Education Flashcards
What is formal schooling?
What we purposefully learn in our lessons at school
What is informal schooling?
What we unintentionally learn at school e.g. Respect and manners
What happened in the 1870 Edication Act
Ensures all children from 5-11 got primary education in one of three schools
What did the 1944 Butler Act do?
Made a three stage structure: Primary school Secondary school Further education Meritocratic system
What did the tripartite system do?
‘11 plus exam’ decided which school pupil would go to
Secondary modern
Secondary technical
Grammar school
What is material deprivation?
When you are deprived of the basic needs
What is cultural deprivation?
When you are deprived of what is normal in your society e.g. wifi
How does gender affect achievement?
Girls socialised to be hard working and blend in with all the girly games
Boys socialised to rebel and be more physical and rebellious because it’s ‘cool’
How does social class affect achievement?
If you are from a lower social class, you won’t have what you need to succeed as well as you should
How has marketisation affected education?
Changed schooling into a market
More money = better school
Happened in 1988 act
Increases inequality
What is the meritocracy debate?
Should people be given unequal changes based upon how much work they put in?
How does teacher’s attention affect achievement?
More attention a teacher gives, the more help a student gets so the better they do
How does setting affect achievement?
Self fulfilling prophecy (do as well as you think)
But can also push more able children
How does parental influence affect achievement?
The more help a parent gives a child, the better they are likely to do
Characteristics of faith schools
Follow national curriculum but not in PC
focus on religion rather than other subjects
Majority are Christian
Characteristics of special needs schools
Only take students with specific and severe educational needs
Improve life skills of pupils like cooking rather than focusing on GCSEs
What is testing/setting?
When pupils are put into a class based on their test results
Marxist view on education
Beneficial for the powerful
Brainwashes people to follow capitalist norms and values
Functionalist view on education
Performs a beneficial role in society as trains the next generation
Feminist view on education
Benefits men
Teaches patriarchal norms and values
Restricts certain subjects for women
Follows their career as carers
How does ethnicity affect achievement
Peer pressure
Treated differently
Role of education today (functionalists)
Social cohesion: keeps Britishness
Social mobility: meritocracy
Serving needs of economy: training workers
Marxist beliefs about education
School mirrors work place
Maintains inequality
Hidden curriculum
Teaches norms and values
What did Durkeim argue?
The main purpose of education is to prepare us to make a useful contribution to society
What is a comprehensive school?
A school open to all pupils, regardless of their background
What is a self fulfilling prophecy in terms of school?
If a pupil is told they won’t do well because of their background, they won’t
What is setting?
When pupils are grouped according to their ability
How can setting lead to children underachieving?
Those in the lower sets develop an anti-school subculture, where the behaviour is bad and they don’t learn
What are independent schools?
They can be private or public
Parents pay a fee to send their children there
They can select their pupils
What are special schools?
Schools set up for people with special educational needs
What are academies?
Set up by the government
Independent from the local authority
What did the Fisher Act of 1918 do?
Made it compulsory for children to be in education until the age of 14
What did the Education Reform Act do? 3
Introduced the National Curriculum
Introduced key stages
Made schools competitive with league tables
What are signs of material deprivation at school? 3
No money for textbooks
No money for school uniform
Nowhere/time to do homework as must care for other family members
How does the language barrier impact achievement?
It makes it hard for the pupil and their family too engage with the school
How can parental attitudes impact achievement?
If children don’t have a role model with good qualifications and a good job, it will discourage them from doing well
How can social class impact achievement?
Different social classes have different attitudes concerning education, e.g. Indian families teach their children to work hard and respect teachers
How can role modelling impact achievement?
Most teachers are white
This discourages mixed race children from trying
How can the curriculum impact achievement?
It is mainly focused around modern countries so people from developing countries don’t learn about their heritage
Why can teachers cause girls to outperform boys?
Teachers will often label girls as good and boys as bad so they will fulfil these labels
Why can masculinity cause girls to outperform boys?
Masculinity is all about being tough and hard so boys are peer pressured to under perform or they are called weak and female
What has changed to give girls a better opportunity at school? 3
Equal opportunities
Changes in female employment
The changing role of women
Why can maturity cause girls to outperform boys?
Biologically, girls mature earlier so they are more motivate to achieve
How did the tripartite system work?
Children sat an 11+ exam
They would then be sent to grammar schools, technical schools or secondary modern schools
Problems with the tripartite system? 2
Labelling pupils resulted in a self fulfilling prophecy
Because of the lack of funding, most children who failed the 11+ exam ended up in secondary modern schools. This meant children who had good practical skills weren’t being pushed to reach their potential
What is the economic role of schools?
They taught children the necessary skills for work
Functionalist view on the economic role
Schools teach the necessary skills for our developing society
Marxist view on the economic role
It reinforces the class system by ensuring the low class children go into low paid jobs
Feminist view on the economic role
Reinforces patriarchy - women are taught to stay at home
What is the selective role of schools?
Selecting the most able for the best jobs
Feminist view on the selective role
Education pushes children into studying subjects stereotypical for that gender
Marxist view on the selective role
They don’t believe it provides equal opprotunities
Functionalist view on the selective role
It is good, we need the less clever people to do the basic jobs
What is the socialisation role of schools?
Teaching pupils norms and values
Functionalist view on the socialisation role
This is an important characteristic of a school
Marxist view on the socialisation role
It socialises children into accepting the beliefs of the most powerful group
Feminist view on the socialisation role
It ensures girls and boys act stereotypically
What is the role of social control of schools?
Teaches acceptance of authority
Functionalist view on the social control role of schools
There must be social control for society to run smoothly
Marxist and feminist view on the social control role of schools
It reflects the views of the most powerful class
