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Question 1

Say as much as you remember about Ball (1981)’s theory.

Answer 1

BALL (1981) (INTERACTIONIST) NOT BALL ET AL
-> 3-year case study at Beachside Comprehensive
-> claimed students who began school with similar attitudes diverged after being streamed into 1 of 3 bands (meant to be by test scores, but another factor was if the child’s father had a non-manual job)
-> those of working-class therefore often were put in the lower band, developed anti-school subcultures and negatively labelled (even as far as being called ‘mentally retarded’) whilst those of middle-class were often in the top band, reproducing class inequalities
-> not generalisable as he only looked at one school

Question 2

What was Ball (1981)’s research method and findings?

Answer 2

-> 3-year case study at Beachside Comprehensive
-> claimed students who began school with similar attitudes diverged after being streamed into 1 of 3 bands (meant to be by test scores, but another factor was if the child’s father had a non-manual job)

Question 3

What did Ball (1981) say about streaming and class?

Answer 3

-> those of working-class therefore often were put in the lower band, developed anti-school subcultures and negatively labelled (even as far as being called ‘mentally retarded’) whilst those of middle-class were often in the top band, reproducing class inequalities

Question 4

What are criticisms of Ball (1981)?

Answer 4

-> not generalisable as he only looked at one school

Question 5

Say as much as you remember about Parsons (1961)’s theory.

Answer 5

PARSONS (1961) (FUNCTIONALIST)
-> school is a secondary agent of socialisation - important to teach children the norms and values of society
-> school acts as a bridge between the family and society to prepare children for ‘adult life’
-> children are judged by ‘universalistic standards’ so have equal opportunity to succeed and gain achieved status instead of the ascribed status of the family - meritocracy
-> ignores influential factors such as cultural capital and material deprivation which contradict meritocracy

Question 6

What two things did Parsons say a school was?

Answer 6

-> school is a secondary agent of socialisation - important to teach children the norms and values of society
-> school acts as a bridge between the family and society to prepare children for ‘adult life’

Question 7

What did Parsons say children are judged by and what does it mean for achievement?

Answer 7

-> children are judged by ‘universalistic standards’ so have equal opportunity to succeed and gain achieved status instead of the ascribed status of the family - meritocracy

Question 8

What are criticisms of Parsons?

Answer 8

-> ignores influential factors such as cultural capital and material deprivation which contradict meritocracy

Question 9

Say as much as you remember about Durkheim’s theory.

Answer 9

DURKHEIM (FUNCTIONALIST)
-> school is a mini-society that prepares children by creating social solidarity as it teaches shared norms and values via secondary socialisation
-> emphasis that school teaches morals and community, especially through the subject of history
-> there is a formal curriculum (school subjects) and an informal curriculum (norms and values)
-> deterministic for assuming that students passively accept shared norms and values

Question 10

What did Durkheim say school was?

Answer 10

-> school is a mini-society that prepares children by creating social solidarity as it teaches shared norms and values via secondary socialisation

Question 11

According to Durkheim, what does school teach and what curriculums are there?

Answer 11

-> emphasis that school teaches morals and community, especially through the subject of history
-> there is a formal curriculum (school subjects) and an informal curriculum (norms and values)

Question 12

What are criticisms of Durkheim?

Answer 12

-> deterministic for assuming that students passively accept shared norms and values

Question 13

Say as much as you remember about Bowles and Gintis’ theory.

Answer 13

BOWLES + GINTIS (MARXIST)
-> main function of education is to reproduce traits like loyalty, obedience and reluctance to question authority in workers to satisfy the capitalist economy and this is done through rewards and sanctions in the hidden curriculum
-> correspondence principle: the workplace corresponds to school by being hierarchical and often mundane
-> deterministic for assuming that students passively accept these norms and values by the hidden curriculum, but Willis disagrees
-> not generalisable as they only looked at schools in New York

Question 14

According to Bowles and Gintis, what is the main function of education?

Answer 14

-> main function of education is to reproduce traits like loyalty, obedience and reluctance to question authority in workers to satisfy the capitalist economy and this is done through rewards and sanctions in the hidden curriculum

Question 15

What is the correspondence principle?

Answer 15

-> correspondence principle: the workplace corresponds to school by being hierarchical and often mundane (Bowles and Gintis)

Question 16

What are criticisms of Bowles and Gintis?

Answer 16

-> deterministic for assuming that students passively accept these norms and values by the hidden curriculum, but Willis disagrees
-> not generalisable as they only looked at schools in New York

Question 17

Say as much as you remember about Willis’ theory.

Answer 17

WILLIS (MARXIST)
-> ethnographic case study of 12 working-class ‘lads’ who had formed an anti-school subculture and saw the conformist boys of the single-sex school as ‘cissies’
-> norms and values were based on masculinity and toughness - they saw white-collar jobs as unmanly and manual work as real work for men
-> followed the boys as they got working-class jobs, replicating the class structure
-> rejected Bowles + Gintis’s theory, is not generalisable due to the small sample size and does not explore the views of the conformist boys

Question 18

What was Willis’ research method?

Answer 18

-> ethnographic case study of 12 working-class ‘lads’ who had formed an anti-school subculture and saw the conformist boys of the single-sex school as ‘cissies’

Question 19

What were the norms and values of Willis’ ‘lads’?

Answer 19

-> norms and values were based on masculinity and toughness - they saw white-collar jobs as unmanly and manual work as real work for men

Question 20

What did Willis find after studying the ‘lads’ further?

Answer 20

-> followed the boys as they got working-class jobs, replicating the class structure

Question 21

What are criticisms of Willis (and who’s theory does he reject)?

Answer 21

-> rejected Bowles + Gintis’s theory, is not generalisable due to the small sample size and does not explore the views of the conformist boys

Question 22

Say as much as you remember about Halsey et al’s theory.

Answer 22

HALSEY ET AL
-> sampled 8000 men to study the extent that social class affected educational experience
-> divided people into three classes: the service class (professionals and managers), the intermediate class (white-collar workers) and the working class (manual labourers)
-> found that a boy from the service class, compared to a boy from the working class, was 4 times more likely to be at school at 16, 8 times at 17 and 10 times at 18, but also 11 times more likely to go to university
-> cannot be generalised to girls as only men were studied

Question 23

What was Halsey et al’s sample and what was she studying?

Answer 23

-> sampled 8000 men to study the extent that social class affected educational experience

Question 24

What did Halsey et al do in their study?

Answer 24

-> divided people into three classes: the service class (professionals and managers), the intermediate class (white-collar workers) and the working class (manual labourers)

Question 25

What are the stats of Halsey et al’s study?

Answer 25

-> found that a boy from the service class, compared to a boy from the working class, was 4 times more likely to be at school at 16, 8 times at 17 and 10 times at 18, but also 11 times more likely to go to university

Question 26

What are criticisms of Halsey et al’s theory.

Answer 26

-> cannot be generalised to girls as only men were studied

Question 27

Say as much as you remember about Ball et al’s theory.

Answer 27

BALL ET AL (1994) (NOT BALL (1981)) -> investigated the impact of educational policies, such as the 1988 Educational Reform Act, on marketisation of schools -> league tables ensured that schools were motivated to compete for parents and strive for better standards to attract more pupils -> this, however, had a negative effect, as schools put under pressure focused their resources on the more ‘able’ students and used streaming to separate these groups -> marketisation therefore benefits the middle-class, however this can be criticised as there have been changes, such as the introduction of Pupil Premium, to combat this

Question 28

What did Ball et al investigate?

Answer 28

-> investigated the impact of educational policies, such as the 1988 Educational Reform Act, on marketisation of schools

Question 29

What did Ball et al say about league tables and the effects of them?

Answer 29

-> league tables ensured that schools were motivated to compete for parents and strive for better standards to attract more pupils -> this, however, had a negative effect, as schools put under pressure focused their resources on the more ‘able’ students and used streaming to separate these groups

Question 30

What does Ball et al say about marketisation and what are the criticisms of this?

Answer 30

-> marketisation therefore benefits the middle-class, however this can be criticised as there have been changes, such as the introduction of Pupil Premium, to combat this

Question 31

What is Bernstein’s theory and a criticism?

Answer 31

BERNSTEIN - argued that the working class use a ‘restricted code’ of language, including colloquialisms and informality whereas the middle class use an ‘elaborated code’ of language, including complex grammar and formality, giving middle class an advantage - overly simplifies language diversity into two groups and lacks empirical support

Question 32

What is the difference in educational achievement when it comes to gender and how is it changing?

Answer 32

Girls overall outperform boys by around 8%, but this gap has gotten smaller as years go on to be around 6%, meaning the gender gap between educational achievement is becoming more closer and boys may begin to do better.

Question 33

Why do girls outperform boys? Give a criticism of this.

Answer 33

Girls may outperform boys due to: - McRobbie (bedroom culture) - Equality Act 2010 (more girls strive to work hard as they cannot be discriminated against in the workplace for their gender) However this is very deterministic as boys still can outperform girls, and often do in subjects such as Physics and Maths.

Question 34

How can McRobbie’s bedroom culture theory be countered?

Answer 34

McRobbie’s theory of bedroom culture can be countered as, in recent years, there has been a growth of the gaming industry and boys are actually remaining indoors more alongside girls.

Question 35

What does sociologist Coard argue?

Answer 35

COARD - links an ethnocentric curriculum to underachievement among Black children, arguing that it undermines their self-esteem and creates a negative perception of their own culture and history by presenting Black people as "primitive" or inferior

Question 36

What are the lowest/highest achieving ethnic groups and how does this align/contradict Coard’s theory?

Answer 36

The lowest achieving ethnic group is Black Caribbean, aligning with Coard’s theory, but this can be criticised as the highest achieving ethnic group is Asian, an ethnicity that is also underrepresented in the curriculum.

Question 37

What does Becker talk about in labelling in education?

Answer 37

- the ‘ideal pupil’ and labelling to become a self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 38

Give 3 internal factors affecting educational achievement.

Answer 38

- streaming (Ball) - free school meals/pupil premium - labelling

Question 39

Give 3 external factors affecting educational achievement.

Answer 39

- 1988 Education Reform Act lead to the ‘marketisation’ of schools and competition of league tables - Ball et al explores the effects of this - language (Bernstein)/material deprivation - socialisation

Question 40

Give 2 benefits of homeschooling/deschooling and a criticism.

Answer 40

- increased autonomy when it comes to education which can lead to more motivation as a result - approaches to learning are individualised, promoting creativity in children, whereas in school there is one teacher for an average of 30 students - this can be criticised however as there is the potential for inadequate sources of learning (such as parents), meaning teachers may be the better option

Question 41

Give 2 benefits of formal education and a criticism.

Answer 41

- hidden curriculum allows students to be socialised whereas homeschooling does not have this, potentially leading to inadequate socialisation - schools offer many extracurricular activities which homeschooled children may not have access to/they also employ specialised teachers, meaning students overall receive better education opportunities - socialisation by education can be criticised for putting pressure on students to conform to certain sub-cultures within schools which stifles creativity and independence