Education

• Competition in education is questioned regarding who wins and who loses
• Marxism


  • Schools replaced church as the main agent of ideological control (indoctrination)
  • Prepares individuals for their role in the workplace
  • School is seen as an agent of exploitation and oppression
• Social class prevents the education system from sifting and grading according to ability
• Postmodernists highlight the changing job market and decline in traditional manual work
• Paul Willis - Learning to Labour
• Durkheim


  Assumes the values transmitted in school are those of society as a whole rather than those of powerful groups
• Parsons


  • School is a bridge between the family and wider society
  • Move from particularistic standards of the family to universalistic values of society
  • School is seen as a meritocracy
• Parsons fails to look at diversity of values in society
• Most people are aware of the inequality in education and don't believe society is fair
• Davis and Moore 1967 - Schools sift, sort, and grade pupils according to their ability
• Functionalism

  • Education promotes social solidarity (Shared norms and values)
  • The Whole is more important than the individual
  • History teaches shared values and interests
  • School is a mini society where children learn how to become adult members of society and fit in
  • Rules, hierarchies, exams, assemblies, etc., all help
  • School rules and punishments reflect crime and justice
  • Family has different rules and procedures and cannot provide this
  • Education teaches specialised skills needed for jobs
  • Schools are vital in supporting the smooth running of society
• Bowles & Gintis 1976 - The Correspondence Theory - Schooling in capitalist USA
• Bourdieu 1977


  Cultural Reproduction: Reproduction takes place via the socialisation of the youth
• Bourdieu published 'Cultural Reproduction'


  1977
• Dealing with boredom, monotony, and authority


  Same as the workplace
• Spender: 'Schools are patriarchal and male-dominated, with male ideas prevailing. Boys dominate the classroom, making women invisible'
• Cultural Capital


  Refers to the knowledge, skills, education, and other cultural advantages that individuals inherit from their families and can use to gain success in society
• Liberal Perspective by Dewey focuses on reducing inequality, individual potential, and progressive child-centered teaching
• Chubb and Moe (1990): 'State education has failed lower class and EM groups, it is inefficient and fails to meet the needs of the economy. Private schools deliver better education because parents and students are consumers. Marketisation needs to be introduced. Tests, exams, and league tables will improve competition'
• Feminism argues that school and education reproduce patriarchy
• Postmodernists argue for adapting education to the enormous changes in society, including multi-skilled workforce training, fostering togetherness in multicultural societies, and addressing the 'Collapse of Economy of truth'
• Examples of the Hidden curriculum

  • School rules, systems of punishment and reward
• Subject choices pushed by gender

  • Boys: Science, Maths, Business, ICT
  • Girls: English, Arts, Social Sciences, Design
• Haywood and Mac an Ghaill (1996): 'Schools reinforce gender identities, tell boys off for being girls, and ignore boys' verbal abuse of girls'
• Cultural Reproduction

  Reproduction takes place via the socialisation of the young, leading to individuals growing up to have similar jobs as their social class
• Social Democratic perspective by Halsey aims for equality and meritocracy, advocating for more state intervention and funding for poorer schools
• Gerwitz and Ball found that competition between schools benefits the m/c who can use their cultural capital
• Connell (1995): 'Schools reinforce 'hegemonic masculinity''
• New Right agrees with functionalists that education should socialise pupils into shared values and provide a sense of national identity
• Teachers took more interest in male achievement and were more attached to boys, pushing girls into lower-status jobs
• The lads made a conscious decision to mess around, not subservient to school, differing from Bowles and Gintis' study
• Groups in the study

  • Lads
  • Earoles (Boffins)
• Stanworth


  Focused on A-level subject choice and teaching, found gender-specific subject pushes
• Heaton and Lawson: 'Hidden curriculum reproduces gender inequality through five factors'
• Moore and Hicok (1994): 'Rapid societal changes make it impossible to provide a curriculum meeting everyone's needs'
• 77% of students from higher professional backgrounds attained 5 or more A*-C GCSEs in 2004
• Labelling

  Leads to the Self-fulfilling prophecy - 'What teachers believe, pupils achieve'
• Examples of the Hidden curriculum

  • Schools have rules of behaviour and systems of punishment through detentions, expulsions, and reward systems
  • Schools grade pupils on their ability and level of success in exams and place them in different sets
  • Pupils are told to concentrate on work, whether they find it boring or not
  • Schools don't let pupils have control over what subjects are taught or how the school is run
  • Schools often make boys and girls play different sports, dress differently, and push them into different subject choices
  • Schools demand punctuality and different activities at different times
• Labelling in education can lead to the creation of subcultures
• Human Capital


  • The skills acquired at school needed for the workplace