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