Education

Question 1

What do functionalists believe about the role of education

Answer 1

They believe that the institutions work together to create a functional society (organic analogy). They see the family as performing the very important role of primary socialisation and schools as a crucial part of secondary socialisation. Whilst at school children are prepared for the world of work so they can contribute to society when they are adults.

Question 2

What does Durkheim argue about the role of education and what theory does he support

Answer 2

He supports functionalism
Moral education - Argue that all societies needed to create a sense of social solidarity. A feeling of unity and belonging based on shared beliefs and values

Division of labour - Not only about instilling shared values but also about preparing young people for the world of work in industrial societies.
-Individuals can choose from a wide range of specialised jobs and will not necessarily follow in their parents, school therefore provides the knowledge some parents may not have in industrial workforce.

Question 3

What does Parsons argue about education and what theory does he support

Answer 3

He supports functionalism
Bridge - Education has taken over the responsibility for secondary socialisation and acts as a bridge between family and the world of work

Individual achievement - Competing with others and rewarded with praise from teachers. This prepares young people for the world of work where they will have to compete to achieve.

Equality of opportunity - Schools reflect the equal opportunities and chance of success by encouraging them to succeed. This is reflected by the equal opportunities policy, emphasising that all children should be treated equally.

Role allocation - Important function of education is selecting and grading pupils for their future roles within society. Rewarding the most talented and hard-working so employers can identify the most able

Question 4

What are some of the AO3 points against functionalism

Answer 4

• Values based on religious ideas, education has moved on from preaching christianity
• Fails to acknowledge that education is benefitting students in terms of a career/job
• Ignores the fact that women are at even more disadvantage
• Fails to acknowledge that students can still do well even if they do come from a disadvantaged social background

+Helps explain importance of education
+Identifies the importance of equal opportunities within education

Question 5

What do marxists argue about education

Answer 5

Marxists believe that the education system is a means for transmitting capitalist ideology to the future workforce.

Question 6

What does Althusser believe about education and what theory do they support

Answer 6

He supports marxism
-He believed that education socialises working class children into accepting their subordinate status to the middle class. Education conveys the ideology of the ruling class. Education prepares individuals for the world of work, in order to accept their position in a capitalist society.

• Education is a central institution which forms part of the ideological state apparatus. Education transmits capitalist ideology is 2 ways:
• It teaches young people that capitalism is normal and fair, despite its inherent inequalities and injustices. Schools do little to encourage young people to question or criticise the existing society
• By selecting and grading pupils for unequal positions in society, schools makes inequality appear natural and legitimate. Pupils who fail or leave with few qualifications are seen as doing so due to their own lack of ability or motivation rather than the fault of a society where some pupils have much better educational opportunities.

Question 7

What do Bowles and Gintis argue about education and what theory do they support

Answer 7

Bowles and Gintis support marxism
Hidden curriculum = They talk about the hidden curriculum and argue that the curriculum benefit some students and disadvantage others

Correspondence Principle = Education corresponds with work, education is modelled to prepare you for the workplace and rules within that, this can be seen in schools by:

• Discipline = Schools encourage punctuality, hard-work and obedience and discourage creativity, independent thinking and critical awareness
• Motivation by external rewards = Many workers are not motivated by the job itself but stuff like pay - the same way education rewards with qualifications not satisfaction from learning
• Hierarchy = Preparing pupils where they have to accept authority above them

Question 8

What does Illich argue about education and what theory does he support

Answer 8

Illich is not a marxist but supoprts marxist views

• Illich believes that schools kill creativity, insist on conformity into a capitalist society
• Children learn to accept authority in an unthinking fashion and this leads to them accepting government ideas in the same way

Question 9

What does Willis believe about education and what theory does he support

Answer 9

Willis supports neo-marxsim
-Willis claims that working class children choose to fail in school as a rejection of capitalism

• Counter-school culture = Oppose the values of the school and their teachers e.g. The ‘lads’ attached no value to academic success or qualifications and looked down on the other boys that wanted to be successful
• resistance and social reproduction = If marxists believe that education is brainwashing pupils, they are unsuccessful because ‘the lads’ are in the process of resistance on not just education but capitalism

Question 10

What do the social democratic believe about education

Answer 10

Social democratic theories have heavily influenced government educational policy between 1944 and 1979. There are some similarities between functionalism and social democratic approaches but they are more focused on shaping educational policies rather than explaining the role of education in society. Their main aim is for everyone to have an equal chance to succeed in education.

Question 11

What did A.H.Halsey say about education and what theory does he support

Answer 11

• Supports the Social Democratic theory
• Halsey was one of the leading social democratic thinkers who fought for equality of opportunity in education. The 1944 Education Act was meant to provide equal opportunity for all yet education inequality persisted, with the middle-class children achieving better qualifications and being more likely to go to university than working-class children. He argues that there is a massive wastage of ability because many working-class children ‘s talents are not recognized or harnessed by the education system

Question 12

What do the New Right argue about education

Answer 12

The New Right argued that the nanny state was controlling peoples lives too much and called for individuals to use their own initiative and enterprise

• The New Right also argued that a lot of government expenditure was wasteful and called for a reduction in spending and taxation
• Believe that goods and services are best delivered through a competitive market
• Argue that there is too much emphasis on academic education some of which has little relevance to the world of work so introduced vocational education

Question 13

What do feminists believe about education

Answer 13

Feminists have campaigned for gender equality in education for 200 years. Even in 1970 men were twice as likely as women to gain university place. The education of girls and boys still varies in terms of subjects

Question 14

What did Dale Spender argue and what theory did he support

Answer 14

• Supported feminism
• Described women as invisible in education, arguing that the curriculum was male biased with limited attention being paid to the role of women in history, sciences or the arts and also found that boys received more encouragement from teachers

Question 15

What is the Liberal approach

Answer 15

They see education as simply fulfilling the role of educating children into becoming well-rounded individuals who have a wide knowledge of various disciplines

Question 16

What do Smith and Noble argue

Answer 16

(material factors) Smith and Noble mention the barriers to learning suggesting that:

• Low income = insufficient funds to pay for resources like uniform, books, school trips and transport
• Children from low income are more likely to suffer from ill health and therefore have low attendance
• Low income = no private tuition or tutoring
• Low income = less technology and resources to do homework
• Class divide in the basis of how established the school is

Question 17

What do Reay et al argue

Answer 17

(material factors)

• Most of the students who attend the two fee paying private schools in the study came from upper classes
• Private education coverted economic capital into cultural capital
• Working class students worked longer hours to gain money and therefore were gaining lower grades
• Private schools = professional/ higher classes

Question 18

What do Callendar and Jackson argue

Answer 18

(material factors)
Callendar and Jackson mention Debt Aversion:
-Students who were afraid of debt were 4x less likely to go on to higher education than those with a ‘more relaxed attitude’
-The fear of debt was greatest among those of poor backgrounds
-debt prevented some students from participating in higher education (low income)

Question 19

What does Sugarman argue

Answer 19

(cultural factors)
Sugarman argued that the working class formed a different subculture and were characterized by certain characteristics:
Fatalism = An acceptance of the situation rather than improving it. It will not encourage high achievement in class

Immediate Gratifications = Tend to encourage early school leavers for the more immediate rewards of a wage packet, adult status and freedom from school

Present-time Orientation = May further reduce the motivation for academic achievement and more emphasis on long term goals and future planning to encourage long term education

Collectivism = Loyalty to the group, rather than individual achievement that the school system demands

Question 20

What does Douglas argue

Answer 20

(cultural factors)
Douglas carried out a survey and found that a variety of factors affected attainment such as the students health, size of family, the school etc. He argued that the most significant factor was the degree of parents interest in their education. Middle class people were more likely to encourage attainment and progression, this they believed was indicated by more frequent visits to the school to discuss their children's progress

Question 21

What does Feinstein argue

Answer 21

(cultural factors)
Argued that parental interest was a significant factor in educational attainment and that class differences existed in terms of support. He measured parents interest by asking for teachers assessment of how much interest they showed in their children's education

Question 22

What does Bernstein argue

Answer 22

(cultural factors)
Argued that the middle class are able to use both codes but the working class only have access to the restricted code:
Restricted code = Limited vocabulary, incomplete and disjointed sentence structure and lack of explanation. It relies on the listener already knowing what is being spoken about

Elaborate code = Varied vocabulary and grammatically structured. Sufficient details and explanations are given for anyone listening to understand

Question 23

What does Gillborn argue

Answer 23

(ethnic inequality)

• Argues that selective pupil grouping does not bring about improvement in overall achievement
• Black pupils were underrepresented in higher tier and over represented in foundation tier
• Black boys are less likely to be high achievers and more likely to be troublemakers
• Black boys are capped in education

Question 24

What does Jasper argue

Answer 24

(ethnic inequality)

• 80% of Afro-Caribbean boys will leave school with grades lower than C grades
• Self fulfilling prophecy of stereotypes at school
• Black children should have a curriculum to meet their needs

Question 25

What does Sewell argue

Answer 25

(ethnic inequality)

• Black youth culture stops boys waiting for grades and so act out because they are accepting the wrong role models
• There’s less parental involvement because they don’t know what to do
• aHis study into black Caribbean boys concluded that there were 4 main groups that he identified as:
• Conformists = pupils tried to us education as a route to success and rejected the form of masculinity adopted by black street culture
• Innovators = More anti-school and were suspicious of teachers but tried to keep out of trouble. They wanted to achieve success but disliked the process of schooling
• Retreatists = Who kept themselves seperate from other students. Many of them had special educational needs
• Rebels = Strongly formed a macho form of black masculinity. These students rejected both the norms of school life and the value of educational qualifications

Question 26

What does Dianne Abbott argue

Answer 26

(ethnic inequality)

• Teachers react badly to blaming education for black children failure within school
• More black role models within education and same academic standards as other children

Question 27

What does Platt argue

Answer 27

(ethnic inequality)

• Ethnic minorities in the UK have much higher levels of poverty and much lower levels of employment then white people
• Material factors ought to be a major source of disadvantage for children, however, statistics for different ethnic groups, show much smaller differences between pupils eligible for free school meals and others in most ethnic minorities then white pupils

Question 28

What did Archer and Francis argue

Answer 28

(ethnic inequality)

• Chinese parents and children value educational success
• Both working class and middle class parents would invest a lot of money and time into their child’s education
• Even working class parents who had little education themselves had high aspirations for their children

Question 29

What did Strand argue

Answer 29

(ethnic inequality)

• White working class children and black working class boys had the lowest attainment at 16
• Even relatively poor immigrant groups such as Portuguese, Pakistanis and Bangladeshi often see education as a route out of poverty
• Whereas, working class children may have experienced generation of unemployment and poverty so didn’t have this mentality

Question 30

What did Dustmann argue

Answer 30

(ethnic inequality)
-Found that children from most minorities who have English as their second language appear to catch up with white British students whilst in school. They also found that black Caribbean pupils make less progress than nay other ethnic group even though for most of them English is their first language

Question 31

What did the Department of Education find in terms of GCSE’s in gender

Answer 31

(gender inequality)

• More boys are choosing technical and physical subjects and more girls are taking creative and caring subjects
• Even when boys were entered more, girls always gained better grades than boys
• 52.3 girls attainment score and 47.7 boys attainment score

Question 32

What did the Department of Education find in terms of Post 16’s in gender

Answer 32

(gender inequality)

• more male tech level students than female = 58.2% and 41.8%
• more males in maths and further maths

Question 33

What did the Department of Education find in terms of Higher Education

Answer 33

(gender inequality)

• more female students in medicine, more males in technology and more females in social studies
• more women accepted into university in 2014

Question 34

What did Lobban find

Answer 34

(girl’s underachievement)

• Bias against girls in education in reading schemes
• 179 stories = found that 35 stories portrayed as a heroine compared to 74 male heroes
• Girls and women were always portrayed as domestic roles whereas men were more physical and manual

Question 35

What did Stanworth find

Answer 35

(girl’s underachievement)

• Attitudes of teachers towards girls impeid their education progress of girls e.g. forgetting girls names
• Teachers had more stereotypical views of what girls would do in the furture
• Girls would under estimate their ability whereas boys would overestimate theirs
• Classroom interaction disadvantaged girls

Question 36

What did Sharpe find

Answer 36

(girl’s achievement)

• In 1970’s over 80% of girls wanted to get married, by the 1990’s, only 45% wanted to
• Educational success and a career in either typically male or female jobs were more important to 90’s girls than marriage
• Parents increasingly expect exam success and driven by ambition

Question 37

What did Francis find

Answer 37

(girls achievement)

-Studied maths classroom, girls were more likely to sit at the back whereas boys were more likely to confidently answer

Question 38

What did Beck find

Answer 38

(girls achievement)

• Moving into a second modernity and today’s society is characterized by risk and uncertainty
• A process of individualistion
• Emoployment is unstable and marriage is more likely to en in divorce
• People are responsible for their own faith, security and future
• Individuals must equip themselves to survive by gaining a good education

Question 39

What did Jackson find

Answer 39

(boys’ underachievement)
-Boys laddish behaviour was constructed within the framework of hegemonic masculinity
-Boys and girls believe it is uncool to work and in order to be cool, they have to untie school and work
-Middle class boys can have the best of both worlds by not doing the work but still succeed due to having resources(makes them cool)
Laddish behaviour is seen as a defense mechanism, most boys are scared to fail, they’d prefer to not even try

Question 40

What did Epstein find

Answer 40

(Boys achievement)
-Poor boys = Boys are disadvantaged as therefore ignored by teachers. Feminism has gone too far and boys are suffering and being discriminated

-Boys will be boys = Boys are clever but are lazy and difficult to motivate. Masculinity should be respected and not judged according to feminine expectations

Question 41

What did Francis & Skelton find

Answer 41

(Boys achievement)
-Problem boys = Lad culture has developed which is seen as anti-school behaviour. Lad culture is also an insight for wider society for anti-social behvaiour

-At risk boys = Boys are not bad but more vulnerable in today’s society. They experience social exclusion and have low self-esteem. They seek refuge in hegemonic masculinity and mach exterior to protect their fragile interior

Question 42

What is gender aparthied

Answer 42

Economic and social gender discrimination against individuals because of their gender, system enforced by using either physical or legal practices to regulate individuals into subordinate positions

Question 43

What were some of the policies put in place by Margaret Thatchers government and what was the government

Answer 43

Margaret Thatchers government = conservative and New right thinking

• Education reform act - national curriculum
• Education reform act - SAT’s
• Introduction of OFSTED

Question 44

What were some of the policies put in place by Tony Blair’s government and what was the government

Answer 44

Tony Blair’s government = Labour and Social Democratic

• Excellence in cities
• Literacy and Numeracy hours
• Curriculum 2000 –> AS and A2 levels
• Sure start
• Educational maintenance allowance
• HE tuition fees = £3000

Question 45

What were some of the policies put in place by the coalition government and what was the government

Answer 45

David Cameron/Nick Clegg = Conservative/Liberal Democrats and New right/Social Democratic
-Increase in HE tuition fees = £9000
-Introduction of free schools
-Removal of coursework in GCSE's
-

Question 46

What were some of the policies put in place by Theresa May and what was the government

Answer 46

Theresa May’s government = Conservative and New right

• Reintroduction of grammar schools
• Introduction of T-levels