education all sociologists

Durkheim

Education serves two roles - creating social solidarity and teaching specialist skills.

Parsons

Schools act as a bridge between the family and wider society, preparing students for the universalistic standards of the workforce.

Davis and Moore

Education allocates future professions based on ability, ensuring that the most important roles are filled by the most talented individuals.

Chubb and Moe

Public education in the USA is failing, and low-income students perform better in private schools. They propose a voucher/market system to improve public education.

Althusser

The education system reproduces inequalities by failing working-class pupils and socializing children into accepting their subservient role in the workforce.

Bowles and Gintis

Education rewards personality traits valued by the bourgeoisie and directly teaches skills needed in the workforce through the hidden curriculum (correspondence theory)

Willis

Working-class boys create an anti-school subculture, but still end up in low-paid, alienating work. They cope with humor and become lowly educated workers.

Centre for longitudinal studies

Disadvantaged children are already behind their peers by age 3, and factors like parental education, language use, and behavioral issues affect achievement.

Bernstein

Middle-class speech uses a wider vocabulary and complex grammar (elaborated code) while working-class speech is simpler and reliant on previous context (restricted code). The elaborated code is used by teachers, textbooks and exams

Sugarman

Fatalism, collectivism, immediate gratification, and present time orientation affect working-class students' achievements negatively

Howard

Children from poor homes lack key nutrition, minerals, and vitamins, leading to low energy levels and weaker immune systems.

Wilkinson

Children from lower social classes are more likely to have hyperactivity, anxiety, or conduct disorders.

Bull

There is a cost to free education and students from lower social classes may go without textbooks and other equipment due to lack of financial support.

Jackson

Working-class pupils fear debt and are less likely to go to university due to financial concerns.

Bourdieu

Middle-class children possess cultural and economic capital, giving them an advantage in educational achievement.

Sullivan

Pupils with high cultural capital read complex fiction and watch documentaries, indicating wider vocabularies and cultural knowledge. These were typically children of graduates

Becker

Teachers judge students based on their adherence to the ideal pupil, which often favors middle-class students and creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Jorgenson

Schools in different areas have different standards for their ideal pupils, working class areas favour quiet obedience while middle class areas value free thinking and academic ability.

Rist

Teachers use background information to label students and place them into ability groups, leading to self-fulfilling prophecies.

Rosenthal

Randomly assigning students the "spurter" label resulted in 47% of those pupils making significant academic progress

Gilburn and Youdell

Teachers use stereotyped ideas about academic ability to place students into streams and sets, limiting opportunities for working-class pupils. Marketisation policies forced the creation of an educational triage:

• Those who will pass anyways

• Borderline Cs and Ds

• Hopeless cases

This educational triage resulted in pupils who may otherwise be able to achieve being neglected as they’re labelled as hopeless cases

Lacey

Student subcultures form through differentiation and polarization, based on teachers' categorization and students' responses.

Ball

Abolishing streaming reduced polarization but teacher differentiation continued, affecting students' identification and belonging.

Woods

Integration, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion are possible responses to streaming and setting.

Bourdieu

Schools withhold symbolic capital from the working class, reinforcing their habitus as tasteless and worthless.

Archer

Working-class pupils embrace branded items (Nike identity) to create an alternative sense of self-worth when rejected by the middle-class habitus within school.

Evans

Girls from South London avoid prestigious universities due to a strong attachment to their local area.

McRobbie

Content analysis of 1970s and 1990s magazines and found that 1990s magazines, female independence and achievement were pushed more

Mitsos and Browne

Girls succeed in coursework due to early gender socialization, developing skills essential for success.

Archer

Working-class girls' hyper heterosexual feminine identities conflict with middle-class school values, affecting their achievement.

Sewell

Education has become feminised and does not push masculine traits such as independence and practical work

Read

Teachers mainly used the more masculine disciplinarian discourse suggesting that if all teachers are using the “masculine” style of discipline, then there is no need for more male teachers

Mitsos and Browne

A decline in blue collar work has caused a crisis of masculinity in young boys

Browne and Ross

Children's understanding of which tasks are acceptable for each gender, shaped by parental expectations and early experiences.

Kelly

Science is perceived as a subject more associated with boys due to the higher representation of male science teachers and textbook examples geared towards boys.

Engelmann

Language used by Black Americans is insufficient in preparing children for school.

Gillborn and Mirza

Indian students often outperform their white peers academically, despite not speaking English at home.

Moynihan

Black families headed by single mothers may lack adequate financial and emotional support, potentially affecting children's well-being.

Murray

High rates of lone parenthood in ethnic minority families result in children lacking positive role models.

Pryce

Asians tend to be more resilient to racism, possess higher self-worth, and motivation, contributing to their higher academic achievement.

Sewell

Absence of nurturing from fathers and a lack of a strong relationship with a positive role model can lead to struggles for Black boys, potentially pushing them towards anti-school sentiments and involvement in gangs.

Palmer

Prevalence of working-class and material deprivation among ethnic minorities contributes to their underachievement in education.

Gillborn

Black boys, who initially perform well in primary school, tend to have the lowest achievement levels by the time they reach GCSEs.

Gillborn and Youdell

Teachers often have racialized expectations for Black pupils, leading to quicker disciplinary actions and a potential conflict between white teachers and Black pupils.

Archer

Identified three pupils identities: the ideal pupil, the pathologized pupil, and the demonized pupil - with ethnic minority pupils being more likely to fall into the latter categories

Fuller and Mac and Ghail

Black girls rejected the negative labels associated with them and continued to have a positive self image

Gillborn

Marketisation reinforces institutional racism as it permits high ranking schools to avoid taking in Black pupils

Dovenport

Schools favour white pupils due to fearing having to catch up EAL students

Gillborn

Assessments were rigged to validate the dominant white culture e.g. Black pupils had the highest achievement on baseline assessments and this was later changed to FSPs which factor in teacher judgment

Ball

The national curriculum ignores ethnic diversity and focuses on England’s colonial past, ostracising ethnic minorities

Gillborn

White pupils are twice more likely to be identified as gifted and talented than Black pupils

Gillborn

Coined the term “New IQism” to describe how teachers make false assumptions about achievement based off of discipline and attitude

David

Education post-marketisation has shifted power to parents and created a parentocracy

Gerwitz

Identified three types of parents based off of economic and cultural capital:

• Privileged skilled choosers

• Semi skilled choosers

  • Disconnected local choosers

Ball

Parentocracy is a myth

Policies affecting inequality

Education Action Zones, Aim higher, Educational Maintenance Allowance, Boys literacy programme

Ball

Education has become a source of profit for capitalism through the education services industry

Buckingham and Scanlon

All 4 major educational software companies are foreign owned

Molnar

Schools have been the victims of colaisation as private companies now place their products within schools e.g. vending machines in the aims of creating long term brand loyalty from young ages

Ball

Privatisation is a key factor shaping education as education has become a commondity to be bought and sold by private investors