Sociology Ed Mock

Question 1

Internal factors (ETHNICITY)

Answer 1

• Labelling
• Institutional racism
• Marketisation
• Ethnocentric curriculum

Question 2

Labelling- ETHNICITY

Answer 2

• Teachers attach meaning to behaviours & treat students positively/ negatively, leading to self-fulfilling prophecy
• Some labelled positive e.g. Chinese, others aren’t e.g. Afro-Caribbean boys, who are perceived as threat or ‘macho’ (Sewell 1998)
• CP: Not all respond to labelling in the same way- (Fuller 1984) found African-American girls rejected labels & went on to be successful despite their label, showing significant level of resistance.

Question 3

Institutional racism- ETHNICITY

Answer 3

• Intentional or unintentional cases of repeated discrimination that take place at an organisational level
• Can greatly influence achievement
• E.g. lack of ethnic minority teachers, subconscious decisions about giving responsibility to students of certain ethnic groups in school or disciplining some ethnic groups more than others

Question 4

Marketisation- ETHNICITY

Answer 4

• Running school like business can actively disadvantage ethnic groups who may not be fully aware of how to play the system
• E.g. school prospectus may not be available in their language or may not understand application process
• Equally, some ethnic groups may not be able to afford to send their children to schools outside their catchment OR lack cultural capital to challenge school decision about admissions
• CP: Other ethnic groups may be more capable and to good effect

Question 5

Ethnocentric curriculum- ETHNICTY

Answer 5

• A curriculum that reflects the view that British culture is superior to others; can be subtle or obvious
• E.g. Following a Christian calendar, festivals and celebrations w/o exploring other cultures’ practices & ignoring important contribution of other ethnic groups to British culture and life.
• Has become more of an issue w importance placed on ‘British values’ by Tory gov within Prevent strategy

Question 6

Theories of education

Answer 6

• Functionalism: Macro Structural Consensus
• Marxism: Macro Structural Conflict
• Feminism: Macro Structural Conflict

Question 7

What are the functionalist ideas of education

Answer 7

• argue education system benefits the individual & society
• argue system is fair; work hard + talented= success, so everyone has equal chance (meritocracy)
• provides skills required for the economy
• important part of secondary socialisation and acts as bridge between home & school

Question 8

Durkheim and Parsons- Education

Answer 8

Durkheim:
Education is an important part of socialisation, makes sure individuals are integrated fully into society, to encourage social solidarity (sharing same values).

Parsons:
School helps people move from particularistic values of home (where you’re treated as an individual) to universalistic standards of school (where everyone is treated the same).

Question 9

Particularistic values

Answer 9

rules and values that give priority to personal relationships

-E.g. parents treating children differently at home according to their personalities

Question 10

Universalistic values

Answer 10

rules and values that apply equally to all members of society, regardless of who they are

-E.g. teachers mark students’ work to the same standards

Question 11

Davis and Moore- Education

Preparation for economy

Answer 11

-Acts positively as a bridge between home and the world of work, preparing children to fit into the economy
=the children learn to move from family into world of work, where they’re alongside people they don’t know

-Sifts and sorts people into their role (role allocation). Argue system provides skills that the economy needs

E.g. economy requires greater computer skills so education system includes teaching of IT

Question 12

What are the criticism of the functionalist ideas of education

Answer 12

• education system isn’t actually meritocratic e.g.
• the theory ignores inequalities that exist in education, e.g. the way some groups such as w/c, boys and some ethnic minorities persistently underperform
• the theory ignores the negative experiences that some groups and individuals have in education

Question 13

What are the Marxist views of the role of education

Answer 13

• education maintains and perpetuates capitalist system by making sure there are lots of willing and docile workers and small ruling class
• system important in brainwashing children into accepting their position within class system
• encourages the correct values and attitudes to uphold capitalism, e.g. being rewarded for hard work, completion, individualism and accepting authority

Question 14

Bowles and Gintis 3 key concepts

Answer 14

1) The myth of meritocracy
2) The correspondence principle
3) The hidden curriculum

Question 15

The myth of meritocracy

Answer 15

The idea that the education system being fair and offering everyone the same chance of success is actually false. In reality, simply reproduces class inequalities

-w/c learn to go through school w/o achieving much while m/c learn how to be successful, reading for ruling position

Question 16

The correspondence principle

Answer 16

The education system mirrors the world of work. B&G argue school simply prepares for future roles at work.

• For w/c , preparers them for roles in low-paid, low-status employment, while m/c encouraged to think ambitiously as owners of the means of production, w high-status, high-paid jobs.
• E.g. obey teacher/ boss, uniform, rules & sanctions

Question 17

The hidden curriculum

Answer 17

B&G claim school has a hidden curriculum; things that are learnt but not taught directly. Includes powerful messages about what is appropriate and important

Examples:

• Being encouraged to be obedient, not challenging the system
• Accepting the authority of teachers
• Accepting the values of the school, e.g. being hardworking

Question 18

Althusser (1971)- Role of education

Answer 18

Focuses on the way system shapes ideas of students so they think it’s fair. This means students are less likely to challenge/ change ed system, therefore capitalist society continues

Claims ed system is part of ideological state apparatus. People need to want the capitalist system to work, cannot be forced to accept unfair system, so shaping ideas is important. Education plays key role

Question 19

Ideological state apparatus

Answer 19

Institutions that shape people ideas so that they don’t seek to challenge capitalism. Essentially, people are taught to love the system.

Question 20

Bourdieu (1977)

Answer 20

Argued ed system advantages m/c bc they possess cultural capital [explain]. Essentially, they’ve been raised in a way that allows the greater success in school since the values of the school are closer to that of their home

-E.g. listening to classical music or going to the theatre provides knowledge which often helps students do better at school, such as in music or English classes. W/c less aware of these experiences, thus at a disadvantage

Question 21

What are the criticisms of the Marxist views of education

Answer 21

• Too deterministic, arguing that being w/c automatically leads to educational failure when this isn’t always the case
• There are other factors affecting education such as ethnicity and gender, which can have a profound affect on outcomes
• Marxist ideas emerged at a time when there was greater value consensus, whereas today’s society is far more complex and several competing value system exist. Therefore to what extent can Marxist views be considered relevant to today’s society?

Question 22

Value systems

Answer 22

a set of individual values which exist in a scale or a hierarchy that reveals their degree of relative importance. Individuals may all possess the same values but they may attach different priorities or degrees of importance to these values.

Question 23

Value consensus

Answer 23

a shared set of norms and values

Question 24

Globalisation

Answer 24

• The process by which the world is becoming more interconnected, increasing the opportunities for trade and the exchange of ideas
• Speed of this has hugely increased recently due to rapid increase in technology, as well as increased movement of people (geographical mobility)

Question 25

Effects of globalisation on education

Answer 25

-Greater awareness in the UK of education in various parts of the world.
E.g. lack of access to education in developing countries, esp among women.

• Growing awareness of different teaching/ learning styles
• Education minsters like Michael Gove (former) have have highlighted the importance of international league tables (such as PISA).
• Increased geographical mobility has resulted in high rates of immigration to the UK. 1/6 children in primary education have English as 2nd language, meaning schools Ned to expand and adapt to support these students

Question 26

Technology’s effects on globalisation & education

Answer 26

• Greater use of technology, both inside and outside the classroom, changing the way learning & teaching is conducted. Children sew exposed to greater range of cross-cultural ideas and images. The impact of this on different groups is yet to be fully understood, but access to the internet and computers for poorer students is becoming more important, placing them at a greater disadvantage if they don’t have access
• This feeds into

Question 27

Secondary data

Answer 27

Information which has been collected previously, by someone else, other than the researcher.

Can either be qualitative, such as diaries, newspapers or government reports, or quantitative, as with official statistics, such as league tables.

Question 28

Examples of secondary data

Answer 28

• Official statistics
• Documents (personal & historical)
• Existing research (literature research)
• Novels and oral histories
• Media content analysis

Question 29

Secondary data advantages

Answer 29

+Inexpensive

+Easy to access in large quantities, also some may not exist if not for government collecting it

+Provides trends over time, only means of researching the past, UK Census since 1851

+Can be used to compare data sets

+Can be used to isolate variables and identify causal relationships

Question 30

Secondary data disadvantages

Answer 30

Official statistics may REFLECT BIASES of those in power – limiting what you can find out.

Official statistics – the way things are measured may change over time, making historical comparisons difficult (As with crime statistics, the definition of crime keeps changing.)

Documents may LACK AUTHENTICITY – parts of the document might be missing because of age, and we might not even be to verify who actually wrote the document, meaning we cannot check whether its biased or not.

REPRESENTATIVENESS – documents may not be representative of the wider population –especially a problem with older documents. Many documents do not survive because they are not stored, and others deteriorate with age and become unusable. Other documents are deliberately withheld from researchers and the public gaze, and therefore do not become available.

Question 31

Observations

Answer 31

Behaviour is observed, either participant or non-participant:

Non-Participant can be structured or unstructured: structured as an observation schedule where you look for certain things whereas unstructured you just observe and note down

Question 32

Internal factors- Social class

Answer 32

• Labelling and self fulfilling prophecy: m/c labelled as ideal due to norms and values
• Subcultures: Lacey; pro-school generally m/c, anti-school w/c
• Middle-class curriculum: based around

Question 33

30 marker paragraphs

Answer 33

Marxists:
-reproduction of inequality: cultural capital

• legitimisation of class inequality: ‘myth of meritocracy’
• teaching skills future capitalist employers need: role allocation

Question 34

Some General Advantages of Structured Non Participant Observation

Answer 34

It is easier for the researcher to blend into the background compared to participant observation, which should mean people act more naturally.

It should have better reliability than with participant observation because the research is less involved.

If observations are structured, it is relatively easy to make comparisons.

They are generally cheaper and quicker to do that with participatory methods, because the researcher does not have to get to know the respondents.

Question 35

Some General Disadvantages of Structured Non Participant Observation

Answer 35

They lack validity because you are less able to ask why people are acting in the way that they do compared to participant observation

Ethically they can be dis empowering for respondents (OFSTED inspections)