1.5

• hidden curriculum (Cotton et al)

  • the hidden curriculum places the highest value on efficacy and money rather than promotion of equality and opportunity
• how is the hidden curriculum transmitted?

  • hierachy of management e.g higher proportion of white men, cleaners BAME
  • wearing a uniform
  • various sets and levels e.g. defined by ability or age
  • organisation of the classroom e.g. pupils look up at the teacher
  • expectations some teachers bring
• hidden curriculum in organisation of services

  • cotton et al discuss types of processes related to undergraduate geography
  • it placed strong emphasis on sustainability but the way waste and energy is manged in universities gave it a low priority, in comparison to their cost and convenience
• hidden curriculum (Neo-marxist Giroux)

  • argues school are sites of ideological struggle
  • different political and moral views may co-exist and be in competition
  • whatever overall ethos of school, teachers still give different informal messages e.g. teachers might emphasise conformity and punctuality or criticise school rules
• pupil subcultures (peter woods)

  • wide variety of ways of adapting to school, formation of varied subcultures e.g.
  • compliance: pupils who accept rules and dicipline
  • ritualism: pupils who go through motions of attending school without great enthusiasm
  • intransigence: rejection of acedemic success and accepted standards of behaviour at school
• pupil subcultures (hargreaves)

  • anti-working class subcultures are predominantly found in bottom streams
  • caused by the labelling of pupils as 'low-stream failures'
  • unable to achieve status in mainstream values of school, they substitute them with their own set of deliquent values
  • e.g. messing about, arriving late
• anti-school subcultures (Hargreaves and willis)

  • homogeneous, coherent groups that share their own uniform set of values
• subcultures (hollingworth and williams)

  • suggest working class peer groups with anti-school attitudes still exist , seen as chavs rather than lads
  • greater variety of middle class subcultures, based on consumption and leisure e.g. skaters, hippies, poshies, emos
• Subcultures (Mac and Ghail)


  • Examined schooling, work, masculinity and sexuality into 5 groups
• 5 subcultural groups


  • Macho lads
  • Academic achievers
  • New enterprisers
  • 'Englishmen'
  • Gay students
• Macho lads


  Hostile to authority, work is essential to the development of a sense of identity
• Academic achievers

  Skilled manual labour backgrounds, adapted more traditional upwardly mobile route through academic success
• New enterprisers

  New successful pro-school subculture, 'new vocationalism' embraced e.g. business studies
• 'Englishmen'

  Middle class, saw own culture and knowledge as superior, achieved academic success effortlessly
• Gay students

  Rejected heterosexist and homophobic nature of schools
• female subcultures (mac and Ghail)

  • remasculinisation of the vocational curriculum meant girls on lower level courses
  • lower class girls saw work as a potential marriage market
  • upper class girls saw careers in terms of independence and achievement
• female subcultures (griffin)

  • found white working class women in first 2 years of employment formed small friendship groups rather than large anti-authority grouping
  • deviance defined by sexual behaviour, rather than trouble making
• Griffin's 3 possible routes for girls

  • the labour market
  • the marriage market
  • the sexual market
• female subcultures (mirza)

  • black girls often formed subcultures based on ethnicity that valued education but had less respect for school
• main methods of grouping pupils

  • mixed ability
  • streaming
  • setting
  • within class grouping
• ireson et al (grouping)

  • grouping is not always based on ability, it can be based on behaviour and used as a means of socially controlling pupils
• Hallam et al (acedemic, social and personal impact of grouping)

  • streaming plays major role in polarising pro and anti school attitudes
  • setting may produce more negative than positive consequences among maths students
  • abiility grouping is preferred form
• identity

  • identity can be linked to educational achievement e.g whether students see themselves as being academic or not
• Robert Young's NEDs

  • NED = non-educated deliquent, explanations for their existence fall into 2 categories:
  • structural: social structures like class, social changes like decline in unskilled and semi skilled work
  • agency: active choices made by individuals as they form social groups and develop subcultures and identities
• a focus on identity can be helpful as an alternative:

  • to labelling and self fulfilling prophercy
  • link factors inside and outside of schooling
  • show how social divisions interact in schools