sociology education

• Cultural deprivation- pupils don’t fail because they lack language skills or parental support but rather the education system is ethnocentric biased in favour of dominant white culture A03- victim blaming
• Black people perform better in education than white people in a survey done in 2018 showing the race gap in attainment is decreasing. Black Africans perform better than Black caribbeans some argue it may be due to the fact that Black Africans receive more support from their extended families and lone parent families are more likely to underachieve but there are more Black Africans than Black caribbeans in lone parent families A03- the cause of the underachievement may be due to internal factors.
• Material deprivation- multi generational households with dependent older people who need resources may lack for students. A03- despite the income deprived people can still achieve quite highly
• Archer- ‘Ideal pupils’- white w/c straight boys, ‘Pathologized pupil identity’- Asian students (meritocracy), ‘Demonised pupil identity’- Black and/or White w/c students
• Model minorities- makes the education appear as meritocratic as they justify that Asian students work hard for their success whereas other groups e.g black people do not put the effort in justifying their failure. A03- ignores the fact that ‘model minorities’ can still suffer from Racism in education.
• Language barriers- speech codes- restricted code, elaborated code
• Focuses more on assimilation rather than embracing multiculturalism
• Cultural deprivation (Bordieu)- lack of skills and attitudes needed for educational achievement and that the w/c fail to socialise their child causing underachievement A03- form of victim blaming and the w/c are culturally different not deprived.
• Material deprivation (Bordieu)- Lack of physical resources e.g. poor housing, diet and heath, cost of education A03- despite the income deprived people can still achieve quite highly
• Streaming- sorting pupils into ability groups based of teachers preconceived notions of them, w/c more likely to be in lower groups denying them the opportunity to achieve and m/c higher links to educational triage where classes are sorted into groups based on who they believe have the potential to achieve with help, those who don’t need help and who are hopeless cases usually the m/c. A03- myth of meritocracy
• Teacher labelling (Becker)- where teachers attach a positive or negative meaning/label to a pupil based on their background. This can lead to a self fulfilling prophecy where the pupil accepts the label and accepts it as their master status. This can also lead to the student joining an anti school subculture as a way of getting status as they are fatalistic and are now seeking immediate gratification A03- some students can change their label and labels can change over time.
• Archer- w/c develop identities by rejecting habitus an act of symbolic violence and boys would branded sportswear ‘Nike identities’ so they can independent of the school and girls would adopt hyper-heterosexual identities e.g. through wearing makeup and having a bf
• Education compulsory act (1870)- introduced for all children aged from 5-10 A03- shows the history of class inequality in UK education as only m/c could access education and w/c could only access it if churches were teaching them how to read using bibles.
• Tripartite system (1944)- under the conservative party, all children took the 11+ test and if you were in the top 20% you went to grammar schools and those who did less than went to secondary modern, not enough technical schools A03- gender bias, culturally biased, favoured the m/c, secondary moderns were inferior believed to increase social mobility
• Comprehensive schools (1960)- abolished 11+ pupils attending schools in their catchment area suggested an equality of opportunity based on meritocracy.

  A03- banding/streaming reproduced class inequality, inequality under the same roof
• Ball ‘beachside comprehensive- participant observation where he focused on groups that had been streamed by ability and then mixed ability groups. There was a concern that bright students were being held back and weaker students were left behind this created more problems for w/c people leading them to gravitate to lower bands leading to an anti-school subculture.
• The Education reform Act (1998)- Introduction of Marketisation, Parentocracy, League tables, OFSTED (quality control mechanism), formula funding (funding based per pupil), national curriculum (made it illegal to discriminate on grounds of gender for subject choice freedom). A03- selection by mortgage: where best schools are usually in more expensive areas and the m/c can afford to buy houses there. Cream skimming- choosing students who gain the best results   
• New Labour (1997-2010)- Did not dismantle Tory education legacy/ marketisation.Age to leave school is 18 City academies- independently funded schools in inner-city areas A03- accusations of covert selection e.g. cost of selection. Compensatory policies e.g. Sure start- parenting and health advice, childcare for deprived people. A03- used more by affluent people. Introduction of university fees £1000 p/y A03- w/c did not attend out of fear of debt. contridictory
• Coalition gov (2010-15)- removed compensatory policies and replaced them with bursaries. They liked academy schools. By 2024 85% of schools are academy schools. Free schools introduced academy schools that can be set up by an interested group e.g. parents/charities, religious groups if proved necessary. Pupil premium where schools with deprived pupils receive more funding. A03- free school reduce funding for LEA schools but standards did increase
• More funding for ESOL- english speakers of other languages and EAL- english as additional language. A03- disregards the cultural value POC possess
• University entrance for overseas students- higher tuition fee
• Performance ranking internationally through PISA. In 2015  it was found that the UK ranked 15th out of 72 for science, 21st for reading and 27th for maths, this led to an increase in funding for maths and science. A03- limited range of subjects being tested. Reliability and validity of tests.
• Migration has led to changes in the curriculum such as offering subjects such as polish and arabic. A03- still necessary to decolonize the curriculum from its basis of little Englandism.
• Gender socialisation mirrors domestic labour e.g. boys playing with construction toys and girls playing with dolls.
• Opportunities such as GIST and WISE to get girls into STEM subjects. Sports are still seen as masculine which is reinforced through peer interaction.
• Sex discrimination act, equal pay act had an indirect on effect on education to raise career aspirations
•  ‘Glass ceiling’- a metaphorical barrier that prevents women from advancing to higher positions.
• Recruitment of male teachers is low which means that not enough is done to encourage males to stay in education and teach the future generation.
• Teachers have lower expectations for boys making them often turn a blind eye justifying it as ‘boys will be boys’.
• Boys dominate school and therefore receive more attention which can be negative leading to an anti- school behaviour response. A03- not all students conform to stereotypes