Education Flashcards
(31 cards)
Which view does Durkheim support?
Functionalism
What are the three sociologists that represent the Marxist perspective on education?
Althusser, Bowles and Gintis and Willis
What is Willis view of education?
He believes that working class young people actively reject the rules of school and create an alternative counter culture
What study did Willis conduct?
He named it “learning to labour”
He overserved and interviewed 12 working class lads in school.
Their behaviour showed their rejection of school by students who were working hard “earoles” and “dickhead achievers”
Their behaviour lead to them taking their place in the bottom place of the capitalist system, this is because they failed to gain qualifications which led to a low paid job, they had low expectations of the job they would end up anyway.
Chubb and Moe, believe in a certain perspective, which one is this?
The new right perspective
How did Chubb and moe suggest the state could change in order to treat parents and pupils like consumers?
Marketisation of the education system
Provide parents with vouchers to spend on the school of their choice, the school gets funding via the vouchers.
What policies encourage schools to be more business like in their approach?
Ofsted inspections
League tables
The national curriculum
What criticisms can be made of the new right view that education needs to be more business like and competitive?
- Competition between schools mainly benefits middle class children and their parents use their cultural and economic capital to access better schools
- The real cause of educational failings is down to the lack of funding
- the new right contradicts itself, it wants greater competition and choice but also wants to impose a curriculum onto schools
What three type of external factors are there, that affect ethnic differences in achievement? Give examples of each
Material factors: pour housing quality, parents on low paid jobs, live in low income area
Cultural factors: language barriers, family values
Racism in wider society
What is meant by material deprivation?
A lack of economic resources and necassities and lack of money
How is social class defined?
Groups that are categorised according to a persons occupation.
What is meant by the term ‘external factors’ in class differences in achievement?
Factors outside of the education system, such as the influence at home, family background and wider society
What is meant by ‘internal factors’ when referring to class differences in achievement?
Factors within school and education system, such as interactions between pupils and teachers and inequalities between schools
What are the four broad types of material deprivation?
Pour housing
Poor diet/health
Financial support
Fear of debt
Define cultural deprivation?
Lack of cultural equipment, such as language, self discipline and reasoning skills
What are the three categories of cultural deprivation?
Speech and language codes
Parents education
The working class as a deviant subculture
Which five categories of internal factors affect class differences in educational achievement?
Teacher labelling Self fulfilling prophecy Streaming Subcultures Pupil identities
What is social solidarity?
Individuals feeling part of a community/group
Which sociologist claims that schools encourage social solidarity?
Durkheim
How do school encourage social solidarity?
Through teaching subjects such as history, English literature and art
How does teaching subjects such as art, history and English literature encourage social solidarity?
Art- famous artists that reside in the UK means we can all feel proud to have them represent the UK
English literature- writers such as Shakespeare make us feel proud as a community
History- by teaching history of our country/ monarchy instils a sense of heritage and commitment to the community
Which sociologists thought that school was a ‘society in miniature’ ?
Durkheim
What is meant by a ‘society in miniature”
School prepares us for life in wider society for example in the workplace we have to cooperate with others who are not our family/friends and we have to act according to a set of impersonal rules that apply to everyone
Can you think of any criticisms that education helps to encourage social solidarity?
Marxists argue that education in a capitalist society only transmits the ideology of a minority - the ruling class
Dennis wrong ( an interactionist) argues that functionalists have an ‘over-socialised’ view of people as mere puppets of society, they wrongly imply that students passively accept all they’re taught and never reject the schools values
