A-Level Sociology - Education Theorists

Parsons

-Functionalist
-Education serves as a bridge between family & society (secondary socialisation)
-Meritocratic and allows students to gain any achieved status despite ascribed status

Durkheim

-Functionalist
-Education transmits societies norms and values allowing for social solidarity, which is integral for society's function (consensus theory)

Davis and Moore

-Functionalist
-Education is for Role Allocation - finding the best students and allowing them to enter the best jobs

Hargreaves

-Functionalist
-Schools focus too much on the individual which undermines social solidarity - should promote universalistic values

Althusser

-Marxist
-Ruling class maintain their authority through repressive state & ideological state apparatus (education)
-Education justifies the position of the WC through myth of meritocracy

Bowles and Gintis

-Marxist
-Correspondence theory
-School mimics the workplace and produces ideal workers for the ruling class to manipulate
-Hidden Curriculum - Teaching of values that make students manipulatable

Bourdeiu

-Marxist / Class
-Cultural Capital
-WC Faliure is not their fault as it is only MC Culture deemed worthy enough to be taught in schools
-MC kids with pre existing knowledge do better

Boudon

-Marxist
-Cost of persistence
-It's harder for the WC to enter HE as they may have to move away from home and lose their job / too expensive

Willis

-(Neo)Marxist
-Learning to Labour
-Studied 12 WC boys and found they developed an anti learning subculture as they saw education as irrelevant for their future in manual jobs

Ball

-Class/Interactionist/Social Policy
-Banding lead to the stereotyping of students which negatively influenced their behaviour
-Myth of parentocracy (not all parents have ability to choose)
-Education service industry prioritise money

Rosenthal and Jacobson

-Class/Interactionist
-Labelled 20 students as 'spurters' and recieved more teacher attention / higher expectations
-This lead to higher improvement despite them actually being average

Becker

-Class/Interactionist
-Students were labelled based on how close they were to the 'ideal pupil' (white MC)
-This influenced behaviour

Fuller

-Class/Interactionist
-Studied Black girls in a london comprehensive and found they actually tried to defy their negative labels

Hargreaves et al

-Class/Interactionist
-How teachers type and classify students
(Speculation = hypothethising, Elaboration = hypothesis confirmed or contradicted, Stabilisation = Permenant image)

Rist

-Class/Interactionist
-3 tables in a classroom based on ability "clowns" vs "tigers"
-Those labelled better worked better

Archer

-Class/Gender/Race
-Nike identities
-WC use symbolic/material items to gain status
-WC girls use looks/makeup to gain status
-Teacher discourse creates 3 stereotyped identities (ideal, pathologised, demonised)

Bernstein

-Class
-WC use 'Restricted Code' which is less developed
-MC use 'Elaborated Code' which is more developed and used in formal situations
-MC understand both codes

Sugarman

-Class
-WC are fatalistic and present time orientated, seek immediate gratification and are focused on collectivity

Douglas

-Class
-MC get more parental attention/support

Keddie

-Class
-Myth of cultural deprivation
-Said cultural deprivation is victim blaming

Gerwitz

-Class
-3 types of parents (privileged skill choosers, disconnected local choosers and semi skilled choosers)

Gillborn and Youdell

-Class/Marketisation/Ethnicity
-Schools have an A-C Economy and have to compete for funding
-They sort students into 3 categories and only focus on the ones who have potential to get Cs
-Schools filter out those with language difficulty
-Teachers quicker to discipline black pupils

Spender

-Gender
-In schools boys got 60% of the teachers attention

Sharpe

-Gender
-Interviewed girls in the 70s and 90s and found priorities had changed from family/marriage to study/careers

McRobbie

-Gender
-Looked at magazines in the 70s and 90s, in the 70s they promoted family and looks wheras in the 90s they depicted successful careers
-Rise in 'girl power' & role models

Mitsos and Browne

-Gender
-Introduction of coursework meant girls did better as they're more organised
-Reading seen as a feminine activity

Mac an Ghaill

-Gender
-Crisis of masculinity: loss of traditional jobs/roles means men don't know their place in society
-Male laddish subcultures: WC underachievers 'Real Englishmen', Hardworkers 'Dickhead Achievers'
-Male teachers tell boys off for behaving like girls
-'Male gaze' - girls seen as sexual objects

Harris et al

-Gender
-Boys and girls are socialised differently which affects educational achievement
-Girls are taught to be still and play = better focus
-Boys are taught to run around / be energetic = less focus

Barber

-Gender
-Boys are generally overconfident in themselves so they do less work and underachieve

Lees

-Gender Identity
-Double standard for boys and girls
-Girls who were sexually active "slags" and those who are unactive "drags"

Kelly

-Gender subject choice
-Science seen as a male subject due to male dominated teachers and textbook imagery

Paetcher

-Gender subject choice
-Peer pressure when choosing subject
-Double standard, girls who like sports dubbed "butch" / "lesbians"

Norman

-Gender subject choice
-Boys and girls are socialised differently (toys, clothes etc) which creates gender domains

Woods

-Subcultures
-4 pupil responses to labeling: Ingratiation
(compliance), Ritualism (staying out of trouble), Retreatism (mucking about) and Rebellion (rejection of everything)

Lacey

-Subcultures
-Streaming in schools causes development of Subcultures: through Differentiation (teachers categorising pupils according to their perception of their ability/behaviour) and Polarisation (pupils responding by moving toward two opposite extremes)

Sewell

-Ethnicity/Subcultures
-Stereotyping of black students leads to the development of 4 subcultures: rebels (live up to negative label, go against education), conformists (avoided the stereotypes, keen to do well), retreatists (disconnected from school and subcultures) and innovators (pro education but anti school)

Murray

-Ethnicity/New Right
-Some ethnicities have higher IQs (bell curve)
-Generally regarded to be biased/racist

Palmer

-Ethnicity
- 1/2 of ethnic minorities come from low income families

Holland

-Ethnicity
-Lack of black male role models leads to poorer attitudes to education / less attention

Ballard

-Ethnicity
-Asian family values promote their children's success

Noon

-Ethnicity
-Minorities more likely to face unemployment
-Evans vs Patel study

Wright

-Ethnicity
-Teachers assume Asian girls are passive/quiet with poor English

Hatcher

-Ethnicity
-Racism is institutional / inbuilt to the education system

David

-Ethnicity
-The curriculum is ethnocentric (british focused)
-Can be seen in MFL, Humanities, Sports etc

Gillborn

-Ethnicity
-Marketisation has created segregation and selection (cream skimming)

Swann Report

-Ethnicity
-1985 - Said how the curriculum was ethnocentric
-Said some ethnic minorities get better parental support
-Afro-Carribean Families have a higher % of single parents

Bartlett

-Social Policy
-Marketisation leads to more popular schools who cream skim (find the high ability) and silt shift (ignore those with learning difficulty) students

Chubb and Moe

-Social Policy
-Proposed a voucher system where each parent gets a voucher to buy education

1944 Policy

-Social Policy
-Introduced the Tripartite system and 11+

Comprehensivisation

-Social Policy
- 1965- Your school was determined by your area
-Kept private and independent schools

1988 Policy

-Social Policy
-Focused on Marketisation
-Schools managed their own budget
-The money they received was based on the number of pupils that went there (formula funding)
-OFSTED and League Tables

New Vocationalism

-Social Policy
-1979: introduced vocational courses, YTS scheme

New Labour

-Social Policy
- 1997
-Introduced EAZ, EMA payments, Aim Higher, Sure Start, National Literacy scheme to try improve class gap
-Introduced HE tuition and academies

Coalition Gov.

-Social Policy
- 2010
- Introduced more academies, 3x HE Fees, Free Schools, National Curriculum reform, New OFSTED criteria
- Introduced Free school meals, pupil premium and increased school leaving age to 18

Howard

\-Class

\-Poor diet among the WC leads to educational underachievement