Researchers

• Chubb and Moe


  Open enrolment - using physical vouchers to claim places at whatever school you wish, and the vouchers can be redeemed for formula funding by the school.
• Gerwirtz


  Middle class parents are better and more knowledgeable when it comes to choosing 'good' schools due to resources available to them, and working class parents are less knowledgeable and so are more likely to be unsure what school to pick.
• Alexander


  Globalisation - by applying models from other countries to our own education system, we are creating a 'moral panic' and seeking a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
• Mitsos and Browne


  Globalisation - shortage of male working class jobs leading to a disinterest in education from this group
• Millburn


  Private Schools - the 'old boys network' must be cleansed before the UK can be truly meritocratic
• Durkheim


  Functionalism - education exists to:

  1. teach specialist skills
  2. create social solidarity (understanding our role in society)
• Miriam David


  Eval Functionalism - the UK has a ethnocentric curriculum that is tailored specifically for white, european middle-class students.
• Parsons


  Meritocracy/Functionalism - schools are a 'focal socialising agent' that act as a bridge between home and work life, fitting them into society.
• Parsons


  Values -

  • ascribed status (family)
  • achieved status (school)
  • particularistic values (family)
  • universalistic values (school)
• Davis and Moore


  Functionalism - role allocation where the school matches students to the roles they are best suited to. Say that some inequality is necessary to encourage competition for jobs.
• Blau and Duncan


  Functionalism - the modern economy depends for its prosperity on using its 'human capital' - its workers skills. Maximises productivity and makes use of talents.
• Althusser


  Marxism:

  ISA - controlling ideas, values and beliefs

  RSA - using physical force to keep a capitalist society
• Bowles and Gintis


  Marxism - studied 237 schools in NYC and found:

  Obedience = rewarded

  Intelligence = ignored

  Creativity = punished
• Bowles and Gintis 


  Correspondence Principle - school work has some correspondence to the workplace

  Hidden Curriculum - teaches us how to survive in the workforce by teaching capitalist values
• Willis


  Marxism - 'learning to labour' - working class boys reject education as they believe they will not amount to anything - self fulfilling prophecy
• Bourdieu


  Cultural Deprivation - 'Cultural Capital' where the activites people partake in have some association to social class
• Hirsch


  Cultural deprivation - working class children underperform because their home lives are not educational enough, they lack 'cultural literacy'
• Douglas


  Cultural deprivation - parental encouragement is the single most important factor in educational success

  Backed by Goodman and Gregg
• Archer et al


  Cultural deprivation - there is a larger gap between home and school life for working class children, so they experience a 'culture clash'
• Robson


  Cultural deprivation - middle class activities translate to educational success whereas working class activities won't
• Keddie


  Eval Cultural deprivation - it's not deprivation, it's just a different culture, schools teach middle-class values but should adapt this.
• Sugarman


  Cultural deprivation - working class want instant gratification for the work they do and have present-time orientation, prefer to be collectivist. Middle class want deferred gratification and have future orientation, prefer individualism.
• Howard


  Material Deprivation - working class families tend to eat less healthily, which leads to educational underperformance
• Flaherty


  Material Deprivation - 20% of those eligible for free school meals do not claim them due to stigma attached
• Callender and Jackson


  Material Deprivation - working class students are 5x less likely to attend university due to fear of debt
• Waldfogel and Washbrook


  Material Deprivation - low quality housing (cramped, damp) is linked to underachievement in GCSE results
• Bernstein


  Cultural Deprivation - working class have restricted code which means it is harder for them to understand in school, middle class have elaborated code
• Gillbourn and Youdell 


  Sets and Streams - A-C economy = those who are guaranteed to pass or fail will receive less time and resources, those on the border will receive the most time and resources (educational triage)
• Ball


  Sets and Streams - Beachside comprehensive - teacher's either 'cool down' or 'warm up' students which results in their educational success
• Becker


  Labelling - the idea of the 'ideal student' is not just based on intelligence but also dress, speech, enthusiasm etc.
• Harvey and Slatin 


  Labelling - primary school teachers were asked to identify children who were likely to succeed from 96 photographs, and they identified white, middle-class students.
• Rosenthal and Jacobsen


  Labelling - a kindergarten class took an IQ test, but the results were randomly assigned to the students, the teachers were told the 'results'. At the end of the year, the students who were randomly assigned a high IQ were at the top of the class and those assigned a low IQ were at the bottom.
• Rist


  Labelling - 'tigers, cardinals and clowns' where the tigers sat closest to the teacher and got the most help, the cardinals and clowns were sat further away and given less help. The groups were decided based on pupil's home backgrounds and their appearance.
• Mirza


  Eval Labelling - a group of African-Caribbean girls at a school and found teachers were widely racist when challenging 'bad behaviour' and expecting less of the girls. However, the girls worked harder to reject this label and the self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Lacey


  Subcultures - students placed into sets were 'polarised' where those in high sets adopted the school values and those in low sets rejected the school values.
• Cohen


  Subcultures - the working class don't have the right values to succeed and so suffer from 'status frustration', and move towards subcultures where they can achieve, usually anit-school
• Mac and Ghaill


  Subcultures - found evidence of pro-school subcultures, where groups expected to underperform studied hard and achieved better
• Sue Sharpe


  Gender - interviewed girls in 1975 and again in 1994, and found that in 1975 girls wanted to be mothers first then possibly have careers afterwards, but this was the opposite for 1994.
• Carol Fuller


  Gender - studied 700 girls in yr10 and y12, and found they sorted themselves into 3 groups:

  • Low aspirers = few goals for future and move to low-skilled, gendered work
  • Middle aspirers = aimed to work in gendered industries and viewed education as a means to achieving this
  • High aspirers = ambitious and had high expectations for themselves
• McRobbie


  Gender - 'bedroom culture' - girls are much more likely to stay inside and do educational activities, and boys are less likely to do as many educational activities and be outside.