Education Flashcards
What are the three functions of education that functionalism think helps society?
1) secondary socialisation passing on core values
2) allocation of function
3) teaches skills needed in work and by the economy
What does allocation function mean?
Education sorts people into appropriate jobs
What type of sociologist is Durkheim?
Functionalist
What did Durkheim say?
Education passes on norms and values which helps to creat social order and a value consensus creating social solidarity
What type of sociologist is parson?
Functionalist
What did parson say about education?
Schools are a bridge between the family and adult roles in society. Education selects children into appropriate roles due to meritocracy
What kind of sociologist are Davis and Moore?
Functionalist
What did Davis and Moore say?
Society sorts its members into different positions using principles of stratification. There has to be a system of unequal reward to motivate people to work for top positions
What is the functionalist perspective of education?
Education is meritocratic if you work hard and are talented you have an equal chance of success and a high position in society
Does meritocracy mean!
Meritocracy is when social rewards are allocated by talent and effort not a position someone is born into
What does Marxism believe about educational
It legitimises inequality through ideology
What three things does education do according to Marxist?
1) prepares children for work giving them the skills employers need
2) passes on ruling class ideology that supports capitalism
3) education legitimises inequality
What kind of sociologist is Bowles and Gintis
Marxist
What did Bowles and Gintis say?
Pupils are prepared for work through the school system this is called the hidden curriculum
Why do Bowles and Gintis believe schools prepare pupils for the world of work?
Hidden curriculum
1) taught to accept hierarchy
2) motivated by good grades at school and motivated by money at work
3) school and work day is broken into small units
4) following the roles is rewarded
What kind of sociologist is Willis?
Marxist
What did Willis say about the workforce
Education doesn’t turn out an obedient workforce some children form an anti school subculture and cope with school and work by messing around
What are the similarities between functionalists and Marxist views?
They both look at the bigger picture and ignore social interactions
What are the differences between functionalist and Marxist views?
Marxists believes that education helps to reproduce and legitimise inequality and functionalists think it passes on the value of meritocracy
What are 4 criticisms of functionalism?
1) evidence do differential achievement in terms of class and gender so it’s not meritocratic
2) allocation doesn’t work properly as who you know is still important
3) education doesn’t always prepare people for work e.g. We lack engineers
4) functionalism doesn’t look at how education may serve the interests of particular groups using ideology and values
What are two criticisms of Marxism views on education?
They assume people are passive victims exaggerating how much working class students are socialised into obedience
Most people are aware of the inequality in education and most people don’t think inequality is legitimate
Why do feminists believe education system is patriarchal?
1) hidden curriculum unofficial reinforces gender differences
2) gender differences and stereotypes in subjects still exist
3) girls outperform boys but boys still demand more attention
4) men dominate top positions such as head teacher
What do liberal feminists want from education?
Equal access to education for both sexes
What does radical feminists want from education?
They believe men are a bad influence and want a female centred education for girls
What to Marxists feminists want from education?
They want to consider gender inequalities and combine them with inequality of class and ethnicity
What do the new right think that the education should provide?
Schools should act more like a business so that they compete to attract people by providing what customers want and need
What would happen if schools acted more like a business?
They would constantly be improving their standards
What is a state school?
A state school is run by the state so they don’t have to compete for pupils
What has state schools lead to?
Poor standards
What is the hidden curriculum?
The hidden curriculum is a set of social norms and values that a school passes on to its students
Three examples of the hidden curriculum?
Turning up to lessons on time
Dressing up smartly
Working hard to achieve rewards
Why are we taught a hidden curriculum?
It teaches pupils the skills and values needed in adult life
What is the labelling theory?
It’s the idea that teachers treat people differently due to their characteristics
What can the labelling theory create?
Self fulfilling prophecy
What happens if a child is labelled as a trouble maker?
They are disciplined more harshly
What happens if a child is labelled as a bright spark or clever?
They are provided with more encouragement to help them succeed further
What happens when labelling turns into a self fulfilling prophecy?
A student will internalise their label as part of their identity and will then act up on that label
What did gillborn and youdell find?
Black pupils were more likely to be disciplined than their white pupils for the exact same behaviour
Black students felt teachers had low expectations
What are the three ways to organise teaching in a school?
Streaming
Setting
Mixed ability
What is streaming?
Students are sorted into classes according to ability and stay in that one group for all or most of their subjects
What is setting?
Students are sorted into classes according to ability on a subject by subject basis
What is mixed ability?
Students are sorted into classes that aren’t based on ability
What is a strength of streaming and setting?
Students can work at their own level and pace
What is one problem of streaming?
Students are likely to be better at some subjects than others
People in a bottom stream may not be challenged enough and people in a top stream may struggle
What is a disadvantage for setting and streaming?
Those in low ability classes may have low self esteem
What did ball find in education?
Teachers had higher expectations for those in a high ability class so they received more attention and encouragement
Those in lower class suffered from negative labelling and performed poorly
What has been found with mixed ability classes?
It can prevent the gap in pupil achievement from becoming worse but teachers still hold lower expectations for lower ability pupils level in teaching to suit them making it not challenging for higher ability pupils
What is a subculture ?
A group of people who share ideas and behaviour patterns that are different from mainstream culture
What are the most common subcultures in sociology
Pro-school
Anti-school
What does Lacey say bout education?
Subcultures are a result from streaming
What study did Lacey do to prove his theory?
He conducted a study in a grammar school where everyone had to be bright.
Those in a bottom stream were still labelled as failure and formed an anti school subculture
What did Willis do?
He studied a group of boys who had formed an anti-school subculture
What did Willis find?
He found they disrupted class to gain respect from others within the subculture
They also saw no use of school as they were working class and wanted to get manual jobs like their dad
How does social class impact educational achievement?
Pupils from professional or middle class backgrounds are likely to enter high education and study for a levels
Working class pupils are more likely to do vocational subjects
What effect can social class have on educational achievement in primary school?
Work class are less likely to start school being able to read and on average have lowers SATs score so are likely to be put into lower streams and sets
How does material deprivation affect achievement?
People can’t afford items they need to succeed for school
What did Joseph rowntree foundation find?
1 in 10 children are classified as poor which is where they couldn’t afford at least three items other families take for granted
What did Douglas find?
Children in unsatisfactory living conditions didn’t do as well in ability tests compared to children in comfortable backgrounds
Give three examples of unsatisfactory living conditions?
Poor housing
Lack of nutritious food
Overcrowding
What dan unemployment or low income lead to?
Less money for books internet access and school trips
What can poverty and unsatisfactory living conditions result in?
Health problems and absence from school
What is cultural deprivation?
It suggests working class culture and parenting aren’t aimed at educational success
What did Douglas find about cultural deprivation and working class culture?
The level or parental interest was an important factor affecting educational achievement
Why would working class parents look as if they lack parental interest?
Working class parents are more likely have inconvenient shifts meaning they are unable to go to parent and open evenings
Why are middle class children more likely to succeed?
They are more likely to have the knowledge and values from books, museum visits, internet access and parental knowledge of the education system
What did sugarman say about class?
Pupils from non manual backgrounds have a different outlook to those from a manual background
What did Hyman say about class?
Values of working class are a self-imposed barrier to improving their position.
Working class have a low self value on education
What are the criticisms of material and cultural deprivation?
Doesn’t explain how factors inside school effect achievement
Generalised between working and middle class ignoring w/c families who place high values on education
What were the four outlooks sugarman came up with?
Gratification
Fatalism
Present time orientation
Collectivism
What did Bernstein find?
Working class pupils in east end London weren’t comfortable with the style of language used in schools as they use restricted code
What did Bernstein find with middle class people?
Middle class student know how to use the same elaborate code as the teachers
What did bourdieu think?
He thought middle class student are at an advantage as hey have the right kind of cultural capital which makes you more successful
What is cultural capital?
Cultural capital the right set of language skills knowledge and attitudes used in society
What are the problems with Bernsteins theory?
There are variations within middle and working class which vary the use of elaborate code
Sociologist have developed the idea that working class restricted code is inferior
Why does Labov disagree with Bernstein?
He think elaborate code isn’t better it’s just different
What are the problems with bourdieus theory?
Not all working class students fail even if they don’t have cultural capital
Why does Hasley et al disagree with bourdieu theory?
Hasley found that material factors are important. Lack of money may stop kids staying and school or getting to uni
Where is there a big variation between the average achievement level?
Ethnic minority groups
Who are the highest achievers in education?
Chinese pupils are the highest achievers at GCSE
Indians and pupils from a mixed ethnic back ground perform above national average
Female black and Male Asian groups have the highest rates of student entering higher education
Who are the lower achievers in education?
Fewer black pupils achieve 5 A*-C passs at GCSE than any other ethnic group
Roma and Bangladeshi student are less like to carry on into higher education even though Bangladeshi pupils are above GCSE national average
What are reasons for the statistics within ethnic groups?
Some say intelligence is inherited
Some say IQ tests are biased as they aren’t always a test of brains but a test of cultural knowledge
There are other factors such as social and economic factors that will impact the statistics
How does the labelling theory link to ethnic backgrounds?
Teachers have different expectations of different minority groups.
What did Gillborn find?
Gillborn found that teachers negatively label black student.
African-Caribbean students are seen as a challenge to school authority and are more likely to be excluded from school
Teachers had high expectations of Asian student
What did Gillborn call it when African -Caribbean students were seen as a challenge to school authority?
The myth of the black Challenge
How does the school curriculum effect ethnic achievement?
The school curriculum is ethnocentric. It is focused on white middle class culture and sticks to languages within Europe such as French and German
Assemblies school holidays and history lessons also focus on British culture
Why do sociologists think the education system is institutionally racist?
Policies and attitudes unintentionally discriminate against some ethnic minority groups
What did Wright find?
He found that even though members of staff said hey we’re committed to equal opportunity Asian girls got a lot less attention and felt their culture was disapproved of
African - Caribbean boys were more likely to be punished and sent out of class
What could labelling theory school curriculum and institutional racism lead to?
Low self esteem for ethnic minorities
What are three factors within school that effect ethnic minorities?
Labelling theory
School Curriculum
Institutional racism
What did coard say?
Black student are likely to feel inferior in British schools
What did Mirza find?
Black girls had a positive self esteem and high aspirations
The girls experienced discrimination but had strategies to minimise racism
What did Mirza believe effected black girls achievement?
It was being unwilling to ask for help or unwilling to chose a certain subject not low self esteem
How does cultural deprivation effect ethnic minority achievement?
Language can be a barrier then they first arrive in the U.K.
What did Swann Report find out about language?
It didn’t affect the progress for later generations
What did Driver and Ballard find?
Asian children whose first language was not English were as good at English as their classmates by the time they were 16
What do labelling theorist think about language?
Language may not be a barrier but dialect and accents may influence teachers expectations and lead to negative labelling
What did Driver and Ballard think about the influence of family life?
Close knit extended families and high parental expectations increase levels of achievement in Asian communities
What did Archer and Francis say effects achoev,ent with Chinese pupils?
Chinese parents see education as something that is very important which creates a desire for achievement within Chinese families
What do sociologists think about divorce and single parent hood in African Caribbean households?
It could result in material deprivation however the independence of African Caribbean women can provide girls with a positive role model
What happens if you combine social class and material deprivation?
Factors on school and outside school aren’t that convincing on their own but if you put them together you create much more complex picture
What happens to people who are from ethnic groups such as Pakistani Bangladeshi and African Caribbean groups?
They are much more likely to be in lower class positions resulting in poor housing unemployment poverty or maternal deprivation
Studies have claimed that prejudice in society may contribute to lower class positions
What are four facts about gender and differential educational achievement?
1) girls get better results in primary school national curriculum tests
2) girls get better results in almost every subject GCSE
3) girls are more likely to pass a levels
4) more women then men go on to university
What did Mitsos and Browne say?
Teaching has become feminised. Women are more likely to be teachers giving girls a positive role model
How has textbooks improved female education
Textbooks and teaching resources no longer stereotype girls into passive roles
How has the national curriculum affected females?
It gives girls the chance to do subjects that were traditionally seen as male subjects such as science
Way did the government create to encourage girls to try new subjects?
WISE women in science and engineering
GIST girls into science and technology
What does Swann and graddol think?
High female achievers is a result of the quality of interaction they have with there teacher
Teachers spend time with girls to help with their work where they spend time with boys to manage their behaviour
What did Jackson think?
Schools label boys negatively they are associated with bad behaviour giving schools a bad name.
Low achievement lowers league tables and the negative label creates a self fulfilling prophecy
What did Archer think about females in school?
Current underachievement in boys masks problems girls still face in education
What did Archer say about Asian girls?
High achieving Asian girls get negatively labelled as a robot incapable of thinking independently
What did Archer say about female black working class pupils?
Negatively labelled as loud and aggressive
What outside factors explain why females do better?
Girls are socialised into ways of behaving which is well suited to classroom environments
What policies have improved females education?
Equal pay act and sex discriminate act helps to create more equal opportunities in wider society which has changed values and attitudes within schools
What did sue sharp say?
She found that girls priorities have changed they now want careers and qualifications
More women work so girls see positive role models and want me financially independent
How has the feminist movement changed female expectations?
It made more people aware of the inequalities which have prevented people from stereotyping
Why do boys underachieve?
1) identity crisis due to female independence
2) teachers have a lower expectation in boys
3) feminisation of teaching
4) reading can be seen as girly
Why might boys be having an identity crisis?
The rise of female independence lead to a decline of breadwinner role for men and a row in men unemployment
May lead to anti school subculture not seek the point in school
What kind of sociologists think teachers have lower expectations for boys and why?
Interpretivists as teachers create a self fulfilling prophecy of poor behaviour
Why may the feminisation of teaching lead to boys underachieving?
They don’t have role models in the class room
What did Mac and Ghaill say about subcultures?
They are complicated as there are different types such as Macho lad due to a crisis of masculinity or a pro school subculture where they are proud of their educational achievement
What did fuller find?
She found that African - Caribbean girls formed a pro school subculture to prove negative labelling wrong
What are the four ways which could explain gender and subject choice?
1) influence of gender socialisation may create expectations and stereotypes of what people should study
2) Kelly found science is seen as a masculine subject and boys dominate classroom
3) parental expectations may encourage kids to follow what is seen as normal for their gender
4) teachers some subjects are likely to be more male such as physics
What act was introduced in 1944
The education/butler act
When was the education/butler act introduced?
1944
What did the 1944 education act introduce?
1) made secondary’s schools free and raised leaving age to 15
2) created 11+ exams and the tripartite system
What three schools created the tripartite system?
Grammars school
Secondary modern school
Technical schools
What’s a grammar school
A school for children he passed the 11+ they were taught traditional subjects ready for university
What is a secondary modern school
School for people who failed the 11+ which offered a basic education
What is a technical school
A school that provided people with a vocational education for pupils who are more practical
What were four problems of the tripartite system
1) The 11+ didn’t necessarily measure your intelligence it was suited for middle-class people and legitimised social class inequality
2) few technical schools were built so people ended up in a grammar school or secondary modern school
3) kids who are failed the 11+ were labelled as failures
4) if middle-class pupils failed the 11+ they could still go to private school
What was the 1965 state policy
The Labour government made school comprehensive
What were two positive aspects of the comprehensive system
1) no 11+ so 80 % of the school population went labelled as failures
2) higher ability pupils still did well in the system and low ability peoples often did better
What were two criticisms of the comprehensive system
1) children were still put in streams or sets depending on test scores so it was still possible to feel like a failure
2) comprehensive in working class areas had worse GCSE results then there is a middle class area
What happened in 1976
A push for vocational education started creating a youth training scheme which was a jobs training schemes for school leavers age 16 to 17
NVQs and GNVQs were introduced which were practical qualifications
What were problems with vocational education
Some say it’s aim is to teach good work discipline not skills
They aren’t regarded as highly as academic qualifications are universities and employers
What did Marxist think about vocational education
The training process provides cheap labour and people were encouraged just to lower unemployment statistics
What did feminist say about vocational education
Vocational qualifications forces girls into traditionally female job such as beauticians and childminders
What state policy was introduced in 1988
Education reform act
When was the education reform act introduced
1988
What four things did the education reform act want to do?
Link education to the economy
Provide better standards in education
Create a system of choice and competition
More testing and exams
In the education reform act how was education linked to the economy
The government introduced more vocational courses and work placement schemes
How did the education reform act create better standards in education
Introduced and national curriculum of compulsory subjects from the age of 5 to 16 years old
OFSTED to inspect schools
Schools could get money straight from the government say they could choose how to spend it
How did the education reform act create more choice and competition
Parents could choose which school they send their children to as long as there was space
Parents could use league tables to help them choose
Schools worked more like a business and advertised for students
How did the education reform act create more testing and exams
Pupils had to sit sats at the age of 7 11 and 14 and GCSEs at 16 the results could be used in a league table to monitor school standards
What did whitty say about middle-class parents
They had an advantage in the educational market as they are more likely to have the knowledge and attitudes to choose a good school for their child and have financial capital to move to an area with better schools
Why do some people disagree with the educational reform act creating more testing and exams
It can be stressful for students and can encourage labelling and self filling prophecy
What did Ball say about the national curriculum
Who is it curriculum of the dead as it emphasises on core subjects was outdated
What happened in 1997 to 2010
New Labour which is a combination of old Labour policies of state intervention and new right policies of marketisation combined
What did new Labour do
Continue the process of marketisation allowing schools to specialise in certain subjects
Made education more privatised to improve efficiency and standard making schools competitive
Reduced class sized to a max of 30
Introduced literacy and numeracy hour in primary schools
What happened with the curriculum 2000
Policy changes to make a level education broader and vocational A-levels was introduced
What policies aimed to promote gender equality for both genders
In 1988 the national cricket them give all pupils equal opportunity to all subjects for the first time
What policy was provided for just girls for better gender equality
Computer clubs for girls
Women into science and engineering WISE
Girls in science and technology GIST
This encouraged girls to get involved with subjects they traditionally avoided
What happened in 1999 to promote gender equality for boys
Government gave grants to primary schools to hold extra writing classes for boys to help them push their SAT scores
When did sure start begin? What was its aim
It began in 1999 and was it government program to improve early education and childcare
What was the education action zones and when was it introduced
It was introduced in 1998 to tackle educational inequality by area local public private and voluntary organisations work together and combine their resources to try to raise standards
What was the education maintenance allowances
It gave £30 per week to students who stayed on in education past 16 bonuses for available for good attendance and progress
Why were new labour policies criticised?
Their policies aimed to reduce educational inequality but certain policies increased it such as introducing university fees of £1000
What happened under he coalition government?
1) schools considered outstanding could become an academy without a sponsor
2) introduced free schools which could be set up by parents teachers or a religious group and they don’t have to teach the national curriculum
3) Alevels changes to linear exams
4) pupils premium added more funding for those who were on free school meals
What are the criticisms of the coalition government?
1) in disadvantage areas academies and free schools attract the best teachers
2) difficult to track if pupil premium funding is spent on disadvantage pupils
3) Uni fees increased to £9000
When was the coalition government?
2010
How has education been affected by globalisation?
1) computer programming have been introduced into the curriculum to make British economy more competitive
2) increased immigration to the UK meaning there is a heavier focus on learning about other cultures to provide support
3) educational ideas are shared between nations especially countries such as Finland
What did Kelly say about the affects of globalisation?
If the education systems became to simple law to other countries it will be less relevant to the needs of international nations
What are four advantages of using an unstructured interview to study anti school subcultures
1) allows researcher to build a rapport
2) researcher doesn’t need to stick to fixed questions
3) high validity
4) allows them to be interviews away from peer pressure
Why can building a rapport help in unstructured interview?
Students may not want to talk about their school lives. Once you built a rapport it could give the researcher greater insight into their thoughts and feelings
School could be a sensitive topic how may unstructured interviews help?
The researcher doesn’t need to stick to fixed questions and can change their approach to gain trust
Why can you get high validity using unstructured interview?
Gives the interviewer to adapt questions to the subject
Why can unstructured interviews be a disadvantage?
1) time consuming
2) interviewer effects
3) hard to compare data
4) less valid if they lie
Unstructured interviews are time consuming so lead to what?
Smaller samples so it’s not representative for the whole population
What is the interviewer effect?
Students may give an answer they think the researcher wants to hear or to portray them self in a positive light
Why is unstructured information difficult to compare?
It uses qualitative data so his harder to reproduce making it less reliable
What are advantages of covert participant observations when investigating labelling?
1) teacher labels students without realising so they might not mention it in interview
2) it allows them to observe labelling in a natural real life setting
3) teachers don’t want to be seen to label their students so may avoid doing it if they knew that issue was being studied
