Key sociologists

Sutton Trust (explaining class differences)

(2011)

• in a 3 year period

• One public school alone sent 211 students to Oxbridge

• While over 1,300 state schools sent 0

Bernstein (cultural deprivation)

(1975)

• 2 speech codes

• Restricted code - WC, limited vocabulary, short sentences, grammatically incorrect, gestures or 1 word, context-bound

• Elaborated code - MC, wide vocabulary, complex sentences, analytic, context-free

Douglas

(1964)

• WC pan rest placed less value on education

• Less ambitious for their children

• Gave them less encouragement

• Take less interest in education

• Result = children had lower levels of motivation and achievement

Sugarman

(1970)

WC subculture has 4 key features that act as a barrier to educational achievement

• Fatalism - ‘whatever will be will be’, leaves life to fate

• Collectivism - being a part of a group and not individual e.g. lads

• Immediate gratification - seeking pleasure now rather than waiting for future, better rewards

• Present time orientation - not looking to the furniture and now having long-term goals or plans

Becker

• ideal pupil - highly motivated, intelligent and well-based which is mostly MC pupils

Rosenthal and Jacobsen

self-fulfilling prophecy

Gillborn and Youdell

Streaming and the A-C economy

• sudy of London school shows how teachers use stereotypical notions of ‘ability’ to stream pupils

• Found that teachers are less likely to see WC and black pupils as having ability to

• Placed in lower streams/entered for the lower-tier GCSE’s

• Denies them knowledge and opportunity

• Widens the gap in achievement

Ball

• study of a comprehensive that was in the process of abolishing banding (form of streaming)

• In favour of teaching mixed ability groups

• Found that when school abolished banding - the basis of how subcultures formed, anti school subcultures declined

• However labelling continues

• Better labelling = better results

Archer et al

1. interactions between WC pupils identities and school

2. And how this produces underachievement

• symbolic capital - the status , recognition and sense of worse that we are able to obtain from others

Bourdieu

Habitus - a social class’ way of thinking and acting e.g. lifestyles and expectations

DfES

• only 23% of white boys FSM gained 5 A*-C grades at GCSEs

• ¾ girls passed GCSEs at grade 4+ but boys 1/3 passed with grade 4+

Sewell

• The reason for black boys underachievement is due to a lack of fatherly nurturing or ‘tough love’ e.g. firm, fair, non-abusive, respectful

• Results in boys finding it hard to overcome emotional and behaviour difficulties in adolescence

• Street gangs of other fatherless boys offer black boys ‘perserve loyalty and love’

Gillborn and Mirza

• black children were the highest achievers on entry to primary school

• Yet at GCSE - had the worst results of any ethnic group - 21 points below average

Gillborn and Youdell

• teachers had ‘radicalised expectations’ that black pupils would pose more disciplinary problems

McRobbie

• girls magazine

• 70s promoted getting married, and not being ‘left in the shelf’

• Now promotes assertive, independent women

Sharpe

• interviews with girls

• 70s - low aspirations, education = unfeminine, priorities order = love, marriage, husband, children, job, career

• 90s - ambitions changed, order = careers, being able to support themselves/Independent woman with a career

National curriculum

1988 the government removed one source of gender inequality made girls and boys study mostly the same subjects

Mitsos and Browne

• girls were more successful in coursework - due to conscientious and better organisation

• Girls spend more time on work, more care, meet deadlines, right equipment

• decline in male employment opportunities has led to an identity crisis for men

• Now many boys believe they have little prospect of getting a proper job

• Therefore they give up trying

Murphy and Elwood

• boys and girls develop different tastes in reading

• Boys = hobby books and information texts

• Girls = stories about people

• Explains why boys prefer science, and girls prefer English

Mac an Ghail

Male gaz

The Tripartite System

Education Reform Act

1988 introduced by conservative government - coursework/GCSEs and national curriculum

Gewirtz

• Study of 14 London secondary schools

• 3 main types of parents:

  1. Privileged-skilled choosers - professional MC who can manipulate the system

  2. Disconnected-local choosers - WC parents who lack capital and less able to manipulate the system

  3. Semi-skilled choosers - WC parents who were ambitious for their child and relied on other people opinions or the schools

Academies Act

Durkheim

Socialisation and social solidarity

Parsons

School acts as a bridge between family and society

Davis and Moore

Role allocation

Chubb and Moe

Education vouchers and Parentocracy

Althusser

Reproduction of social inequality - schools set up WC for failure

Legitimisation of social inequality - MC has access to capital

Bowles and Gintis

Correspondence principal - schools mirror the world of work e.g. lack of control, discipline and consequences, obedience

Myth of meritocracy - education claims to be fair but it is untrue

Willis

• learning to labour

• lads reject school, have a laugh, resist schools norms and values

• end up in wc jobs