Education

Question 1

What is the functionalist view of education?

Answer 1

Socialisation into value consensus, equipping individuals with specialist work skills and role allocation.

Question 2

What is the Marxist view on education?

Answer 2

Education serves the needs of capitalism and is an ideological state apparatus that reproduces/legitimises class inequality though correspondence principle and myth of meritocracy.

Question 3

What is the feminist view on education?

Answer 3

Education enforces gender stereotypes and teaches girls to be submissive to the patriarchal society.

Question 4

What is the New Right view on education?

Answer 4

They believe education can only perform its role effectively if its organised on market principles rather run by the state.

Question 5

What is cultural deprivation?

Answer 5

The basic values, attitudes and skills needed for educational success such as language, parents’ education and working-class subcultures.

Question 6

What did Bernstein theorise?

Answer 6

Middle-class uses the elaborated code: it has wider vocabulary and is varied, communicating abstract ideas
Working-class uses the restricted code: it has limited vocabulary and is not analytical.

Question 7

What is a strength of Bernstein’s speech code theory?

Answer 7

He recognises that school and the home influence children’s achievement as he argued that schools fail to teach the elaborated code to the working-class

Question 8

What is Douglas’s findings?

Answer 8

He found working-class parents place less value on education, making them less ambitious for their children and were less likely to discuss their child’s progress w/ teachers

Question 9

What is the difference between middle-class and working-class parents?

Answer 9

Middle-class parents use consistent discipline and place high expectations on their children, encouraging active learning and exploration while working-class parents use harsh discipline preventing independence and self control. Middle-class parents are also more educated and thus understand the importance of extracurriculars.

Question 10

What are the features of Sugarman’s working-class subculture?

Answer 10

Fatalism - a belief in fate
Collectivism - value being part of a group over individual success
Immediate gratification - seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices for the future
Present-time orientation - seeing the present as more important than the future

Question 11

What is a limitation of the cultural deprivation theory?

Answer 11

Keddie describes cultural deprivation as a myth, dismissing the idea that failure at school can be blamed on a culturally deprived home. She argues that a child is culturally different and not culturally deprived.

Question 12

What is material deprivation?

Answer 12

Poverty and lack of material necessities such as poor housing and income.

Question 13

How does poor housing affect achievement?

Answer 13

Overcrowding can make it harder for students to find a place to study and it can also cause disrupted sleep which leads to lack of focus in schools.
Families living in temporary housing may have to move frequently which disrupts education.
Cold or damp housing can lead to illnesses resulting in absence from school and gaps in knowledge.

Question 14

How does diet and health affect achievement?

Answer 14

Howard notes that working-class children have low intake of energy, vitamins and minerals which leads to poor nutrition. This weakens the immune system, also lowering energy levels, which results in absence and difficulties concentrating.

Question 15

What do Blanden and Machin say about working-class children?

Answer 15

They are more likely to engage in externalising behaviour such as fighting and temper tantrums, resulting in disruption to school.

Question 16

How does lack of income affect achievement?

Answer 16

Poor families cannot afford proper equipment for their child so they have to make do without it.
Children from poorer families have to take up jobs to help their family, taking focus away from school.
Low income families are put off university due to costs.

Question 17

What is Bourdieu’s explanation for why middle-class pupils achieve?

Answer 17

Cultural capital - middle-class children have the ability to grasp, analyse and express abstract ideas, more likely to develop intellectual interests and are thus rewarded w/ qualifications
Economic/educational capital - middle-class pupils can afford private education and tutors as well as houses in good catchment areas

Question 18

What is a strength of Bourdieu’s cultural capital?

Answer 18

Sullivan used questionnaires to asses cultural capital and found those who read complex fiction and watch documentaries develop wider vocabulary and greater cultural knowledge and these pupils were children of graduates (middle-class).

Question 19

What are the internal factors affecting achievement?

Answer 19

Labelling - teachers label pupils from as early as primary school based on stereotyped assumptions
Self-fulfilling prophecy - a prediction that comes true by virtue of it being made, I.e. labelling
Streaming - separating children into different ability groups using the educational triage
Pupil subcultures - a group of pupils sharing similar values/behaviour patterns
Pupil identities - pupils have individual identities (e.g Nike identities) and class identities

Question 20

What do Dunne and Gazeley say?

Answer 20

School’s persistently produce working-class underachievement due to labelling. They conducted interviews in nine English state secondary schools and found teachers normalise working-class underachievement as they labelled working-class parents as uninterested in education.

Question 21

What did Ray Rist’s study show?

Answer 21

Teachers labelled students in primary schools and placed them in seating plans according to these labels. Fast learners were identified due to their neatness and middle-class, labelled at “tigers” and were placed together and shown encouragement. Pupils identified at “clowns” were seated further away and given less challenging tasks.