Key Terms Flashcards
Agency
The idea that individuals have free will and can make their own choices.
Capitalism
Private ownership of companies.
Collective conscience
A set of shared beliefs and attitudes shared by all members of a group or society.
An agency socialisation
Any group or institution that passes on cultural norms and values
Organic analogy
The act of viewing society as a human body
Cultural deprivation
Being deprived of the cultural attributes necessary for educational success.
Compensatory education
Additional educational provision for disadvantaged children to give them a helping hand to compete on equal terms.
Deterministic theory
Individuals don’t have a choice about how they behave. Human behaviour is determined by social structures and circumstances.
Ethnicity
Groups within a population regarded by themselves as culturally distinctive and different.
They usually see themselves as having a common origin, and they may share some practices or beliefs.
Ethnocentric
Believing that the history, customs and traditions of your own race or nationality are superior to those of other races.
Globalisation
The process of all parts of the world becoming interconnected so that national boundaries become less important.
Hidden curriculum
The unwritten rules, values and behaviours that students are expected to conform to and learn while in school e.g punctuality or respect for authority.
Ideology
A set of beliefs that promotes the interests of one group at the expense of others.
Institutionalised racism
The failure of an organisation or institution to provide an effective service for people because of their colour or ethnicity.
The organisation processes, attitudes and behaviours will discriminate - often unconsciously - through prejudice and racial stereotyping.
Labelling
When labels or names are attached to people, ascribing certain characteristics to those individuals.
Labels are often simplified and drawn upon stereotypes.
Legitimation
The process of justifying or gaining support for an idea or policy. It often involves justifying injustice or inequality, perhaps by portraying it as natural.
Marketisation
Organising state-run services more like private companies, competing for ‘customers’.
Material deprivation
A lack of money or resources, preventing members of society from purchasing goods and services that other members of society can afford.
Meritocracy
A society or system in which success or failure is seen as the result of ability and hard work.
Patriarchy
A system or society in which men hold the power, and largely excluded from it. Women’s interests are subordinated to the interests of men.
Relativism
The idea that no absolute truth can ever be known or exist.
Role allocation
The process of deciding who does what role within society.
Self-concept
The sort of person you think you are.
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Accepting and taking on labels that people have given you.
Self-refuting prophecy
Rejecting labels that people have given you.
Socialisation
The process of learning how to behave in a way that society accepts
Social mobility
The ability to move upwards (or downwards) between the groups of a social hierarchy (i.e working class to middle class).
Peer group
A group of friends and/or fellow pupils
Individualisation
A process in which group identities are lost i.e class, gender.
Individuals have more freedom to choose different lifestyles and lose loyalty to their groups.
Hegemonic masculinity
The dominant ideas of what it means to be masculine in a particular culture.
Moral panic
Public anxiety often generated by mass media reports. It involves an exaggerated and often irrational fear about something portrayed as new/growing.
Tripartite System
Form of secondary education introduced by the 1944 Education Act - all students taking the 11+.
Separated into 3 types of schools: Grammar, Technical schools and Secondary Modern
Subculture
Groups within wider social groups who share a unique set of lifestyles, attitudes and values.
This allows members to gain status, mutual support and a sense of belonging.
Norms
Behaviours and attitudes in which are considered normal.
Values
Things that people consider important to them.
Primary Socialisation
The process by which parents and significant family members teach their children how to behave in a way that society accepts and expects.
