Education Flashcards
four functions of education according to functionalists
- Meritocracy
- social solidarity
- teaching core values
- role allocation
Evaluation of the functionalist perspective
- Hargreaves argues that education promotes competition and indivdualism not shared values and a sense of solidarity that Durkheim claims
- school is not meritocratic because schools discriminate against some group e.g. w/c and black pupils, don’t give them an equal opportunity to achieve
Internal factors class
Factors within school such as
- interaction between pupils and teacher and inequalities between school
- labelling
- streaming & setting
External factors
Factors outside the education system
Such as the influence of home and family background
-cultural dep
-cultural cap = Socio- linguists (language code)
-material dep
what does functionalist say abt education
- Takes on a consensus view that society is harmonious
- It continues the job of the family. (secondary socialisation)
- Schools creating a ‘miniature society’ / soc8ety in a miniature - Schools foster belonging and identity
- Functionalists view society as an organism where everything has their role and function in the smooth working of the whole.
Durkheim - teaching specialist skills
- We have a complex division of labour and each person has specific role to play.
- School prepares pupils for life in wider society = requires a level of role differentiation
- Education teaches individuals skills & knowledge to play part in the labour
evaluation of durkheim special skills
- Postmodernists argue that contemporary society is more culturally diverse, with people of many faiths and beliefs
- Schools do not produce ashared set of norms and values for society, because this marginalises other cultures and beliefs
- therefore this theory is outdated. Durkheim also wrote that specialist skills were needed to sustain economic growth. Today’s society is a lot more advanced, and the economy needs workers with flexible skills. e.g. spanish speaking or multi-bilingual etc
social solidarity
PARSON
A sense of belonging to wider society, by transmitting society’s shared norms + values.
Teaching subjects like History/English helps establish the historical links such as singing the national anthem, thus making them feel more connected.
School also acts as a ‘society miniature’ whereby students are prepared for later life.
It equips students with a set of skills which apply to everyone.
Evaluation of social solidarity
- Not everyone feels apart of school. There are such a huge diversity of schools (faith schools, private, home education).
- ignores the dysfunction of education e.g. bullying & failure.
Meritocracy (functionalism)
- The idea that we all have equal opportunities to succeed and that success is then rewarded on ability and effort. [individuals achievement:]
- the education system judges children by universalistic standards = they judge and hold all pupils to the same standards.e.g. We all sit the same
- school is a miniature version of wider society-which prepares them for life in modern society/it’s economy
Role allocation (functionalism)
Davis & Moore
- The idea that schools prepare us for our future position within the workforce by selecting and organising pupils, based on their abilities.
- Some people are more talented than others = which reflects that some roles are more complex than others and require greater skills.
- **Higher rewards are offered for these jobs to motivate everyone to strive for them **
- This is necessary to ensure the most important roles are filled by the most talented people for society to run smoothly
- a meritocratic education allows everyone to compete equally. It ‘shifts and sorts’ individuals so that the most talented get the best qualifications
- this enables organic analogy
Althusser:
2 elements
- (RSAs) The Repressive state apparatuses - Maintain the rule bourgeoise by force or threat.
(E.G. police, government)
- (ISAs) ideological state apparatus - maintain the rule of the bourgeoise by controlling peoples ideas, value and beliefs.
(E.G. religion, hidden curriculum, family ,media)
marxist view of education:
3 ideological functions of education:
marxist
-
The reproduction of class inequality - by transmitting it through generations.
(This means that the wealthier pupils tend to get the best education and due to the passing of cultural capital, Meanwhile working class children are more likely to get a poorer standard of education ) -
The legitimation of class inequality: school justifies it.
(E.G. education spreads the myth of meritocracy- OR THE ILLUSION OF EDUCATION – they learn that everyone all have an equal chance to succeed depending on our effort and ability. Thus if we fail, we believe it is our own fault. This legitimates or justifies the system because we think it is fair when in reality it is not.
- This has the effect of controlling the working classes – if children grow up believing they have had a fair chance then they are less likely to rebel and try to change society as part of a Marxist revolutionary movement - Serving the needs for capitalist employer (Bowles + Gintis) {read flashcard} = leads to alienation = The education system prepares younger members of society to enter the world of work - alienating individuals from a young age as they begin to stray from the freedom they experienced as a child.
Gibson and Asthana on material deprivation
pointed out that there is a correlation between low household income and poor educational performance.
E.G:
- Higher levels of sickness in poorer homes may mean more absence from school and falling behind with lessons
- Less able to afford ‘hidden costs’ of free state education: books and computers are not available in the home. = known as the hidden curriculum = the nonacademic knowlgde thatpupils learn through informal agencies
- Tuition fees and loans would be a greater source of anxiety to those from poorer backgrounds
Supporting evidence for the importance of material deprivation
uni
The existence of private schools means the wealthy can afford a better education. Children from private schools are over-represented in the best universities.
Evaluations of material deprivation
- To say that poverty causes poor educational performance is too deterministic as some students from poor backgrounds do well.
- This can give them motivation to do well due to their ecomic background- challen3ge strerotypes and helps them to be able to achieve what their peers gets
- There are other differences between classes that may lead to working class underachievement. For example, cultural deprivation .
Class Differences in Education - internal
Teacher pupil relationships - Becker
Becker: Labelling and the Ideal Pupil.
He argued that middle class teachers have an idea of an ‘ideal pupil’. Pupils either speak in elaborated speech code, is polite, and smartly dressed teachers likely view middle class pupils more positively.
He found that teachers labelling students as either good or bad greatly influences their future academic development. If a student is labelled as smart and driven and has high expectations, they will do better later in school. If a student with the same skills is labelled unintelligent and bad-behaving, they’ll do badly. This is what we refer to as the self-fulfilling prophecy.
Willis -
Pupil Subcultures
- A subculture is a group whose beliefs, and values differ to some extent from the wider society
- Subcultures are in response to labelling:
- Willis’ research involved visiting one school and observed and interviewed 12 working class rebellious boys about their attitude. Willis described the friendship between these 12 boys as a counter-school culture. The Lads attached no value to academic work
- subverted the values of the school: for them academic success was frowned upon while “mucking about” was rewarded.
Pupil Subcultures - class and gender
Boys from different class backgrounds experience school differently.
W/C boys are generally under pressure to express traditional anti-school masculinities. = gain status from peers
M/C boys are more likely to try hard at school, expressing their masculinity through being competitive in examinations.
However, it could be argued that middle class boys still feel some pressure to be seen to not be making an effort in school. = to avoid negatives labels.
The organization of teaching and learning
Banding and Streaming
BALL
- Banding refers to the process of setting and streaming pupils of similar academic ability are taught together.
- Banding and Streaming disadvantages the working classes and some minority groups.
- Ball found that following comprehensivisation working class children were more likely to be put into lower sets as teachers devoted less attention to them.
= students were placed into 3 abilities bands when they first came to school [based on infomation provided by their primary schools]. While the bands were supposedly based on ability, Ball found that other criteria such as social class background determined what bands pupils were placed in. Pupils with similar abilities were more likely to be placed in the top and if they were from middle class.
The organization of teaching and learning = abscence
- Bourdieu argues that schools are middle class environments full of teachers with middle class values and tastes
- top stream students were warmed up by encouragement to achieve highly whereas lower stream students were cooled down and encourage follow lower status
- The absence of working class teachers with their distinct accents and dialects means that teachers fail to relate to working class children
Home factors affecting achievement
(CHANGES IN THE FAMILY)
Dual earner households- both heads of the household pursue careers and maintain a family life together.
This means more female worker role models - increases motivation to work hard - and to aspire into that klifetyle in the future
Social class
-Based on economic factors such as their occupation/income.
-M/c ppl tend to have non-manual jobs (teachers, lawyers)
-w/c people have manual jobs - skilled & unskilled (electrician)
Material deprivation
Refers to the inability for individuals/ households to afford material necessities.
. Gibson and Asthana (1999) pointed out that there is a correlation between low household income and poor educational performance
Statistics shows
‘nearly 90% of failing schools are located in deprived areas’
- housing
- nutrition
- finical difficulties
Flathehy: financial difficulties
What could be the reason of flaherys theory?
Identified a link between money problems & attendance at school (truancy)
Teasons: Fear of stigmatisation - students may fear embarrassed or get bullied because they may not have the correct uniform (may be ripped) , or may be FSM etc.
Financial restraints - transport issue (can’t afford to go to school)
Decreased motivation due to finance = no meoney, so lack the motivation
GIBSON AMD ASTHANA:
- Poorer parents will only be able to afford houses in poorer areas which tend to have higher rates of crime and other social problems.
Material deprivation: (housing)
Poor housing affects pupils achievement both indirectly & directly
- overcrowding
- disturbed sleep
- Effect health - respiratory illness = absence form school.
Links between underachievement & poor housing
EXAMPLES
- Less study space
- Hazards to health
- increased bullying in school
- High rates of stress
- Children in poor homes are more likely to live in cold and even damp conditions which results in higher levels which in turn will mean more absence from school and falling behind with lessons. This is especially the case since the cost of living crisis and soaring energy bills.
- Worse diets. They are more likely to skip meals, for example, which means they will be unable to concentrate in school.
AO3 - BBC documentary Poor Kids
‘47% of children with asthma are from the poorest” - means more time for tf school.
Pupils class identities & the school
Habitus
Habitus is a norm/value & characteristics of the M/C (E.G. flying business class/ eating caviar)
Developed by Bourdieu and refers to how m/c habitus is seen as superior in education - i.e. going to a student museum, which would benefit them. This therefore means that they have ‘symbolic capital’ they makes them seen as the ideal pupils.
symbolic capital - used to describe the assets that hold value in society
Associated with the idea of cultural capital and can also be applied to the idea of cultural deprivation and concepts such as immediate gratification.
Nike identities
- They show the relationship between W/C identity and educational failure.
- bc theyre denied the status and qualifictions in school
- Symbolic violence leads W/C kids to find other ways of creating self-worth, status and value. This was done by investing heavily in ‘styles’ like Nike.
- Style performances were heavily polices by peers, not conforming was a ‘social suicide’, the correct appearance earned symbolic capital/status.
pro school subculture
those who have been placed into high streams remain committed to the values of school. Thy gain status through academic success
anti/counter school subculture
placed into lower streams, given them an inferior status and therefore reject the school rules and gain status alternatively like truancy, not doing homework, rude to teachers
Rosenthal and Jacobsen ‘Pygmalion Effect’
- The expectations teachers have of their students inevitably effects the way that teachers interact with them, which ultimately leads to changes in the student’s behaviour and attitude.
- they argued that positive teacher labelling can lead to a self fulfilling prophecy in which the student internalise the label given to them and influence pupil performance
- Rosenthal and Jacobson found that teachers held high expectations to pupils who have better performance and low expectations to those who were underachieve
- Teacher had a preconceptional stereotypes
- both effects leads to self-fulfilling prophecy.
streaming
separating pupils into different ability groups or classes.- same sets for all subjects
Lacey - setting/streaming
Used two concepts to explain how pupil subculture develops:
1) Differentiation - teachers categories pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude.
2) Polarisation - refers to the way students become divided into two opposing groups, or ‘poles’: those in the top streams who achieve highly =achieve high status in school, and those in the bottoms sets who are labelled as failures and therefore deprived of status. = denied access to the same curriculum (not placed in a higher level exam)
Pupil subcultures
Are groups of students who share some value/norms and behaviour, which give them a sense of identify, and provide them with status through peer - group affirmation
Evaluation of Lacey- Woods
lacey view is too simplistic, they are other ways to separate pro/anti- subculture
- Ingratiation – teachers pet -Conformist pro-school.
- Opportunism – Pupils who fluctuate between seeking approval of teachers and form their peer groups.
- Ritualism – Pupils who stays out of trouble.
- rebellion: outright rejection of everything the school stands for.
evaluation of marxists view
- ignores the influence of the formal curriculum.
- ignores the interaction/processes within school
- willis disagrees with Bowles and Gintis. He uses an interactionist approach to argue that working-class pupils can resist indoctrination. Willis’ 1997 study found that by developing an anti-school subculture, a ‘lad culture’, working-class pupils rejected their subjugation by opposing schooling
marxist view of education
- take a class conflict approach. they see education as serving the needs of capitalism.
- Education is an ideological state apparatus that reproduces and legitimates class inequality through the correspondence principle and myth of meritocracy.
- Although pupils resist indoctrination, their counter-school subculture may prepare them for unskilled labor.
cultural deprivation:
Lacking the appropriate attitude, norms and values that’s necessary to succeed in ed. = seen as inferior
They lack the cultural capital needed to achieve because the pupils background’s, values and attitudes are seen as inferior.
three aspects to cultural dep:
- intellectual development
- language
cultural deprivation: intellectual development (thinking/reasoning skills.)
Bernstein and Young: 1967
M/c mothers are more likely to chose educational activities and books that encourages their thinking and prepares them for school.
Douglas: 1964
- W/C pupils score lower on tests than m/c pupils because w/c parents do not read to their children and they placed less value whilst M/c played a more active role.
(This included:
-visiting their Childs school to discuss progress.
-Gave their child stimulus during primary socialization.)
