Sociology Education

• Function of education


  • Create social solidarity
  • Teach skills necessary for work
  • Teach core values of society
• Particularistic values


  Very individual to the child
• Universalistic values


  Applied to every single student, every student treated the same way
• Role allocation in education


  • Grades determine most suitable roles in society
  • Meritocracy ensures equal chances and opportunities for job assignment
• Marxists argue that if education was truly meritocratic, there would be no private schools benefiting the rich and middle/upper class
• New Right view of education

  Schools should be run like a business, competing for consumers and providing what they want
• New Right influenced the Conservative government from 1979-1997, introducing league tables to help parents choose schools
• Marxist view of education


  It passes on ruling class ideology to support and reproduce capitalism
• Education as an ideological state apparatus


  It reproduces class inequalities by passing on capitalist values and norms, while legitimising these inequalities through false consciousness
• Correspondence principle


  Similarities between the workplace and school, ensuring people learn to arrive on time, dress smartly, etc.
• Restricted code


  Used by working class, short forms of speech, less clearly defined
• Elaborated code


  Used by middle class, similar to speech used by teachers and textbooks
• Pupil subcultures


  • Groups of pupils with behaviour patterns different from the mainstream school culture
  • Can be anti-school or pro-school subcultures
• Labeling theory


  Labels given to students become part of their identity, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy
• Issues with labeling theory include bias from interviews/observations and students not being aware of the labels affecting them
• Ethnicity and school


  • Black pupils more likely to be disciplined for same behaviour as white pupils
  • Teachers have lower expectations for black pupils
• Gender and school


  • Boys negatively labeled by teachers and peers as disruptive, annoying, failures
• Class and school


  Teachers make judgments based on appearance and family background rather than ability
• Factors influencing working class achievement


  • Labeling and self-fulfilling prophecy
  • Setting and streaming
  • Pupil subcultures
  • Class identity
• Cultural deprivation


  • Working class parents have less education, less confidence in engaging with school
  • Middle class subculture is future-oriented, working class subculture is present-oriented
• Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
• Marginal utility


  The additional utility (satisfaction) gained from the consumption of an additional product
• If you add up marginal utility for each unit you get total utility
• Girls have outperformed boys in education although at certain points this gap has narrowed and bigger as well
• Policies introduced to help girls


  • Equal opportunities policies
  • Introducing more women into science and engineering to motivate girls
• There is growing employment for women which means there are more female role models for girls in school
• GCSE exams involving more coursework suit girls as they mature earlier and are more organised
• Teachers give more attention to boys as they are seen as disruptive, while girls are seen as cooperative
• Different books are now being used in classes which portray women as strong characters, rather than just housewives
• Girls are more likely to get into better schools as schools focus on league table positions
• Feminist campaigning has helped to combat the patriarchy in society and given girls more motivation
• Changes in the family, with more women as breadwinners and lone parent families, have changed girls' ambitions
• Boys don't like reading and see it as a feminine activity, leading to a restricted linguistic code
• The education system has been designed to be more girl-friendly, which has had a negative impact on boys
• There is a lack of male primary teachers, so boys lack male role models
• Boys are more likely to form 'laddish' subcultures to increase their masculinity, which reduces their achievement
• The 'crisis of masculinity' means boys may lack ambition if there are fewer jobs available for them
• There is still a divide between 'male' and 'female' subjects, with girls choosing more languages and humanities, and boys choosing more sciences and technology
• Gender socialisation, where girls are socialised to be more gentle and protective, while boys are taught to be more adventurous, contributes to these trends
• Pupils' identities are constructed by teachers based on ethnicity, with the 'ideal pupil' being a white, middle-class, heterosexual who achieves good grades