SOciology Education

• Durkheim


  Believed that children learn the attitudes they will require to survive as adults through the school system because this is an orderly and regulated environment
• Anomie


  A state of normalness/chaos in which society lacks a shared set of values and norms to guide behaviour
• Durkheim


  Believed that the role of subjects such as history and English helped to teach children about their shared language and shared heritage, promoting integration and Social Solidarity
• Functionalists


  • Use an organic analogy to compare society to the human body
  • Argue that all parts of society need to work together in order for society to maintain consensus
• If the education system was failing

  It would affect many other parts of society i.e. the workplace
• Davis & Moore


  Suggest that those students who prove that they do not have the character and aptitude for the better positions learn that they will do the least intellectually demanding and lowest paid work
• Parsons


  • Believed that one of the most important roles of a school is to identify some children as failures in order that others could be seen as successful
  • Argued that education teaches children to value status (earned through performance or ability)
  • Believed that education instils values of competition, equality, and individualism
• Meritocracy


  A system whereby jobs and pay are allocated based on an individual's talents and achievements rather than social status
• Durkheim


  Argued that an education system promotes social solidarity (a sense of social unity) by promoting: Understanding of the world, experience of collective behaviour, experience of the collective consciousness necessary for the integration of individuals into society
• Parsons


  • Argued that the school is a bridge between the home and the wider world
  • It carries on the work of the family and also socialises children into norms and values that they may not be taught at home
  • At home, children are taught particularistic norms and values whereas the norms and values taught in school are universalistic
• Young (1958)


  • Claimed that it is "A system where intelligence, ability and effort are rewarded"
  • Schools reward the most able students and those who try hard and get high grades are the ones who are rewarded - they then get the most important jobs in society
• Davis & Moore


  • Argue that role allocation is important - this means making sure that every job in society is filled
  • Role allocation is also based on meritocracy - education sorts and grades people in terms of ability
• Strengths of the functionalist view: It points to links between and within social institutions in society, it emphasises the importance of socialisation within schools, it influences New Right thinking and research
• Criticisms of the functionalist view: It justifies inequality, there is little supporting evidence, people do not all share norms and values, it ignores structural inequalities such as racism, sexism, and social class
• Marxists would criticise Functionalists for assuming there is value consensus in society when the values may only be shared by the ruling class
• Marxists would criticise the assumption that the education system is meritocratic, arguing that success is based on how much money is spent or how far people can satisfy ruling class values rather than merit
• Marxists would argue that education prepares children for the workplace so they will accept inequality rather than for the benefit of everyone within society
• Bowles & Gintis


  • Argue that achievement in school is determined by class background, not by ability
  • Children of similar ability achieve different results based on their social class
• Cultural capital


  Anything in your personal/social background that helps or hinders you during your life, e.g. family background and status, income, wealth, educational qualifications
• Bourdieu


  • Suggests that there is a link between the education system and the economic structure
  • Some students (the minority) will leave school to go on to higher education and professional work while others (the majority) will leave school to go into lower paid, lower status work
  • Cultural capital is seen as more important than economic capital in schooling - meaning that knowledge of literature, arts, classical music, current affairs etc. is more important than the money spent on children when it comes to education
• Althusser


  • Argued that education operates as an 'ideological apparatus' i.e. controlling people by brainwashing them to believe in the capitalist system and that individuals can succeed if they work hard enough
  • The role of education is to give people the impression the educational system is based on merit which encourages them to participate and compete in the (mistaken) belief that they are competing on level terms, and to control and limit people's expectations by defining valid knowledge in such a way as to ensure that the sons and daughters of the bourgeoisie have an in-built advantage over all other classes in society
• Bowles & Gintis


  Argued that education performs vital ideological functions for capitalism, calling schools 'giant myth-making machines' i.e. putting forward myths that education is meritocratic and that success was based on ability
• Correspondence theory


  The organisation of the school mirrors that of the workplace, preparing children to fit easily into their future exploitation as part of the proletariat
• Similarities between school and workplace


  • Strict hierarchy and patterns of obedience and power, teachers give orders and pupils are expected to obey, pupils have little control over their work or curriculum, emphasis on external rewards like grades and pay rather than intrinsic reward, fragmentation into form groups, abilities, subjects, departments, job functions, job levels
• Studies by Paul Willis, 'Learning to Labour', show how social class and educational achievement are linked
• Material Deprivation


  Lack of money and things money could buy, e.g. desk, laptop, electricity, leading to poverty
• Introduction of GCSEs in 1988, more 16-19 year olds going into higher education, tuition fees and less student grants have put many off by the cost of education
• Middle class parents move house for better catchment areas, increasing house prices
• Cultural Deprivation


  Bottom of the class are deprived of values, attitudes, experiences and skills, and absence of books/educational toys
• Linguistic Deprivation Theory


  Bernstein's codes of language - Elaborated code used by middle class, Restricted code used by working class
• Ethnic groups with the poorest achievement levels - Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and Black-Caribbeans - tend to be located within the working-class, while the relative success of the Indian ethnic group and African-Asians can be explained because they are often located within the middle-class
• Key characteristics of low achievers are coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, living in areas of high unemployment, and having single parents who themselves have poor qualifications
• Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Black African pupils are more likely to live in the 20% most deprived postcode areas and in households where the head of household has never worked or is long-term unemployed
• Gypsy and Traveller pupils, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, mixed-race and African-Caribbean pupils have higher than average proportions eligible for free school meals
• Indian, Caribbean, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi groups are very vulnerable to poverty, with incomes low and often only one partner working
• Tony Sewell


  Found that students turned to anti-school subcultures as a protection mechanism and as a means of getting status, and those who distanced themselves from these subcultures and mixed with others were seen as ignoring their ethnicity, creating dual punishment from teachers and peers
• Language differences have been seen as a reason for differences in educational attainment, but the high attainment of Indian pupils indicates that a second language is not a barrier to achievement
• African-Caribbean pupils tend to be more motivated and committed to education than White pupils of the same gender and class background
• Family circumstances might be one of the factors accounting for the underachievement of African-Caribbean pupils
• High achievement in some Asian groups may be linked to the presence of a close-knit extended family, while the rate of matriarchal single-parent families in Black-Caribbean communities might explain both underachievement in this ethnicity, and also why girls in particular do better