education Flashcards
Durkheim (functionalist)
1. secondary socialisation: family → particular norms and values, education → passes on universal norms and values which forms fully functioning individuals
2. social solidarity: e.g. history teaches children to see the bigger picture and work towards common goals
3. skills: mass production, teaches specialist skills
Parsons (functionalist)
1. meritocracy: allocated based in individuals talent rather than social status. The shift between ascribed status to achieved status
2. role allocation: sifts and sorts people into appropriate jobs
3. universalistic standards: everyone is judged by the same standards
Davis and Moore (functionalist)
meritocracy works because of competition, because those who score well are the most determined and qualified rather than status
-longer in education, higher paid job
-inequality is a necessary evil
-social stratification allocates roles
Chubb and Moe (new right)
1. Parentocracy: private schools perform better than public because there are answerable to paying parents (value consensus set by parents)
2. Market Economy: competition within schools drive up the educational standards as school try to attract attention with impressive results
Marx (Marxism)
1. ideology: school constitute what is knowledge (doesn’t teach oppressed people that they are exploited)
2. exploitation: teaches proletariat children that they exist to be dominated and the ruling children they exist to dominate
3. alienation: prepares children for the workplace, as they obey authority and repeat the same monotonous tasks
Althusser (Marxism)
1. ideological state apparatus: controls peoples beliefs and values which obscures the reality of exploitation
2. obedient workforce: reproduces an obedient workforce through the hidden curriculum
Bowles and Gintis (Marxism)
- their study showed that independence and creativity received low grades and the education system encourages obedience while stunting personal growth
-myth of meritocracy: pupils judged based on class position rather than efforts and abilities
Marxist Feminists
1. girls are an oppressed class since subject choice is still gendered:
- history, art and english lit (feminine)
-math science and IT (masculine)
hidden curriculum teaches girl to accept their oppression
Paul Willis (Neo-Marxist)
argued working class people can resist indoctrination.
did a study and found that by developing an anti-school subculture, working class pupils rejected their subjugation
McRobbie
study of girls magazines…
1970s: showed the importance of getting married
nowadays: assertive independence
Sharpe
interviews…
1970s: low aspirations, education unfeminine
1990s: wanted a career
Francis
changes from feminism make girls’ self-image change and turn towards career which need higher educational qualifications
Gender and education stats
- 70% of girls getting an A-C compared to just 54% of boys in 2014
Norman
from an early age boys and girls are dressed differently, given different toys and join different activities
Murphy and Elwood
boys read hobby books while girls read stories about people hence why boys prefer science and girls english
the 1970 equal pay act
makes it illegal to pay women less than men for work of equal value
1975 sex discrimination act
outlaws discrimination at work
Mitsos and Browne
decline in male employment has led to an identity crisis which undermines their motivation to achieve qualifications at school
external factors that affect gender differences
- impact of feminism and changing ambitions: McRobbie, Sharpe and Francis
- changes in the family and socialisation: Norman, Murphy and Elwood
- changes in the labour market:1970 Equal Pay Act, 1975 Sex Discrimination Act, Mitsos and Browne
Sewell (gender and education)
education has become feminized and does not support masculine traits like competitiveness and leadership. They celebrate attentiveness in class (feminine) which makes boys feel undervalued and therefore underachieve
Kelly
science is seen as a boy’s subject since most science teachers are men and they use concepts drawn on boy’s interests such as sports balls to monopolize apparatus and make boys dominate lessons
Epstein (gender and education)
laddish subcultures contribute to boy’s underachievement; working class boys are likely to be harassed and subject to homophobic verbal abuse since their masculinity is equated with being tough and doing manual work
Parker
found that boys would be labelled and bullied if their didn’t reinforce hegemonic masculinity they would face verbal abuse to conform to dominant gender identities
Mac An Ghaill (gender and education)
found that teachers play a part of reinforce gender identities and male teachers told boys off for ‘behaving like girls’ which results in the segregation of genders within the school
Marketisation policies (gender and education)
created a more competitive environment, and schools find girls more desirable since they have better results
Jackson (gender and education)
league tables have improved the opportunities for girls and high achieving girls are more attractive to school which leads to self fulfilling prophecy since girls are more likely to be recruited by good schools and score well
Weiner
sexist images have been removed from learning materials which raise girls’ achievements because they now present more positive images of what women can do
Slee
boys are less attractive to schools because they are more likely to have behavioral problems and are four times more likely to be excluded
Leonard
single sex schools tend to hold less stereotypes and girls in mixed schools are less likely to take science and maths than in a single sex school while boys in mixed schools are less likely to take english than boys in single sex schools
internal factors in schools that affect gender differences
- feminization of education and gendered subjects: sewell, kelly, leonard
- laddish subcultures and gender identity: epstein, parker, Mac An Ghail
- Selection and marketization: Jackson, Marketisation, Slee
- Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum: Weiner
Class and education patterns
90% of failing schools are located in deprived areas
Pierre Bourdieu
argues that ‘capital’ explains why middle-class is so successful and says that middle class have economic capital (money), educational capital (qualifications), cultural capital
Feinstein and Bernstein
uneducated parents are more likely to use language than requires only descriptive statements (restricted code) which results in lower achievement since textbooks and tests are written in elaborated code (wider vocabulary and complex sentences)
Douglas
found that working class parents places less value on education so children had lower levels of motivation and achievement because they had low ambitions for their child, visited schools less often and gave less encouragement
lack of parental interest reflects the subcultural values of the working class
Sugarman
in a working class subculture…
1. fatalism: a belief in fate- there is nothing you can do to change your status
2. immediate gratification: seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices while middle class have deferred gratification (seeking rewards later leading to getting higher education etc.)
material deprivation (stats and definition)
refers to poverty and lack of material necessities
- 1/3 of FSM pupils achieve a 5 or more at GCSE english and maths
- exclusion and truancy are more likely from poorer families
- unlikely to return to mainstream education
Flaherty
money problems in the family lead to non-attendance in school
Housing (material deprivation)
overcrowding is common in working class families
-makes it harder for children to study at home
- increased likelihood of accidents and psychological distress leading to absence in school
Howard
Diet: working class families usually have lower intakes of energy meaning weakened immune system and a lack of concentration in class
Bull
Cost of education: working class families have to do without equipment, miss out on trips, hand me downs all resulting in isolation, stigmatisation and being bullied by peers
Noble
inability to afford private schooling or tuition will lead to poorer quality schools and they may also have to work part-time which can affect their education
Williams
argues that the problem is not the child’s language but the school’s attitude towards it, teachers have a speech hierarchy :middle class speech, working class speech, black speech
Mortimore
rejects the view that working-class parents are not interested, but they attend fewer meetings because they work longer hours, lack the education and knowledge to help
External factors for class differences:
- Cultural deprivation: Feinstein, Bernstein, Douglas and Sugarman
- Material deprivation: Flaherty, Housing, Howard, Bull and Noble
Labelling
attach a meaning or definition to pupil and label them, usually teachers base it on stereotypes such as working class negatively and middle class positively
Becker
label pupils based on how close they are to being the ‘ideal pupil’ based on work, appearance and conduct
Gazeley
in 9 secondary schools, teachers normalized the underachievement of working-class pupils and felt they could do nothing about it, labelled the WC parents as uninterested, MC parents are supportive, extension tasks given to MC, and WC given easier tests (setting and streaming)
Self fulfilling prophecy (steps)
- teachers label a pupil
- teacher treats pupil according to label
- pupil internalizes the teacher’s expectation and becomes part of their self-image, prediction is fulfilled
Jacobson
told a school about a new IQ test, and picked 20% at random then told the school they would ‘spurt ahead’, a year later 47% of those sputters made significant progress, proving self-fulfilling prophecy
setting and streaming (class)
different ability grounds, working class sorted into lower ability class, middle class sorted into higher ability class, and self-fufilling prophecy
Youdell
teachers were less likely to see the WC and black children as having ability leading to lower streams and lower GCSEs linked to league tables, league tables attracts pupils and funding so they will only choose top students
Gillborn and Youdell
educational triage:
1. those who will pass without help
2. those who have potential
3. those who are doomed to fail
the triage is the basis for streaming, teacher’s belief about the ability of the WC segregates them into lower streams where they receive less attention, support and resources resulting in lower achievement
Lacey
Differentiation: categorizing pupils based on ability and attitude
e.g. ‘more able’ pupils are given a high status by being placed in high stream
Polarisation: pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of the poles ‘pro school vs anti school subculture’
pro-school subculture: high streams, committed to the values of the school, academic success
anti-school subculture: low streams, loss of self esteem, look for status by being accepted by peers and rejecting school values
Ball
found that comprehensive school’s setting and produced polarisation and when school abolished setting, polarisation was removed but differentiation continued, teachers continued to label MC as co-operative leading to better exam results (SFP)
Leech and Compos
‘selection by mortgage’: middle-class parents are more likely to be able to afford a house in an area of a school placed high on exam tables because house costs are high in these areas excluding WC
Ingram
working class is not the issue, two groups of working class were selected from the same neighborhood, one sent to a grammar school and passed their exam, while the one who went to the local secondary school, failed
Internal factors that affect class differences
- labelling and SFP: Becker, Gazeley, and Jacobson
- Setting and streaming: Youdell, Gillborn and Youdell,
- pupil subcultures: Lacey and Ball
- Class Identity: Leech and Compos, Ingram
Ethnicity and Education (patterns and trends)
- Chinese and Indian pupils achieving above national average
- white WC pupils attend to achieve lower
- 23% of white boys on FSM gained 5 A-C grades at GCSE
- whites and asians do better than black pupils
Bereiter and Engelmann
- language spoken by low-income black American families, is ungrammatical, disjointed and incapable of expressing abstract ideas
-those who do not speak english at home will do worse than those that do HOWEVER, those who said english was their first language was only 3.2 points ahead than those who didn’t
Moynihan
black families are headed by a lone mother, children deprived of adequate care because she struggles financially without a breaderwinner, boys do not have an adequate male role model, cultural deprivation cycle begins (inadequately socialized children from unstable families will produce unstable families)
Charles Murray
high rate of lone parenthood and lack of positive male ole models will lead to underachievement in minorities
Pryce
Asians are higher achievers because their culture is more resistant to racism, while black Caribbean culture is less cohesive and resistant so many black pupils have low self esteem and underachieve
Sewell (external ethnicity)
problem isn’t the absence of the father for black boys but its the lack of tough love and adequate discipline, street gangs present boys with a media inspired role model of anti school black masculinity, leads to black boys thinking that doing well at school is selling out to a white establishment
Lupton
adult authority in Asian families is similar to the models that operate school, parents are more likely to be supportive of school behaviour policies
Mason
Discrimination is a persistent experience for minorities in Britain which shows how racial discriminations leads to social exclusion and worsens poverty causing housing issues in poorly educated areas regardless of class
Wood et Al
sent 3 closely matched job applications, with each name associated with a particular ethnic group, only 1/16 ethnic minorities were accepted compared 1/9 white applicants
Gillborn (race)
it is not peer pressure, but institutional racism that systematically produces a large number of failing black boys
Geoffrey Driver
criticizes cultural deprivation for ignoring the positive effects of ethnicity such as black caribbean families would provide girls with a positive role model of a strong independent woman which is why black girls tend to do better than black boys.
Keddie
cultural deprivation is a victim-blaming explanation since ethnic kids are just culturally different not culturally deprived and it’s because schools are ethnocentric
External factors for ethnic different
- cultural deprivation: Bereiter and Engelmann, Moynihan, Charles Murray, Pryce, Sewell, and Lupton
- Racism in wider society: Mason, and Wood Et Al
Gillborn and Youdell (ethnicity)
black pupils: teachers are quicker to discipline black pupils because they expect them to have more discipline issues causing them to misinterpret situations, more likely to be put in lower sets, SFP
asian pupils: spoken to in a childish language because assumed they can’t speak english well, not seen as threat but as a problem teachers can ignore
Mirza
identified 3 main types of teacher racism:
1. The colour blind: allow racism to go unchallenged
2. The liberal chauvinists: low expectations
3. The overt racists: actively discriminate
Sewell (internal ethnicity)
4 responses to teacher racism:
1. The rebels: rejected school goals and conformed to ‘black macho lad’ stereotype
2. The conformists: accepted schools goals and rules
3. The retreatists: disconnected from both school and black subcultures
4. The innovators: pro-education but anti-school, value success not approval
Davenport
selection procedures lead to ethnic segregation, fail to get into better secondary schools
- schools screen out pupils with language difficulties
- application process difficult for non-english speaking parents
leads to ethnically stratified education system
David
national curriculum is ‘specifically British’ ignores non-European language, literature and music
Ball (ethnicity internal)
ignores ethnic diversity and promotes ‘Little Englandism’ e.g. history ignores the history of black and asian people
Gillborn (ethnicity internal)
argues that assessments rigged to validate the dominant culture’s superiority since they are replaced with a foundational stage profile and then black pupils appeared to be doing worse than white pupils (2000 to 2003)
Youdell (ethnicity internal)
publishing league tables leads to large number of black and WC pupils being put into lower sets, and lower tier exams, so its not due to racism
internal factors for ethnic differences
- labelling and teacher racism: Gillborn and Youdell, Mirza, and Sewell
- Institutional Racism: Davenport, David, and Ball
- Assessment: Gillborn
Educational policies
all laws, regulations, and processes that are designed and implemented to achieve particular educational goals
The tripartite system (1944)
introducing grammar schools, technical schools and secondary moderns
introduced secondary schooling for those who passed 11+ could go to grammar schools and the rest went to secondary moderns
- started the gender segregation
The comprehensive system (1960)
the three schools from the tripartite system combined into one the ‘comprehensive school’
equal status, equal opportunity, mixed-ability grouping
new vocationalism (1976)
more vocational courses to tackle unemployment
The education reform act (1988)
introduced…
- national curriculum (all pupils learning the same content)
- SATs
- GCSEs
- league tables (more parental choice, and more budgeting powers)
established a market in the education system, parents attracted funding (parentocracy), incentive to get better exam results
marketization initiatives
schools encouraged to compete against each other through…
- national curriculum: formalize educational standards and standardized testing as well
- league tables: publicist which schools are doing well, created a sense of competition
- OFSTED: schools evaluated by OFSTED and rated to improve educational standards
New labour educational policies
sure start programme: home life into children’s learning, financial assistance, home visits etc.
educational action zones: set up in deprived urban zones
impacts of globalisation
increase interconnectedness and competition transcends beyond national borders
