Education (Gender, Ethnicity and class) Flashcards
To revise the Social factors affecting education
1
Q
What is an internal factor?
A
- Factors within school such as interactions with teachers and inequalities between schools
2
Q
What is an external factor?
A
- Factors outside of the education system such as the influence of home or wider society
3
Q
How does language contribute to cultural deprivation?
A
Language
- educated parents (more likely to be middle class) use more encouraging language when speaking to their child encouraging cognitive development and working class parents do not, communicating in only words or gestures
- Restricted code, simple, ungrammatical language that is not descriptive. Used mostly by the working class
- Elaborated code, Mostly used by the middle class, context free and can communicate abstract ideas
These advantages give middle class students an advantage at school, Bernstein argues the school fails to teach working class children the elaborated code
4
Q
How does parents education contribute to cultural deprivation?
A
- Douglas found that working class parents placed less value in their education meaning they are less likely to encourage their children to do well at school
- Feinstein argues middle class parents are more likely to be educated meaning they know how to socialise their children for education
- Middle class parenting style involves consistent discipline and high expectations and are more likely to take their children on educational trips such as to museums
- Working class parenting style involves inconsistent harsh punishment preventing their children from learning discipline and therefore behaving at school
- Middle class parents more likely to buy educational toys for their children whereas working class parents are not and middle class parents have a better understanding of nutrition and feed their children better giving them an advantage in school
5
Q
How does working class subculture contribute to cultural deprivation?
A
Barry sugarman argues working class subculture consists of 4 key features acting as a barrier to education.
- Fatalism, there is nothing you can do to change your status because life is unfair anyway
- Collectivism, being part of a group rather than succeeding as an individual
- Immediate gratification, seeking immediate pleasure, not sacrificing time for greater rewards later
- Present time orientation, seeing the present as more important than the future, not having any goals
Sugarman argues that this stems from middle class jobs being secure long term commitments that require lots of previous planning whereas working class jobs are usually the opposite
6
Q
What is compensatory education and some examples?
A
- Provide early educational socialisation to working class children
- Operation head start, American billion dollar pre-school scheme in poorer areas in the 1960s. Improving parenting skills, educational psychologists visiting homes and setting up nursery classes.
- English examples, Educational priority areas, Education action zones and sure start.
7
Q
What is the argument against cultural deprivation?
A
- Neil Keddie says it is a victim blaming explanation, working class children are not culturally deprived, just culturally different.
They fail because education is a place dominated by middle class values - Blackstone and Mortimor say that working class parents are less likely to come to extra curricular events because they work longer hours or are put off by the school’s middle class atmosphere
- Schools with mainly working class students have less effective communication methods making it harder for parents to see how their child is doing
8
Q
What is some evidence for material deprivation linking to educational underachievement?
A
- A third of children eligible for free school meals achieve five or more GCSEs
- A third of persistent truants leave school with no qualifications
- Nearly 90% of failing schools are in deprived areas
9
Q
How does housing contribute to material deprivation?
A
- Overcrowding can have a direct effect on a child’s ability to study and disturbed sleep meaning less energy for school
- Children that are moved frequently have constant interruptions to their education
- Damp housing can make children ill meaning less time at school
- Temporary housing can cause psychological distress as well as injuries due to less safe space to play
10
Q
How does diet and health contribute to material deprivation?
A
- Marilyn Howard says that working class young people have low intakes of energy, mineral and vitamins weakening their immune systems resulting in more absences at school lowering educational achievement
- Richard Wilkinson, amongst ten year olds, the lower the social class the higher rate of behaviour and mental disorders
- Blanden and Machin, working class children more likely to engage in externalising behaviour such as fights and tantrums
11
Q
How does the cost of education contribute to material deprivation?
A
- Working class families cannot always afford materials such as uniforms, books computers etc. placing working class children at a disadvantage. Working class children may have to use handmedowns resulting in bullying and lowering of self esteem. This fear of bullying results in 20% of eligible children not claiming free school meals.
- Working class families also cannot afford private schooling or tuition
- Working class children more likely to take
on jobs such as babysitting and paper-rounds meaning less time for education
12
Q
How does fear of debt contribute to material deprivation?
A
- Callender and Jackson did a survey of 2,000 students and found that working class students are more debt-averse and are 5 times less likely to apply for university
- 2012, tuition fees rose to £9,000 a year resulting in 8.6% less working class students applying through UCAS
- Nation union of students conducted a survey of 3800 students, 81% of highest social close received help from home but only 43% of the lowest social class received help.
- 30% of university students are working class but they are 50% of the population
13
Q
What is Peter Bourdieu’s three types of capital theory?
A
- Both cultural and material factors contribute to educational underachievement
- Working class children are more likely to attend local universities to save on travel costs and also more likely to work part time affecting their studies
- These could be the reason dropout rates are higher in working class populated universities and less in middle class ones such as oxford with the dropout rate being only 1.5%
14
Q
How does cultural capital contribute to educational achievement?
A
- Middle class children are more likely to have intellectual interests because of early socialisation allowing them to grasp abstract ideas. These intellectual interests are rewarded with qualifications inside of education
- Working class children are less likely to be socialised into intellectual interests and get the message the school is not for them
15
Q
How does economic and educational capital contribute to educational achievement?
A
- Middle class children are more likely to meet demands of a school curriculum
- Middle class parents more likely to have money to move into a catchment area of a university, known as selection by ‘mortgage’ driving up prices of successful schools
16
Q
What is some evidence of Bourdieus ideas being true?
A
- Alice Sullivan, survey of 465 pupils across four schools and found that those with ‘intellectual interests’ were more likely to achieve 5 GCSEs
- Where pupils of different social class had the same cultural capital they still had lower grades
17
Q
What is labelling theory and how does it contribute to educational achievement?
A
- When a teacher attaches a label to student because of stereotyped assumptions, labelling middle class pupils as good and the working class pupils as bad,
- Howard Becker, interviewed 60 school teachers and found that they judged pupils on how closely they fit the image of an ‘ideal pupil’. Saw middle class children as closest to ‘ideal’.
- Hempel-Jorgenson, ideal pupils vary depending on the school, discipline lacking schools said ideal pupils are quiet and obedient whereas in a good school ideal meant being judged on personality and academic ability
18
Q
What is labelling in secondary schools like?
A
-Dunne and Gazeley conducted interviews and found that teachers had normalised working class underachievement
- This meant entering working class pupils into easier exams and middle class pupils receiving extension work
19
Q
What is labelling in primary schools like?
A
- Ray Rist, study of kindergarten showed that teachers sat middle class children towards the front giving them the most help, labelled ‘tigers’
- Those labelled ‘flies’ were working class and were given lower ability books and less chances to show their ability
20
Q
What are the steps of the self fulfilling prophecy?
A
- Teacher makes a label making predictions on how a pupil will behave
- Teacher treats the pupil accordingly acting as if the label is true
- The pupil internalises the teachers expectation and it will show through his educational (un)achievement.
21
Q
How does teachers expectation contribute to labelling theory?
A
- Rosenthal and Jacobson, told a school they had a test to identify spurters but it was only a standard IQ test
- Identified a random 20% as a spurter but came back months later and found that 50% of those identified as spurters had made major educational progress
- The teachers expectations had been influenced by the test results and they gave ‘spurters’ more attention demonstrating the self fulfulling prophecy
22
Q
How does streaming contribute to educational achievement?
A
- Working class children are more likely to be put in a lower stream due to teachers predicting working class children to underachieve and students are locked in that set by teachers low expectation of them
- Middle class children tend to benefit from streaming because teachers have high expectations of them
23
Q
What is the A-C economy?
A
- Gillborn and Youdell, because working class children are predicted to have less ability and middle class pupils are predicted
- Pupils are sorted into three groups, those who will pass, borderline targeted for extra help and hopeless cases
- This will lead to schools not selecting people from underachieving backgrounds such as white working class, Pakistanis and Black children
24
Q
How do pupil subcultures from according to Colin Lacey?
A
- Differentiation, process of teachers streaming students according to their ability, sorting students into pro and anti school subcultures.
- Polarisation, streaming polarised students into pro and anti school subcultures.
25
What is a pro school subculture?
- Pupils placed in high streams gain their status in a approved manner forming a pro school subculture
26
What is an anti-school subculture?
- Those placed in low sets suffer from low self esteem
- This deprives them of succeeding in school and they seek alternative status by disrespecting teachers, smoking, not doing homework etc.
27
What is the argument for abolishing streaming?
- Ball found that when streaming abolished, the influence of anti-school subcultures declined but differentiation still occurred and teachers still gave middle class pupils more attention showing effects of class inequalities still occurr
28
How do subcultures from according to Peter Woods?
- Ingratiation, being the teacher's pet
- Ritualism, being good in school and staying outside of trouble
- Retreatism, daydreaming and mucking about
- Rebellion, outright rejection of everything the school stands for
- However Furlong says that pupils will not stick to one role and will change their behaviour according to a class or teacher
29
What are some criticisms of labelling theory?
- Some pupils are able to reject the labels attached to them like Fuller's girls
- Marxists argue that there are wider power structures that cause underachievement, not the teachers.
30
What is a habitus?
- Peter Bourdieu, the culture of one class including the values, way of thinking, speech etc.
- An example of this is school having a middle class habitus encouraging middle class traits such as historic literature
31
What is symbolic capital and symbolic violence?
- Symbolic capital, when someones culture is deemed valuable by an institution such as a school.
- Symbolic violence, devaluing cultures different to the habitus of an area. An example is teachers not liking a working class pupil for using slang
- Archer found that working class pupils often felt they had to change the way they spoke and dressed in order to be successful
32
What is a nike identity?
- Symbolic violence causing people to seek alternative status by constructing class identities such as nike identities often clashing with middle class culture such as wearing trainers in school
- Sometimes a way of rejecting school by adopting a culture opposite of a school one.
33
How does working class identity affect educational success?
- Ingram studied two groups of boys from the same deprived neighbourhoods. One group passed the 11+ and went to a grammar school and the other didnt.
- Ingram saw that the grammar school boys felt a conflict with their working class identity and the middle class habitus of the school where one boy was ridiculed for wearing a tracksuit on non school uniform day
34
How does class identity affect self self-exclusion?
- Clash between working class identity and middle class habitus of the school
- Evans, found 21 girls reluctant to apply for elite universities and those that did found hidden class barriers to getting in
and only 4 out of the 21 moved away because they were attached to their locality
- This can lead to working class students excluding themselves from attending elite universities because they are unable to fit in.
35
What is the relationship between internal and external factors?
- Working class identity may conflict with the middle class habitus of schools
- Working class pupils using the restricted code may be labelled by teachers as stupid
- Poverty may lead to stigmatisation by peer groups at school
36
What is some evidence for the gender gap in education?
Starting school
- Boys 2.5x more likely to have special educational needs
- Girls 12 points ahead of boys
GCSE
- Girls 10 percentage points ahead of boys
AS and A level
- 6.6% more girls gain A and B grades than boys
37
How has the impact of feminism affected gendered educational achievement in girls?
- External factor
- Feminism has changed traditional gender roles raising the self esteem of women who would rather see out jobs than be a housewife
- McRobbies's study of girls magazines show a change from advertising being a housewife to images of assertive, independent women.
38
How has changes in the family affected gendered educational achievement in girls?
- External factor
- Increase in divorce rate, cohabitation, single parent families and smaller families
- This will lead to more single mothers adopting a breadwinner role acting as a role model for young girls
39
How has women's employment trends changed and how has this affected gendered educational achievement in girls?
- External factor
- 1970 equal pay act made it illegal to pay women less
- Paygap halfed by 15% since 1975
- These changes encouraged young girls to see their future at work rather than a stay at home mother
40
How has girls changing ambitions affected gendered educational achievement in girls?
- External factor
- Sue Sharpe interviewed girls 20 years apart and found that girls ambitions went from children and marriage to a career
41
How does class affect gendered educational achievement in girls?
- External factor
- Diane Reay argues working class girls have limited opportunities and children and marriage is attainable and gives status
42
What are some examples of gender equal opportunities policies?
- Internal factor
- GIST (girls in science and technology), WISE (women into science and engineering
- National curriculum (1988) made boys and girls study the same subjects
- These rules have made girls pursue jobs typically for men levelling the playing field
43
How have positive role models in schools affected gendered educational achievement?
- Internal factor
- Female head teachers in secondary schools increased by 15% since 1992
- These female figures of authority show young girls that high positions in a workplace are attainable
44
How has GCSE and coursework affected gendered educational achievement?
- Internal factor
- Gender gap increased in 1989 when coursework was introduced
- Mitsos and Browne say that this is because, girls spend more time on their work, present it better, better at meeting deadlines and bring the right equipment to lessons
45
How has teacher attention affected gendered educational achievement?
- Internal factor
- Jane and French found that boys attract more attention because they behaved worse
- Francis found that boys would be punished more harshly because the teachers had lower expectations of them
- Girls style of speech involves taking turns whereas boys interrupt more meaning they interact worse with teachers
46
How has challenging stereotypes in the curriculum affected gendered educational achievement?
- Internal factor
- Sexist images showing gender roles have been removed from educational materials.
- This has led to a rise in the self esteem in girls because they are shown what girls are capable of
47
How has marketisation affected gendered educational achievement?
- Internal factor
- Girls are more desirable during the selection process because they are more likely to achieve meaning the school will receive more uplift funds. Because they get into good schools a positive self fulfilling prophecy will form raising their achievement.
- Boys more likely to suffer from behavioural disorders and less likely
48
How has hyper-heterosexual feminine identities affected gendered educational achievement?
- Girls achieve alternative status by buying into identities that match with girls inside of school but conflict with the middle class habitus causing symbolic violence
49
How has boyfriends affected gendered educational achievement?
- Give alternative status but get in the way of educational achievement
- This also makes girls lose interest in studying masculine subjects because they want to stay in their feminine role inside of a relationship
50
What is the working class girls' dilemma?
- Either gaining symbolic capital form peers or gaining educational capital by rejecting their peer groups
51
What are some examples of successful working class girls?
- Evans, 21 working class sixth form girls, main motivation was giving back to their families reflecting their feminine working class identity of being caring
-
52
How have boys and literacy affected working gendered educational achievement?
- DSCF, says the gender gap is ainly because of poor reading skills because parents do not read to their boys as much and see it as a feminine thing
53
How has globalisation and the decline of men's jobs affected gendered educational achievement?
- Mitsos sand brown say deindustrialisation has caused the decline in men's jobs causing an identity crisis
- This identity crisis means boys have little chance of getting a real job and don't bother getting qualifications
54
How has the feminisation of education affected gendered educational achievement?
- Schools do not celebrate masculine traits such as competition and leadership but feminine ones such as attentiveness and methodical working with coursework leaving boys behind
55
How has the shortage of male primary school teachers affected gendered educational achievement?
- Lack of role models at home and at school
- Only 15% of primary school teachers are male and 42% of boys said male teachers made them work harder on a survey
56
What is the evidence for male teachers being successful?
- Francis 2/3s of 7-8 year olds say the gender of a teacher doesn't matter
- Read, two types of teachers, disciplinarian and liberal after studying 51 teachers found that most teachers female and male were disciplinarian showing the presence of a male isnt needed to proved discipline
57
How have laddish subcultures affected gendered educational achievement?
- The opinions of peers is more damaging to a boys masculinity than it is to a girls femininity, if boys work they are subject to homophobic harassment
58
How has the moral panic about boys affected eduction?
- Narrowing educational policy to failing boys causes the neglect of the disadvantages of being working class or not white
- This also ignores problems girls face at school such as sexual harassment and gender crisis `
59
How does gender class and ethnicity affect gendered educational achievement?
- Middle class Girls are as high as 44 points ahead of working class girls showing that class is an overuling factor over gender
- Black girls often associate their femininity with being successful and independent
60
How has gender role socialisation affected gender differences in subject choices?
- Boys and girls are dressed differently from early ages
- Boys are expected to act tough but girls are expected to be tidy and quiet by teachers
- This influences different reading interests as girls like story books and boys like non-fiction
61
How have gender domains affected gender differences in subject choices?`
- Gender domains are formed when children view the roles and expectations form different gender parents such as a male mending a car and a woman feeding a baby
-
62
How have gendered subject images affected gender differences in subject choices?
- Science teachers more likely to be men
- Boys monopolise equipment in lessons
- Involves working with machines which is masculine
- Teaching styles tend to be masculine and formal which aren't aimed at girls.
63
How has single sex schooling affected gender differences in subject choices?
- Girls in girls schools were more likely to take science and maths than girls in mixed schools
- Boys in boys schools were more likely to take english and languages
- Girls 2.4 more likely to take physics in girls schools
64
How has gender identity and peer pressure affected gender differences in subject choices?
- Boys will opt out of drama and music because it doesnt fit in their gender domains and recieve backlash from their peers
- The absence of opposite genders in single sex schooling means a lack of pressure to pick gender domains
65
What are the sexual and gender identities affecting educational achievement?
- Double standard, if a girl has multiple partners she is a slag but if a boy does it he is a stud
- Verbal abuse, Girls called sags for having many partners and drags if they didn't, boys called gay if they have female peers or worked
- The male gaze, Mac an Ghaill sees this as a way of surveillance where masculinity is reinforced and femininity is devalued
- Male and female peer groups, girls face a choice whether to focus on school or reject it and pick a hyper heterosexual feminine identity in order to achieve alternative status
66
How does linguistic and intellectual skills contribute to ethnic cultural deprivation?
- External factor
- Berieter and Engelmann see the language of low class black families as inadequate for education
- 2010, pupils who's first language was English were only 3.2 points behind native English speakers showing this isn't a big factor
67
How does Family structure contribute to ethnic cultural deprivation?
- External factor
- Moynihan says most black families are headed by a lone mother meaning young boys have no male role models
- Scruton sees the failure of ethnic minorities as a failure to absorb British culture
- Ken Pryce, Asian culture is more resistant to racism whereas Carribean culture is not
68
What does Tony Sewell say about the failure of underachieving black boys?
- External factor
- Lack of nurturing love from father figures results in struggles to control emotions during puberty
- Street gangs offer these boys this lack of love and they are trapped in an anti-school gang subculture
- Gillborn argues that it is institutional racism not peer pressure that is the cause of underachieving black boys
`
69
How do Asian families affect ethnic educational achievement?
- External factor
- Ruth Lupton names Asians as model minorities because the family structure taught them to respect figures of authority.
70
How do white working class families affect ethnic educational achievement?
- External factor
- McCholluch did a survey of 16000 and found that minorities are more likely to go to university. Measuring four schools, 2 white and one pakistani found that lack of parental support will cause the underachievement of white pupils. Ethnic minoroty parents saw educaiton as a way up in society
- Evans, white working class gang culture is brutal and the school can become a place of intimidation and gag culture
71
What are the criticisms of cultural theory?
- External factor
- Driver says theorists ignore the positive effects of ethnicity
- Lawrence says that black pupils fail because of racism not because their culture is weak
- Keddie sees the ethnocentric curriculum as the reason why pupils fail and propose multicultural education and anti racist education.
72
What is some evidence for ethnic minority material deprivation?
- External factor
- Half of ethnic minority children live in low-income households
- EM twice as likely to be unemployed
- EM three times more likely to be homeless
73
Why are ethnic minorities under greater risk of material deprivation?
- External factor
- Many live in economically depressed areas
- Cultural differences such as some Muslim households preventing women from working outside of the home
- Foreign qualifications not being recognised and lack of language skills
- Racial discrimination
- Asylum seekers not being able to take work
74
Does class override ethnicity?
- 86% of FSM Chinese girls achieved 5 GCSEs compared to 65% of none FSM white girls
- Shows class does not completely pverride ethnicity
75
What is some examples of racism in wider society?
- Wood, sent out 1000 applications to job vacancies and one in 9 white applications accepted compared to 1 in 16 ethnic minority were accpeted
76
What is an example of internal factors affecting ethnic achievement?
- Black children highest achievers in entrance to primary school but had 21 points below average by GCSE
- Non FSM black boys were more liekly to fail than FSM white boys. Strand's analysis of 530000 7-11 year olds
77
How does labelling and teacher racism affect ethnic minority achievement?
- Gillborn and Youdell found that teachers quicker to discipline black students than other students, known as racialised expectations stemming form racial stereotypes teachers hold
- Black pupils more likely to suffer internal exclusions and being sent to pupil referral units
78
How has streaming affected black pupils?
- educational triage and marketisiation mean that black pupils are more likely to be placed in lower sets
79
How are Asian pupils labelled by teachers?
- Teachers saw them as inferior and had bad language skills
- Saw them as a problem to ifnore rather than threat
80
What are the different types of pupil identity according to Archer?
- Ideal pupil, white middle class, masculinised achieving through natural ability and initiative
- Pathologised pupil, an Asian with no sexuality who achieves from continuous hard work
- Demonised pupil, black or white middle class seen as unintelligent and culturally deprived
81
What are some examples of rejecting negative labels?
- Mary fuller, group of year 11 black girls. high achievers where most black girls were in low streams. They channelled the anger of being labelled into exams. They remained friends with black girls in lower sets in order to avoid ridicule and did not seek approval of teachers
- Mac an Ghaill, Black and Asian students rejected the racist labels due to cultural strengthening in the past
82
What are some examples of failed strategies for avoiding teacher racism?
- Mirza studied ambitious black girls who suffered teacher racism through bad advice
- The three types of racist teachers are,
1. Colour blind, allow racism to go unchallenged
2. Liberal chauvenists, believe black students are culturally deprived
3. Overt racists, believe blacks are superior and discriminate against them
- The girls were selective about who they asked for help and got on with work without help but these strategies were unsuccessful
83
According to Sewell what the different way black boys respond to teacher racism?
- The rebels, most visible and influential group, rejected school and bought into their black masculine identity
- The conformists, largest group, boys keen to succeed, not part of a group and anxious to be labelled
- The retreatists, smallest group disconnected from school
- Innovators, pro education but anti school
84
How has marketisation and segregation affected institutional racism?
- Filtering out stereotypical underachievers such as black children.
- Application processes made it hard to understand and apply for non-english speakers
- Commision for racial equality found schools reports, interviews, application processes were racist or made harder for non-white people.
85
What is the ethnocentric curriulum?
- A form of institutional racism, curriculum only contains the culture of Europe and no where else making it hard for EM pupil to associate with
86
How have assessments made it harder for EM pupils to achieve?
- Black children went from top ethnic group to lowest overnight due to assessment changes in 2000
- FSP based on teachers subjective judgements
- Assessments hcnaged from the beginning of the year to the end meaning teachers influence could be a factor
87
What are some opportunities that try to raise the achievement of black pupils?
- Gifted and talented programme, finds gifted children from minority groups but white children 2x more likely to be chosen
- Exam tiers, aiming high intiative programme in 30 school meant to raise achievement of black pupils but black pupils still more likely tp be entered for low tier exams
88
What is new IQism?
- Teachers tend to make assumptions of black students as low ability
89
What are the criticisms of Gillborn?
- If ethnic minorities fail due to insitutional racism then why do Asians overachieve
- Some sociologists argue that it is not insitiutional racism but internal and external factors
