education

Question 1

what are the five functions of education according to functionalists?

Answer 1

secondary socialisation
focal socialising agency
social solidarity
specialist skills
role allocation

Question 2

what is secondary socialisation?

Answer 2

learning norms and values beyond the family. children learn norms such as queuing for dinner and values such as respect. teaching children the values of society helps to create value consensus to ensure society runs smoothly

Question 3

what is focal socialising agency?

Answer 3

parsons argues that school is a FSA that acts as a bridge between the family and wider society. in the family, children are judged by particularistic standards - treated as special individuals. whereas in wider society, people are judged by universalistic standards - same rules apply to everyone.

Question 4

what is social solidarity?

Answer 4

according to durkheim, education helps to create social solidarity - students feel part of society. students feel part of a bigger group and not separate individuals eg. uniform and embedding school ethos

Question 5

what are specialist skills?

Answer 5

education teaches children the basic skills needed for the workplace eg. communication and numeracy. durkheim argues that schools teach specialist skills over time and students narrow down their subjects to become experts

Question 6

what is role allocation?

Answer 6

davis and moore argue that schools ‘sift and sort’ students into future job roles through assessments and exams. this is role allocation. students who do well will get good jobs hat require a lot of skill and students who don’t do well will get jobs that require less skill

Question 7

what is the new right perspective?

Answer 7

new right sociologists agree with functionalist views that education should be meritocratic, students should be socialised into the values of society and prepared for work.

however, new right sociologists believe that the current education system is failing to perform these functions because it’s controlled by the state

Question 8

what is marketisation, parentocracy and privatisation?

Answer 8

marketisation - schools act like businesses, using marketing strategies to attract students and parents

parentocracy - the idea that it is the parents that make decisions and choices in the education system

privatisation - taking state funded education out of state control and into the hands of private companies.

Question 9

what is meritocracy?

Answer 9

an education where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed and where individuals are judged on their own merit / effort rather than their class, gender or ethnicity

Question 10

what are the marxist functions of education?

Answer 10

legitimising class inequality
reproducing class inequality
creating passive workers

Question 11

what is ‘legitimising class inequality’?

Answer 11

althusser argues that education is a key part of the ISA (an institution spreading ruling class beliefs), which controls how we think. schools persuade students to accept capitalist values, such as obeying authority.

schools keep working class kids in a state of false class consciousness (don’t know they’re exploited). bowles and gintis - meritocracy is a myth - w/c students brainwashed into thinking capitalist society is meritocratic

Question 12

what is ‘reproducing class inequality’?

Answer 12

bourdieu - main role of education is to reproduce class structure by keeping working class in their place. each class has a habitus (way of thinking). m/c can impose its habitus into education.
m/c - symbolic capital - gain status and recognition
w/c - symbolic violence - culture is devauled and forced to learn m/c habitus
meaning w/c stay in low paid jobs

Question 13

what is symbolic capital?

Answer 13

middle class students gain recognition and status from school because education favours middle class habitus.

Question 14

what is symbolic violence?

Answer 14

working class students’ culture and habitus devalued and they are forced to learn middle class knowledge and values.

Question 15

what is ‘creating passive workers’?

Answer 15

hidden curriculum - everything taught informally - not taught in lessons such as making friends and talking to teachers. marxists - hidden curriculum transmits norms and values of ruling class.
bowles and gintis - hidden c is used to make w/c students passively accept their place - low paid jobs

correspondence principle - schools mirror world of work. bowles and gintis - prepare students for future job roles. eg motivation through extrinsic awards - pupils - grades and awards, employees - promotion or pay rise

Question 16

what is the correspondence principle?

Answer 16

the idea that schools mirror the world of work. Bowles and Gintis argue school is preparing students for their future job roles.

Question 17

how does school mirror the workplace?

Answer 17

> students and employees accept hierarchies of power
school uniform / dress code
motivation through extrinsic rewards - grades and awards / promotions and pay rises
alienation - pupils and employees have no control over work
competition - pupils compete to be in the top of the class or to be in a high set. workers compete for promotion and pay rises

Question 18

what is the study of ‘the lads’?

Answer 18

willis (neo marxist) argues students aren’t brainwashed into being obedient workers - some rebel. He studied 12 working class boys who formed an anti-school subculture. These boys ended up in low paid, unskilled jobs showing that even if children rebel, they still end up exploited by the working class.

Question 19

what’s the difference between radical and liberal feminists?

Answer 19

radical - believe male dominance still exists, more extreme approach

liberal - they believe society is progressing because change is happening

Question 20

what are the four ways in which school reproduces patriarchal ideology?

Answer 20

1) male gaze - boys ‘look girls up and down’ and see them as sexual objects
2) subject choice - girls are discouraged, believing they need a ‘boy brain’
3) school leadership - many head teachers are male and many teachers are female
4) uniform policies - girls have stricter uniform policies

Question 21

evaluation of the four ways school reproduces patriarchal ideology

Answer 21

1) male gaze - boys have become more educated to respect women
2) subject choice - national curriculum, GIST and WISE encourage girls to do science and tech
3) school leadership - society is changing, more female head teachers
4) uniform policies - girls can choose to wear trousers to school

Question 22

evaluation for radical feminism?

Answer 22

> girls get better exam results than boys, suggesting education is not patriarchal
national curriculum, GIST and WISE
marxists say school spreads capitalist ideology

Question 23

what are the two changes in the education system according to postmodernists?

Answer 23

1) individual choice - education reflects the personal wishes and needs of students. parents can ‘shop around’ for schools

2) more ict lessons - globalisation has led to a rise in ict jobs meaning schools need to teach students computer skills

Question 24

evaluation of the two changes in the education system

Answer 24

1) individual choice - the national curriculum still provides a one size fits all set of knowledge and skills. functionalists say it ignores the benefits of universalistic standards.

2) more ict lessons - there is a digital divide in the uk. material deprivation - no access to computers or internet at home

Question 25

evaluation of postmodernism

Answer 25

fail to explain why there are inequalities in educational achievement. postmodernists cant explain why working class pupils typically achieve lower grades than middle class children

Question 26

what is the hidden curriculum?

Answer 26

refers to everything that is taught informally - everything students learn that is not taught in lessons such as making friends, being obedient and dealing with boring lessons

Question 27

SECTION 2

Question 28

what are the external factors for social class differences

Question 29

what are material factors?

Answer 29

money and access to resources. w/c suffer from material deprivation eg. poverty, poor housing, ill health and poor diet. w/c can’t afford the things needed for educational success