Education

• Sociological views on education

  • Functionalism
  • Marxism
  • Material factors
  • Cultural factors
  • Interactionist approach
• Functionalism


  Education helps produce social solidarity, integrates individuals into mainstream society, teaches skills for future occupation, important for modern industrialized societies due to division of labor
• Marxism


  Education spreads ideology to serve the capitalist class, reproduces class inequality
• Material factors affecting educational achievement

  • Housing (overcrowding, temporary accommodation, cold/damp)
  • Diet and health
  • Finances (cost of equipment, books, resources, uniform, transport)
  • Fear of debt
• Restricted code


  Limited vocabulary, short and simple sentences, very descriptive - language used by the working class
• Elaborate code

  Extensive vocabulary, grammatically complex, can convey abstract ideas - mostly used by the middle/upper classes and is the language used in education
• Parenting style


  Higher educated parents give consistent discipline and have high expectations, lower educated parents use harsh discipline
• Working class subculture


  Fatalism, collectivism, immediate gratification, present orientation
• Labeling


  Teachers judge pupils based on how well they fit the ideal pupil image, leading to self-fulfilling prophecies - Becker
• Pupil subcultures


  • Anti-school subculture (disruptive, negative attitudes)
  • Pro-school subculture (academic achievers, new enterprises)
• External factors affecting gender gap in education

  • Feminism and changes to women's employment
  • Decline in traditional men's jobs
• Feminization of teaching


  Girls have more same-sex role models, boys may not identify with female teachers
• Teacher expectations


  Teachers have lower expectations of boys, punish them more harshly
• Coursework


  Girls benefit from coursework as they are more organised and can meet deadlines
• Factors influencing gendered subject choices

  • Gender socialization
  • Gender subject images
  • Gender identity
  • Peer pressure
  • Gendered career opportunities
• Boys and girls are drawn to subjects that fit with their gender
• Computer studies is seen as part of the male domain, putting girls off
• Girls were more organized and met deadlines, allowing them to spend more time on their work, therefore benefiting girls
• Differences in work habits between girls and boys are not due to natural differences, but are actually from socialization
• Factors that influence subject choices

  • Gender socialization
  • Gender subjects images
  • Gender identity
  • Peer pressure
  • Gendered career opportunities
• Gendered subjects images


  Boys and girls were drawn to subjects that fit with their gender
• Girls are put off by the formal teaching style of Computer Studies as it is seen as part of the male's domain
• Girls in single-sex schools hold less stereotyped images on subjects and are 2.4 times more likely to study physics at A-level
• Gender socialization


  The process of learning socially acceptable behavior for males and females in society
• Boys are encouraged to be strong and talk, while girls are encouraged to be neat, clean and tidy
• Boys read hobby books or information books, while girls are more likely to read stories about other people
• Gender identity and peer pressure

  Girls opt out of sport because it is associated with being manly, and sporty girls feel they contradict their gender stereotype
• People's peers will police and influence their subject choices
• Gendered career opportunities


  • Males are more likely to go into manual jobs or business, while females are more likely to go into nursing, childcare, cleaning jobs
• Chinese and Indian students mainly achieve above average A-level results, while Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and African Caribbeans mainly underachieve
• Half of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis live in poverty, and over a third of Black Caribbeans live in poverty
• Ethnic minority groups are two times more likely to be unemployed compared to whites, and three times more likely to be homeless
• Almost half of Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers are paid below £7 an hour, compared to a quarter of white British workers
• There is racial discrimination leading to social exclusion, with ethnic minority applicants only getting one in 16 job interviews compared to one in nine for white applicants
• Cultural deprivation


  The argument that ethnic minorities fail to socialize their children properly, leading to lack of motivation and disruptive behaviour in school
• This cultural deprivation argument is criticized as victim-blaming and failing to recognize racism in schools and wider society
• British Chinese pupils and parents see the family as the main source of motivation, with strong value placed on education
• Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are very supportive of their children's education, but struggle to help with homework due to unfamiliarity with the education system
• 18% of primary and 30% of secondary pupils do not have English as their first or main language, but this does not necessarily link to underachievement
• Black pupils begin primary school as the highest achievers but have the lowest GCSE grades by secondary school