Education 🎀 Flashcards
Private schools stat
they only educate 7% of Britains children and they account for nearly half of all students entering the elite universities
external factors explaining class differences
cultural deprivation - study by the centre for longitudinal studies 2007 found that by age 3 children from disadvantaged backgrounds are already up to one year behind those from privileged homes
language
hubbs tait 2002 - when parents use language that challenges their children to evaluate their abilities, cognitive abilities improve
feinstein 2008 - more highly qualified parents are likely to use language in a beneficial way
Troyna and Williams 1986 - the problem is not the language it’s the schools attitude towards it
Speech codes
Bernstein 1975 - restricted and elaborated speech code
Parents’ education
Douglas 1964 - w/c parents place less value on education so are less ambitious for their children
Material deprivation
Flaherty 2004 - money problems in the family are a significant factor in children’s low attendance
90% of failing schools are in deprived areas
housing - overcrowding
diet + health
howard 2001 - young people from poor families have poorer health
cost of education
tanner 2003 - hidden costs of education put a financial burden on families
Cultural capital
Bordieu 1984 - came up with cultural capital
Alice Sullivan 2001 - people with more cultural capital achieved higher
definition: knowledge, attitudes, values, language etc.
labelling (internal factor)
Becker 1971 - study of labelling on 60 chicago high school teachers - they judged pupils on how closely they fit the image of the “ideal pupil”
- 3 steps -
1. teacher labels a student
2. teacher treats student accordingly
3. pupil internalises the teachers expectation and then fulfils the prophecy
Fuller 1984 - black girls reject negative labelling
streaming (internal factor)
separating children into different ability groups
Gillborn and Youdell 2001 - teachers are less likely to see w/c black pupils as having high ability and they are more likely to be in lower streams
A-to-C economy - teachers focus their time on the pupils who have the potential to get five grade Cs
subcultures (internal)
Lacey 1970 - differentiation and polarisation
differentiation: process of teachers categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability to
polarisation: pupils respond to streaming by joining either pro or anti school subcultures
Hargreaves 1967 - boys were labelled as worthless louts due to a triple failure and formed anti school subcultures
Willis - learning to labour 1977
pupils class identities
habitus - ways of thinking acting or being shared by a particular social class
schools have middle class habitus so working class students do not feel valued or accepted
Nike identities: w/c seek status by investing in brands like Nike to seek peer approval
Bordieu 1984: w/c students felt that oxbridge was “not for us”
institutional racism
David 1993 - the national curriculum is “specifically british”
ethnocentric curriculum
teacher biases and stereotypes
gender gap stats
GCSEs in 2019: 3/4 of girls grades were at pass level or above while only 2/3 of boys grades were
A Levels: 53% girls achieve A*-B compared to 49.8% boys
impact of feminism
increased divorce rate
1970 equal pay act
changes in girls ambitions - Sue sharpe 1994 study on girls in the 70s and 90s
GIST - girls into science and technology
WISE - women into science and engineering
factors for gender differences in achievement
GCSE and coursework
mitsos and browne - girls are better at coursework because they’re more organised
teacher attention
francis 2001 - boys get more attention but also get disciplined more harshly
girls are more attractive to schools because they improve their league table position
positive female role models
boys and achievement
reading is perceived as a feminine activity so boys have poorer literacy skills
decline in heavy industries and mitsos and browne think this leads to an “identity crisis for men”
feminisation of education - tony sewell says boys fall behind because of this
shortage of male primary school teachers - only 13% are male
functionalist perspective
Durkheim 4 functions
1. social solidarity
2. role allocation
3. socialisation
4. specialist skills
Parsons - meritocracy and school is a socialisation bridge
Davis + Moore - role allocation
new right
state education disregards local needs so are inefficient
they have no accountability to their consumers so have lower standards unlike private schools
government should provide an allowance for parents to pay for their kids to go to private schools
education should affirm national identity
Chubb and Moe - state run education has failed because it is not accountable to consumers and fails the needs of disadvantaged groups
evaluation: gerwitz and ball - competition between schools benefits the middle class who can use their cultural capital
marxist perspective
Althusser - ISA + RSA
Bowles and Gintis - correspondence principle and hidden curriculum - schools teach skills needed for the workplace and there are many parallels
myth of meritocracy
Willis - learning to labour - w/c find education meaningless
