Education Flashcards
What did the Butler Education Act 1940 introduce?
- Free education for people aged 5-15
- The tripartite system where students at aged 11 sat a test and was allocated to 1 of 3 school types.
What were the 3 types of school?
Grammar school- passed the 11+ exam
Secondary modern school- failed the 11+ exam, practical education
Technical school/college
Criticise the 1940 Education Act
- Reproduced gender inequality, had to get a higher score if you were a girl.
- Reproduced class inequality as it had an inbuilt middle class bias
What did the Comprehensive System 1965 aim to do?
Overcome the class divide of the tripartite system and make education more meritocratic.
How did the new labour policies in 1965 make education more fair?
By abolishing the 11+ exam and grammar and secondary modern schools and replacing them with comprehensive schools for all students in that area.
What was introduced to education as a result of the 1988 Education Reform Act?
- National curriculum
- Parental choice
- Local management of schools
- Ofsted
- League Tables
- Formula funding
What were the aims of the 1988 Education Act?
- Marketisation of education
- Increased parentocracy
- More competition between schools
- Reduce state control over education
What does parentocracy include?
- Publication of league tables
- Open enrolment, leading to recruit more pupils
- Formula funding, every student is worth the same amount therefore schools want the most students to get the most money.
- Competition between schools
What is cream skimming?
Schools picking the best pupils (skimming) based on gender, ethnicity, where they live and leaving the rest to apply somewhere else.
What is silt shifting?
Finding ways to get rid of problematic students that are more expensive to help.
How does formula funding work?
Schools are allocated money per student so schools with more students have the most money.
Popular schools get more funding so can get better teachers and better facilities.
Popularity allows them to select the best pupils attracting more m/c students.
What policies did New Labour bring in between 1997-2010?
Education Action Zones
Educational Maintenance Allowance
Sure Start
Aim Higher
What policies did the coalition government bring in from 2010-2015?
- Introduced free schools (funded by the state, ran by parents, charities, businesses etc rather than LEA)
- Raised tuition fees
- Ended EMA and shut down sure start centres
Describe the 3 student identities teachers construct of pupils according to their ethnicity according to Archer (2008)
1) Ideal pupil, white, middle class, normal sexuality. Achieves the ‘right way’
2) pathologized pupil, Asian, ‘deserving poor’, asexual, the plodding conformist
3) demonized pupil, Black, hyper sexualised, unintelligent, culturally deprived
What did Fuller (1984) find about black girls?
Instead of internalising negative stereotypes they challenged their anger into educational success
Did not seek approval from teachers
Stayed friends with black girls in lower streams
What did Fordham and Ogbu (1986) find about pupil responses to subcultures?
Notions of ‘acting white’ and ‘acting black’ become identified in opposition to one another.
Acting white= doing well in school
Acting black= not doing well in school
What did Ball (1994) say about the national curriculum?
Ignores ethnic diversity and promotes an attitude of ‘little englandism’
tries to recreate ‘a mythical age of empire and past glories’ while ignoring Black and Asian history
What did Sewell (1992) say the 4 responses to teacher racism are for black boys?
1) Rebels
2) Conformists
3) Retreatists
4) Innovators
Define the rebel subculture (Sewell)
Reject goals and rules, anti authority, hegemonic masculinity
Define the conformist subculture (Sewell)
Largest group, accept goals and rules, keen to succeed, wish to avoid stereotype
Define the innovator subculture (Sewell)
Pro education but anti school so only conform to school work and not to school rules
What did Moore and Davenport mean by the education system being an ‘ethnically stratified education system’
Putting procedures in place which the education system knows will place white pupils in popular schools and BAME pupils in low achieving schools.
What did Foster (1990) find about black pupils and setting?
Found black pupils were put in lower sets because of their perceived behaviour rather than their academic ability
Mirza (1992) identified 3 types of racist teachers, what were they?
1) colour blind teachers
2) liberal chauvinists
3) overtly racist
Describe a colour blind teacher (Mirza)
Believe all pupils are equal but does not challenge racism
Describe a liberal chauvinist teacher (Mirza)
Teachers who believe Black pupils are culturally deprived and have low expectations of them
What did Bourne (1994) and Osler (2004) find about Black pupils?
Black pupils are most likely to be sent out of class, excluded and expelled
What did Gillbourn and Youdell (2000) find about teachers?
Quicker to discipline Black pupils
Teachers have racialized expectations, myth of a black challenge
What did Stand 2008 find about Afro Caribbean pupils?
Teachers were less likely to enter Afro Caribbean pupils for higher tier tests.
What did The Commission for Racial Equality 1993 find?
There is racist bias in interviews
Lack of information and application forms in other languages
What did Flaherty (2004) find out about unemployment
Male unemployment is X3 more higher amongst ethnic minorities
19% of white males are unskilled compared to 70% of Bangladeshi men
Flaherty said that ethnic minorities are…
X3 more likely to be in the poorest fifth of the population
Flaherty (2004) 15% of EM groups live in overcrowded households compared to…
2% of white households
What did Noone’s study find?
Sent 2 identical letters of application which were identical apart from the name on the form to 100 companies.
One was Evans and one was Patel.
Favoured the white candidate.
What did Rex’s study find?
Racial discrimination is present in society which leads to social exclusion and increases in material deprivation.
What did McCullock’s survey of 16,000 pupils find?
That ethnic minority pupils are more likely to aspire to go to University than white people.
What did Lupton find about Asian families?
Adult authorities in Asian families are similar to authorities in education.
Respect for elders.
What did Arnott say about black role models created by the media?
The ideal role model of anti school black masculinity is the ultra tough ghetto superstar
What did Strand (2007) find about Indian families?
Parents are most likely to know where their child is and when they are out
Analysis of data from 2004 longitudinal study found that indian pupils are the ethnic group most likely to complete homework 5 evenings a week.
What did Sewell (2010) find about matrifocal families?
59% of black Caribbean children live in lone parent households compared to 22% of white children
What did Scruton (1986) say about low achievement of ethnic minorities?
It is the result of ethnic minorities failing to embrace and conform to British culture
What did Keddie say about cultural deprivation?
It is victim blaming. Ethnic minorities are culturally different not culturally deprived. Underachievement is as a result of ethnocentric schooling.
What did Hyman (1967) say about values and beliefs of working class subcultures?
That they are a self imposed barrier to educational success
What did Feinstein (1988) find?
That working class parents lack of interest in their education was the main reason for their children’s underachievement
What did Bernstein and Young (1967) find?
That the ways mother's choose toys have an impact on intellectual development Middle class mothers are more likely to choose toys that encourage thinking and reasoning
What did Tanner (2003) find?
Working class children may have to use hand me downs which leads to them being stigmatised and bullied
What are the characteristics of restricted code (Bernstein)
Limited vocabulary Use of short grammatically simple sentences Speech is predictable Non analytic Context bound
What are the characteristics of elaborate code? (Bernstein)
Longer, complex sentences
Communicate abstract concepts
Context free
Spells out meaning explicitly
Sugarman (1970) identified 4 working class attitudes that act as a barrier to education. What are they?
1) fatalism
2) collectivism
3) immediate gratification
4) present time orientation
Define fatalism (Sugarman)
The idea of what will be will be.
Define present time orientation (Sugarman)
Seeing the present as more important than the future so not setting long term goals
Define immediate gratification (Sugarman)
Seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices to succeed in the future
Define collectivism (Sugarman)
Valuing being in a group more than individual success
Gerwitz (1995) identified 3 types of parents after examining parental choice. What are they?
1) Privileged skill choosers
2) Disconnected local choosers
3) Semi skilled choosers
Define privileged skill choosers (Gerwitz)
Middle class parents who use their cultural, social and economic capital to find the best school
Define disconnected local choosers (Gerwitz)
Working class parents who lack capital and choose the closest and safest school to travel to
Define semi skilled choosers (Gerwitz)
Ambitious working class parents who rely on opinion leaders and people they know to shape their choice
What percentage of failing schools are in a deprived area?
90%
Exclusion and truancy are more likely in children living in deprived areas.
1/3 of all persistent truants leave school with no qualifications
What did Douglas (1964) identify as some of the factors that lead to w/c failure in education
Hidden costs of education e.g books
Poor housing, less likely to have space to study
Can’t afford school trips, less cultural capital etc
Poor diet and health, missing school due to illness
What did Bordieu (1984) suggest about class?
Each social class has its own norms and value which he calls the habitus. Habitus = taste, activities they engage in e.g reading, going on holiday, playing a musical instrument
What is cultural capital? (Bordieu)
Knowledge about language, culture and how you are expected to communicate with others.
What is social capital (Bordieu)
The network that surrounds the student, family, friends, extended kinship. In order for educational success you need to be surrounded by the right people in order to face challenges. E.g parents can help with homework
What is economic capital (Bordieu)
Having the economic support in allowing a student to thrive in education, for example a tutor and textbooks. This allows pupils to excess the cultural capital needed in the education system.
Higher capital means…
better chance at educational success. You can only thrive within the education system if you can access the habitus of the dominant class.
Blackstone and Mortimer (1994) suggest that…
working class parents are frozen out of the education system that isn't designed to fit their needs. E.g working a 0 hour contract, can't attend parent evenings.
What did Becker’s 1971 interviews of 60 Chicago high school teachers find?
Found they judged pupils against the image of the ideal pupil
Work conduct and appearance informed their judgement
Middle class pupils are closest to the ideal
What did Cicourel and Kitsuse (1963) find in a study of American school counsellors?
Counsellors claimed to assess student’s suitability to enter higher education on ability however they were judging them on class and ethnicity
What did Rist (1970) find in their study of American kindergartens?
Teachers used information on students home backgrounds and appearance to make seating plans.
Tigers = fast learners, middle class, recieved the most teacher attention
Clowns = working class, lower level of work, less teacher attention
What did Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) Pygmalion in the classroom study find?
Told schools they had a test which was designed to identify pupils who would spurt ahead, this was just an IQ test.
Randomly chose 20% of students as spurters
On returning to the school a year later they found 47% of those who were identified as spurters had made significant process
Hartley and Sutton (2011) suggest that…
the ideal pupil stereotype is more likely to be given to girls
Describe Hartley and Sutton’s 2011 study of 140 children in Kent primary schools
Two groups
First group were told that boys do not perform as well as girls the other group wasn’t.
Tested in maths, reading and writing.
Boys in the first group performed significantly worse than those in the second whilst girls performance were similar in both.
What does Hartley and Sutton’s 2011 show?
That the negative stereotypes of teachers, parents and wider society using phrases like ‘silly boys’ and ‘why can’t you sit nicely like the girls’ is fueling a self fulfilling prophecy.
What did Ball’s research in Beachside Comprehensive (1981) find about streaming?
Top streams were ‘warmed up’ by encouragement to achieve highly and to follow academic courses of study.
Low streams were ‘cooled out’ and encouraged to follow lower status vocational courses and achieved lower levels of academic success.
What did Keddie’s (1971) research find about streams?
Top streams (m/c pupils)
Are taught the same content as lower sets howeever they are given more abstract, theoretical and high status knowledge
Lower streams (w/c pupils)
Taught more descriptive, common sense, low status knowledge
Gillborn and Youdell (2000) argue that due to the A-C economy that exists in education this has led to a process of educational triage. Explain what this term means.
Three types of pupils:
Safe- non urgent cases
Under achievers- suitable cases for treatment D/C borderline pupils
Without hope- hopeless cases so they are left to fail
Describe Lacey (1970)’s study of a middle class grammar school
Found there were two processes within schools that lead to the development of school subcultures:
Differentiation
Polarisation
Define differentiation (Lacey)
The process of teachers categorising pupils according to how they percieve their ability, attitude, behaviour
Define polarisation (Lacey)
Students being divided into two opposing poles: those in top streams (take on a pro school culture) those in bottom streams (take on an anti school subculture)
Describe pro school subcultures
Remain committed to school values as they have similar values
Gain status through academic success
Placed in high sets
Describe anti school subcultures
Have values which go against the schools, rejecting values of the system which undermines them
Gains status through other means e.g smoking, drinking
Placed in low sets and lose a sense of self worth
What is labelling?
Interactionist view
Attaching a meaning or definition on someone based on a stereotype or limited knowledge of them
What is the self fulfilling prophecy?
1) Teacher labels a student
2) Teacher treats them accordingly
3) Pupil internalises this label, it becomes part of their master status and they begin to act in the way the teacher expects them to act
Criticse the interactionist approach of looking at education
Too deterministic, self fulfilling prophecy does not always occur- Fuller
They do not pay enough attention to the distribution of power within society, why do teachers have a similar view on what counts as an ideal pupil? Dominant ideology dictates what is important and superior.
They don’t pay attention to external factors e.g material deprivation
Why do catchment areas impact a child’s educational success?
In deprived areas there may be a range of social problems such as high unemployment, poverty, juvenile delinquency, crime and drug abuse, and often poor role models for the children to imitate.
The accumulated effects of the environment on children’s behaviour means schools in such areas are more likely to have discipline problems that prevent students from learning and a high turnover of teachers.
What does The National Equality Panel’s (2010) research show?
The highest achievers in schools come from the most advantaged areas with very few coming from deprived areas.
What is compensatory education?
Extra educational help for those coming from disadvantaged groups to help them overcome the inequalities they face in the education system and wider society
What is positive discrimination?
Giving disadvantaged groups more favourable treatment than others to make up for the inequalities they face
In 2015/16 statistics showed that girls are most likely to achieve A*-C in English and Maths GCSE
67% of girls comapred to 59% of boys
Across all ethnic groups, pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) were less likely to achieve A* to C in English and Maths GCSE than those not eligible (2015/16)
39% of FSM-eligible pupils did so, compared to 67% of those not eligible
Chinese pupils were the most likely achieve A* to C in English and Maths GCSE, what ethnic group were the least likely?
Gypsy/Roma
According to Forbes Billionaire List 2019 what gender are the 10 most richest people in the world?
Men! :)
Who is the youngest billionaire in the world according to Forbes 2019?
Kylie Jenner <3
What did INvolve find in 2018 about FTSE 100 companies?
There are more people called David or Steve who head up FTSE 100 companies than there are women or ethnic minorities, FTSE companies are stocks with the largest market capitalisation in the UK.
Describe two effects of globalisation on education
1) Increased flow of ideas about education as politicians, education specialists and teachers learn about alternative ways of teaching, learning and assessing students.
2) Educators need to prepare students for the working environment as workers are required to be able to use technology to adapt their skills at a much faster rate, possibly also demanding greater geographical mobility and different work practices.
What has the globalisation of education led to?
- Greater geographical mobility, migration of people due to moving for jobs or better education
- A greater focus on educating students about what it means to be part of a nation state but also a part of the global and european community
- A concern with issues of access and equality of opportunity
- Greater individualisation in learning rather than a decided national curriculum
- Global influences on teacher training
- A greater awareness and flow of ideas about different educational approaches
- The global economy demands ever changing skills and an understanding of technology
Finland is the best ranking education system in the world. Differences between Finland and England?
- Start school at age 7
- School aims to reduce inequality
- Teachers have to have a masters degree, rigorously chosen to teach
- Only one test at 16
- Less homework
What policies in education require a greater awareness of a global world view?
1) multicultural curriculum- citizenship focuses on learning about being a global citizen
2) Policies to enrol more international students at all levels of education
3) School policies focusing on equality, diversity and inclusion. Ofsted inspect in terms of their effectiveness in embracing diversity.
4) A greater emphasis on supporting students with English as a second language
What two types of privatisation of education do Ball (2007) and Ball and Youdell (2007) identify?
Endogenous Privatization
Exogenous privatization
What is Endogenous Privatization (Ball and Youdell)
privatization within the education system, schools operating more like private businesses
What is Exogenous privatization (Ball and Youdell)
privatization from outside of the education system
What does endogenous privatisation involve?
Competition between schools
Running of schools with private sector values, like local management of schools (where schools manage themselves like independent businesses with few controls from the national and local government)
Performance related pay for teachers
Consumer (parental) choices of schools
Target setting
League Tables inspections
Per capita funding (formula funding, attracting the largest amount of pupils they can in order to gain more income)
What does exogenous privatisation involve?
School services, e.g staff training and development, the provision of supply teachers, school transport.
The management of schools, privately managed chains of academy schools being ran by Academies Enterprise Trust, United Learning and E-ACT which run about 70 secondary schools (2014)
Branding of schools, private companies selling schools their own logo and prospectus design to help them stand out in the educational marketplace
School inspections, with private companies like Tribal Inspections (in 2014, the largest Ofsted Contractor for school inspections) running school inspections on behalf of Ofsted. In 2014, Ofsted announced that they would stop using private contractors to carry out inspectors following concerns of the quality of the inspection.
Running the examination system, the UK’s largest examinations awarding body, Pearson Edexcel is run by the multinational private profit making company.
Why might privatisation of education be a bad thing?
Money may be drained from the education system, private providers may not reinvest profits in education, taking public money out of the education system and into private sector profits.
Private companies may go out of business, leaving children without schools.
Silt shifting
What did Paetcher (1998) find?
Girls who picked sports subject were subject to verbal abuse, being called a ‘lesbian’ or ‘butch’ :(
What do Browne and Rose say about gender domains?
children beliefs about gender domains are shaped by expectations of adults. Gender domains refer to the tasks that boys and girls see as their territory. Children are more confident in engaging in tasks of their own domain.
Reasons for gender differences in subject choice?
1) gender role socialisation, Oakley
2) gender domains,
3) verbal abuse
4) employment sectors
5) gendered subject images
6) subject counselling
What does Colley’s (1998) research show?
Gender perceptions of different subject choices are seen as important influences on subject choice.
Arts = feminine
Science and technology = masculine
What does Skelton et al (2007) suggest?
Males and females may tend to be drawn to different subject areas due to their own ideas of what is appropriate for their gender identity.
What does Skelton et al (2007) say about peer groups and gender identity?
Peer groups are of central importance in forming gender identities, usually same sex friendship groups.
Such groups ‘police’ gendered behaviour and punish failure to conform to traditional gender norms.
What does Francis (2005) identify as key elements of creating and reinforcing gender identities in schooling?
1) Gendered verbal abuse
2) Gendered physical space
3) Gender pursuits
4) Gendered classroom behaviour and power
5) The role of teachers
What did Spender (1982) find?
That teachers time is spent mostly on troublesome boys rather than girls who are keen to learn
What did Stanworth (1983) find?
That student themselves thought boys got twice as much attention from teachers than girls did
What did Francis (2005) think about girls and education?
That whilst improvements have been made, educational policy, overt and hidden curriculum, interaction with boys and teacher expectations continue to have negative effects on girls self esteem and experiences at school
What does feminist Jackson et al (2010) think about education and girls?
Girls remain marganlised whilst boys needs are given greater priority.
New focuses on issues like peer pressure and demands for femininity can be damaging, boys domination of school space and teacher time and gendered subject choices.
Explain what Francis (2005) meant by gendered verbal behaviour
Boys dominate talk in mixed sex classrooms drowning out girls talk and interrupting and ridiculing girls contributions
Boys verbal abuse reinforces their masculinity, belittling behaviour seen as gay or girly showing contempt for all things female.
Explain what Francis meant by gendered physical behaviour?
Girls are ‘invisible’ in the classroom
Boys resist schooling by getting into confrontations with the teacher
Boys dominate the physical space, sprawling over the desk, boisterously moving around the classroom
This is a conscious or unconscious exercise of patriarchal power and control over girls.
Explain what Francis meant by gendered persuits
Girls classroom talk= focus on appearance, construction of femininity, efforts to make themselves appealing to boys - mac an ghaill (1994) male gaze
Boys construct their masculinity by boasting about alleged sexual encounters and how far girls would let them go
Double standards
Explain what Francis meant by gendered classroom behaviour and power
Girls support boys-cleaning up after them, helping with homework
Girls may find themselves silenced, ridiculed, physically or sexually abused by boys
Happens most often to the most assertive or self confident girls who challenge boys and undermine their masculinity. Boys feel like they have to punish them by showing them who is boss.
Girls are ridiculed if they don’t conform to the mainstream conceptions of femininity
Explain what Frances meant by the role of teachers
Teachers create and perpetuate gender stereotypes
Teachers expect girls to be quiet, conformist, obedient and conscientious compared to boys.
Girls who don’t conform to appropriate gender behaviour are penalized more heavily than boys, attitude of ‘boys will be boys’
Who said that there has been a genderquake?
Wilkinson
What does genderquake mean?
There has been a change in women’s ambitions and women now are striving for careers and equality. They are more confident and assertive..
What did Francis’ 1998 research of classrooms find about boys’ attitudes to education?
Boys feel that it is easy to do well in exams without having to put in much effort. When they do fail boys blame teachers and not their own effort.
Who said that there has been a crisis of masculinity?
Mac and Ghaill
What did Forde et al (2006) find out about masculine identities in education?
Peer group pressure encourages boys to maintain a dominant masculine identity which is developed through rejecting academic work as feminine, being laddish and anti-school. This is incompatible with academic success.
What did Epstein et al (1998) find?
Working class boys risked bullying and harassment, being labelled as ‘gay’ if they worked hard at school.
Why do boys not like reading?
It’s seen as girly
What educational policies aimed to raise the skills of boys in education?
The Reading Champions scheme. uses male role models and celebrates their reading interest
Playing for success, uses football and other sports to boost learning skills and motivation amongst boys
Recruitment campaigns to attract more men into primary school teaching
What are some key ideas of New Right and education?
New Right created an education market, schools were run like businesses, competing with each other for students- league tables.
Schools should teach pupils to prepare for work and education should support economic growth- new vocationalism
The state was to provide a framework in order to ensure that schools were all teaching the same thing and transmitting the same shared values – hence the National Curriculum
