elaborated and restricted code

Berstein (1971)

two types of language, restricted code - informal, slang, ungrammatical language used by middle and working class people, elaborated code - formal language used by usually middle class people which gives them an advantage as it is used in education for examinations and by teachers

Bourdieu (1977) 2nd Capital

Social capital is those who have greater access to the right people who are in the position to help them - which the middle and upper class have - so do better in education

State 3 criticisms of cultural explanations

overlooks the practical difficulties, ignores the role school plays themselves, the need for schools to change

Compensatory education

extra help for students that come from disadvantaged groups

positive discrimination

involves giving disadvantaged groups favourable treatment to make up for the inequalities they face

Example of compensatory education (2)

Excellence Action Zones, Sure Start Centres

What are excellence action zones

schools allocated extra money to improve educational performance of disadvantaged young people

outline three factors inside schools that may affect the educational progress that pupils make

qualifications of teachers, teacher stereotyping, educational triage

Gender differences in educational achievement (3)

Girls perform better than boys at every stage in the National Curriculum, girls are more successful than boys in most GCSE subjects, more females attend sixth form and further education

3 reasons why females perform better than males

feminism challenging girls rights, equal opportunities such as Women In Stem, more positive female role models

Why do boys underachieve (3)

crisis of masculinity Ghaill 1994, decline in male traditional job roles, boys are disruptive

Why do boys tend to study different subjects (3)

subject counselling by teachers reflecting on their own socialisation, Cooley (1988) subject images, gender socialisation

Francis (2005)

gender is an important social identity fitting in with what conforms to gender stereotypes to avoid bullying

Mac an Ghaill (the male gaze)

girls focus on efforts to look nice to please boys, whereas boys adopt masculine behaviour via boasting of sexual conquests

Jackson et al (2010) Feminist

educational policy has ignored girls and has been exclusively about boys underachievement whereby attempts to raise boys attainment has negative impact on girls

Which are the highest performing ethnic groups (2)

Chinese and Indian Asian pupils

which ethnic groups are lowest achieving in education

Black Caribbean, Pakistani, Bangladeshi

How many more times likely are Chinese, Asian, Indian pupils to achieve GCSE A*-C than other ethnic groups

5 times more likely

State 3 explanations for ethnic group differences in educational attainment

Material - ethnic minority families more likely to live in poverty

Language barriers could impact education

Parental support - Bhatti 1999 found parents were supportive but lacked knowledge to help their children

Vincent et al (2011)

found middle class black children were concerned with their children’s schooling so often enrolled them into extra tutoring

Cline et al (2002)

racist bullying exists in schools such as name calling ‘Malteaser’ which affects a child’s attendance in schools

ethnocentrism

subjects taught, activities and the hidden curriculum which are biased towards one culture and neglect cultures of other ethnic groups

example of ethnocentric curriculum

black history being overlooked in History

1944 Education Act (Bulter Act) was created by

Conservative-led coalition

Gillborn and Youdell (2000) identified four dimensions of

equality of access - every child having same opportunities, equality of circumstances - children should be of similar socio-economic status, equality of participation - everyone has equal chance of participating and not limited by social factors, equality of outcome - everyone has chances of eventual benefits

1944 Education Act (Butler Act) introduce

compulsory secondary school, tripartite system, 11+ exam which consisted of grammar, secondary modern and technical schools

Tripartite system

types of secondary schools (grammar, secondary modern, technical schools)

What is the compulsory school leaving age and when was it changed

It was 15 and changed to 16 in 1972

What did technical schools do

engineering and mechanical skills

Evaluate the 1944 Education Act (Butler Act) (2)

11+ was an inaccurate test and disadvantaged working class, Boliver and Swift (2011) said there was no social mobility

1965 Comprehensive Act

eradication of the tripartite system and instead convert schools into Comprehensive schools but still kept some grammar schools

Evaluate the 1965 Comprehensive Act (1)

Mixed ability classes can hinder high achieving students

Who introduce the 1988 Education Reform Act

Conservatives

What did the 1988 Education Reform introduce (the marketisation of education) (5)

National curriculum in England and Wales, national assessments, schools could opt out of their LEA and become Grant Maintained Schools, Open enrolment, formula funding, league tables

Evaluate the 1988 Education Reform Act (2)

formula funding meant less popular schools received less money, lack of regulation without regulatory authority

What is formula funding?

Schools are allocated money based on how many students they attract

What is open enrolment ?

Schools must accept students as long as it is under-subscribed

School Admissions Code

forbids discrimination in admitting pupils on grounds of ability or socio-economic status of parents, but in 2014 allowed positive discrimination for disadvantaged students

Example of positive discrimination

Schools gave priority to students on pupil premium (extra money allocated to schools for disadvantaged students)

State 3 policies which looked to improve inequality of circumstances in education

Schools admission code in 2014 gave priority to students on pupil premium, Sure start children centres in disadvantaged areas, education action zones

Kerr and West (2010) evaluation against policies which improve inequality of circumstances

children are still affected by things beyond school control that affect a child’s education such as parents/neighbourhoods

State 3 ways selective schooling occurs

ability, aptitude (potential in certain subjects), faith

2 Arguments for selective schooling

allows high flyers to be challenged, more focus on students who need the extra help

3 Arguments against selective schooling

Self-fulfilling prophecy, reinforces class division, disallows late developers

What did the New Labour Reforms 1997-2010 introduce (3)

free nursery, sure start centres, education action zones

What are Education Action Zones

Schools in disadvantaged areas given extra money and teachers to help them become better schools and improve educational performance

Eval of New labour reforms 1997-2010

Power and Whitty (2010) said it failed to make a difference on achievement gaps

What did the Conservative-led coalition 2010-2015 introduce (4)

Pupil premium, free schools, reformed examination system, new style academies

What did new style academies consist of (Conservative-led coalition)

low performing schools being under the leadership of high performing schools

Evaluate the Conservative-led coalition 2010-2015 (2)

Increased pressure on students and promoted educational triage, myth of parentocracy with high performing schools dissuading lower class parents

Neoliberalism

an economic approach that suggests resources are better managed by private business advocating for marketisation

Parentocracy

giving parents the power to select their child’s education

Tough and Brooks (2007) - Myth of Parentocracy

Middle class parents are more likely to choose a school based on performance whereas lower class parents are more likely to choose a school based on convenience

Brown (1990) - Myth of parentocracy

child’s education is increasingly dependent upon the wealth and wishes the parents rather than child’s ability

Two ways globalisation affects education

privatisation and marketisation, international comparisons

Alexander (2012) - Globalisation and Education

Suggests PISA and TIMS have led to moral panics over the state of British education when the country is outperformed by others so imports policies abroad to hope it improves

Alexander (2012b)

identifies policies being replicated in the UK: raising academic entry requirement for teachers in 2012 following Finland, Master Teachers 2014

Kelly (2009)

globalisation has led to education being an economic concern to meet the needs of the economy ignoring children wellbeing

Evaluation of globalisation in education

international ranking does not always reflect e.g. Singapore has 350 schools whereas the UK has 23,000

Endogenous education

Privatisation within the education system whereby schools operate like private businesses

example of endogenous education

School performance tables