Topic 6 : Relationships And Processes In Schools

Question 1

Hidden curriculum

Answer 1

Messages that schools do not directly teach but children learn and are part of the normal routines of organisation

Question 2

Marxist perspective on the hidden curriculum

Answer 2

Bowles and Gintis - correspondence principle

Norms taught through the hidden curriculum prepared children for accepting authority in the workplace

The learning of values is part of ideological control

Giroux - marketisation of schools has led students to compete to fight for success in a capitalist society. Neoliberal policies make students move away from communal thinking to look after oneself

Question 3

Functionalists perspective on the hidden curriculum

Answer 3

Part of the way in which norms and values are transmitted through society

Parsons agree that students are trained to become workers but this is positive

Norms and values are central to a progressive society and respecting authority contributes to this

Question 4

Elements of hidden curriculum

Answer 4

Hierarchy of management
Punctuality
Uniform
Organisation of classroom

Question 5

How do subcultures form

Answer 5

Differentiation - process by which students are judged and categorised into sets or streams

This leads to polarisation - the way in which students are divided into two separate poles - top and bottom

These processes can influence how students behave and the development of subcultures

Question 6

Hargreaves

Answer 6

Pupil subcultures linked to streaming

Two groups - conformist and non-conformist

Children who were put into lower streams joined to form an anti school subculture - misbehaving and rejecting school culture

Emphasises importance of labelling and streaming

Question 7

Evaluation of school processes

Answer 7

Recognition of internal factors shifts the blame for low attainment from students

Deterministic - suggests that these circumstances always lead to failure

Fuller - denying property

Doesn’t pat enough attention to external factors - material and cultural deprivation, racism etc.

Question 8

Becker labelling

Answer 8

Ideal pupil - MC are closer to this ideal

Question 9

Labelling - Harvey and Slatin

Answer 9

Found that teachers identified white MC students as more likely to succeed and had lower expectations of WC

Question 10

Labelling - Gillborn and Youdell

Answer 10

WC more likely to be seen as disruptive and unmotivated, so were placed in lower sets

Question 11

Labelling - Dunne and Gazeley

Answer 11

Teachers normalised the underachievement of WC so did not try to help

Thought they could overcome underachievement of MC

Question 12

Evaluation of labelling and class

Answer 12

Sugarman - WC are fatalistic, want instant gratification and have a collectivist mindset

Fuller - black girls

Question 13

Ray Rist

Answer 13

American kindergarten - teachers used children’s home backgrounds/ appearance and placed them in different groups / tables

Question 14

Harvey and slatin

Answer 14

Used lab experiments to investigate teacher expectations

Photographs of different social backgrounds
= WC students rated less favourably

AO3 - artificial
AO3 - not considering student behaviour / impressions, just appearances