Relationships and processes within school

Question 1

What is the formal curriculum?

Answer 1

Involves the subjects which are on the school timetable.

Question 2

What is the hidden curriculum?

Answer 2

Involves the hidden, informal messages and lessons that come from the way schooling is organized and run.

Question 3

According to functionalist DURKHEIM, what does school teach?

Answer 3

• Sense of belonging and commitment to a bigger society
• A shared belief in importance of cooperation
• Activities that produce a sense of pride in a pupil’s individual school helps to pass on values.

Question 4

According to functionalist PARSON, what does school teach?

Answer 4

• A belief that individual achievement should be based on merit
• A belief in individual competition through which individuals learn to make the maximum possible contribution to society

Question 5

Why do Marxists criticise functionalists?

Answer 5

They argue that the hidden curriculum benefits the ruling class and not society as a whole.

Question 6

What did BOWLES & GINTIS say about capitalism and the hidden curriculum?

Answer 6

Believed main role of hidden curriculum is to produce a docile, easily manipulated and exploitable workforce for capitalists.

Question 7

How did BOWLES & GINTIS think the exploitable workforce was achieved?

Answer 7

Achieved through:
-Schools based on hierarchy, obey teachers
(accustomed to obedience that will be necessary towards managers)

-Taught to be motivated by external rewards
(exam success/ pay packet)

-School divides pupils, they compete with one another

Question 8

What do feminists say about the hidden curriculum?

Answer 8

It does not serve interests of society as a whole but promotes patriarchal values that ensure dominance of male society

Question 9

What did STANWORTH say about the hidden curriculum and the message education gave to women?

Answer 9

Men more important than women

Boys’ careers are more important than girls’ careers

Boys are cleverer than girls

Most senior positions are held by men

Question 10

What did HARGREAVES say was the main reason why subcultures formed?

Answer 10

So pupils who receive little status within school can gain status by forming subculture where they are valued.

Question 11

What are the basic pupils subcultures categorised into?

Answer 11

• Class background
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Sets/streams
• Youth culture
• Sexuality

Question 12

What subcultures did PAUL WILLIS distinguish in males?

Answer 12

Anti-school 'lads': white, working-class males, lower streams
Pro-school 'ear' 'oles': middle class

Clear dichotomy between 2 opposite subcultures

Question 13

What was the MAC AN GHAILL study on the variety of male subcultures?

Answer 13

Study of boys in secondary education- found 5 subcultures:

1. Academic achievers: work hard
2. Macho lads: opposed school values
3. New Enterprises: pro-school but keener on vocational education
4. Real Englishman: highly educated backgrounds, valued education
5. Gay students: critical of homophobia of school

Question 14

What did DAVIES claim about exaggerated femininity?

Answer 14

Anti-school female subcultures.

Emphasizing boyfriends, prioritising marriage, childbearing over academic success.

Question 15

What subcultures did SEWELL identify about African-Caribbean boys?

Answer 15

Conformists: accepted values of school and tired to succeed through education

Innovators: wanted to succeed but dislike schooling

Retreatists: individuals who tended to keep to themselves

Rebels: strongly rejected school

Question 16

What is the interactionist theory?

Answer 16

A label that defines someone as a particular type of person can affect a person’s perception of themselves
- resulting in self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 17

What was the experiment on the self-fulfilling prophecy by ROSENTHAL & JACOBSON?

Answer 17

Field experiment

Teachers given false info on students IQ scores.
Results showed pupils performed inline with info that had been given to teachers.
Pupils that the teachers had been told were intelligent made more progress.

Question 18

What was the GILLBORN & YOUDELL research on the ideal pupil?

Answer 18

Teachers tend to see ability as fixed.

M/C and white pupils more likely to fit the ideal image of pupil.

Pupils who did not fit ideal- behaviour was negatively judged.

Question 19

What are the 4 main ways pupils are organized?

Answer 19

Mixed ability

Streaming: separate groups for all subjects based on ability

Setting: particular groups according to ability in specific subjects

Within-class groupings

Question 20

What was the study on teaching and learning in primary schools by HALLAM ET AL.?

Answer 20

6 primary school with different ways of organizing and learning.

• Most pupils preferred whole-class or individual work
• Negative attitudes to those in lower streams

Question 21

What are the 4 Afro-Caribbean subcultures outlined in Sewell’s study?

Answer 21

Conformist, Innovator, Retreatist, Rebels