education

Cards (57)

  • Function of education
    • Create social solidarity
    • Teach skills necessary for work
    • Teach core values of society
  • Particularistic vs universalistic values
    Particularistic values are individual to the child, universalistic values are applied to all students equally
  • Role allocation
    Grades determine most suitable roles in society
  • Meritocracy
    Ensures everyone has equal chances and opportunities of being assigned to a job
  • Marxists argue that if education was truly meritocratic, there would be no private schools benefiting the rich and middle/upper class
  • New Right view of education
    Schools should be run more like a business, competing for consumers and providing what they want
  • New Right influenced the Conservative government from 1979-1997, introducing league tables to help parents choose schools</b>
  • Marxist view of education
    Education passes on ruling class ideology to support and reproduce capitalism
  • Althusser's view of education
    Education is an ideological state apparatus that reproduces class inequalities and creates false consciousness
  • Correspondence principle
    Similarities between the workplace and school, preparing students for future work
  • Meritocracy myth
    Failure is attributed to lack of individual effort rather than social class background
  • Restricted vs elaborated language codes
    Working class have restricted codes, middle class have elaborated codes that match school language
  • Pupil subcultures
    Groups of pupils with behaviours/ideas different from mainstream school culture
  • Labeling theory
    Labels given to students become part of their identity, creating self-fulfilling prophecies
  • Ethnicity and school processes
    Black students more likely to be disciplined and have low expectations from teachers
  • Gender and school processes
    Boys negatively labeled as disruptive, leading to self-fulfilling prophecies
  • Class and internal school factors
    Labeling, self-fulfilling prophecy, setting/streaming, pupil subcultures, class identity
  • Cultural deprivation
    Working class parents' restricted language codes, lack of education, and present-oriented subculture disadvantage students
  • Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
  • Marginal utility

    The additional utility (satisfaction) gained from the consumption of an additional product
  • If you add up marginal utility for each unit you get total utility
  • Girls have outperformed boys in education although at certain points this gap has narrowed and bigger as well
  • Policies introduced to help girls
    • Equal opportunities policies
    • Introduction of more women into science and engineering to motivate girls
    • Growing employment for women providing more female role models
  • GCSE changes

    More coursework which suits girls who mature earlier and are more organised
  • Teachers give more attention to boys as they are seen as disruptive, while girls are seen as cooperative
  • Challenging stereotypes - books now portray women as strong characters
  • Girls are more likely to get into better schools as schools focus on league table positions
  • External factors affecting girls' achievement
    • Feminist campaigning
    • Changes in the family
    • Changes in women's employment
  • Boys don't like reading as they see it as feminine
  • Education is designed to be more girl-friendly, negatively impacting boys
  • Lack of male primary teachers means boys lack male role models
  • Boys form 'laddish subcultures' to increase their masculinity, reducing their achievement
  • Boys may lack ambition if there are fewer jobs available due to more women entering the workforce
  • Subject choices by gender
    • Girls choose languages and humanities
    • Boys choose science and technology
  • Gender role socialisation
    Girls socialised to be gentle and protective, boys to be adventurous
  • Teachers construct pupil identities based on ethnicity, with the 'ideal pupil' being white, middle-class and heterosexual
  • Pupil identities are constructed by teachers depending on the pupil's ethnicity
  • Ideal pupil identity
    • White, middle-class, heterosexual, achieves good grades in the normal way (revising, taking exams, practicing)
  • Identity of Asian pupils
    • Usually seen as asexual and conforming to what is expected of them
  • Identity of black/working-class pupils
    • Demonised as very sexual, unintelligent, and culturally deprived