4 markers

• Two material factors that may affect social class differences in educational achievement?

  • Housing: lower class pupils may live in small / crowded houses making it harder to revise
  • Diet: lower class may eat poorly making it harder to focus on schoolwork
  • High family income: middle class parents can pay for tuition to help with work
  • Parents having to work long hours to make ends meet: less able to help children with work
• Outline two ways in which schools may promote competition between pupils?

  • Rewards systems: grades, merit systems and sports teams create direct competition between students
  • Ranking pupils by ability: tests and exams emphasise individual achievement
  • Setting, banding or streaming: pupils are divided by percieved ability and compete to get into high sets
• Outline two ways in which globalisation may have had an influence on educational policies in the UK?

  • Involvement in international testing programmes such as PISA testing: allows international comparisons of standards
  • Traditional subjects like STEM are prioritised in the curriculum: these equip pupils with the skills required for the global economy
• Outline two similarities between the functionalist and marxist views on education?

  • Secondary socialisation - both think students are socialised, functionalists to spread shared values and solidarity, Marxists to create obedient workers
  • Selective role: both theories see schools as a way of filtering people into different jobs
  • Structural: education is seen as a key social institution within a larger social system
  • Economic role: students learn skills that may be needed in the workplace
• Outline two factors external to schools that may affect social class differences in educational achievement?

  • Material deprivation: poor housing and diet can impact on ability to revise
  • Parents' education: middle class more likely to have parents with educational capital and ability to help with schoolwork
  • Subcultural values: working class subcultural values such as immediate gratification and fatalism may contribute to lower levels of educational achievement
  • Linguistic codes: middle class children are more likely to use the elaborated speech code which contributes to high educational achievement