Key Thinkers

Question 1

David (1993)

Answer 1

New Right:
- Described marketized education as Parentocracy
- As the power is moved away from the schools and the teachers and moved towards the parents
- This creates greater diversity and choice for parents

Question 2

Bourdieau

Answer 2

Marxist:
- Education system leads to cultural reproduction, schools reward m/c values
- Habitus
- Education systems within capitalist societies function to legitimate class inequalities, success is then facilitated by cultural capital and habitus

Question 3

Bowles and Gintis

Answer 3

Marxist:
Correspondence Principle:
- school processes mirror the world of work in order to prepare them for manual labour
Myth of Meritocracy:
- education claims to be meritocratic but schools discriminate in favour of the m/c
- hidden curriculum lowers w/c ambitions

Question 4

Althusser

Answer 4

Education is an ideological state apparatus - an agency of the government whose main function is to control through ideas
Marxist:
- Reproduction of social inequality = education deliberate engineers w/f failure in order to create an unqualified factory workforce, private education prepares children of the elite for positions of power, hidden curriculum is shaped to assist m/c achievement and deter w/c achievement
- Legitimisation of social inequality
= m/c has access to more cultural and economic capital which puts them at an advantage

Question 5

Davis and Moore

Answer 5

Functionalist:
- Role Allocation = education sorts and sifts individuals into a social hierarchy
They argued that for society to function there had to be a system of unequal rewards. It is the ability to access a higher reward that encourages individuals to put in extra effort. In other words, social stratification (what others might term inequality) is essential. It is social stratification – a system of unequal rewards – that facilitates meritocracy.
Davis and Moore believed that all individuals had the same opportunities to exploit their talent, work hard, gain qualifications and end up in high-paying, high status positions. They believed that education and wider society were both meritocratic

Question 6

Parsons

Answer 6

Functionalist (bridge between family and society)
- schools provide a link between the family and wider society which allows students to move from the ascribed status and particularistic values of the home to the meritocratic and universalistic values of wider society

Question 7

Durkheim

Answer 7

Functionalism:
Socialisation and social solidarity = education promotes social solidarity through shared values.
Passing on cultural values of society, achieved through hidden curriculum = helps build social solidarity as it teaches students the core values of society

Question 8

Douglas

Answer 8

Cultural Deprivation
- argues that parental attitudes to education and their own levels of education often have a big impact on educational achievement
- argued that w/c parents place less value on education and therefore are less likely to push their children academically and visit school less often and as a result children have lower levels of motivation and achievement

Question 9

Sugarman

Answer 9

Cultural Deprivation
- argues that the w/c have a different culture to the m/c which is a barrier to educational achievement
- 4 elements: fatalism, collectivism, immediate gratification and present time orientation
which leads to under achievement in education

Question 10

Bernstein

Answer 10

Cultural Deprivation
- language code differences between m/c and w/c
- w/c restricted code = simple grammar and limited vocab
- m/c elaborated code = complex grammar and full sentences
- puts m/c students at an advantage at school as teachers, textbooks and the education system use elaborated code

Question 11

Bourdieu and Cultural Capital

Answer 11

education, tastes, cultural knowledge and attitude that are rewarded by the system

Question 12

Howard Becker

Answer 12

Labelling Theory
- teachers evaluated pupils in terms of ‘ideal pupil’ w/c students likely to be labelled as deviant
- self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 13

Rosenthal and Jacobson

Answer 13

• negative labelling can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 14

Gillborn and Youdell

Answer 14

• educational triage = certain children prioritised in order to get higher statistics for school
• teachers were quick to discipline black pupils than others as such teachers misinterpret behaviour and see black pupils as an authority, creates conflict between teachers and pupils which reinforces stereotypes