Education

Question 1

Bourdieu

Answer 1

The Habitus theory - Differential Attainment

Question 2

What did Bourdieu theorise?

Answer 2

That middle class students are at an advantage in school because they possess ‘cultural capital’

Question 3

Examples of cultural capital

Answer 3

• the right language, skills, knowledge and attitudes.
• Reading non-fiction and classical literature rather than pop literature
• Watching documentaries rather than soap operas
• Learning to play classical instruments (e.g. The Piano)
• Going on educational visits – to museums and art galleries for example
• Going on holidays abroad (to ‘broaden horizons’).

Question 4

How do working class students suffer from cultural capital

Answer 4

They experience a ‘cultural deficit’ – they soon realise that the school and teachers attach little value to their experiences and values. 
They may feel alienated by the middle-class nature of schooling and are more likely to come into conflict with the school and end up losing interest in their studies.

Question 5

How does Bourdieu’s theory align with Marxism

Answer 5

he sees school as a middle-class system that leads to
cultural reproduction – i.e. ultimately ensures those of higher social classes have children that succeed and maintain their parent’s class-position.

Question 6

Bourdieu evaluation

Answer 6

• deterministic. Not all working-class students fail, even if they lack cultural capital
• ignores how many working-class students learn how to play the system, whilst still maintaining their own culture outside of school.

Question 7

Bernstein

Answer 7

Language Codes Theory - Differential attainment

Helped pave the way for Bourdieu’s ideas

Question 8

What did Bernstein believe about educational attainment?

Answer 8

• middle class students succeed not because of greater intelligence but merely because they use the preferred way of communicating.
• In examining the link between language and learning, Bernstein distinguished between two codes:
  The restricted code
  The elaborated code

Question 9

The restricted code

Answer 9

sentences are short, vocabulary is limited, and few

adjectives are used. As a result, such language is context-bound

Question 10

The elaborated code

Answer 10

characterised by long sentenced, a rich vocabulary
and a complicated structure of phrases t This form of language use is context-free and so is more suited to the formal communication required by the education system.

Question 11

Who adopts the restricted code more?

Answer 11

working-class children, while the elaborated code is typically used by the middle class and therefore is the form accepted by teachers and examiners.

Question 12

What are the implications for working-class students who adopt the restricted code?

Answer 12

Not only are they less able to express themselves in a way deemed to be acceptable, but they are also less likely to feel comfortable as they’re not in the kind of environment that the middle-class child has already become already used to through their primary socialisation.

Question 13

How does Bernstein’s theory align with Marxism?

Answer 13

Although he wasn’t a self proclaimed Marxist, they believe that schools play a part in reproducing inequality through the generations. By having to become familiar with and use the language of the middle-class, working-class children become disadvantaged.

Question 14

Bernstein evaluation

Answer 14

Bernstein’s work has been controversial. His ideas can be seen to imply that the working class are culturally deprived in their language use, although this was never his intention. He focuses on the ways the middle-classes are advantaged, rather than focusing on the disadvantage of the working classes.

Question 15

Ball

Answer 15

Social Capital

Question 16

Ball et al Overview

Answer 16

Their research showed how middle-class parents are able to use their cultural capital to play the system so as to ensure that their children are accepted into the schools of their choice.

Question 17

What are strategies that Ball believed middle class parent’s view

Answer 17

• Attempting to make a good impression with the head teacher on open day
• Knowing how to mount an appeal if their child is unsuccessful in their application to a particular school.

Question 18

What are other strategies Ball found that MC parents use

Answer 18

They use material capital to provide them with tutors and their social capital to make connections with important people such as governors and headteachers.

Question 19

Althusser

Answer 19

Purpose of education is ideological control

Question 20

Althusser on the purpose of education

Answer 20

• to transmit the ‘myth of meritocracy’ – i.e. the false idea that ability is the major mechanism of success.
• This disguises the reality of the stratification system: that those born into ruling-class or middle-class backgrounds are much more likely to achieve.

Question 21

Factors in education that support Althusser’s idea further

Answer 21

• Hidden Curriculum – the working classes are trained to be an obedient and docile workforce - explored more by Bowles and Gintis
• Cultural Capital – the middle classes benefit from education being a middle-class system - explored more by Bourdieu.
• Material deprivation – the working classes cannot afford the same quality private schools – explored more by Smith and Noble.

Question 22

If this inequality occurs why don’t WC people do anything about it ?

Answer 22

the ideology of meritocracy ensures that they
blame themselves. The consequence of this is that the working-class rarely challenge the organisation of capitalism or see social inequality as the problem.

Question 23

Althusser evaluation

Answer 23

• This theory has the semblance of a conspiracy, assuming that teachers nowadays are consciously backing the bourgeoisie and repressing students – despite the fact that many of them have backgrounds in their subjects and want their students to succeed.
• ignores the fact that teachers devote their careers to assisting students of all backgrounds to succeed.

Question 24

Bowles and Gintis

Answer 24

Correspondence theory / Hidden Curriculum

Question 25

Bowles and Gintis’ view on the purpose of education

Answer 25

• to reproduce directly the capitalist relations of production.
• Labour power is needed in a capitalist system thus the purpose of the education system is to prepare students for work.
• education system reproduces an obedient workforce that will accept inequality as inevitable.
• Creates exploited workers willing to accept hard work, low pay and orders from above..

Question 26

Correspondence Theory

Answer 26

the norms and values pupils learn in school correspond to the norms and values which will make it easy for future capitalist employers to exploit them at work

Question 27

Bowles and Gintis Examples of the hidden curriculum

Answer 27

• Hierarchy – Teacher and pupil = boss and worker. Same unequal relationship
• Extrinsic Rewards – Hard work = exams: hard work = wage.
• Conformity – Break the rules = exclusion; break the rules – disciplinary.
• Competition and divisions between students is repeated in the workforce
• Docile Daydreamers – Schoolwork – tedious and boring; adult work – tedious and boring.

Question 28

What do Functionalists believe about Bowles and Gintis

Answer 28

Functionalists argue that the point of school is not to make conformists, but to make model citizens. Not everything is as corrupt as Marxists believe.

Question 29

What would Willis argue about Bowles and Gintis

Answer 29

Bowles and Gintis’ theory is deterministic. This
means they both see pupils as passive products of the education system. Such theories, argues Willis, fail to take into account the tendency of many pupils to resist these processes.

Question 30

Willis

Answer 30

Learning to labour

Question 31

What did Willis’ study entail?

Answer 31

-Willis used a wide variety of research methods in his study of 12 educationally disaffected boys during their last year at a Midlands school and their first few months in work. Through his participant observations in school and during leisure activities, he identified pro-school and antischool subcultures

Question 32

Earoles and Lads

Answer 32

Earoles - did what teachers told them to do.

Lads – took little notice of school rules, teachers or work.

Question 33

What did Willis notice about the Lads when they went into work?

Answer 33

• He noticed their disdain for authority and tendency to minimise work whilst maximising ‘having a laff’ were still present in this counterculture.

Question 34

What did Willis’ study find?

Answer 34

• The working-class lads substituted their own definitions of what school was about – based on ‘having a laff’.
• the working-class lads recognised that the manual jobs to which they aspired did not require educational success in traditional terms. In developing strategies to cope with the boredom of school, the lads also developed a way of coping with the boring and routine type of job they would ultimately end up in.

Question 35

What did Willis conclude in his study?

Answer 35

The working-class lads are not simply suffering from false-class consciousness. They partly understand the reality of their situation, yet actively choose destinations that ultimately serve the ruling class and exploit them.

Question 36

Willis Evaluation

Answer 36

• RELIABILITY. Willis’ study consisted of 12 working-class lads. The findings from such a small sample cannot be representative of the working class as a whole. Likewise, he concentrated solely on white-working class males.