Main Theorists Flashcards
Durkheim (F)
- Social solidarity - shared beliefs + values are transmitted through the school’s teachings, e.g. history instils shared heritage.
- Specialist skills - education teaches individuals skills that they need to play their part in labour.
Parsons (F)
- School prepares movement from family to wider society.
- Ascribed + particularistic values to meritocratic ones - equal opportunity to achieve, based on ability + effort.
- Wong: see children as passive puppets of socialisation.
Davis + Moore (F)
- Role allocation - important roles are filled by the most talented people who are highly rewarded
- Inequality is necessary to ensure this.
- Weak link between educational achievement + economic success.
Schultz (F)
Education ensures people are properly trained for work, most qualified end up in jobs that require the most skills.
Chubb + Moe (NR)
- Consumer choice - private schools deliver quality education as they are answerable to paying parents - students from low income perform 5% better.
- Market system where parents shape schools to meet their own needs, improving the quality + efficiency of schools.
- Marketisation - competition between schools: league tables + OFSTED; formula funding; free schools.
- Allen: free schools only benefit children from highly educated families.
Althusser (M)
- Ideological state apparatus - maintains the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling people’s beliefs + values.
- Transmits + legitimises class inequality: deserve subordination + seen as inevitable.
- Giroux (NM): assumes w/c passively accept their position.
Bowles + Gintis (M)
- Correspondence principle - school mirrors the world of work. E.g. uniform; hierarchy; obedience.
- Myth of meritocracy - meritocracy serves to justify the privileges of the h/c, making it seem as they gained them through success + fair competition.
- ‘Class first’ approach - see class as the key inequality, ignoring all other kinds.
Willis (M)
- Participant observation + unstructured interviews on ‘lads’.
- w/c pupils resist attempts to indoctrinate them
- Rebellion guaranteed that they end up in unskilled jobs.
- McRobbie: females are absent from Willis’ study.
Ball
- Exam league tables + funding formula creates school inequalities.
- m/c have cultural + economic capital that’s more desirable.
- Removal of streaming led to a decline in anti-school subcultures.
- National Curriculum ignores the history of black + Asian people.
Bartlett (M)
- Cream skimming - select high achieving m/c students.
- Silt-shifting - avoiding poor resulting w/c students.
Gewirtz
Parental choice - differences in parent’s economic + cultural capital.
- Privileged-skilled choosers - m/c; understand school’s admission system; economic capital to move to a better school area.
- Disconnected-local choosers - w/c; restricted by lack of capital - distance + travel were major restrictions on their choices.
- Semi-skilled choosers - w/c; ambitious for their children.
Hall (M)
Academies are an example of handing over public services to private capitalism.
Beder
Cola-isation of schools - UK families spent £110,000 in Tesco for one computer for schools.
Gillborn
- Institutionally racist policies in relation to ethnocentric curriculum + streaming disadvantages EM groups.
- As marketisation gives schools more scope to select pupils, it allows negative stereotypes to influence school admission decisions.
- FSP had black children ranked lower than whites, which is ranked based on teachers’ judgements.
Engelmann
- Language used in l/c homes is deficient.
- Language spoken by low-income black American families is inadequate for educational success: ungrammatical + disjointed.
Bernstein
- Speech codes.
- Elaborate (m/c): complex sentences + grammar
- Restricted (w/c): simple sentences + grammar.
Douglas
- Parental attitudes: w/c parents placed less value on education + push their children less.
- Children placed in lower streams at 8 suffered a decline in their IQ score.
Feinstein
Parents’ own education is the most important factor as they have an advantage when socialising their children.
Sugarman
- Instant gratification - immediately reward themselves on successes.
- Present-time orientation - lack of long-term goals.
- Fatalism - unable to change their status.
- Collectivism.
Keddie
- w/c children are culturally different, not deprived.
- EM children are culturally different, schools are ethnocentric - biased in favour of white culture + against minorities.
Troyna + Williams
- Problem is not child’s language but the school’s attitude towards it.
- Speech hierarchy - label m/c highest.
- Institutional racism - discrimination that is inbuilt into the way institutions (e.g. schools + colleges) operate.
Blackstone
w/c parent’s attend fewer parent’s evenings not because of a lack of interest but because they are working.
Flaherty
- Money problems in the family is a significant factor in non-attendance.
- Stigma of FSM prevents students from eating (20%), leading to a lack of concentration.
- Department of Education (2012): 1/3 of students on FSM achieved five or more A*-C grades.
Howard
Poor diet means absences (ill) + difficulty in concentrating.
Tanner
Cost of items (transport, uniforms, books) places a heavy burden on poorer families.
Smith + Noble
w/c students are disadvantaged - can’t afford private schooling.
Bernstein + Young
m/c mothers are more likely to buy educational toys, books + activities that encourage reasoning.
Callender + Jackson
Fear of debt deters from higher education.
Bourdieu
- Cultural - knowledge, attitude + language of m/c.
- Economic - m/c meet demands of curriculum.
- Educational - gain qualifications due to economic capital.
- w/c habitus includes beliefs about what opportunities really exist for them + whether or not they would ‘fit in’.
Sullivan
- Questionnaire found that those who engaged in knowledgeable activities (cultural capital) were more successful during GCSEs, typically m/c.
- Resources + aspirations of m/c families explains the achievement gap.
Becker (Interactionalist)
- Labelling - teachers attach a meaning to a student.
- Interview found m/c’s work, conduct + appearance labelled them as the ideal pupil; w/c was furthest away as badly behaved.
Hempel-Jorgensen
- In w/c schools, pupils are judged in terms of their behaviour - the ideal pupil is: quiet, passive, obedient.
- In m/c schools, pupils are defined by their academic performance.
Rist
Teacher’s used info about home background to sort students into tables.
- Tigers - m/c fast learners.
- Cardinals - w/c medium abilities.
- Clowns - w/c troublesome.
Rosenthal + Jacobson
Pygmalion effect - fake IQ test labelled random 20% as bloomers, who progressed with more IQ points a year later.