Sociology Education

• Setting and streaming

  Introduced in comprehensive schools to manage mixed-ability cohorts, but can mirror the tripartite system with middle class more likely in top sets and working class in lower sets
• Vocational education courses are offered by larger FE colleges and some schools, especially those that don't require specialist equipment
• 1. levels were introduced to try to create equal esteem between A-levels and vocational qualifications
• The launch of T-levels coincided with COVID-19, which delayed their rollout and made it difficult to set up the work experience component
• There have been proposals for compulsory English and maths qualifications, but this is still a long way off from being implemented
• Policies impacted by COVID-19

  • Social distancing
  • Laptops for remote learning
  • Changes to exams
• Other policies introduced during COVID-19 included the National Tuition Programme, removal of school attendance fines, and free school meals during holidays
• Formula funding, where schools are funded per pupil, is a policy related to marketization and school choice
• Other marketization policies include league tables, standardised tests, and open enrolment
• The expansion of academies and free schools was a Coalition government policy aimed at increasing parental choice
• Pupil premium is a policy introduced by the Coalition government to provide additional funding for disadvantaged students
• Policies such as the National Literacy Strategy and Reading Champions were aimed at tackling gender inequality, particularly in boys' literacy
• Coursework and GCSE reforms may have had differential impacts on boys and girls
• Educational policy

  Any government initiative that's main purpose is to change the education system in some way
• Social policy

  A more generic term for a policy or law put forward by government, where the main aim is not specifically related to education
• Social policies that have an indirect impact on education, such as the equal pay act or sex discrimination act, would not be credited as educational policies in exam questions
• Tripartite system (1944)

  • Students required to sit an 11+ aptitude test at age 11, then placed into grammar schools, technical schools or secondary moderns based on results
  • Aimed to give all students opportunity to attend grammar school if they passed the test
  • Criticised as culturally biased, with inequality of outcome as grammar schools prepared students for academia while secondary moderns were more vocational
• Comprehensive schools (1960s)

  • Replaced tripartite system, based on equality of opportunity and access, with no selection by ability
  • However, still had internal selection policies like setting, streaming and banding, so did not always result in equality of outcome
  • Criticised as schools in middle class areas had better performing students than working class areas
• Education reforms under Conservative government (1979-1997)

  • Focused on marketization of education, e.g. 1988 Education Reform Act, league tables, Ofsted
  • Aimed to raise standards, but criticised as giving middle class an advantage
• Polytechnics granted university status (1992)

  • Gave greater access to higher education for students from lower social class backgrounds
• New Labour policies (1997-2010)

  • Focused on 'compensatory education' to tackle inequality, e.g. Sure Start centres, Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), City Academies
  • Sure Start aimed to give children from deprived backgrounds a 'sure start' in early learning
  • EMA provided means-tested allowance to enable low-income students to stay in education post-16
  • City Academies merged failing inner-city schools with additional funding and resources
• Coalition government policies (2010-2015)

  • Closed many Sure Start centres, removed EMA
  • Pupil Premium introduced to provide additional funding for deprived students
  • Universal free school meals for under-7s
• Many of the initiatives introduced by New Labour to tackle inequality were later overturned or reduced under austerity measures
• Education has faced significant cuts under austerity, with schools relying more on parent associations for funding
• One in three children in the UK now live below the poverty line, which has particularly impacted the education system
• Durkheim's views of education


  Durkheim suggested that education performed a range of positive functions for society
• Two functions of education according to Durkheim


  • Promotion of social solidarity
  • Teaching of specialist skills
• Social solidarity


  The social ties that bind us together
• How education promotes social solidarity

  1. Teaching students about their shared heritage

  2. Communal gatherings

  3. Creating social cohesion
• Durkheim was writing at a time of dramatic social change following the impact of the industrial revolution and the birth of the modern era
• Mechanical solidarity


  The more traditional form of social solidarity typical of the pre-industrial era
• Organic solidarity


  The new bonds formed as a result of industrialization, urbanization and secularization
• Durkheim proposed that the emerging state education systems promoted a sense of social solidarity in order to promote moral education
• Educational policies often look to promote social solidarity in schools and colleges
• The coalition government's introduction of compulsory teaching of British values into schools


  • Democracy
  • The rule of law
  • Individual liberty
  • Mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith
• Marxist perspective on functionalist ideas

  Functionalism promotes the benefits for society, while Marxism suggests the benefits do not serve the masses but rather the ruling classes
• Stephen Ball suggested that the British curriculum is centered on empire and conquest, and that education is guilty of 'little englandism'
• The teaching of British values could further marginalize minority ethnic groups in society
• Specialist skills


  The diverse and complex set of skills required in the modern, industrialized era
• How education teaches specialist skills


  1. Setting up the knowledge and skills required through the national curriculum

  2. Offering specialist subject choices

  3. Providing vocational qualifications