the education system meets a functional pre-request of society by passing on the cultural and values of society
this is achieved in PSHE lessons and the hidden curriculum
this builds on social solidarity as it teaches core values of society
parsons
bridge between family and society
parsons believed that
role allocation
the education system provides a mean to selecting and sifting people into their social solidarity (Davis and Moore)
in a meritocratic society access to jobs and power, wealth and status are directly linked to educational achievement
Althusser
reproduction of social inequality
education deliberate engineers w/c failure in order to create an unqualified factory work force
private education prepares children for the elite positions of power
hidden curriculum is shaped to assist middle class achievement and deter working class achievement
Althusser part 2
middle class has access to more cultural and economic capital which puts them at an advantage
education encourages students to blindly accept capitalist values through the hidden curriculum
Bowles and Gintis
correspondence principle
school processes mirror the world of work in order to prepare them for manual labour
examples include
lack of control
obedience
achieved status
discipline and consequences
boredom
Bernstein
language codes
restricted VS elaborated
w/c have limited vocabulary, short and unfinished sentences ,simple, context bound
m/c wider vocab
teaches are more likely to have m/c vocab
Rosenthal and Jacobson
field experiment
fake IQ test given to students
random 20% students identified as bright
went back after a year and found those students had made more progress than the others
Bourdieu
three types of capital both material and cultural factors
cultural capital:
referring to knowledge attitudes values, language and abilities of middle class
Economic capital:
referring to money and household
educational capital:
Bourdieu part 2
argued that these types of capital could be converted from one to another and were interlinked
e.g. middle class have the economic capital to be able to provide for cultural experiences e.g. holidays abroad and trips which can lead to educational achievement
economic capital can also be used for private tuition to increase attainment
colley
investigated reasons for which subjects persisted in secondary schools in 1990s
identified gender roles subject prefrences and learning enviroment as specific factors
girls in a single sex schools are twice as likely to study maths at university due to cultural pressures to not study maths are less likely to exist in single sex schools
smith and noble
range of external factors causing persistent w/c underachievement includes material deprivation
'hidden costs' of education which w/c household struggle are unable to fund
material deprivation:
''barriers to learning'' resulting in the poverty penalty
this prevents working class pupils from fulfilling their potential
Becker
1970s Becker argued that m/c teachers have an ''ideal pupils'' that is middle class
pupil: elaborated speech code is polite and smartly dressed
argued that m/c teachers are likely to view m/c students more positively than w/c pupils
irrespective of their intelligence
Sue Sharpe
interviewed girls about career aspirations
concluded that due to increased employment opportunities
females have become more ambitious and higher professionals in the workforce
Strand
2007
analysis of data from a 2004 longitudinal study of young people
found that Indian students are the ethnic group most likely to complete homework five evenings a week
the group where parents are more likely to say they always know where their child is when they are out
ball
research about beachside comprehensive
setting and streaming
streaming had a negative effect on w/c pupils
they are more likely to be in lower sets
Mac an Ghaill
1994
there has been a crisis of masculinity due to the decline in manual jobs
he argues this has led to an identity crisis
made it easier to question their need for qualification when the jobs they would have traditionally gone into no longer exist
Gillborn
teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviour
teachers expected black pupils to present more discipline problems and misinterpreted their behaviour as threatening or challenging to authority
more likely to be streamed into lower sets because of negative label which may lead to a self fulfilling prophecy
Gillborn pt2
found that Asian pupils were often spoke childish to because teachers would assume they had no command of the English language
they were often let out of class discussions
they were then seen as not a threat
Reay
1988
argued that mothers make cultural capital work for their children
research is based on the mothers of 33 children at two London primary schools
mothers of w/c children worked just as hard as m/c children's mothers
cultural capital of m/c parents gave children advantages
cecile wright
ethnographic study of four inner city primary schools suggets that the teacher labelling of ethnic minorities leads them more to have a negative experience of school over white