Education

• Durkheim

  social solidarity, specialist skills
• Parsons

  Meritocracy, Bridge between home life + work life
• Davis + Moore

  Role allocation
• New right

  similar beliefs to functionalists however, they believe currently achieving it's role
• New right solutions

  Marketisation

  Rising standards

  Freedom of choice for consumers
• Althusser

  Repressive status apparatus - maintains the rule of bourgeoisie eg police

  Ideological status apparatus - maintains the rule of bourgeoisie through controlling ideas, beliefs and values
• Bowles + Gintis

  Correspondence principle - school mirrors the workplace

  Myth of meritocracy
• Meritocracy

  society makes it look like everyone is equal but they are not eg gender class
• Cultural deprivation

  Language

  Speech codes

  parents education
• Language

  Parents communication affects achievement
• Bernstein

  language codes

  restricted , complex

  elaborate, short, simple
• Parents education, style and educational background

  less educated = inconsistent discipline

  wc = less encouragement to go to museums + libraries
• material deprivation

  lack of material resources

  housing

  diet + health

  financial support

  resources
• Diet

  WC students more likely to be absent at school due to lower intake of vitamins

  Wc more likely to have emotional + behavioural problems due to foods
• Housing

  Overcrowding = less quiet to study

  lack of space = young children can't explore

  frequently moving = disruptions in learning

  damp = illness
• Resources

  WC more likely to be isolated + bullied due to hand me downs and unfashionable equipment
• Rosenthal + Jacobson

  Class test, teacher told who done well, class did the class again, students done better when/if teacher was told they done well

  This shows labelling happens and exists
• Howard Becker

  Self fulling prophecy

  teacher labels - treats pupil accordingly - internalised and accepts the label
• Streaming

  Separating children into different ability groups, once streamed harder to move
• Pupil subcultures

  anti-school - encouraging each other to mess about

  Pro-school - encouraging each other to do well
• Cultural deprivation - ethnicity

  intellectual, attitudes and family structure
• Intellectual + linguistic skills

  Black families more likely to lack intellectual stimulation

  Not speaking English may hold them back
• Attitudes

  children are told to work to achieve long term goals

  However, black children are socialised into a live for the day attitude
• Family structure

  many black families are headed by a lone mother so deprived of adequate care

  Absence of father, boys lack role model
• Material deprivation

  ethnic minorities more likely to be engaging in shift work resulting in greater risk of material deprivation
• Wood et al

  3 closely matched job applications, 1 in 16 ethnic people were accepted 1 in 9 white people

  Shows racism in wider society
• Ethnic differences (Statistics)

  50% of ethnic minorities children live in a low income family

  2x more likely to be unemployed

  3x more likely to be homeless
• Labelling + teacher racism

  teachers label + treat ethnic groups differently
• Gilbert + youdell 


  found teachers discipline black pupils quicker
• Pupil identities

  Ideal pupil identity, mc, white

  Pathologised pupil identity, asian

  Demonised pupil identity, wc, black
• ethnocentric curriculum

  curriculum is centred around one ethnicity
• Ball

  criticises the national curriculum for ignoring ethnic diversity and promotes attitudes of little englandism
• Coard

  explains how the ethnocentric curriculum may produce underachievement
• External factors - gender

  impact of feminism

  changes in family

  changes in women's employment

  changing girls ambitions
• impact of feminism

  strives for equal rights - it had led to raised expectations and self esteem
• changes in the family

  due to the changes in the family it affected girls attitudes towards education
• changes in women's employment 


  equal pay gap

  changes have encouraged girls to see their future in terms of paid work rather than housework
• Sue Sharpe

  1970 - love, family

  1990 career, support themselves
• internal factors - gender

  equal opportunities

  role models

  coursework

  teacher attention
• Equal oppertunities

  WISE + GIST

  boys and girls entitled to the same opportunities