Subject choice- Class

Question 1

Ao1 status of vocational courses

Answer 1

Vocational education prepares pupils for particular work roles.
Vocational education is given the lowest status this means it gives the lowest paying jobs meaning more working class are being pushed towards taking vocational courses as they are more likely to perform manual jobs in society. For example buisness and fashion.

Question 2

Ao3 status of vocational courses

Answer 2

Recent changes with BTECs and T levels has raised standards as they are now manually recognized.
However functionalists would argue that vocational education has beneficial effects for the economy.

Question 3

Ao1 negative teacher labelling

Answer 3

Teachers tend to label the working class negatively this results to the self fulfilling prophecy which causes low achievement. This means that the working class are pushed towards easy BTEC subjects for example health and social care and business as they are more suited to practical manual jobs.
Teachers label the middle class positively that they are high achievers and they are pushed towards taking high status subjects for example maths and science.

Question 4

Ao3 negative teacher labelling

Answer 4

This results in setting and streaming where the working class are placed into a lower set based on the labels being placed upon them this limits their achievement resulting in the working class not being able to choose more academic subjects due to low grades

Question 5

Ao1 cultural attitude of parents

Answer 5

Sugarman argued that the attitude of the working class and the middle class results from the different nature of manual and non manual jobs.
For example the middle class jobs were high status, high income and deffered gratification. Whilst the middle class hobs tend to be less secure and known as immediate gratification.
This means that working class pupils are more likely to want manual jobs and therefore choose vocational subjects in order to gain direct access to career and a quicker income.