Key Education Sociologists Flashcards
Durkheim - Functionalist
Education teaches social solidarity and specialist skills.
Parsons - Functionalist
School is a bridge between family and wider society - teaches meritocracy.
Davis and Moore - functionalist
Education is a system of role allocation based on ability.
Althusser - Marxist
Education is an ideological state apparatus maintaining capitalism.
Bowles and Gintis - Marxists
Hidden curriculum teaches obedience, schools mirror the workplace ( correspondence principal)
Willis - Marxists
Learning to labour - w/c boys reject school but still end up in low paying jobs proving capitalism remains.
Chubb and Moe - Neoliberal and new right view
Private schools perform better because of competition and parental choice.
New Right policies
E.g. marketisation/ league tables reinforce education as a business
Bourdieu
Cultural capital benefits M/c students.
Sugarman
W/c subculture values immediate gratification limiting success.
Howard
Poor diet and health effect w/c children’s concentration.
Becker
Teachers label students based on social class - ideal pupil = m/c.
Rosenthal and Jacobson
SFP - randomly labelled students performed better when treated as high achievers.
Lacey
Streaming creates subcultures - pro school vs anti-school.
Ball
Setting and Streaming disadvantages w/c students.
Moynihan
Lone parent black families lack male role models affecting achievement.
Sewell
Black boys lack fatherly discipline, leading to anti-school subcultures.
Lupton
Asian family discipline mirrors schools values aiding achievement.
Gillborn and Youdell
Teachers label black students ‘disruptive’ leading to exclusion and underachievement.
Wright
Teachers assume Asian students have poor English leading to marginalisation.
Troyna and Williams
Ethnocentric curriculum disadvantages ethnic minorities.
Sharpe
Girls priorities have shifted from love and family to careers.
McRobbie
Magazines promote female independence rather than housewives.
Mitsos and Browne
Girls are more organised and mature than boys benefitting coursework.
Sewell (boys underachievement)
Schools now favour feminine learning styles leaving boys behind.
Mac an Ghaill
Crisis of masculinity - boys lack traditional w/c jobs leading to a lack of motivation.
Kelly
Science is seen as a male subject discouraging girls.
Colley
Subject choices are influenced by gender socialisation.
Tripartite system
Reproduces class inequality by putting w/c in secondary moderns.
Comprehensive system
Aimed to reduce inequality but streaming still favoured m/c.
Marketisation (1988 education reform act) - Ball
Marketisation benefits m/c parents (cultural capital).
Gillborn
Marketisation disadvantages black students through institutional racism.
Pupil premium
Funding disadvantaged students but not always spent effectively.
Gerwitz and Ball - new right
m/c parents are at an advantage because of their cultural and economic capital.
Schultz
Developing human capital - investment in education benefits wider economy providing trained and qualified workforces - the best and most qualified are in jobs with the most skill.
Illich and Ferier - Marxists
Schools promote conformity and encourage the passive acceptance of inequality.
Giroux
W/c arent passive puppets of the hidden curriculum proved by anti-school subcultures.
Marrow and Torres
Reproduces diversity rather than inequality.
Halsey, Floud and Martin - Marxists criticism
Over exaggeration of effects of educational achievement
Bernstein
Different language codes are used by different social classes - elaborated and restricted.
Archer - Nike identities
Symbolic capital gain from peers for w/c students wearing branded sports wear whist being treated with symbolic violence by education system.
Reay - psychosocial approach to ideas of symbolic violence
Conflict between conforming to m/c habitus and w/c habitus.
Sullivan
Students who had m/c habitus at home achieved well.
Tough and Brooks
Discouragement of parents applying through high uniform price, making literature hard to understand, not advertising in poorer areas.
