Education Flashcards

Question

How did Coalition reform the curriculum?

Answer 1

- Introduced the English Baccalaureate - ‘Toughened Up’ ALevels by removing opportunities to resist exams and separating AS from full ALevels - Introduced a new National Curriculum which emphasised grammar and spelling and had children study fractions from age 5

Answer 2

Privatisation is the transfer of industries or services previously owned by the state to ownership by private businesses who run them for profit

Answer 3

A private business coming into education and taking over a service

Answer 4

Large companies influence their products and services to be placed in education so students purchase their products at an early age - e.g YPO - e.g Microsoft

Answer 5

A long term arrangement between the government and the private sector for the state to pay for a building’s lease and then the sponsor will own the building for at least 25 years - e.g Glasgow PPP of St. Andrew’s School

Answer 6

Academy Trusts ‘own’ several schools while Exam Boards will pay for the rights to run exams and charge schools per student - e.g academies receive 10% additional funding on top of allocated formula funding - e.g increased fees for popular GCSE and ALevel courses

Answer 7

Social Solidarity - The education system creates social solidarity by transmitting society’s rules and culture to the younger generations. - e.g teaching history to pupils instills a sense of shared history which makes pupils feel a sense of belonging

Answer 8

Specialist Skills - Education teaches individuals the specialist knowledge and skills that they need to play their part in the social division of labour. This cooperation then promotes social solidarity.

Answer 9

Society In Miniature - Education promotes the hidden curriculum, thus training pupils to value the same things which are valued by wider society (such as hierarchy, structure, punctuality, rules and punishments).

Answer 10

Bridge - Parsons believes education acts as a ‘bridge’ between the **Particularistic** values of the family where a child’s role is **ascribed**, and the **Universalistic** values of society where status is **achieved**.

Answer 11

Meritocracy - Parsons sees education as **meritocratic**, so everyone is given an equal opportunity and individuals achieve rewards through their own effort and ability.

Answer 12

Role Allocation - Schools allocate pupils to future roles by assessing their abilities and sorting pupils into appropriate jobs. Some degree of inequality is necessary to ensure the most important jobs are filled by the most talented and suitable people. This encourages people to compete for jobs and improve the workforce.

Answer 13

ISA - Althusser believes education enables the bourgeoisie to maintain control over what people think. Education reproduces class inequality by transmitting inequality through generations and failing the working class. It also justifies exploitation through false class consciousness by making the proletariat believe it is their fault.

Answer 14

Correspondence Principle - There are parallels between school and work in a capitalist society: both have hierarchies, and pupils/workers are always at the bottom. School mirrors the structures of work. It works through the hidden curriculum, as lessons such as competition, accepting authority, obedience, etc are lessons taught indirectly in school.

Answer 15

Willis studied the 12 w/c lads, and believed that while there was a class divide and inequality, there is also an element of agency and free will in the education system. Willis suggested that the w/c lads failed because they actively chose to rather than the system being designed to fail them.

Answer 16

Bordieu argued that m/c children were likelier to have cultural assets that allowed them to succeed in education (and by extension society). Bordieu believed that it was not only money that gave the wealthy power, but cultural assets, as schools often perceive cultural capital as intelligence which leads to a positive label being placed on the m/c child.

Answer 17

Lees found a double standard in sexual morality in education. If boys were to brag about their sexual exploits they were ‘Lads’ and praised, whereas girls were labelled as ‘Slags’ and bullied if they did the same.

Answer 18

Coffey and Delamont’s research on patriarchal school structures found that male pupils and teachers looked at females as sexual objects and therefore females often didn’t feel comfortable or confident in a classroom environment

Answer 19

Spender found there was a lack of focus on females in the curriculum, in textbooks and the fact that women weren’t historically encouraged in education.

Answer 20

Haywood and Ghail found that male teachers often told boys off for ‘behaving like girls’ and ignored when boys would verbally abuse girls and instead blamed the girls for ‘attracting it’

Answer 21

- Wider Variety of Schools such as Free Schools based upon Scandinavian equivalents and Academies based on American Charter Schools - National Literacy and Numeracy Schemes to create skills to compete in a global workplace

Answer 22

- Increased funding around EAL (English As An Additional Language) and ESOL (English For Speakers Of Other Languages) to enable they get a GSCE equivalent to become part of the UK workforce - Higher International Education Fees

Answer 23

- Marketisation has made schools into businesses and parents/pupils into consumers - Open Enrolment allows parents to enrol their children at alternate schools, or homeschool if their ‘consumer needs’ aren’t being met by the current school

Answer 24

- Increased fragmentation in education allows for more opportunities and choices so all students are able to have different experiences - Teachers are expected to use a variety of approaches to account for the ‘learning styles’ of students and tailor their educational paths to suit their career aims

Answer 25

- Education is more hyperreal as schools make more use of technology such as ICT lessons and students directed to online sources for support - Postmodernists emphasise that education should equip students to compete in the postmodern world, such as the global workforce

Answer 26

• Diverse and customised to individual learner’s needs • Controlled by local communities • Flexible (e.g distance learning via internet) • Lifelong (individuals constantly update their skills in response to the changing needs of the economy) • Active Learning

Answer 27

Kelly suggest that education responds to contemporary global demands, education has become a reflection of these demands and that changes within the system are often justified through the UK’s position in the international league tables

Answer 28

Moore and Hickox suggest it is impossible to provide a curriculum that suits everyone due to the social changes that are taking place in society

Answer 29

That League Tables placed pressure on schools which impacted children’s education

Answer 30

Gilborn and Youdell argue that schools perform a triage, categorising pupils into 1) those who will achieve regardless of teacher help, 2) borderline cases who require help to achieve their grades, and 3) hopeless cases who would be a waste of teacher effort

Answer 31

If a label is applied enough, it will ‘stick’. If a student is labelled as unintelligent and unlikely to succeed, they may give up and stop trying and the label will therefore become true.

Answer 32

Becker conducted research on high school teachers in the US and found that the image of an ‘ideal pupil’ was a polite, submissive, well-presented and hardworking pupil. **This typically resembled a female middle-class pupil**

Answer 33

Cicourel and Kitsuse interviewed counsellors in an American high school and found that m/c students were more likely to be placed on high-level courses. The counsellors classifications of students abilities and potential were based on a whole range of non academic factors, such as appearance.

Answer 34

Rist studied the relationship between the socioeconomic status of children and their educational evaluation. A teacher placed **’Tigers’**, fast learning m/c students at the front of the classroom, while **’Clowns’**, slow learning w/c students were left alone at the back of the classroom.

Answer 35

Kutnick found higher sets were more likely to be allocated highly qualified and experienced teachers, whereas lower sets are less likely to be taught by a subject specialist and experience more change of teachers.

Answer 36

Intellectual Development - Bernstein and Douglas found m/c mothers were more likely to choose toys that encourage thinking and reasoning, while w/c often didn’t think about these things. The Centre for Longitudinal Studies found by the age of 3, children from disadvantaged backgrounds were already up to a year behind those from privileged homes.

Answer 37

Language - the language used by w/c families is not sophisticated enough to enable children to be successful as the education system largely caters to m/c. Bernstein identified **Restricted Code** (used by w/c) and **Elaborate Code** (used by m/c), and found the education system valued Elaborate Code.

Answer 38

Parental Attitudes - Douglas found that w/c parents were less ambitious for their children and took less interest in their education. Hymen argues the values of w/c reflect a self imposed barrier to educational success as they believe they have less chance of achieving individual successs and see no point in education.

Answer 39

Cultural Capital - Bordieu points out that higher class families are more likely to have high levels of cultural capital. Because teachers are often m/c themselves, they find it easier to relate to similar pupils. Aspects of w/c habitus can be negatively interpreted or are associated with being less academic or intelligent.

Answer 40

Poor Housing - can affect a pupils underachievement directly and indirectly. Overcrowding can make it difficult for a child to study. Families who move health

Answer 41

Poor Housing - can affect a pupils underachievement directly and indirectly. Overcrowding can make it difficult for a child to study. Families who move often may result in the child changing frequently schools. Poor housing can impact on physical and mental health, causing them to miss school.

Answer 42

Diet and Health - Howard notes that young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals. Poor nutrition weakens the immune system and leads to illness causing absence. Waldfogal and Washbrook argue children from low income families tend to live in cold, dark, damp, unclean, unsafe and overcrowded environments, leading to health issues causing absence.

Answer 43

Cost of education - materially deprived children may have to go without equipment or miss out on educational opportunities due to cost. Students may feel stigmatised and isolated by this. Ridge found that children in poverty take on jobs such as babysitting or paper rounds which negatively impacts on their attendance. Many w/c pupils leave school at 16 to work rather than progress to higher education.

Answer 44

Labelling - Becker’s concept of Ideal Pupil found w/c were often ignored by teachers due to stereotypes. Rist conducted a classroom study and found m/c fast learners ‘Tigers’ were placed at the front while w/c slow achieving ‘Clowns’ were placed at the back and given less attention.

Answer 45

Streaming - W/c pupils are more likely to be placed in lower streams. When teaching lower streams teachers tend to use more descriptive low status language; This reduces w/c students access to elaborate code and puts them at a disadvantage.

Answer 46

Pupil Subcultures - In response to labelling and streaming, w/c pupils are more likely to form anti-school subcultures.

Answer 47

Marketisation - Since schools receive formula funding per student and have to publish league table results, schools are under pressure to compete with other schools for the top students. Popular, outstanding schools can select which students then enrol, which tends to be m/c students. W/c students have no choice but to attend unpopular failing schools with poor results.

Answer 48

Cultural Deprivation - Some sociologists argue that many EMG pupils lack adequate linguistic development through their socialisation. Bowler argued a lack of standard English was a huge barrier to UK education. However, Driver and Ballard found that Asian children who spoke a different language at home were as good as their classmates at English by 16.

Answer 49

Family Structure and Parental Support - Murray argues that lack of male role models in African Caribbean families means mothers struggle to adequately socialise children. Scruton argues low ethnic achievement is the result of EMG failing to embrace and conform to British culture. Khan sees Asian families as ‘stress ridden’ controlled by tradition with controlling attitudes towards girls. Lupton sees adult authority in Asian families as similar to authority in schools.

Answer 50

Attitudes and Values - Arnot suggests the media has created a negative anti-school role model for Black pupils, which he described as the ‘Ultra-Tough Ghetto Superstar’, reinforced through rap lyrics and MTV videos

Answer 51

Racism in Society - Rex argues that racial discrimination links education and poverty. For example, in employment EMG face extensive discrimination in areas such as admin or sales. This could discourage EMG students from trying to achieve in school.

Answer 52

Ethnocentric Curriculum - Ball argued the National curriculum ignores cultural diversity and promotes ‘Little Englandism’ by focusing on British history and ignoring Asian and black history. This leads to EMG feeling isolated and lowers their self esteem.

Answer 53

Institutional Racism - Moore and Davenport found that selection procedures in the US lead to ethnic segregation, with EMG pupils failing to get into better schools. The application process was difficult for less educated or non-English speaking parents to understand. Hatcher found that school governing bodies failed to deal with pupils’ racist behaviour in schools and there was no communication between the school and EMG parents.

Answer 54

Labelling - Gillborn found teachers were quick to discipline black students over white students for the same behaviour. Gillborn argued teachers had racialised expectations and expected black students to present more behavioural problems, leading to a higher exclusion rate of black pupils. Wright found that teachers would respond to Asian students in a way to promote the idea that British culture was superior and often spoke to Asian pupils as if they did not have a strong grasp of English. These students were marginalised and excluded from class discussions as a result.

Answer 55

Pupil Subcultures - Fuller studied a group of high achieving black girls who were negatively labelled by a teacher. The girls developed a pro school subculture and worked hard to achieve. The girls maintained friendship with anti school subcultures in lower streams and pretended to be unbothered about school to maintain those friendships. The girls achieved highly without support from the teacher.

Education Flashcards

(80 cards)