Anti-school subculture: Rejection of norms and values of school and replacing it with anti-school norms and values.
Banding: A form of streaming
compensatory education: Supplementary educational programs designed to compensate children for their deprived home background. e.g Sure Start 1999
correspondence principle: the sociological principle that schools correspond to (or reflect) the social structure of their society
Bowles and Gintis (Marxist)
Working class pupils likely to be culturally deprived and have inferior norms, values, skills and knowledge which prevent them from achieving in education
Working class pupils have immediate gratification, whilst middle class pupils have deferred gratification. This approach blames working-class families themselves for differential achievement by social class
Education Action Zones: Deprived areas with special programmes in place designed to raise teaching and educational achievement levels
Elaborated Language Code: Used by middle class parents and children. Includes more grammatically complex sentences, extensive vocabulary and used by exams, teachers and textbooks. Middle class pupils thus have advantage before even beginning education
(Bernstein)
Ethnocentric curriculum: School curriculum is enthocentric and based on white culture as Eng Lit is based of British lit, European history and foreign language studies ignore non-European history and languages and Christianity is the curriculums central religion.
(Coard)
external factors: Factors outside education influencing achievement: material and cultural deprivation can lead to underachievement. Poor housing, insufficient nutrition etc
false class consciousness: Marxist concept that suggests that the proletariat do not recognise that they are being exploited by the bourgeoisie and contribute to their own exploitation.
Free schools: Schools set up by charities, teachers and businesses or parents but funded by the state. They were introduced by the coalition government after 2010. Benefit middle class parents and pupils as reflect their values
Funding formula: Schools are allocated funds by a formula based on how many pupils they attract. More popular schools get more funds, can afford better qualified teachers and better facilities attracting more middle class applicants.
Habitus: Bourdieu's term to describe the self-perceptions and beliefs that develop as part of one's social identity and shape one's conceptions of the world and where one fits in it
Halo effect: One possible impact of a positive label. If a pupil labelled positively, perhaps as an ideal pupil then their behaviour will be interpreted differently than the same behaviour might be for a different pupil. As such they are less likely to be disciplined.
Hegemonic control: When the working class is controlled by the ruling class by making them accept their ideology
hegemony: Ruling class able to control the working class without coercion or force, achieved via education system and promotion of middle class dominant ideologies
(Gramsci)
hidden curriculum: Informal, implicit and unofficial aspects of culture that children are taught in school
Marxists and feminists see this as teaching people to accept the principles of capitalism or patriarchy.
Ideological State Apparatus: Agencies of the state which serve to spread dominant ideology and justify the power of the dominant social class. Education prepares working class pupils for dominant and exploitative role in society
(Althusser)
Immediate gratification: Seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices in order to get rewards in the future. Working class pupils seek immediate gratification
Interactionism: Focus on the interactions between pupils and between pupils and teachers, look at labelling and the processes and relationships that happen within schools
Internal factors: Occur within education system such as teacher labelling, stereotypes, setting/streaming and bias etc
Labelling theory: Labelling is seen as an internal factor that could explain differential achievement in schools by class, ethnicity or gender. Can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy
(Becker)
Material deprivation: Lack of educational resources such as books, toys, games which provide pupils with additional learning. Working class pupils have limited access to these, thus resulting in underachievement
Meritocracy: Education system acts as a mechanism to ensure individuals do the right jobs by role allocation, based on individual talents and achievements.
Davis and Moore
Neoliberalism: Promotes marketisation policies and transferring services into the private ownership rather than government control. Based on New Right
New Vocationalism: Education should be primarily about meeting the needs of the economy, especially by equipping young people with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to prepare them for work.
Norms and values: Functionalists believe that all members of society are socialised into these norms and values, first through the family and later through institutions such as education
OFSTED: An organisation which monitors the effectiveness of schools, introduced in 1988 ERA
Parentocracy: Parents are in charge of the education system, enabling more choice over child's education
Privatisation: Example, Academies and Free Schools which are run and owned by private companies, even though they continue to be funded by the taxpayer through the government.
Pro-school subculture: Positive about school. They accept the rules and conform. They gain status from the school, from adults and from their friends by working hard and achieving highly. They tend to be middle class
Restricted code: Working-class use context-based, limited forms of language, resulting in lower levels of educational achievement
(Bernstein)
Role allocation: The system of allocating people the jobs/ roles which suit their aptitudes and capabilities, done via education. Middle class pupils allocated into top paid roles, working class allocated to unskilled jobs which exploit them
(Davis and Moore)
Secondary socialisation: Individuals learn the universalistic values of wider society through education, rather than the particularistic ones of their own family or local community (primary)
setting: individuals placed into groups based on ability
streaming: splitting pupils into groups based on their ability, which they stay in for all their subjects
sifting and sorting: Ensuring the right people enter the most appropriate jobs and roles in life is meritocratic (Functionalist)
social cohesion: Extent to which people in society are bound together and integrated and share common values
(Functionalists)
social mobility: People from lower social and economic backgrounds achieving higher status occupations thanks to good education and qualifications