Ed condensed

• School factors (Cultural)


  • Labelling theory / self-fulfilling prophecy
  • Streaming / Banding / Setting
  • Class, gender, ethnic background
  • Formal Curriculum (middle class knowledge)
  • Hidden curriculum
  • Anti-school subcultures (Male: Willis / Female: Lees)
  • Language and textbooks (anti-female / black bias)
  • Gender relationships (teacher -pupil / pupil-pupil)
  • Gendered curriculum (patriarchal)
  • Teacher expectations, attitudes and behaviour (Nash)
  • Single / Dual sex schooling
  • Examination and skill changes (GCSE, A-level, Coursework)
  • Changing attitudes to / expectations of work (males and females)
• Meritocracy


  System where people are rewarded on the basis of ability and talent
• Functionalist approach to education


  1. Socialisation- education helps to maintain society by socializing young people into the norms and values

  2. Parsons suggested that educations form a bridge between the family and the wider society by socializing children to adapt a meritocratic view

  3. Role allocation, Education allocates people to the most appropriate job for their talents

  4. Skills provision- education teaches the skills requires by the modern industrial society

  5. Education passes on norms and values in order to integrate individuals into society and helps to create social order
• Marxist approach to education

  • Education is seen as an important part of the superstructure of society
  • It reproduces the inequalities and social relations of production in capitalist society
  • It serves to legitimate these inequalities through the myth of meritocracy
  • The main role of education is to transmit ISA values Ruling class or capitalist) disguised as common values
  • Knowledge is being used as a form of social control and there is a hidden curriculum to keep w/c and ethnic minorities in place
  • Symbolic violence where the w/c are effectively duped in to accepting their failure and limited social mobility
  • Wants to get rid of school completely
• Bowles and Gintis (1976) argue that


  Education serves to reproduce directly the capitalist relations of production- the hierarchy of workers from the boss down
• Bowles and Gintis correspondence theory


  What goes on in school corresponds directly to the world of work. Success is not entirely related to intellectual ability but the ability to conform and rise above those who challenge the system
• Failure to recognize correspondence between schools and the needs of the economy in terms of the formal curriculum
• Employers are highly critical for the low level of employability skills possessed by graduates and school leavers
• Willis (1977) learned to behave in a way that didn't fit in with capitalism's need for a docile workforce
• New right approach to education

  • Believe that education should socialise pupils into shared values such as competition, and to instil a sense of national identity
  • Want to create an education market they believe that competition between schools and the laws of supply and demand will empower the consumers, bringing greater diversity, choice and efficiency to schools and increasing their ability to meet the needs of pupils, parents and employers
• Factors affecting class and educational achievement


  • Cultural deprivation
  • Cultural capital
  • Material deprivation
• Cultural deprivation


  • Intellectual development- Many w/c homes lack the books, educational toys and activities that would stimulate a child's intellectual development
  • Language- Differences in speech codes give m/c pupils an advantage because elaborated code is the language used by teachers, textbooks and exams
  • Attitudes and values- w/c parents placed less value on education, were less ambitious for their children and gave them less encouragement
• Cultural capital


  m/c cultural capital is as valuable as material wealth. The forms of knowledge, values, ways of interacting that m/c pupils possess are developed further and rewarded by the education system
• Bourdieu (1984) argues both cultural and material factors contribute to educational achievement and are interrelated
• Sullivan (2001) found that pupils were more likely to be successful if they read more complex fiction, documentaries and watching more sophisticated drama
• Gerwitz (1995) found that differences in economic and cultural capital lead to class differences In how far parents can exercise choice of secondary schools
• Whitty (1998) notes marketisation has not led to more opportunities for w/c children, instead allowed m/c to use their wealth and knowledge even more than before
• Material deprivation


  • Poverty is closely linked to educational underachievement
  • Overcrowding can make it harder for the child to study
  • Poor, damp housing can affect the child's health making them ill leading to a low attendance and the child falling behind
  • Poor nutrition affects health e.g. weaker immune system
  • The cost of items such as transport, uniforms, books, computers, stationery, and music and art equipment places a heavy burden on poorer families
• EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance) offset the need for older students to work part time and to support parents by removing the need for hem to pay for their child's travel
• Labelling theory


  • Teacher's judge pupils by theory characteristics of class, gender and ethnicity
  • Teachers perceive the ideal pupil to be the one who conforms to m/c standards
  • The same effects can be observes in whole groups, with band 1 warming to Ed and doing well whereas band 2 and 3 cooling down and underachieving
  • Counsellor's classifications were influenced by non academic factors such as posture, manner of speech, slang, walk and clothes
  • Teacher's expectations can greatly affect the pupils performance
• Pupil subcultures


  • Differentiation of teachers categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and/or behaviour
  • Polarisation- Is the process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of the two extremes
  • The preschool subculture- Pupils placed in high streams which are
• Labelling


  The idea that all pupils live up to their label
• Study of a group of black girls in a London comprehensive school


  • Fuller 1984 found that the girls resent their negative labels and they developed a preschool subculture rejecting their self fulfilling prophecy
• Limitations of labelling theory


  • Marxists criticise labelling theory for ignoring wider structures of power within which labelling takes place
  • Marxists argue that labels are not merely the result of teachers' individual prejudices but stem from the fact that teachers work in a system that produces class divisions
• Differentiation


  Teachers categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and/or behaviour
• Polarisation


  The process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of the two extremes
• Pupil subcultures


  • Preschool subculture
  • Antischool subculture
• Pupil responses


  • Ingratiation: being teacher's pet
  • Ritualism: going through the motions and staying out of trouble
  • Retreatism: daydreaming and mucking about
  • Rebellion: outright rejection of everything the school stands for
• 1. C economy


  A system in which schools ration their time, effort and resources, concentrating on those pupils they perceive as having the potential to get 5 A*-C at GCSE to boost the school's league table position
• Schools categorise pupils into those who will pass anyway, those with potential and hopeless cases
• Teachers do this by using notions of ability in which w/c are labelled as lacking ability, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy and failure
• Marketisation


  Leads to popular schools selecting more able, largely m/c pupils who will gain the school a higher ranking in the league tables
• Popular schools with good league tables


  Further attract m/c pupils or able pupils and will further improve the school's results, making it more popular thus increasing funding
• Unpopular schools


  Obliged to take less able or difficult pupils so their results worsen, becoming less popular and their funding is reduced
• These pressures have resulted in increased social class segregation between schools
• Cram skimming


  Selecting higher ability pupils who gain the best results and cost less to teach
• Silt shifting


  Off loading pupils with learning difficulties that are expensive to teach and get poor results
• Standard English


  A major barrier to progress in education and integration into wider society for some ethnic minority pupils
• Indian pupils do very well despite often not having English as their home language
• Factors associated with low educational achievement in England


  • Male
  • From a low socio-economic background
  • With parents who have low or no qualifications
  • Living in a single parent household
  • Having many siblings
  • Attending a state school
  • Attending a school with a high rate of FSM