Sociology AQA 2022 Flashcards
Outline two ways in which schools may promote competition between pupils
Entrance exams: pupils compete against each other to earn a place at a desired school.
Streaming: pupils compete against each other by achieving the best grades in order to get into higher streams.
Outline three ways in which the education system may be seen as patriarchal
Male gaze: females are seen as sexual objects
Bias in subject choice: teachers and career advisers may pressure female pupils to take subjects for traditional career paths such as nursing and teaching based on gender stereotype.
Double standards: teachers tend to give more of their time and attention on men than women
1 Labelling
Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which relationships and processes within schools may lead to anti-school subcultures.
Teachers make judgments and classify students through placing a series of labels unconsciously and consciously onto students.
Howard Becker argues that the middle class are seen as ideal pupils by teachers. Hence labelled positively.
Examples include: ‘Hard working’ and ‘Smart’
whereas working class pupils are labelled negatively by teachers, because they don’t fit into the “ideal pupil”
Examples include: ‘chatterboxes’ and ‘failure’.
This negative label leads to self fulfilling prophecy where they live up to the label they have been given.
As a result, working class pupils may join anti-school subcultures, where they are likely to rebel against school values and authority.
1 Criticism
Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which relationships and processes within schools may lead to anti-school subcultures.
However, one criticism of this is that not everyone lives up to the label that they have been given.
Other factors such as parental factors may be more important in determining the reaction of the student.
Therefore, a person can deny the label they have been given in a self-refuting prophecy.
2 Symbolic Capital & Violence
Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which relationships and processes within schools may lead to anti-school subcultures.
The education system was constructed by those with middle class habitus, who have symbolic capital.
This means middle class students with these middle class values and tastes, will also gain symbolic capital with teachers as they have similar habitus to those in control of the education system.
However, students such as the working class who do not possess middle class habitus are at a disadvantage and are subject to symbolic violence, where they reject the middle class habitus that are imposed on them.
- For example, the education system may do this through the dress code. The dress code may be formal, using clothing such as suits and ties, and based upon the tastes of the middle class.
- As a result, working class students are forced to comply with the tastes of the middle class and those who do not are removed from learning, putting them ‘in their place’, as their subculture is deemed to be ‘tasteless and worthless’.
- Therefore, WC students experience the education system as unnatural or alienating.
2 Criticism
Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which relationships and processes within schools may lead to anti-school subcultures.
One criticism of this is that it may be unfair to blame schools for being biassed against working class children.
This is because many schools put extra resources into helping working class children.
For example, some schools provide after school programs for children who may be falling behind in learning.
Therefore, functionalists would suggest that the education system is meritocratic, and that the knowledge that students acquire from the curriculum is necessary to succeed in society.
Outline and explain two reasons why official statistics should not be seen as social facts #1
One reason why official statistics should not be seen as social facts is due to it being socially constructed.
This means that the official statistics are made up by society and has no meaning in reality. Interpretivists would question whether educational authorities may manipulate data to present a more positive image of educational institutions.
For example, schools are more likely to present the high academic results of more able students rather than people who did not perform as well academically or their predicted grades may be inflated to present the school as successful.
Therefore, interpretivists would say that official statistics are low in validity because results can be skewed by educational institutions.
Criticism #1
Positivists: They would say that the figures in the official statistics are social facts and set in stone.
These official statistics are gathered by the government, which means the data collected is reliable.
Moreover, it provides quantitative data, which we can quantify to measure and identify behaviour patterns in the education system across schools.
This sample size provided from official statistics is also large, meaning that it is representative because it takes data from the whole population
Outline and explain two reasons why official statistics should not be seen as social facts #2
Another reason why official statistics should not be seen as social facts is because there may be errors in the interpretation of the data.
While positivists would argue that these statistics are neutral, positivists would say that official statistics are up to interpretation and could be seen differently by others.
For example, in the education system, people may have different criteria for measuring educational success or failure.
Interpretivists argue that in order to measure official statistics accurately, we need to achieve ‘verstehen’ by gaining meaningful understanding into people’s interpretations and experiences, so that we can gain understanding as to why people perform certain actions
Therefore, interpretivists would disagree with using official statistics and the notion that official statistics are ‘neutral’ because official statistics does not provide an adequate explanation for why certain actions are performed.
Criticism #2
Criticism:
However, positivists would argue that interpreting data is too time-consuming.
This is because attempting to gain meaningful understanding behind the reasons of certain behaviours in official statistics, which have a large sample size is unrealistic because it takes up too much time.
Positivists would agree with the use of secondary statistics because they are a major source of secondary quantitative data.
This means data collection time and costs can be saved, as these already exist and are easily accessible.
Therefore, sociologists can have data on very large samples that might be impossible for them to collect themselves.
Applying material from Item C and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the strengths and limitations of using group interviews to investigate the reasons for subject choices made by pupils.
P ractical
E thics
R epresentativeness
V alidity
E xamples
R eliability
T heoretical
Group Interviews: Disadvantages & Advantages:
- Time Consuming, Interviewers need to be trained
- Access to gatekeeper?
- Social Desirability Bias, decreases validity.
- Interviewer Bias
- Small Sample Sizes
- Flexible
- Qualitative Data, which is subjective so cannot be repeated, unreliable.
- Guilty knowledge
- M.C more likely to agree in interviews, headteachers want to present school in a good way.
- W.C may feel uncomfortable to agree to participate in a group interview
- Building rapport can help student open up increasing validity.
- Dominant voices
Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate the view that marketisation policies have increased diversity and choice in the education system.
Introduction:
Marketisation is the introduction of market forces of competition and consumer choice in order to make schools operate like a business.
Paragraph 1:
Sure Start Programme:
- For example, the Sure Start programme was launched to support children under the age of 4 living in deprived areas. With support, they ensured that these children could do well and flourish at home.
- Therefore this shows that students can do well at school, despite suffering from material deprivation due to the help that the government provides.
Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMAs):
- Payments to students from low-income backgrounds to encourage them to stay on after 16 to gain better qualifications, an incentive for them to study further education.
Criticism: New Labour Paradox
- Critics see a contradiction between Labour’s policies to tackle inequality and its commitment to marketisation. This is called the ‘New Labour’ paradox.’
- Despite introducing EMAs to encourage working class students to stay in education, Labour also introduced tuition fees for higher education that may deter them from going university.
