Education Flashcards
Consensus theory
Society works for a communal goal.
Conflict theorists
Society based over one powerful group’s interests.
Functionalists - functions of education
Working together to achieve social consensus:
-specialist skills
-role allocation
-social solidarity
-meritocracy
-social cohesion
Social solidarity -Durkheim
-Argues school is ‘society in miniature’ & education provides secondary socialisation. & helps morality: discipline, attachment & autonomy.
-Transmits society’s norms & values from one generation to the next.
Value consensus
A shared set of norms and values everyone agrees on and is expected to commit to and enforce.
Organic analogy
Durkheim argued that society was like a human body.
Society was made up of various institutions that acted like the organs of the body: they all needed to be functioning properly for the body to function.
Social stratification
It refers to the ranking of various social groups on a scale, most commonly along the lines of gender, class, age, or ethnicity.
Role allocation - Davis & Moore
-They argued that certain roles in society were more important than others. In order for these crucial roles to be fulfilled in the best possible way, society needs to attract the most talented and qualified people for these jobs.
-Their talent should be rewarded through social status.
-Social inequality and stratification are inevitable in every society, as they perform a beneficial function for society.
-Social inequality is to motivate the most talented individuals to fulfil the most necessary and complex tasks in wider society.
Human capital - Blow & Otis (1978)
Refers to the economic value of a worker’s experience and skills. Human capital includes assets like education, training, intelligence, skills, health, and other things employers value such as loyalty and punctuality.
Meritocracy - Young (1958)
-Society whereby jobs and pay are allocated based on an individual’s talent and achievements rather than social status.
-School acts as an agent of socialisation bridging the gap between family & wider society.
Parsons perspective on education
Home:
-Particularistic values - parents treat child as own , unique child rather than judging by universal standards.
-Ascribed status - beyond an individuals control, not earned or chosen.
Wider society:
-Universalistic values- rules & values that apply equally to all members of society.
-Ascribed status - position that is earned or chosen.
Marxism & education
-Education aims to legitimise and reproduce class inequalities by forming a submissive and obedient workforce. -Education also prepares children of the capitalist ruling class (the bourgeoisie) for positions of power.
-Proletariat is exploited (working class).
-Education is a market to boost economy.
-Conflict theory.
Althusser (1971)
State ensure bourgeoise maintain dominant position in 2 ways:
- Repressive state apparatus (RSA): maintain role with THREAT of force e.g. police, court etc.
- Ideological state apparatus (ISA): maintain role with controlling ideas, beliefs, values. BRAINWASHING. E.g. religion, media, education system.
Criticisms of ISA theory
-REPRODUCES class inequality: transmits class inequality from generation to generation.
-LEGITIMISES class inequality: persuades workers to accept that inequality is inevitable & they deserve their subordinate position in society, therefore they are less likely to challenge capitalism.
Evaluation of Marxist views
:( Post modernists argue that education reproduces diversity not inequality.
:( Feminists say they reproduce patriarchy not just capitalism.
:( Determinists assume that pupils have no free will & passively accept indoctrination.
:( Critical modernists argue Marxists dismiss other forms of inequality; racism, sexism.
:( Functionalists believe school promotes social mobility.
:( NR value competition.
Hegemony definition
Group of people in society who had the most power & are most popular.
The long shadow of work (LSOW)- Bowles & Gintis
Idea of work is embedded in education that work makes a shadow over education system.
Through the HIDDEN CURRICULUM.
Mimics & prepares social relationships that’ll happen in the workplace.
LSOW study
237 New York students found that obedient students received higher grades than independent ones.
Hidden curriculum definition
Set of values taught unconventionally e.g. obeying teachers, concentration, respect.
Correspondence principle
-Bowles and Gintis suggest that education mirrors the workplace in its organisation, rewards systems uniforms, strict time-keeping, hierarchy, punishments, etc.
-They argued that this prepared pupils for life in the capitalist system and prevented rebellion or revolution.
Phil Cohen 1984
Argues that youth education serves capitalism by teaching young workers not genuine job skills but rather attitudes and values in a subordinate workforce.
Definition of ‘The lads’
Working class boys who break rules, are troublemakers, have an anti school subculture etc.
- criticises Marxism, as Marxists believe they follow education blindly.
Paul Willis - The Lads experiment
‘Working class kids get working class jobs’
-Studied 12 w/c boys who had an anti school subculture - swore at teachers, revolted, smoked, truanted & were aggressive and actively rejected school.
-They valued manual Labour jobs as it was perceived as masculine over white collared jobs like their family.
-Hated the ‘earoles’ who obeyed teachers.
-He observed, interviewed, recorded group discussions etc.
The Lads experiment findings
-The boys had agency & actively chose to fail in education system.
-However in doing so they fulfilled capitalist needs for low-skilled, low-paid workers who would accept a lifetime of alienating work.
School & Work in capitalist society
-competition & divisions amongst students ie. (coming top of the class) , reflect competition & divisions in workforce (promotions/difference in status/pay).
-hierarchy of authority in school (teachers and students) reflect authority in work (managers and workers).
-alienation through students lack of control over education (what they study) reflects lack of control over production.
Willis evaluation
-used qualitative research (may not be applicable)
-unrepresentative
:( Feminists criticise that they are disregarding issues with inequalities as the lads mistreat women.
Self fulfilling prophecy (internal)
-Prediction which comes true simply by virtue of it having been made. -Interactionists argue that labelling can affect pupils achievement by creating a self fulfilling prophecy.
Step 1: teacher labels students.
Step 2: treats pupil accordingly as if prediction is true.
Step 3: pupil internalises expectation & it becomes a part of their self image.
Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968)
-Told schools they had a test designed to identify students who score ahead (untrue - standard testing).
-Teachers believed what they were told.
-Researches tested pupils & selected 20% at random and told school they were spurters.
-1 year later, 47% of the spurters made significant progress.
Limitation of self fulfilling prophecy - Fuller (1984)
Negative labelling can sometimes have the opposite effect – Margaret Fuller’s (1984) research on black girls in a London comprehensive school found that the black girls she researched were labelled as low-achievers, but their response to this negative labelling was to knuckle down and study hard to prove their teachers and the school wrong.
Differentiation & Polarisation - Colin Lacey (1970)
-Process of teachers cater gori sing pupils to how they perceive their abilities, attitudes and/or behaviour.
-Kids are set & streamed.
-Consequence is polarisation - students become divided into two opposing groups, or ‘poles’: those in the top streams who achieve highly, who more or less conform, and therefore achieve high status in the terms of the values and aims of the school, and those in the bottoms sets who are labelled as failures and therefore deprived of status.
Setting & Streaming definitions (internal)
Setting - children are grouped by ability according to subject (diff sets)
Streaming - children placed in high or low stream depending on average, general academic ability.
Pro school —> Anti school (Woods)
PRO-SCHOOL
-ingratification - eager to please.
-compliance - conforming.
-opportunism - gaining approval.
-ritualism - lack of interest.
-retreatism - indifferent.
-colonisation - accepts school as it is & rejects what it lacks.
-intransigence - troublemakers , indifferent to consequences.
-rebellion - rejection of school & its values.
ANTISCHOOL
Peter Woods (1979)
Woods suggested that students don’t easily split into subcultures, instead he suggested that there is a wide variety of responses to school, and pupils can switch between different adaptations as they progress through their school careers.
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John Furlong (1984)
Observed that many pupils are not committed permanently to any one response, but may move between different types of response, acting differently in lessons with different teachers.
Stephen Ball (1981): Beachside Comprehensive
-Showed that in Beachside comprehensive school, banding had produced the kind of polarisation described by Lacey.
-Ball found that when the school abolished banding, the basis for pupils to polarise into subcultures was largely removed and the influence of the anti-school subculture declined.
-However, differentiation continued and teacher’s continued to categorise pupils differently and were more likely to label middle-class pupils as cooperative and able.
-This positive label resulted in better exam results, showing the self-fulfilling prophecy
The centre of longitudinal studies (2007) (external)
By 3 years of age, children from disadvantaged backgrounds are 1 year behind those more privileged & gap widens as they grow older:
-parents cant read to kids.
-accessibility to tech.
-lack of attention (parents at work dual income).
-cultural capital - museums.
-may go to worse schooling based on area
Material deprivation (external) meaning
Lacking in basic goods & necessities e.g. housing, diet & health, financial support & cost of education etc.
Material deprivation study
-Department of education found that barely 1/3rd of pupils eligible for free school meals achieve 5 or more GCSEs at A*-C against nearly 2/3rds.
-John Flaherty (2004) says that the money problems in a family were a factor when it came to children not attending school.
The children that became excluded from schools were very unlikely to return to education in any shape or form and come out with no qualifications what so ever.
-Nearly 90% of failing schools are located in deprived areas.
-The link that is made between both poverty and social class is very close.
Primary socialisation in education
-Thought that children socialised by their families in early stages of their lives, learn values, attitudes & skills needed for educational success.
-Provides cultural equipment: language, self discipline & reasoning skills.
-Believed w/c families don’t provide this.
Cultural capital - Bordieu
Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital refers to the collection of symbolic elements such as skills, tastes, posture, clothing, mannerisms, material belongings, credentials, etc. that one acquires through being part of a particular social class.
Alice Sullivan (2001)
Carried out quantitative study of Bordieu’s ideas in 4 schools & studied Y11 pupils.
Assessed:
- class of pupil.
- level of cultural capital.
- their educational achievement.
Findings:
-Graduated / m/c parents = more cultural capital.
-More cultural capital = higher GCSE results.
Criticism:
-Doesn’t measure what it’s supposed to & depends on personal interests.
-Ethnocentric. May be m/c in diff country.
Bordieu - Habitus
-Schools place higher value on the MC as they share the same habitus.
-WC feels inferior due to having a different habitus considered of less value.
-To succeed in education CC must be transmitted to students.
- through activities like enrichment, PSHE, school trips etc.
-WC may struggle without it.
Symbolic violence
-reproduces class structure.
-keeps lower classes in place.
Economic capital definition
Wealthy people have advantage by sending kids to private schools & tuition.
Educational capital definition
May live closer to successful schools (not WC families).
‘Selection of mortgage’ MC more likely to afford house in catchment areas of school places in high exam league tables.
Symbolic capital & Symbolic violence
MC have same habitus as in school so they gain symbolic capital - status & recognition - therefore they feel accepted & valued and are likely to achieve.
WC have an ‘inferior’ habitus and their culture is devalued (accent, appearance) & so they fail to gain symbolic capital and experience symbolic violence which is acts of violence that school rejects WC achievement. Therefore WC are alienated.
How does accent/language link to achievement?
How parents speak to their kids has an impact on their cognitive ability.
- Hobbs-tait et al (2002) - language challenging children to evaluate understanding e.g. “Why do you think that?”
- Feinstein (2008) - less educated parents ask more descriptive closed end questions e.g. “What colour is this?”
- Feinstein - educated parents praise more so children become competent.
