key terms

• cultural capital: the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours which enable individuals to succeed within their own class group and wider society
• the hidden curriculum: concerns not so much the formal content of subject lessons and examinations (the overt curriculum) as the way teaching and learning are organised
• social solidarity: refers to the integration of people into society through shared values, a common culture, shared understandings and social ties that bring them together and build social cohesion
• universalistic values: rules and values that apply equally to all members of society, regardless of who they are
• meritocracy: a society where jobs and pay are allocated on the basis purely of peoples individual talents, abilities, qualifications and skills
• interviewer bias: in which the interviewee responds with a socially desirable answer out of fear
• overt research: where respondents know they are part of a research study
• covert research: where the researcher is undercover and respondents don't know they are part of a research study
• streaming: where in schools, students are divided into groups of similar ability (bands or streams) in which they stay for all subjects
• banding: where schools try to ensure their intakes have a spread of pupils drawn from all bands of ability, or, more commonly, is used as an alternative word for streaming
• setting: where students are divided into groups (sets) of the same ability in particular groups
• labelling: the process of defining a person or group in a certain way - as a particular 'type' of person or group
• anti-school subculture: a group organised around a set of values, attitudes and behaviour in opposition to the main aims of a school
• marketisation: the process whereby services, like education or health, that were previously controlled and run by the state, have government or local council control reduced, and become subject to the free market forces of supply and demand, based on competition and consumer choice
• Non-participant Observation: Research method where researchers observe from outside the group they are studying.
• Participant Observation: Research method where researchers become part of the group they are studying.