Sociology education

generally asked what is the function of education and what is the relationship between different institutions in society.

functionalism

COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE felt that education brought a sense of belonging in society through reinforcing the collective conscience. as well as being an agency of socialisation that transmitted norms and values from generation to generation.

Durkheim

MICROCOSM OF SOCIETY felt that school was a miniature of society 'microcosm of society' as it had the same rules and valued the same things as work e.g. punctuality. therefore school bridges the gap between adult life and being a child. as well as allocating peple roles through their hard work and success in education.

Parsons

ability+effort =reward

meritocracy

people must see that education is meritocratic and everyone has equal opportunity to do well. if not then people will not put as much value in the education system and then the collective consciencec will begin to dismantle and society not function as well.

importance of meritocracy

ROLE ALLOCATION AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATION. education provides the means of sorting people out into the roles they will be in. sorts the most talented and able people into the roles that are most functionally important. these roles tend to have high pay attatched to them to act as an incentive.

Davis and Moore

If schools are meritocratic then why are some social groups consistantly underperforming.

is there really a link between the qualifactions you get and the status of your job.

schools confirm people into their position as it just tends to be all the middle class getting the high status jobs.

is the subjects you do at school really what you end up doing as a job?

is there really a single set of values that we all share in society, do w/c value educaiton as much as m/c

criticisms of functionalism

FUNCTIONALIST CRTICISE EDUCATION. school puts too much pressure on individual exam success and should instead encorouge duties and responsibilities towards group life. w/c rebel because they think they have lost their dignity when they fail exams. but in fact dignity id making contributions and felling valued by the group they belong too.

Hargreaves

said that education maybe does not perhaps promote social solidarity like Durkheim suggests especially among the working class. Hargreaves actually was happy to point towards some of the limitations of secondary education.

Hargreaves criticising Durkheim

IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUS education has taken over as the lead ideological state aparatus by brainwashing indivduals into thinking that society is meritocratic and fair. education prepares students for the role of the workforce it needs individuals to fill in for tedious roles and this tends to be the working class. it also teachers the hidden curriculum to ensure that they conform to a capitalist system.

Althusser

teaches students about the working of the captalist system namely the importance of time keeping, private property, loyalty, honesty and discipline.

hidden curriculum

CORRESPONDENCE THEORY that social relationships in the classroom are similar to in the workplace. e.g. being hierarchal, rewarding punctuality and motivating by external rewards. the education system is used for social reproduction making future generations appropriately schooled for their role in the capitalist system.

Bowles and Gintis

Bowles and gintis said this as society does not reward merit but instead social class the class system reproduces itself from generation to generation and legitimises itself by calling itself meritocratic. teachers are essentially agencies of capitalism.

myth of meritocracy

assumes that people are deterministic and just accept their role in society but some people are not so passive in accpeting their situation.

some teachers dont conform to the ideology - hero teachers.

the capitalist system was doing a lot better untill compulsory education came along.

criticisms of marxism

studied 12 w/c boys and found they rejected main stream values and formed an anti school subculture. they knew they were going to get a w/c job regardless of their qualifications so to cope with school they messed around. this would also prepare them for the w/c tedious job they were going to get. regardless how w/c responded to school the result was the same :(

Paul willis

not very representative only studied 12 boys can you make generalisations from that.

there are other anti school subcultures e.g. goths can you only compare this one to the goths.

Paul willis criticisms

SPEECH CODES not a marxist but felt that w/c only had access to restricted code but m/c had access to both elaborate code and restricted code. teachers tend to speak in the elaborate code and therefore putting w/c at a disadvantage. helped influence american policy and did like a sure start programme

Bernstein

he had not given much evidence about his study and had been criticised for overgeneralising.

Labov found that w/c had less experience in the elabarote code but could cope with it if they needed to.

criticisms of Berstein

CULTURAL CAPITAL the idea that the education system just reproduces this dominant culture known as the cultural capital e.g. going to the opera. if you have access to this you are going to do well in education and get high status and rewards. teachers like well mannered students and favour them this tends to accompany the cultural capital. also has the role of elimination as w/c fail exams becuase they have no access to the dominat culture or self eliminate because there chances of success are so thin.

Bourdieu

both see school as legimitimizing social inequality.

both are macro theories.

both see education as meeting the needs of the industrial /capitalist society.

both see the education system as a powerful influence on students.

similarities between marxism and functionalism

they pay little attention to other agencies of socialisation like the family and the media.

don't consider that people react to schools in an unfucntional way e.g. play truant.

see a tight link between education and the economy.

criticisms of both marxism and functionalism

FSM 33% got 5 or more GCSEs whereas 61% everywhere else.

nearly 90% of failing schools are in deprived areas.

exlusion and truancy are more likely to occur with children from poorer backgrounds.

link between material and cultural deprivation

cramp conditions-no where to do homework

bad sleep- distracted at school

benefit reliance-may have to move around more often.

living in dampness can cause illness.

housing

HEALTH w/c family are more likely to lack the nutrition they need. poor immune system means they are more likley to miss school due to illness. poor nutrition can mean they are more likely to lack energy and have difficulty in concentrating.

Howard

POVERTY children from poorer homes are also more likely to have behavioural problems

Wilkinson

POVERTY people from poorer homes may not have equipment and miss out on trips that can hinder their eduation. costs of education place a heavy burden on low income families.

Tanner et al

STIGMA children from low income families often had to rely on hand me downs. this had a high stigma attatched to it and could result in bullying. not wearing hand me downs and not having a stigma at school is how people felt like they could fit in.

Tesa Ridge

more likely to start school not able to read.

less likely to do well in SATs.

less likely to get places in the best state schools.

more likely to be placed in lower sets or streams

poorer exam results

more likely to leave schools at 16

more likely to undertake vocational training courses

less likely to go into higher education.

W/c vs m/c

PARENTAL INTEREST conducted a longitudinal study looking at various factors he found that the most important factor was parental interest. m/c attended a lot more parents evening and showed a lot more encorougement, w/c felt less comfortable in attending school. also found that people in unsatisfactory living conditions were doing worse. important study in developing ideas about material and cultural deprivation.

Douglas

basing parental interest on how often they visit the school may be unfair as w/c may be more likely to work antisocial hours.

does cultural deprivation actually exist or is it more to do with money?

criticisms of Douglas

CAREER STRUCTURE that working class jobs lacked a career structure did not offer much promotional aspects. w/c kids were perhaps socialised into this way of life and accpeting this aspect of w/c culture.fatalism, immediate gratification, present time orientation and collectivism. this kind of culture and values may have prevented them from succeeding in education.

Sugarman

girls may outperform boys in 11+ tests because of this or maybe it was because girls mature earlier. this ability hard to assess and why have boys stoped outperforming girls so we turn to sociolgical explanations.

innate ability

GENDER STEREOTYPING even before school gender stereotyping had begun girls were encorouged to play with toys whereas boys e.g. boys were encorouged to play with construction toys that would help with maths and girls with toys. boys were encorogued to be a lot more active in the classroom.

Fiona Norman

READING in 1970 found that there were 30 heroins and 70 heros in books used for children reading schemes. as well as domestic roles being upheld e.g. domestic for women. she felt that such messages may actually damage self esteem.

Glenys Lobban

followed on from Gleny Lobban Study in the 1990s found nothing much had changed there were 44 heroins and 94 heros as well as 792 male characters compared to 356 female characters.

Lesley Best

ABILITIES boys would tend to shrug off their failure with lack of effort whereas girls would constantly underestimate their ability and explain any success with luck. girls would avoid new challenging situations because they convinced themselves that they couldn't suceed in them.

Licht and Dweck

TEACHER ATTITUDES interviewing teachers their attitudes would impede girls progress. not remembering quiet girls names and having low expectations with what they would be doing in their future e.g. marriage. boys were given more attnetion in schools and girls would underestimate their own ability and boys would overestimate theirs.

Michelle Stanworth

INVISIBLE WOMEN sees the whole curriculum being dominated by men and ridiculed with sexism which is likely to hinder girls seld confidence. e.g. economics ignroing domestic work. girls have to wait during a discussion and boys often belittle them in the classroom and get no retubution from the teacher. she blames pre-school socialsation for this problem as well as that school as a whole is patriarchal so the situation is unlikely to change.

Dale Spender

SCIENCE was more of a male oriented subject e.g. boys on the front of science textbooks and examples around boy orientated things also boys would push girls out of the way when getting equipment and answering questions for the girls.

Alison Kelly

girls into science and technology

GIST

women into science and engineering

WISE

ROMANCE studied w/c girls who had a restricted future and thought it was normal and ideological to get married. economic neccesity marriage as wages too low for a woman. anyone who put school first would be ridiculed as marriage had a much higher status. girls were trapped they would move from one man to another or would be pitied. their aspriations therefore limited their educational attianment.

Angela McRobbie

CHANGING ATTITUDES 1970 girls had only inspirations to get married and have children and therefore atttatching less value to the education system. 1994 girls had changed their attitudes towards having a good career which meant a good education was now important. girls job aspirations were towards more feminine subjects instead of masculine subjects which was the schools fault.

Sue Sharpe

decline in manufacturing industry and towards service sector means more job opportunties for girls and an increasing flexible contracts.

rapid employment of women had led to incentives to get qualifications.

changing female attitudes towards having a career rather than just getting married.

feminsit movement have helped towards identifying gender inequalities within the classroom.

why girls outperforming boys

AMBITIOUS GIRLS in 2009 she went to three London secondary schools and girls were very ambitious such as being a doctor or a solicitor.

Becky Francis

Indian, Chinese, white, African-caribbean, pakistani and bangladeshi

ethnicity attainment order

asian community- Bangladeshi did particularly bad.

average perfomance of west indians was considerably worse than the white communtiy.

a small number of teachers were interntionally racist but there was a lot of unintentional racism.

african carribean underachievement was influenced by socio-economic factors.

high concentration of ethnic minorities in low social classes may have affected the staying on rate post 16.

The Swann report

SWANN REPORT CRITICISM looked at the LFS and found that all ethnic minority groups were more likely to stay at school post 16 than white groups. was because racism they found in the workplace they stayed on at school, passion to do well and strong family encorougement. african caribean high proportion of single parent families decrease the amount of parent supervision and asian community have a more close knit environment.

Trevor Jones

PARENTAL INTEREST ETHNICITY among a sample of 400 white, 395 african carribean and 305 asian parents they found 89% of white 79% of african caribbean and 69% of asian parents had made a recent visit to their child's or children's schools.

Rex and Tomlinson

RACSIM AND UNDERACHIEVEMENT black people become subnormal and inferior as a result of the british education system: african carribean children are told their way of speaking is unacceptable, white is assoicated with good and black with bad, ethnocentric curriculum and racial attitudes in the classroom are reinforced with stuent's experience outside it. black people developed low self expectatins as a result and became self-fulfiling prophecies.

Bernard Coard

BESTIES WITH COARD postal survey to 500 teachers said 75% of african caribean children have a low ability and disciplinary problems.

Elain Brittan

ETHNOCENTRIC CURRICULUM gives priority to white culture and white history therefore devaluing other cultures. and portraying other cultures as uncivilised which leads to low self esteem issues for black and asian students.

Troyna and Williams

THE SCHOOL EFFECT ethnic minority membership did not effect whether they were entered for GCSEs, they were often but in lower sets but becuase their attainment was lower and they were more likely to be in W/c. differnece between ethnic groups in attainment is small compared to social classes. the school that a child goes to makes a lot more of a differnece than the ethnic group that you belong too.

Smith and Tomlinson

small sample only 146 African carribeans

they felt that racism did not play a big role but there is enough evidence elsewhere to show that racism is actually a big problem.

criticisms of Smith and Tomlinson

8.1% of exclusions for African carribean but only 2% of school population BECAUSE

racism many white teachers thought african caribeans to be rude and disruptive.

african carribean are more likely to experience racism and therefore the behaviour of the classroom reflects this.

why high African Caribbean truancy rates

DIFFERENT ETHNIC MINORITIES did a culmination of research methods found asian students to be problematic but could be ignored. they were often excluded becuase their english was not great. teachers found asian students to be disciplined and highly motivated. afro-caro boys were expected to behave badly they recieved considerable attention nearly all of it negative, they were often singled out for criticism while other behaviour was ignored they felt like they were treated unfairly.

Cecile wright

BESTIES WITH WRIGHT he spent two years observing a classroom and felt that most teachers tried to treat students fairly. however they perceived students differnetly therefore treated them differently. afro-caro were treated as more of a problem more conflict and more detentions and denied a voice of complaint.

Gilborn

SETTING AND STREAMING when asked to judge on ability their judgements on ethnicity may have affected their decisions. w/c and black deemed less ability and put in lower sets. denied access to higher level knowledge and good GCSE grades.

Gilborn and Youdell