Education Flashcards
Social cohesion
The bonds that bring people together and intergrate them into a united society.
Functionalist views on education
They see education as an important agency of socialisation. It helps keep social cohesion.
Durkheim’s four functions of education
- Passing on society’s culture and building social solidarity. It passes on core values and culture of society to new generations.
- He argued that schools are like mini societies, this prepares young people for later life. Parsons sees schools as important places of secondary socialisation.
- Schultz developed ‘human capital’ = which suggests that high levels of spending on education are justified as these develop people’s knowledge and skills, and this investment is an important factor in a successful economy.
- Davis + Moore, the education system selects and sifts through for different levels of the job market, making sure that the most talented and qualified get the best jobs. By streaming people through grades etc. Meritoracy.
Social mobility
Movement of people or groups through the social hierarchy (social class.)
Hidden curriculum - Bowles + Gintis
The unwritten rules, values and normative patterns of behaviour which students are expected to conform to and learn while in school. Introduces children to authority.
Social solidarity
Intergration of people into society through shared values, common culture and shared understandings and social ties that bring them together and build social cohesion.
Particularistic values
Values that give a priority to personal relationships.
Universalistic values
Rules and values that apply equally to all members of society, regardless of who they are.
Meritocracy
A society where jobs and pay are allocated purely based on people’s skills, talents, qualifications etc.
Human capital
The knowledge and skills possessed by a workforce that increase that workforces value and usefulness to employers.
Division of labour
The division of work or occupations into large numbers or specialised tasks, each of which is carried out by one worker or groups.
Functional prerequisites
Basic needs that must be met if society is to survive.
School provides specialist skills (Emile Durkheim)
Education provides students with specific skills they need to be part of complex division of labour in a modern society.
Davis + Moore : Role Allocation
The education system sifts and sorts students into their future roles in society. This is done by promoting meritocracy and rewarding students based upon their ability.
Parsons - Secondary Socialisation
Schools is the bridge between home + society. At home student have particularstic values. Schools transform these into universal values which are present in wider society.
Althusser - Ideological state apparatus (Marxist)
Education has replaced religion as the biggest ideological state apparatus and allows the ruling class to control the thoughts of the working class and accept inequality. This is done by convincing people they aren’t good enough when really the system is totally against them in the first place.
Bourdieu - Culture Capital (Marxist)
The education system disadvantages the working class because their culture and habitus is not respected by the education system. Education system favours middle class system.
Internal factors for girls doing well in education
More female role models - Rise of feminism has meant there are more female rolemodels in society. Female teachers, heads of department and head teachers offer girls the motivation to work harder.
Feminisation of education - It has been suggested that the education system has become feminised. Collaborative teaching methods and coursework favour girls over boys. More female teachers, schools are seen as part of the feminine domain.
Introduction of GCSE and coursework - These are said to have improved the performane of girls in educatoin as girls are more thorough in their organisation and presentation and spend more time on coursework than boys who prefer high stakes tests.
External factors for girls improvement in education
Rise of feminism - Second and third wave feminism have given girls higher aspirations in society as a whole. The expectation of girls being stay at home mums are a thing of the past.
Female role models - With more women working than ever before, young girls are seeing their mothers as role models for their own careers.
Gender socialisation and literacy - Girls, through their socialisation, develop better literacy skills than boys and this puts them at an early advantage in education.
External factors ethnic differences in education
Racism in wider society - African + Caribbean + Pakistani families more susceptible to racism in wider society impacting on job chances in later life. Racism leads to negative stereotypes which have an impact on the way students are treated in school.
Parental involvement - Parental involvement varies between groups.
Material deprivation - Minority ethnic groups often belong in the lower classes and are unenployed. This impacts on their ability to purchase resorces for school, place to study, travel costs etc.
Language differences.
