Education with Methods in Context

• social mobility: movement of groups or individuals up or down the social hierarchy
• funcional prerequisites: refer to the basic needs that must be met if society is to survive
• 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
• human capital: refers to the knowledge and skills possessed by a workforce that increase that workforce's value and usefulness to employers
• equality of educational opportunity: the idea that every child, regardless of his or her social class background, ability to pay school fees, ethnic background, gender or disability, should have an equal chance of developing their talents and abilities and of doing as well as his or her ability will allow
• 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
• ideological state apparatus: agencies of the state which serve to spread the ideology and justify the power of the dominant social class
• habitus: the cultural framework and set of ideas possessed by a social class, into which people are social and which influences their cultural tastes an d choices
• hegemony: the dominance in society of the ruling class's set of ideas over others, and acceptance of and consent to them by the rest of society
• hegemonic control: where control of the working class is mainly achieved through the hegemony and acceptance of ruling class ideas
• subculture: a smaller culture help by a group or class of people within the main culture of society, in some ways different from the main culture, but with many aspects in common
• globalisation: the growing interconnectedness of societies across the world, with the spread of the same culture, consumer goods and economic interests across the globe
• underachievement: the failure of people to fulfil their potential - they do not do as well in education (or other areas) as their talents and abilities suggest they should
• racism: believing or acting as though an individual or group is superior or inferior on the grounds of their racial or ethnic origins
• stereotype: a generalised oversimplified view of the features of a social group, allowing for few individual difference between members of the group
• halo effect: when pupils become stereotyped, either favourably or unfavourably, on the basis of earlier impressions
• self-fulfilling prophecy: where people act in response to predictions which have been made regarding their behaviour, thereby making the prediction come true
• streaming: where in schools, students are divided into groups of similar ability (bands or streams) in which they stay for all subjects
• setting: where students are divided into groups (sets) of the same ability in particular groups
• educational triage: the way schools divide pupils into three groups - those who are likely to succeed in exams, those who have chance of succeeding if they get some extra help (mainly those around the C/D grade boundary) and those who have little chance of succeeding.
• pro-school subculture: a group organised around a set of values, attitudes and behaviour which generally conforms to the academic aims, ethos and rules of a school
• subculture of resistance: a subculture that not only has some differences from the dominant culture, but is also in active opposition to it
• cultural deprivation: the idea that some young people fail in education because of supposed cultural deficiencies in their home and family background, such as inadequate language skills and inappropriate attitudes and values
• elaborated code: the sort of formal language used by strangers and individuals in some formal contexts where explanation and detail are required.
• restricted code: the informal, simple, everyday language, sometimes ungrammatical and with limited explanations and vocabulary, which is used between friends or family members
• social capital: the social networks of influence and support that people have
• compensatory education: extra educational help for those coming from disadvantaged groups to help them overcome the inequalities they face in the education system and the wider society
• positive discrimination: giving disadvantaged groups more favourable treatment than others to make up for the inequalities they face
• service sector: concerned with the production of services instead of actual products. it is concerned with administration, information, communication, catering, the leisure industry, sales, finance and insurance, transport and distribution, and the running of government services such as the health, welfare and education services
• racial prejudice: involves a set of assumptions about a racial or ethnic group which people are reluctant to change even when they receive information which undermines those assumptions
• multicultural education: involves a recognition of the diversity of cultures in society, and teaching about the culture of other ethnic groups besides that of the majority culture
• structured interviews (formal): where the interviewer asks the interviewee the same questions to different people in the same way
• unstructured interviews (informal): more like a guided conversation, typically involve the interviewer asking open questions which generate qualitative data
• verstehen: German word meaning to 'understand in a deep way' - in order to achieve this a researcher aims to understand another persons experience by putting themselves in the other persons shoes
• covert research: where the researcher is undercover and respondents don't know they are part of a research study
• overt research: where respondents know they are part of a research study
• ethics/ethical factors: ethics means taking into consideration how the research impacts on those involved with the research