10 markers education

• Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which teaching and learning in schools may affect the educational experiences of minority ethnic groups (10 marker) POINT ONE.


  The item states, "teaching and learning in schools may affect the educational experiences of minority ethnic groups". Mirza (1992) studied ambitious black girls who experienced teacher racism which resulted in the girls failing to reach their ambitions because their coping strategies restricted their opportunities which resulted in under-achievement. Mirza found that racist teachers discouraged black pupils from being ambitious through the advice they gave pupils of colour about careers and option choices. A large majority of teachers in the study held racist attitudes. This discouragement leads to under-achievement as it discourages pupils to work hard for their future if they are told they have a bad future ahead.
• Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which teaching and learning in schools may affect the educational experiences of minority ethnic groups (10 marker) POINT TWO

  The item also states, "Teaching and learning in schools may affect the educational experiences of minority ethnic groups." Gillborn found that teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviour. Asian pupils are often also subject to teacher racism as teachers held ethnocentric views. Teachers often gave Asian pupils easier work and spoke to them in simpler English even if they were fluent in English. This left them at a disadvantage as they were not receiving the same level of education as white pupils. Another int-ernal factor that may lead to the educational under-achievement of pupils from some minority ethnic groups is the ethnocentric curriculum. The National Curriculum teaches mainly British ideals and history and ignores the history and culture of ethnic minorities.
• Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which marketisation policies have led to schools being run like businesses (10 marker).


  Item A states 'businesses compete with each other to attract customers' which relates to how marketisation is a trend in education policies from the 1980s where schools were encouraged to compete against each other, acting more like private businesses rather than institutions under the control of local government. Some ways they achieved this included funding formulas, exam league tables, cream-skimming and silt shifting. A funding formula is a formula that gives a school the same amount of funds for each pupil. This can affect a working class child's education as if other schools have a higher fund due to them being more popular because of better exam results, then working class children are unlikely to be able to get a placement in those higher achieving schools so instead get silt-shifted to a less popular school with lower exam results because of its lack of funding and lack of pupils.

  In addition, Ball concludes that a fundamental change is taking place in which privatisation is becoming the key factor in shaping educational policies. privatisation involves the transfer of public assets such as schools to private companies. Policies are increasingly focusing on moving educational services out of the public sector controlled by the state to being provided by private companies instead. In the process, education is being turned into a legitimate object of private profit making, being sold in the education market. Similarly, marxists such as Hall (2011) see academies as an example of handing over public services to private capitalists. He also says that privatisation and competition is used to legitimise the turn of education into a source of private profit.
• Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which processes within schools may affect pupils' identities (10 marker).


  One way in which processes in schools may affect pupils' identities is create social inequalities As stated in item A "The curriculum may place a higher value on middle class cultural capital and place some pupils at a disadvantage". The curriculum values the cultural capital of the middle class, for example, middle class parents encourage an interest in books which may have positive effects on the identities because middle class children acquire a 'symbolic power' at school. However, the curriculum placing higher values on middle class cultural capital working class children may feel that their culture is not valued in schools and therefore find it difficult to engage with the curriculum and therefore less likely to be as successful. Another way in which schools may affect pupils' identities is teacher labelling as item A states "teacher-pupil relationships and interactions within peer groups''. The interactions with teacher-pupil relationships in schools might lead to pro or anti school subcultures. For example middle class students are seen as 'ideal' students whilst teachers may judge working class students from council estates as potentially troublesome. Interaction with teachers suggests the teacher believes that middle class pupils are bright whilst negative labelling of working class students may develop a negative self image from the interaction with the teacher. Therefore working class students' negative interaction ultimately demotivates them and results in a self-fluffing prophecy so more likely to partake in anti school Subcultures as an alternative means of gaining status.
• Another way in which schools may affect pupils' identities is teacher labelling as item A states "teacher-pupil relationships and interactions within peer groups''. The interactions with teacher-pupil relationships in schools might lead to pro or anti school subcultures. For example middle class students are seen as 'ideal' students whilst teachers may judge working class students from council estates as potentially troublesome. Interaction with teachers suggests the teacher believes that middle class pupils are bright whilst negative labelling of working class students may develop a negative self image from the interaction with the teacher. Therefore working class students' negative interaction ultimately demotivates them and results in a self-fluffing prophecy so more likely to partake in anti school Subcultures as an alternative means of gaining status.
• Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which the education system might serve the needs of capitalism (10 marker).


  One way in which the education system might serve the needs of capitalism is by mirroring the workplace within school in order to prepare each generation for working in a capitalist economy. As stated in item A capitalism continues because each generation of workers are 'forced to undertake low paid and alienating work. Bowles and Gintist suggest that there was a 'correspondence principle' between education system and workplace, in which a pupil's school experience mirrors the proletariat worker in order to prepare them for alienating and low paid work. For example, the hierarchical structure of the term-10education system, such as the authoritarian nature of headteachers and teachers resembles the workplace in which employees have to passively respect their authority without question. Therefore because pupils are taught throughout their education not to question authority they arrive in the workplace ready to be oppressed without challenging their oppression. However the view is criticised by postmodernists that in today's economy there is no need for passive workers who can do alienating jobs due to diversity and fragmentation of the economy due to the need of different workers who can apply specialist knowledge and skills to a variety of subjects.
• Outline and explain two arguments against the positivist view that sociology can be scientific (10 marker).


  Empathetic methods of sociologists versus natural scientists. Science produces similar types of knowledge, producing laws of cause and effect. Many believe sociology should be a science as it would improve the status, attract more funding. Interpretivist views believe sociology cannot be a science. The natural sciences deal with inanimate chemicals, people have freewill, thought and opinions, sociological research must seek to uncover these. Qualitative methods are unscientific, use small samples so you cannot formulate generalised causal laws, such laws cannot be applied to humans.Sociologies competing perspectives, paradigms, Kuhn. (realist=even science isn't a science) argues science isn't objective and believes science is a paradigm (a shared set of assumptions, principles and methods) Science studies the world until it finds conclusions it can't explain (anomalies). These anomalies cause us to consider other paradigms in order to find answers. Two paradigms cannot exist together, at some point one wins favour amongst the scientific community, this causes a scientific revolution , a shift from one to the other. This process starts all over again as this new paradigm highlights new anomalies. 'Sociology is better than science because we are pre-paradigmatic' - we have lots of theories, constant adaptations. Paradigm shift - old paradigms are rejected.See an expert-written answer!We have an expert-written solution to this problem!
• Outline and explain two problems of using primary qualitative methods in sociological research (10 marker).

  Cost and time. As the researcher has to gather the data themselves it takes large amounts of time to do so. This means in order to get a large sample the researcher is going to have to carry out their study over an extensive period of time. Can be expensive as needing to gain access to places in order to watch groups and gather data. Expense in preparing and carrying out research.See an expert-written answer!We have an expert-written solution to this problem!
• Outline and explain two disadvantages of using personal documents in sociological research (10 marker).


  One reason is that personal documents are difficult to access or locate. Secondary data. Historical documents which may hold sociological value may be held in private collections. May cost researchers money gaining access and taking lots of time. May not be representative of whole communities so it is very difficult to draw conclusions on large groups. Another reason is parts of the document may be missing due to age, and may not be able to verify who wrote the document. May not be able to have the writer authenticate if they wrote it if the document is old. May have been distorted for reasons such as political reasons, would mean a spin has been put on content. A lot of time to authenticate.
• Outline and explain two problems of using the functionalist perspective to study today's society (10 marker).


  Legitimises inequality - have a rose tinted view of society. Claim inequality is functional for society and inevitable and beneficial. Uses concepts such as role allocation and value consensus. The idea of still having a hierarchy in terms of social class is very much present in the functionalist study, an issue in today's society as continuous efforts to reduce inequality such as benefits. Feminists and marxists think they rose tint society. Explains social problems by identifying positives ie in crime - This is an issue as should be working towards change however being sugar coated by functionalists. Crime - state that crime is inevitable, for example Durkheim believed deviance is a good thing in order to show us right and wrong. This provokes deviant behaviour and suggests that it is beneficial to society. Issue as not all criminals are punished equally.