Education Flashcards
Parsons: Perspective and key findings?
Functionalist
-School is an agent of socialisation, and is the bridge between family and wider society promoting 2 values: achievement and equality of opportunity.
-Education teaches the difference between particularistic (individual) and universalistic values; children have ascribed status in families but in schools everyone is judged by the same standards.
-Role allocation and meritocracy: education matches individuals to their future jobs based on talent. In a meritocracy the most able reach the top jobs.
Durkheim: Perspective and key findings?
Functionalist
-Main function of education is to transmit and teach shared norms and values and build social solidarity.
-This is achieved through lessons such as history which help students see themselves as part of a bigger society.
-Teaches children specialised skills for work
Bowles and Gintis: Perspective and key findings?
Marxist
-Correspondence principle - There is a correspondence or similarity between work and school - hierarchy, uniform, tasks are boring etc.
-Education creates an obedient workforce to serve capitalism, This is done through the way schooling is structured and the hidden curriculum
-Meritocracy is a myth
Willis: Perspective and key findings?
Marxist
-Studied the lads - an anti-school subculture - for two years
-Found they were not obedient but their subculture was similar to WC workplaces
Ball: Key findings?
-Examined the way a mixed comprehensive school was organised - banding.
-Working class students more likely to be in lower bands
-Teachers had different expectations of different bands - i.e. top band students were encouraged, were viewed as well-behaved and hard working. Lower bands were steered towards more practical subjects and were labelled as low ability.
-Mixed ability classes were introduced which reduced this but labelling still happened
Ball, Bowe and Gewirtz: Key findings?
-Parental choice and competition has increased inequalities in education
-Middle class parents have more choice - greater cultural capital and material advantage.
-Schools focus on image and results and compete with one another through results, facilities, etc.
Halsey, Heath and Ridge: Key findings?
-Examined social class origins and educational destinations of a large survey of 8000 men
-Respondents social class based on father’s occupation and divided into 3 types: service, intermediate, working
-Service class boy 11 times more likely to go to university than working class
What is the Formal Curriculum?
The timetabled subjects taught in schools, such as English, Maths, Religious Studies and Spanish. This is called direct learning and refers to the formal things that you learn (for example in a GCSE course).
What is the Hidden curriculum?
Things learned indirectly in school that are not formally taught, such as valuing punctuality, or conformity and obedience. Occurs through things like assemblies, tutor periods, the attitudes and behaviours of staff in school.
Define Labelling
The process of attaching a label, characteristic or definition to individuals or groups. For example, labelling a middle class student as someone who is clever/bright. This leads to a Self-Fulfilling prophecy (Becker 1963).
What is a Self-fulfilling prophecy?
This occurs when a person who has been labelled comes to fit the image people have of them; i.e. the prediction becomes true.
Define Meritocracy
A system in which individuals achievements are based on their own talents and efforts rather than their social origins and backgrounds. Functionalists would agree with this.
What is Material Deprivation?
Refers to the inability of individuals or households to afford the goods and activities that are typical in a society at a given point in time.
What are teacher expectations?
Assumptions that teachers make about students’ future academic achievements based on their knowledge of students’ current performance.
What is Streaming?
Dividing students into different groups or bands based on a general assessment of their ability rather than their performance in a particular subject.
What are League tables?
League tables measure school performance data. This is statistical information showing how well pupils in England have done in public examinations taken at key points during their school careers. They are available for all members of the public to see.
What is Marketisation?
An attempt to improve education standards and opportunities by making schools and colleges compete for students in an ‘education market’.
What is Home schooling?
Teaching children at home rather than at school, usually by parents or private tutors.
What is De-schooling?
The idea that the education system as it is currently organised should be abolished (stopped/eliminated).
What is the Gendered Curriculum?
A curriculum in which some subjects (including high status subjects such as maths and science) are associated with masculinity) and others (such as languages and humanities) are associated with femininity.
What is the Ethnocentric curriculum?
The curriculum is seen as judging things in a biased way from the point of view of one culture. For example, the National Curriculum may value white, Western literature, art, history etc.
What is an Anti-school subculture?
A school-based group of students who resist the school, its teachers and their authority and openly challenge the school rules.
What is a Counter-school subculture?
A group within a school that rejects the values and norms of the school and replaces them with anti-school values and norms. Willis demonstrated this in his study of working-class lads in his study called ‘Learning to Labour’ (1977).
What is the Correspondence principle?
Bowles and Gintis’ (Marists) term used to describe the way that school mirrors the workplace e.g in terms of hierarchy, uniform etc.
