A Level Sociology: Education Resource Booklet

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key sociological concepts, theorists, and educational policies from the Education unit.

Norms

The rules that a social group uses for appropriate or inappropriate attitudes and behaviours, which may be explicit (obvious) or implicit (less obvious).

Values

General principles or goals that tell us what is good and what we should aim for, such as the high value on achievement in America.

Role

The part that one acts or plays in a society, where individual behaviour and expectations vary based on the specific part being played.

Status

One's social position in society, which can be gained in two ways: ascribed or achieved.

Ascribed status

Status that is fixed at birth, such as gender.

Achieved status

Status gained through our own efforts, for example getting into university through working hard.

Socialisation

The learning process of norms and values of society, occurring in two ways: primary (done by the family) and secondary (done by peers, media, and religion).

Culture

A shared way of life which is learned and acts as a guide for living, made up of norms, values, language, and traditions.

Social control

The maintenance of order in society, underpinned by shared values and enforced through informal controls (disapproval) or formal controls (police and legal systems).

Value consensus

A general agreement about what is important and worthwhile, providing a harmony of interests to prevent society from collapsing into anarchy.

Structuralists (Macro)

A perspective emphasizing the way behaviour is constrained and structured by social forces, viewing the individual as a social construct made and controlled by society.

Social Action (Micro)

A perspective arguing that individuals have the ability to control their own actions and seeking to understand the motivations behind human behaviour.

Functionalism

A consensus theory that stresses unity and believes that institutions interrelate to maintain the structural continuity of society, using the organic analogy.

Organic analogy

The Functionalist view of society as an integrated system of inter-related parts, similar to a biological organism where each part performs a role to keep the whole body alive.

Dysfunction

A breakdown in one part of the social system that hinders the smooth running of the whole and potentially leads to disorder.

Social solidarity

A major function of education according to Durkheim involving the welding of individuals into a united whole through a sense of belonging and commitment to the social unit.

Meritocracy

The idea suggested by Talcott Parsons that social position is achieved based on ability, offering equality of opportunity for everyone to succeed.

Particularistic standards

Standards used within the family where individuals are judged and treated on the basis of being an individual.

Universalistic standards

Rules and values used in education that apply equally to all members of society regardless of who they are.

Role allocation

The process described by Davis and Moore where education selects and sifts talented individuals to allocate them to the most demanding and well-paid roles in society.

Capitalism

An economic system based on private ownership of wealth and property, which Marxists believe creates social class inequality.

Bourgeoisie

The rich ruling class who exploit the workers for profit.

Proletariat

The poor workers who sell their labour to the Bourgeoisie.

Ideological state apparatus (ISA)

Louis Althusser's term for institutions like education, media, and religion that maintain ruling class power by controlling people's ideas, values, and beliefs.

Repressive state apparatus (RSA)

Louis Althusser's term for agencies that maintain the rule of the Bourgeoisie by force or threat of force, including the police, courts, and army.

Correspondence theory

Bowles and Gintis's claim that there is a close relationship between the social relationships in the classroom and those in the workplace to aid social reproduction.

Myth of meritocracy

The belief that education offers everyone an equal chance, which Bowles and Gintis argue justifies inequality by making rewards appear based on merit rather than social background.

Cultural capital

Pierre Bourdieu's concept that the dominant social classes define their own culture as worthy knowledge in education, giving their children an in-built advantage.

Counter school culture

A rejection of approved school norms and values, replaced with anti-school values, as studied by Paul Willis in his research on 'the lads'.

Material deprivation

Factors linked to social inequality such as poverty, poor housing, and poor health which prevent working class children from accessing the same opportunities as middle class children.

Fatalism

A feature of working class subculture identified by Sugarman as a belief in 'whatever will be, will be'.

Immediate gratification

Seeking pleasure now rather than later, which Sugarman identifies as a barrier to educational achievement for the working class.

Restricted code

Basil Bernstein's term for a form of shorthand speech used by the working class that is grammatically simple and context-specific.

Elaborated code

Basil Bernstein's term for the clear and imaginative language used by the middle class and in formal education, which uses a more extensive vocabulary.

Educational Triage

The process described by Gillborn and Youdell where schools categorise pupils into those who will pass anyway, those with potential, and hopeless cases to boost league table positions.

Habitus

Pierre Bourdieu's term for taken-for-granted ways of thinking, being, and acting shared by a social class, which schools value more when they match middle-class tastes.

Symbolic violence

The process where schools devalue working-class habitus, keeping the working class in their place and forcing them to change to be successful.

Nike identities

Archer's term for how working class pupils construct their own alternative identities through the consumption of brands to gain symbolic capital from peers.

Ethnocentric curriculum

A curriculum that gives priority to the culture or viewpoint of one particular dominant ethnic group while disregarding others, such as a 'specifically British' curriculum.

Institutional racism

A whole organisational or cultural way of operating within education that is racist or discriminatory, even if non-deliberate.

Crisis of masculinity

Mac an Ghaill's concept where the decline of traditional manual labour jobs due to globalisation makes boys unsure of their future roles, impacting their school work.

Male gaze

The visual aspect of how pupils control each other's identities, where male pupils and teachers look girls up and down, seeing them as sexual objects.

Marketisation

The process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into state-run services like education.

Parentocracy

A term describing 'rule by parents,' where power shifts from the producers (schools) to the consumers (parents), claimed to raise standards through choice.

Cream-skimming

The process where popular schools select higher ability pupils who gain the best results and cost less to teach.

Silt-shifting

The process where popular schools off-load pupils with learning difficulties who are expensive to teach and get poor results.

Privatisation of education

The transfer of public assets such as schools to private companies, turning education into the 'Education Services Industry' (ESI) used to source profit.