Sociology

Subdecks (2)

Cards (600)

  • Key concepts of Functionalism
    • Particularistic values: specific values for one person
    • Universalistic values: standards used to judge everyone as a whole
    • Meritocracy: everyone has an equal chance to succeed and achieve based on effort
    • Specialist skills: people need to be trained to take on specific roles in society
    • Society in miniature: education acts like a bridge between home and society
    • Role allocation: most talented people given the correct occupation
    • Sift and sort: students sorted in terms of ability
  • Wolf Report- education doesn't teach specialist skills adequately
  • Marxists- 'Myth of Meritocracy'
  • Sifting and sorting pupils through streaming can be negative
  • New Right
    Education should be run on meritocratic principles and should teach shared values. Believe in marketisation and parentocracy. They also believe education should affirm national identity
  • Key concepts of New Right
    • Marketisation: The idea that school should be run like a business
    • Parentocracy: A system rules by parents where choice is key
    • British values: defined by OFSTED as democracy
    • National curriculum: all content that should be taught at schools
    • Privatisation: transfer of services previously owned by the state which is now privately owned
    • Neo liberal views: ideas which see a reduced role of the state and greater individualism
    • Prevent: policy that stops students having radicalised views
    • Education reform act 1988: legislation which introduced the national curriculum and GCSEs, league tables and marketisation
  • Gewirtz: parentocracy is a myth because not all parents can exercise choice
  • Bartlett: marketisation disadvantages the working-class students as they're not selected by better schools
  • Free schools can be very selective, and they take fewer disadvantaged students
  • Tuition fees may prevent working class students to attend university
  • Contradiction between parental choice and national curriculum
  • Marxists: education doesn't impose a shared national culture but imposes the culture of the dominant ruling class
  • Marxism
    Education transmits messages to pupils which justify and legitimise capitalist ideology. For example, meritocracy and education promotes false class consciousness
  • Key concepts of Marxism
    • Economic determinism: the belief that society is shapes by the economic system
    • Correspondence principle: school mimics work and prepares students to be workers
    • Symbolic violence: working class students experience violence in school so feel less valued
    • False consciousness: the idea that were not aware of the true extent to which we're exploited by capitalism
    • Cultural capital: the appropriate norms and values which leads to material rewards
    • Habitus: a cultural framework which infers good is middle class and poor is working class
    • Ideological state apparatus: government uses to control ideas
    • Myth of meritocracy: making individuals blame themselves instead of the system for failing
    • Hidden curriculum: things we learn at school not taught explicitly
    • Repressive state apparatus: government uses when people go against their ideas
  • They ignore that some working-class students do well by working well
  • Rutter: the school must be well organised
  • B+G assume pupils have no free will
  • Postmodernists: economy requires schools to produce a different kind of labour force
  • Willis romanticises the lads
  • Working class can increase their cultural capital by learning the dominant culture from friends
  • Marxists ignore non-class inequalities such as ethnicity and gender which are as equally important
  • Feminism
    Education is an instrument of exclusion and limitation because it reinforces gender identities and stereotypes as well as patriarchal ideology
  • Key concepts of Feminism
    • Gendered subject choices: students choose courses and subjects which they label as feminine and masculine
    • Equal pay act 1970: legislation which made it the law for women to be given the same salary as men for the same work
    • Glass ceiling: women reach a point where they cannot progress in their career any further
    • Sex discrimination act 1975: discourages discrimination in the workplace
    • Radical: feminist view that thinks the only way to get equality is to overthrow patriarchy
    • Liberal: education is becoming more equal in terms of gender, but more legislation is needed
  • Each type of feminism can be used to evaluate the other
  • Social Action
    Focus on inside the classroom and they're interested in understanding the meanings and motives that individuals give to their experiences of education
  • Key concepts of Social Action
    • Labelling: the process of attaching a definition or meaning to an individual or group
    • Self-fulfilling prophecy: when a person internalises a label they have been given and it becomes part of their identity
    • Streaming: process of categorising into groups based on ability
    • Pupil subculture: a group who have similar norms and values based on the way they were labelled
  • Labelling theorists only focus on inside schools and ignore other wider factors
  • Labelling theorists are too deterministic, and the self-negating prophecy may occur
  • There are benefits of streaming
  • Postmodernism
    A one size fits all approach to education is outdated and no type of school can meet all the needs of individuals. Education should be tailored to individuals
  • Key concepts of Postmodernism
    • Faith schools: a type of school which caters to religious beliefs
    • Globalisation: the process where the world is becoming more interconnected
  • Some argue it's not possible to have an individualised education system because of financial costs
  • Functionalists: worry that the education system may struggle to pass on society's shared values without a universalistic education system
  • Postmodernists are criticised for failing to account class, ethnic and gender differences in educational achievement