1
Q
Give 3 purposes of education:
A
- to get qualifications
- socialisation
- a form of childcare and keeping kids off the streets
2
Q
Explain the Consensus approach to Education:
A
- they emphasise the positive role of education and are supportive of it. Believe it has 2 main functions:
- secondary socialisation
- provides skills in prep for paid employment
3
Q
Who would have a Consensus approach to Education?
A
- functionalist
- postmodernist
- new right
4
Q
Explain the Conflict Approaches to Education:
A
- they believe that the education system reproduced inequalities in society. (e.g. gender, age)
- take a critical and negative view to the education system.
5
Q
Who would take a Conflict approach to Education?
A
- marxists
- feminists
- interactionism
6
Q
Functionalist seek to…
A
Discover the functions education performs.
7
Q
What does Durkheim think about education? (His outlook on it)
A
He says society can only survive and flourish if there is a strong degree of social solidarity.
Educating helps to establish this by transmitting norms, benefits and values to all people.
8
Q
Durkheim believes that the education system helps to integrate people more closely into society by… (2)
A
- following a standardised curriculum so all students are exposed to the same knowledge (promotes consensus) despite people coming from different backgrounds.
- in school, children recognise that they are part of a larger community therefore this develops a sense of community e.g. form friendship groups, form groups etc
9
Q
How does education regulate its members according to Functionalists? (2)
A
- it prepares people for interaction with members of society in terms of its general rule and standards.
- in respecting school rules, pupils respect the rules of society in general - contributing to social order and stability.
10
Q
What else does Durkheim say about the benefits of education?
A
The education system acts as a vehicle for developing the Human Resources of a nation - provides trained people.
11
Q
What does Parsons think about education and schools? (In general)
A
He sees schools as a vital secondary source of socialisation that acts as a bridge between the family and society as a whole.
12
Q
What does Parsons say about what secondary socialisation in school teaches you?
A
- at home, children are judged by particularistic standards, not by a formal standard. Also, status is ascribed to them.
- in wider society (school), individuals are judged by universalistic standards and they have to achieve their status - school prepares individuals for meritocratic principles.
13
Q
What does Davis and Moore say about education in school?
A
It is also preparation for work but also as a selective agency allocating people to roles according to ability. E.g. doctors etc
14
Q
What does Davis and Moore say about inequalities in education?
A
It’s needed to ensure that the most important roles in society are filled by the most talented people - not everyone can do the same jobs.
15
Q
How does Education encourage everyone to compete for top positions in society according to Davis and Moore?
A
Because it sifts, soughts and grades individuals based on their talents and abilities - provides them with a curriculum which will ensure that they gain their qualifications.
16
Q
What do Blau and Duncan say about education in schools?
A
They say that a modern economy depends for its prosperity on using its workers skills - a meritocratic system ensures each person is allocated to the job best suited to their abilities.
17
Q
How can Durkheim be ciriticised?
A
- doesn’t take into account that not all schools encourage stability as there can be hectic schools.
- schools can squash individualism by forcing a uniform etc
- bullying? A school is apparently meant to be united.
18
Q
How can Parsons be criticised?
A
- speaks about universalistic standards but people can be limited based on gender
- not all pupils are open to diversity
- there are other routes in life - not just Education.
19
Q
How can Davis and Moore be criticised?
A
- doctors are still not the highest earners - footballers make more in a week.
- teachers may not be motivating pupils who are seen as “less smart” making them give up.
- separated sets so higher sets may be pressurised to do medicine etc
20
Q
Who does the Neoliberalism perspective come from?
A
From the New Right - a conservative political view.
21
Q
What do Neoliberals believe?
A
That the state should not provide services such as education, health and welfare etc. They don’t want a “nanny state”
22
Q
What are the two important roles for the state according to the New Right:
A
1) schools have to compete with league tables and published foster roles to keep parents informed.
2) a shared culture must be transmitted - this can be shown through the standard national curriculum.
23
Q
Neoliberals believe that the value of education lies in…
A
How well it enables the country to compete in the global marketplace - they have economic concerns & want schools to follow a business model.
24
Q
Give 2 critiques of the Neoliberal perspective on Education:
A
- problems in education aren’t because they’re state controlled but maybe cause of a lack of funding.
- ball and gerwitz say that the competition between schools only benefits the middle class parents who can actually afford to choose.
25
Marxists see society as based on...
Class division and capitalist exploitation. They believe that education functions to prevent a revolution and to maintain capitalism.
26
According to Althusser, what are the two essential elements which the state has to keep the bourgeoise in power?
- the repressive state apparatuses
| - the ideological state apparatuses
27
Describe the repressive state apparatuses:
- they maintain the rule of the bourgeoise by force or threat - e.g. police, courts and army.
28
Describe the ideological state apparatuses:
- they maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling people’s ideas and values - this includes mass media and the education system.
29
In Althusser’s view, education is an important I....
Ideological state apparatus.
30
What 2 functions does education perform according to Althusser:
- reproduces class inequalities by transmitting it from generation to generation.
- legitimises class inequities = teaches people to know that there will always be a hierarchy in society and it teaches them to be passive.
31
According to Bowles and Gintes, what does education perpetuate?
Relationships of domination and subordination in work and society as a whole.
32
What kind of workforce does Capitalism require?
Workers with attitudes and behaviour which allows them to be easily exploited and alienated.
33
Marxists believe there is a Hidden Curriculum, what’s that?
All of the lessons that are learnt in school without being directly taught but is taught through the everyday experience of being in school.
34
What is the Correspondence Principle?
All the ways in which the relationships and structures found in education mirror those at work.
35
The Correspondence Principle
Describe:
Relationships of authority & control
Schools have a hierarchy - students abide teachers, teachers abide head teachers. Same thing in a workplace - workers abide managers, managers abide boss.
Students experience lack of authority just like workers do.
36
The Correspondence Principle
Describe:
Relationships of domination and subordination
Lower years = pupils have close supervision and few choices while higher years are trusted to get on with self directed study.
Reflects the different level of workers and how at work, employees with different status are given more authority.
37
The Correspondence Principle
Describe:
Fragmentation of Knowledge
Subjects are divided which reflects how work is divided into small tasks.
38
The Correspondence Principle
Describe:
Motivation by external rewards
Pupils are motivated by rewards like grades, merits rather than love for a subject just like how workers are motivated by wages and money rather than the love for their job.
39
How does school prepare working class pupils for their role as a worker?
By teaching them to work towards something without being too questionative - just do as your told.
40
What do critics of Bowles and Gintis (and their idea of the Corresponde Principle) say? (2)
- critics reject the idea that education shapes personalities - many pupils disregard rules and don’t care.
- they have been criticsed for ignoring the formal curriculum where liberal humanities are favoured to vocational courses.
41
What has happened which has supported Bowles and Gintes theories? (2)
1988 national curriculum introduced - government decided what subjects were to be taught and teachers had less freedom.
New right policies like New Vocationilsm have made education more explicitly designed to meet the needs of employers.
42
How do Postmodernists respond to the Marxist perspective?
They claim that it is outdated and society has entered a new phase - totally different from the society that Marxists and Functionalists have written about.
43
What is the POST-FORDIST system?
- the economy has shifted away from the assembly-line mass production and is now based on “flexible specialisation” where production is customised for small specialist markets.
44
What does Post-Fordism require?
An education system which encourages pupils to be self motivated and creative.
45
Overall, what do Postmodernists think about Education?
They think that education reproduces diversity - not inequality.
46
What do Marxists say in response to Post-Fordism?
They say that the changes generated by it results in low paid workers being exploited more than ever - and education prepares most pupils to defer to authority.
47
What did Paul Willis do?
He studies a group of 12 working class boys during their last 18 months at school and followed them as they made their transition to work.
48
What did Willis find about these lads?
They had an anti-school subculture and their priority was to have a “laugh” - they rejected qualifications because they knew they’re not essential - their fathers worked at factories.
49
Why did the lads studied by Willis go against school and education?
Because they identified with male manual work - intellectual work was seen as effeminate. However, the boys also saw through the myth of meritocracy.
50
Give 3 similarities between the thinking of the New Right and Functionalists:
Both believe...
- some people are more talented than others
- education should serve the needs of the economy by preparing people for work
- they favour an education system run on meritocratic principles of open competition.
51
What is a key difference between the New Right and Functionalists?
NR aré critical of state education and introduced a policy - New Vocationalism which directly prepares students for work.
52
Why do the NR think private schools are better?
Because they are answerable to paying customers (parents).
53
What is Marketisation?
Where schools become more like businesses.
54
What is Parentocracy?
Where parents have increased power and influence within state schools.
55
Why do the NR believe the marketisation of education would be a good thing?
Because it would force schools to be more responsive to parents - this would mean they would improve their service constantly.
56
What did Margaret Thatcher do to marketise schools? (3)
- introduction of league tables
- ranking of schools/unis
- option to go to any school
57
Advantages of running schools like a business: (3)
- parents can be more active in their children’s education.
- high standards to be competitive
- “you get what you pay for”
58
Disadvantages of running schools like a business: (3)
- too expensive
- education should be in the best interest of pupils, not money
- causes further divisions in society . Public vs private school kids
59
There are two perspectives on Education:
- a social democratic perspective (left wing ideas)
AND
- a liberal perspective
60
Describe the Social Democratic Perspective on Education:
They believe that education could be used to create greater equality if it was effectively operated and adequately funded.
61
Are public schools well funded?
NO - the government don’t put much into them!
62
Describe the Liberal Perspective on Education:
This places emphasis on learning through experience so that individuales are encouraged to think for themselves.
63
A liberal perspective on education
| What does Ivan Illich say?
He regards schools as repressive and say they smother creativity because they prevent people from deciding what they learn and how they learn.
64
How has the National Curriculum been criticised? (2)
ERA
- Lawton argues that it takes the independence of teaching by centralising power on the hands of the government.
- Johnson criticises it for defining certain types of knowledge as worthy of study while excluding others.
65
What do Critics say about SATS?
ERA
- it turns education into a rat race - leads to labelling in children from a young age.
66
What do critics say about league tables?
ERA
- gives misleading impressions of the quality of a school - only based on crude exam data and don’t show how much value has been added by the school.
67
What does Barlett say about league tables?
Leads to cream skimming - schools only picking the best (mainly middle class) pupils.
Silt-shifting - good schools avoiding taking less able pupils.
68
Describe Funding Formula:
| ERA
Popular schools gain more funds and can get better facilities = they can also be more selective. However, this means unpopular schools lose income and become worse.
69
What did Ball and Gewirtz do?
Conducted research and 14 schools and the aim was to assess the effects that the education reform act reforms were having on education and educational opportunities for different social groups.
70
What did Ball and Gewirtz find?
They detected a shift in emphasis away from what schools can do for pupils to what pupils can do for schools.
71
What 3 types of parents did Ball and Gewirtz find?
Privileged skilled choosers
Disconnected-local choosers
Semi-skilled choosers
72
Describe the Privileged-skulked choosers:
These were mainly professional middle-class parents who were able to use that cultural and economic capital to ensure that the children go to the school of their choice because they possess the knowledge, contacts and capital to do so.
73
Describe the Disconnected-Local choosers:
These were the working-class parents whose choices were restricted by the lack of cultural capital. Their limited funds meant that the nearest school was their only option.
74
Describe the Semi-Skilled Choosers:
These parents were also working class but they were more ambitious for their children. They were often frustrated at their inability to get their children into the school as they wanted.
75
Out of the research on parents, what is the overall realisation?
Parentocracy is a myth because only the middle class parents possess the culture and economic capital to be able to have the choice.
76
What did Education used to be like?
Middle class pupils followed an academic curriculum whilst working class were equipped with basic numeracy and literacy skills needed for work.
77
What was introduced in 1944?
The Butler Education Act which was aimed to change the nature and structure of the education system.
78
Describe the TriPartite System:
Dependent on a 11+ exam.
| The children were allocated to one of three different types of secondary schools based on this.
79
Name the 3 schools involved in the TriPartite system:
Secondary grammar schools
Secondary modern schools
Technical schools
80
The tripartite system
| Describe: the secondary grammar schools
These were for people to pass the exam, mainly middle-class, and the school offered an academic curriculum.
81
The tripartite system
| Describe Secondary Modern Schools
These were for pupils who failed the exam, mainly working class, these offered a non-academic and more practical curriculum for manual work.
82
The tripartite system
| Describe Technical Schools
These existed in very few areas with only 5% of the population attending.
83
Critics of the TriPartite system: (3)
- age of 11 seemed as too young to determine a child’s future.
- reinforced gender inequalities as girls education was valued less - higher entry requirements for girls.
- in reality schools did not have priority of esteem as grammar schools were seen as better.
84
TriPartite system was designed to have priority of esteem, what does this mean?
Equal status.
85
What happened as a result of the mounting criticisms of the tripartite system?
In 1965 the Labour government introduced the comprehensive system.
86
Describe the comprehensive system:
The 11+ exams were to be abolished and all pupils within the same catchment area would attend the same mixed ability comprehensive.
However, there are still private schools because not all LEA’s decided to go comprehensive.
87
Give 3 critics of the comprehensive system:
- not mixed ability because students are still segregated within the school (sets etc)
- Pupils and parents both lack choice.
- Some argue that it shouldn’t be mixed ability because the self-esteem of the less able would be damaged and some people need more support than others.
88
What were labour educational policies like?
Influenced by both New Right (marketisation) and Social Democratic Ideas (Reduce inequalities)
89
Give 3 examples of policies introduced by the Labour Government which reflected new right ideology:
- 1998 = introduced tuition fees... later increased to 9,000 (from 3,000)
- 2006 Education and inspection act - gave schools greater freedom by setting their own admission arrangements.
- 2006 introduced an additional table in the league tables based on social factors.
90
Give 4 examples of policies introduced by the Labour Government which reflected social democratic ideology:
- Raising the school leaving she to 18 = decrease number of NEETS.
- The New Deal = for young people aimed to help the young unemployed gain qualifications to improve their chances of finding work.
- free pre school nursery provision in 1998
- The Aim a higher Initiative = help students from low income backgrounds to participate in education.
91
Coalition Government Education Policies
Most introduced by Michael Gove, highly New Right Ideas
Explain Academies
2010 = all schools encouraged to leave LEA control and become academies. Academies had more freedom in things like the curriculum and term dates etc = want to reduce government input.
92
Coalition Government Education Policies
Most introduced by Michael Gove, highly New Right Ideas
Explain Free Schools
These are specialist schools set up in response to what people say they want. Opened by charities, parents, teachers, business owners etc. Take control away from state.
93
How can Free Schools be criticised?
ALLEN 2010 argues that research from Sweden shows that they only benefit children from highly educated families.
94
What did Ball say has happened because of academies and free schools?
An increase in fragmentation = there is more inequality in educational opportunities.
Centralisation of control = control been given to the government rather than LEA.
95
What other measures were introduced by the Coalitian Government?
E-BACCALUAREATE
The E-bac is a combination of “facilitating subjects” which are designed to ensure that doors are not closed off to students in terms of future progression.
96
What other measures were introduced by the Coalitian Government?
Vocational Subjects
2012 Gove ordered 96% of GCSE equivalent vocational qualifications to be stripped from school league tables - forcing schools to drop technical, practical and work related courses.
97
What other measures were introduced by the Coalitian Government?
A LEVELS
Changed from AS and A Lebel to now a linear 2 year course.
98
Coalition policies designed to reduce inequalities: (2)
- pupil premium - a policy where schools receive funding for each pupil from a disadvantaged background.
- free school meals were extended and available to all children in reception and KS1.
99
What does Privatisation involve?
The transfer of public assets such as schools to private companies.
100
What does Ball say has happened to the education system?
It has became an education service industry = it is a source of profit for capitalists.
101
What are some examples of the ESI?
Large scale building profits = a mortgage on a school which a company is prepared to “loan” as they will gain profit via interest.
Offside inspection
Careers advice
102
Growing trends towards the privatisation of the education system
Explain
Blurring the Public/Private Boundary
Many senior officials in the public sectors (head teachers etc) leave to set up work for private sector education businesses = often hired as consultants by schools to advise them.
103
Growing trends towards the privatisation of the education system
Explain
Privatisation and the globalisation of education policy
Many private companies in the education services industry are foreign owned e.g. exam board Edexcel is pawned by US company.
Buckingham and Scanion say that the Uk’s four leading educational software companies are owned by global multinationals (Disney etc)
104
Growing trends towards the privatisation of the education system
Explain
The cola-isation of schools
Schools have became a kind of product endorsement.
Beder = UK families spent 110,000 in Tesco supermarkets in return for a single computer for schools.
Ball = pupils would have to eat 5,440 chocolate bars to qualify for a set of volleyball posts.
105
Growing trends towards the privatisation of the education system
Explain
Education as a commodity
Ball concludes that there has been a fundamental shift taking place where privatisation is becoming the key factor shaping educational policies.
More and more areas of education are now subject to business practices and financial logics etc
106
How can you see the impact of Neoliberalism? (Conservatives)
Through Marketisation:
- introduction of an internal market within the state education system
1998 ERA = directed state schools to act more like private businesses e.g. competing for pupils.
107
How can you see the impact of Neoliberalism? (Conservatives)
Through the privatisation of state education:
This takes marketisation a step further - the state has reduced roles and is instead reduced to two roles:
- acts as a regulator to make sure everyrhing reaches a certain standard.
- it comissions educational services, putting it up for contract and deciding which private bidder gets the contract.
AQA A Level Sociology
flashcards
Decks in class (21)
# Cards
-
JKR: Changing Family Patterns✔️7
-
Beliefs In Society49
-
Methodology - Influence Of Science60
-
Femenism✔️13
-
The Personal Life Perspective On The Family✔️6
-
New Right & Postmodernist & ITheory On The Family✔️4
-
Research Methods102
-
JKR: The Ageing Population21
-
Couples And Gender Roles✔️57
-
JKR Migration40
-
JKR: Childhood As A Social Construct31
-
Education107
-
JKR: Demography ✔️41
-
JKR: Parents & Children Changes✔️10
-
Families and Social Policy63
-
Functionalism✔️22
-
Nature Vs Nurture✔️19
-
Theories & Perspectives7
-
Marxism✔️29
-
JKRChanging Family Patterns ✔️53
-
JKR: Partnerships✔️19
