Education AQA Sociology

• What does Durkheim define the two functions of education as?

  - specialist skills

  - social cohesion
• What are universalistic and particularistic standards?


  particularistic - norms within your social context

  universalistic - universal norms and values
• Who talked about role allocation?

  Davis and Moore
• What two principles do Bowles and Gintis name are functions of education?


  - correspondence principle

  - myth of meritocracy
• Who completed the 'lads' study and what did it conclude?

  Willis - behaviour was similar to that of the shop floor, these boys were destined for no more than unskilled manual labour
• According to Althusser, education is a what...


  an ISA, norms are reinforced through means like the hidden curriculum
• What did New Right theorists say about the education system?

  education does not prepare pupils properly, failing students, private schools far better
• What did Chubb and Moe say about education?


  state education has failed and not created equal opportunity, it fails to reproduce people needed for
• What are the two roles for state according to new right/neo liberalists?


  1) create competition

  2) created a shared culture through national curriculum
• What are some external factors that affect education?

  racism in wider society, material deprivation, cultural deprivation, government policy
• What are some internal factors?

  labelling, streaming, teachers, school policy
• What did Guy Palmer say about racism and material deprivation?


  - almost 1/2 of all BME children live in LIC houses

  - more likely to engage in shift work, low pay

  - cultural traditions may prevent women from working outside home

  - commonly asylum seekers

  - poor language skills impact hiring
• Which sociolgist discussed how racism leads to exclusion and poverty>

  Rex
• What did Woods et al's study conclude?

  white people 1/9 offered job but only 1/16 for BME.
• Define material deprivation.

  Poverty and a lack of material necessities such as adequate housing and income.
• What did Flaherty link money problems too?

  poor attendance
• What % of failing schools are in deprived areas?

  90%
• How can poor housing affect achievement?

  overcrowding, less room to study, poor housing leads to illness and absence
• What did Howard say about diet and health and material deprivation?


  lower intakes of energy = poorer nutrition = poor health = absences
• Who concluded there was increased hyperactivity among 10 year old lower income children?


  Wilkinson
• What did Tanner say was a burden on poorer families?

  cost of equipment, uniforms, travel
• What % of children don't accept free school meals according to Flaherty?


  20%
• What did Diane Reay say about deprivation and university?


  more likely to apply to local universities so they can stay at home and work part time to cover costs
• What did Callendar and Jackson say about university debt?


  working class students are more debt adverse rather than considering the benefits of university
• What is cultural deprivation?

  lacking basic values and attitudes, skills, aspirations, language and discipline needed for educational success that are acquired through socialisation
• What were the four features of a working class subculture according to Sugarman?


  - fatalism

  - collectivism

  - immediate gratification

  - present time orientation
• What were the two speech codes identified by Bernstein and how did these affect education?


  - restricted and elaborated code

  - m/c advantage = fluent in elaborated code = helps in school as its used by teachers and textbooks
• What is a criticism of Bernstein?

  Gaine and George say Bernstein exaggerates language differences
• What did Feinstein say about language?

  highly qualified middle class parents use challenging language and praise children, compared to w/c small descriptive words
• What did Douglas say about middle and working class parents and their effects on a child's success?

  - working class parents value education less and so children are less ambitious

  - middle class use income to buy education toys and books
• What is compensatory education?


  programmes that aim to tackle cultural deprivation by providing extra resources to deprived areas e.g. Sure Start 1998
• What link did Feinstein make between qualifications and parents?


  higher qualifications of parents = better educational achievement of children - this is why not all w/c are failures
• What is a criticism of the cultural deprivation explanation?

  victim blaming
• What did Howard Becker study about labelling in schools?


  interviews with 60 high school teachers - they judged people whether they fitted the 'ideal pupil' images, m/c closely fitted this, w/c regarded as badly behaved
• What did Dunne and Gazely say about labelling in secondary schools?


  underachievement came from labels, the underachievement of w/c pupils was normalised, m/c parents seen as supportive, w/c pupils seen as uninterested - this led to differences in how pupils were dealt with
• What can labelling lead to and who validated this?

  self-fulfilling prophecy - Rosenthal and Jacobson found evidence of this when they turned and IQ test into fake labels and found differences in progress on return
• What did Bordieu argue about cultural capital?


  material and cultural factors that contribute to educational achievement - educational, cultural, economic capital, m/c possess all three
• What is cultural capital?

  The knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities of the middle class
• What did Sullivan's survey conclude?

  465 pupil habits - those who read complex fiction, watched docuseries had better knowledge and capital
• Who coined the term 'habitus' and what does it refer to?

  Bourdieu - dispositions or learned, taken for granted ways of thinking of a particular social class, tastes/preferences and lifestyles, school places higher value on m/c habituses