Education

• Meritocracy


  People's status and wealth is based on their hard work and ability, not their privilege
• Myth of meritocracy


  Marxist view that meritocracy is a myth
• Ascribed status


  People's future social role is determined at birth
• Role allocation


  A system of unequal rewards where people work harder and strive for qualifications because they want higher pay
• Reproduction of class inequalities

  The children of middle class parents go on to do middle class jobs and achieve status
• Parsons suggested that education teaches pupils the particularistic values of their culture
• Durkheim suggested that education helps promote social solidarity
• Education prepares pupils by teaching them specialist skills
• Pupils learn the norms and values of society through the hidden curriculum, not the formal curriculum
• Functionalists suggest that the education system is meritocratic
• Ways schools prepare students for adult life/work

  1. Developing organizational and time management skills

  2. Developing communication skills

  3. Developing problem solving and teamwork skills
• Ways schools help students achieve status

  1. Making students earn their positions

  2. Reinforcing the importance of social skills

  3. Judging students on hard work and achievement
• Material factors affecting attainment

  • Living in poor housing conditions
  • Having to do a part-time job
  • Having a poor diet
  • Lack of access to ICT and resources
• Cultural factors affecting attainment

  • Parents' level of education
  • Lower cultural capital
  • Parental interest and encouragement
  • Speech code
• Correspondence theory factors


  • Schools motivate by external rewards
  • Schools are organized to benefit the upper classes
  • Schools produce subservient workforces
  • Acceptance of hierarchy and authority
• Marxist ideas about education


  • Schools kill creativity
  • Schools are not meritocratic
  • Class reproduction
  • Middle class culture is seen as superior
• Girls receive hidden messages within school that reinforce patriarchal ideas
• Boys dominate spaces within school
• Labour is done mainly by women in support roles such as office workers, cleaning staff, and teaching assistants
• Different genders are encouraged to take different subjects, for example Health and Social Care is overwhelmingly female
• Girls might be told off for 'boy behavior' that boys would get away with
• Different sports are often offered in PE classes for boys and girls
• Boys dominate the classroom


  They tend to be noisier and attract more teacher interaction, often being told to calm down or stop shouting out
• Boys dominate the playing areas

  In some schools, boys tend to shout down girls who give answers
• Girls outperform boys at every level of education


  Girls are often more ambitious, strive for high results, work better, and are more motivated. They mature earlier and are less likely to be involved in disruptive behaviors. There are also higher expectations of girls, and they tend to underestimate their abilities, working harder to achieve, while boys are more overconfident
• Cultural capital


  Having knowledge and understanding of the dominant middle class culture
• Material deprivation


  Not having the economic foundations to achieve success, such as poor housing and poor diet
• Stephen Ball found that setting and streaming at Beachside Comprehensive was often related to social class rather than ability
• The study 'Schooling in Capitalist America' by Bowles and Gintis discussed the correspondence theory, which found a link between in-school processes and those in the workplace
• The study 'Learning to Labor' by Paul Willis focused on anti-school subcultures and values that are opposed to the school
• Durkheim's 'Moral Education' discussed how education will make children see that they are part of something larger than themselves
• Ball and Gewirtz found that marketization processes have led to schools being able to focus more on more able children
• Parsons' 'The School Class as a Social System' focused on the socialization and transmission of norms and values in schools
• Functionalist view on society

  - Society based on shared values, a consensus approach ( an agreement between members of society about which values are important

  - Positive view on education
• Marxist view on society

  - Society based on conflict not consensus and divided into upper (bourgeoisie who own the means of production and make money through exploiting labour of majority ) and lower class (proletariat who are forced to sell their labour power to the capitalists since they own and so have no source of income so work under capitalism where they have no real control

  - Creates class conflict as if workers realise they are being exploited they will demand for higher wages and abolishment of capitalism and overtime the lower class will overthrow the upper class and create a classless equal society

  - Upper class control the state like education system and Marxists see education as functioning fr

  - Negative role education
• Feminist view on society


  - Society reinforced patriarchy like schools
• 4 functionalist view of role of education

  - Social solidarity

  - Specialist skills

  - Meritocracy

  - Role allocation
• What sociologist viewed created social solidarity

  Durkheim