secondary socialisation

Davis and Moore (functionalists)

Meritocracy - jobs and pay allocated based on an individual’s talent/achievements rather than social status.

Students who work hard = best results = better jobs and pay.

Parsons (Functionalist)

Role allocation - sifting and sorting people into roles they will go on to perform in life.

Those who achieve success in employment have earned it due to hard work and talent (in education).

Bowles and Gintis (Marxists)

Agree with hidden curriculum, criticise functionalists: teaches vals of ruling class so we learn to be conformist, passive and to accept hierarchy - reflects need of ruling class to have a controllable workforce.

Define education system as ‘giant myth-making machine’ - myth of meritocracy!!

Students have different educational experiences = different/no qualifications - these students encouraged to believe their failures are of their own making rather than result of an unfair system.

Marxists believe hidden curriculum is a powerful tool in maintaining unfair capitalist state.

Becker (interactionist)

Labelling theory - someone applies a label to another (positive or negative). They begin to act the label and it becomes their Master Status. When they have given up hope and become the label, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Humans will act and perform in front of others as they’re aware they’re going to be judged or labelled on their behaviour - education teaches us to be very aware of our behaviours and how others will interpret our actions.

Hey (feminist)

How peers control each other via informal sanctions - analysed notes sent in classrooms, listened to interactions between teenage girls - found that cliques formed among girls of same social class and within each social class clique, norms/vals differed.

WC: called each other ‘slags’, if too promiscuous and so sexual behaviour controlled via sanction; dressed provocatively e.g. more makeup, revealing clothes.

MC: more encouragement to be sexually adventurous, dressed casually.

Different norms/vals led to agnostic between the groups, demonstrating how peer groups control each other informally.

Poole

Are other agents more influential than peer groups?

Looked at Islamophobia in the media, tried to work out who was most affected by headlines/stories: group one - multicultural friend groups with Muslim friends; group two - knew no Muslims themselves. Group one were more likely to reject Islamophobic headlines, believing them to be sensationalised and exaggerated. Group two more likely to believe links made between Islam and terrorism and more susceptible to seeing Muslims as dangerous.

Concluded peer influence is more influential than the media since those with Muslim peers were able to negotiate complex messages. However, the media was powerful for those without multicultural peer groups.

Smith et al.

Studied cyberbullying: questionnaires in 14 schools across year groups 7-10

20% of their sample of about 100 children experienced cyberbullying. Girls reported more bullying behaviour than boys which differs from face-to-face bullying. A third of victims failed to tell anyone about the bullying - shows vulnerability of the youth.

Turkle

Increased time spent on social media has a negative effect on our identity and relationships. Media has a strong influence on thoughts and actions - Turkle believes we’re in danger of becoming isolated in the digital world and as a result be less likely to have strong face-to-face relationships.

‘Alone Together’ - failure to communicate in real life as we’re in the same space but individual devices - will lead to breakdown of families/relationships.

Crit: fails to see positives in which media can bring people together, especially those who need social media to maintain relationships over long distances, and marginalised groups who can meet one another online.

Walter (feminist)

Focuses on the media’s negative impact on women. Published a book called ‘Living Dolls’ which argued a new sexism is becoming increasingly acceptable as women are judged more on their physical appearance.

Hypersexual culture - women are increasingly portrayed as sexual objects rather than people with intelligence, desires and needs. This culture is a result of media e.g insta and TikTok which overemphasises sexualised clothing for young girls and programmes about cosmetic surgery.

Sexualised images are all over the media, internet made pornography readily available - Walter is increasingly concerned by pressure on women to ‘look good’ which may account for increased instances of e.d.’s. Porn also creates unrealistic expectations of women and sex.

Hakim (post-feminist)

Criticises Walter - fails to recognise women are exercising more sexual freedom and are choosing to engage in a hypersexual culture; it’s a breakaway from trad views of femininity held in the past.

Introduces notion that men and women should utilise their erotic capital (being attractive and desirable within trad notions of attractiveness) to get on in life.

Women should embrace opportunities to use sexual capital to gain popularity, climb career ladder, etc.

Sewell

Media is extremely influential in shaping ethnic identity among African-Caribbean youth in British inner cities - partially responsible for educational underachievement and levels of exclusion in this group. Argues culture focuses on ‘hyper-male’ and ‘gangsta’ due to influence of rap stars.

Rap stars often compensate for lack of father figure (50% black British families are single parent) and are role models - media portrays them as successful, happy and wealthy. Sewell believes they’re responsible for encouraging consumer culture in young African-Caribbean males, which views material things as more important than education as well as being hypersexual, homophobic, misogynistic, and focussed on gang culture.

Argued rap stars need to ‘clean up their act’ to avoid leading a generation of young black men into a life of crime.

Burchill (feminist)

Critical of head coverings for women, calling them a ‘mobile prison; in the Guardian.

According to the Quran women should exercise modesty because their attractiveness may lead men astray - reinforces patriarchal control over women, evidence of repression

Watson

Criticises urchin - suggests veil is not a symbol of oppression but freedom as Muslim women wear it t liberate themselves from the male gaze.

Her research shows most Muslim women wear the veil themselves because they chose to, so she rejects the notion this is imposed by fathers, brothers and husbands.

Ghuman

First generation Asian parents socialised children differently to British parents.

Children brought up to be obedient, loyal, and respect elders and the community around them; social conformity demanded; learned to be inter-dependant rather than individualistic; choice of education and marriage partner in hands of parents (thought to know best interests of their children); religious training considered imposrtant; role of mother tongue as a crucial link to maintain links between generations.

Modood

Criticises Ghuman; many 2nd and 3rd gen children from minority backgrounds are moving away from traditional norms.

Some British Asian men and women do not conform to expectations of parents e.g. evidence of men having sex before marriage without their parents’ knowledge.

This shows Ghuman’ research cannot be generalised to all British Asians

Bruce

Religion used as cultural defence - older generations to hold onto traditions from their past in a world changing too quickly. The stability of the norms and vals of traditional religions are used by older people as a defence from what they perceive as confusing and unrelenting changes in the society around them.

Religion reinforces the norm of conservatism within old age, reinforcing the identity of older people as resistant to change.

Gannon (feminist)

Believes older women are discriminated against in terms of age and gender. Furthers the glass ceiling argument. - women socialised to expect less from their job as they don’t see people like them at the top of the work structure; woman socialised to conform rather than take risks.

Gannon believes women’s status is reduced after the menopause, reflecting society’s tendency to to see women in terms of their sexuality and childbearing usefulness. This is an example of informal social control women face.

Waddington (interactionist)

Canteen culture - describes informal social control of police officers as they hang out at the station or spend off-duty hours together.

Waddington’s research shows canteen culture helps socialise police officers as they learn from each other’s ’war stories’ - how they overcame difficult situations - and pick up practice advice. Argues this helps them to deal with heir stressful job; boosts occupational self-esteem by giving a ‘heroic’ identity; reinforces sense of mission (job is valuable, fighting crime); celebrates essential values in police work e.g. ‘macho’ emphasis on strength/courage,

However negative behaviours (homophobia, racism, sexism, class stereotypes) also used in canteen culture, damaging vals became a norm.This may lead to harsher policing for certain groups, showing re-socialising into a new work culture may not always bring positive change.

Skeggs (feminist)

Researched group of WC women retraining to become healthcare workers. As their training progressed, the women were re-socialised into new behaviours: although they wore skirts, heels and makeup outside of work they realised it ain’t the norm inside their new career and adapted dress code to fit in; the imitated the women already in the position and began wearing demure clothes and less makeup.

Skegg’s work supports idea that gender and class have a link - Hey also showed how you play out your femininity will depend on your social class.