Soc Paper 3 Education Theorists

Durkheim's Theory

• Education unites members of society (social solidarity).

• Education provides specialist skills for the labor market.

Parsons' Theory

• Schools are the 'focal socialising agency' bridging family and society.

• Education promotes meritocracy and value consensus.

Davis & Moore's Theory

• Education sorts individuals into roles suited to their abilities (role allocation).

• Inequality is necessary to ensure important roles are filled by talented individuals.

Schultz's Human Capital Theory

• High levels of spending on education and training are justified for economic success.

Chubb & Moe's Consumer Choice

Market system in education improves quality and efficiency.
Voucher system proposed to increase competition among schools.

Wolf Review of Vocational Education (2011)

High-quality apprenticeships are rare.
Many 16-19 year-olds are on courses that do not lead to higher education or good
jobs.

Althusser's Ideological State Apparatus

Education performs two functions:

1. Reproducing class inequality by transmitting it from generation to generation

2. Produce ideologies (false class consciousness) to accept that inequality is inevitable

Correspondence Principle (Bowles & Gintis)

The structure and processes of education mirror the workplace.

Phil Cohen (1984)

Youth training schemes serve capitalism by teaching attitudes and values needed for a subordinate workforce rather than genuine job skills.

Willis' Learning to Labour (1977)

• Study of 12 working-class 'lads' showing a counter-school culture that opposes the values of the education system.

• The 'lads' actively chose to fail to land manual labor jobs, reproducing class inequality.

Chitty (2009)

• Education transforms societies from low-skill, low-wage economies to high-skill, high-wage, technologically advanced economies.

Tanner

• Hidden costs of education (e.g., books, uniforms, field trips) burden working-class families.

Ridge

• Working-class students may work to support their families, reducing study time.

Bernstein

• Language codes (restricted vs. elaborated) – working-class students use restricted codes, while middle-class students use elaborated codes, giving them an advantage in schools.

Bourdieu’s Cultural Capital

• Cultural capital – middle-class families possess knowledge and skills that align with school expectations, benefiting their children.

Douglas (1964):

• Working-class parents place less value on education, leading to less encouragement and support for children’s education.

Feinstein (2003):

• Middle-class parents’ consistent discipline and higher expectations positively impact educational outcomes.

Becker

• Labeling theory – teachers label students based on their perceptions of the ideal pupil, leading to self-fulfilling prophecies.

Fuller (1984)

• Negative labeling of Black girls in London schools led to resistance and determination to prove teachers wrong.

Keddie

• Higher-set students receive more creative work, while lower-set students are given routine tasks, impacting their educational success.

Bourdieu’s Habitus

Schools are the ‘natural habitat’ of middle class students; their interests, beliefs, values and norms are aligned with the nature of schools.

Mac an Ghaill (1996)

• Working-class boys face a "crisis of masculinity" due to the decline in traditional manual jobs, leading to anti-school subcultures.

Reay

• Working-class students must work harder than middle-class peers due to poorly funded schools with less qualified teachers.

Wilkinson

• Poorer health and higher rates of hyperactivity and ADHD among children from low-income backgrounds can affect educational outcomes.

Howard

• Poorer families have lower energy and nutrition, leading to lower achievement in school.

Sullivan

• Students with greater cultural capital were more likely to succeed academically, though social class, resources, and aspirations also play a significant role.

Birdwell et al. (2011)

Secondary schools in England and Wales routinely neglect pupils with vocational aspirations and focus on brighter children destined to go on to higher educations.

Flynn Effect (Flynn, 1987)

• IQ tests reflect the values of powerful social groups, reinforcing social hierarchies.

Kaplan (1998)

• Identified factors influencing IQ test performance, including education, reading habits, test attitudes, cultural background, and health.

Bourdieu’s IQ tests

•  Education and IQ tests reinforce the power of ruling classes through cultural reproduction.

Robbins Report (1963)

Found that middle-class students with similar IQs to working-class peers were more likely to achieve higher educational levels.

Murayama et al. (2012)

Found that IQ is important in the early stages of education but less relevant in long-term achievement. Motivation and study skills play a larger role over time.

Saunders (2002)

• Linked intelligence to social class and argued that social selection affects educational outcomes.

Morrow and Torres Postmodernism

Students create their own identities rather than being constrained by traditional structures like class.

Ohmae Hyper Globalist View

Greater access to information creating higher educational achievement.

Creation of global citizens with greater tolerance and respect for differences.

Ball

Ethnocentric curriculum- the current curriculum is very focued on Middle class White British culture.

Lacey

Formation of pupil subculture through differentiation - process of teachers categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and behaviour.

Bates and Riseborough (1993)

Vocational education in UK leads to middle class students follow the academic route into professional employment, while working class students go into lower-paid/lower status work.

Heath (1997) 

Vocational education has helped women in areas of schooling and careers that were traditionally male areas. 

Bowles and Gintis ‘Sponsored mobility’

Upper and middle class children enjoy cultural advantages over working class peers, such as affording high-quality, high-status private education. 

Aldridge (2004)

A key feature of modern industrial societies is a lack of occupational mobility for lower classes.

Young

Educational knowledge is ideologically driven, with the curriclum reflecting the interests of the ruling class. Knowledge is categorised into subjects and controlled to maintain power structures.

Ogunkudon and Adeyemo

Found a strong correlation between emotional intelligence and academic achievement in Nigerian students.

Gardner

There are at least seven distinct types of intelligence, ranging from linguistic, mathematical and spatial, to music, etc.

Bowker

Argued that the lack of standard English creates a barrier to UK education for ethnic minority groups.

Scruton

Low achievement is a result of ethnic minorities failing to embrace British culture.

Labov

Long-term participant observation showed that African American children showed different but equal dialect, yet the value of the way they spoke was not recognised by the school system, leading to labelling and unverachievement.

Noon

Found that ethnic minorities face discrimination in employment through a study involving identical job applications with different names.

Gillborn

Teachers ‘generally underrate the abilities of black youngsters’ based on dated racial stereotypes about ability, intelligence and effort.

Foster

Argued that stereotypes of Black students as disruptive lead them to being placed in lower sets, which negatively affect their educational achievement.

Archer

Explored how teachers often define pupils by stereotypical ethnic identities, leading to negative labelling and the formation of pathologised or demonised identities

Sewell

Suggests that black children’s educational performance is weakened by ‘anti-school’ peer-group pressure.

Blair et al.

Point to a lack of role models within schools for ethnic-minority students.

Gillborn’s institutional racism

Argues that schools are institutionally racists, especially terms of curriculum developments ‘based on approaches known to disadvantage’ ethnic minority students.

Norman

Different activities for boys and girls from childhood influence subject choices

Murthy and Elwood

Boys read more hobby books while girls read more fiction.

Dewar

Girls opting for male-dominated subjects face peer pressure and bullying

Paetcher

Subjects like sports are often seen as a male subject, dettering girls

Gorard

Found that girls began outperforming boys after courwork has been introduced, widening the achievement gap

Peter and Jane French

Teachers interact more negatively with boys, reinforcing stereotypes and giving girls more constructive attention.

Weiner

Removal of traditional gender stereotypes from textbooks helped challenge gender roles in subjects like science or math

Sue Sharpe

Girls are now aiming for high-status professions like doctors and solicitors due to increased opportunities.

Mitsos and Browne

The growth of the service sector has created more ‘feminized’ job opportunities for women, encouraging girls to pursue education

Beck and Beck-Ghernsheim

Educational success is now central to girls’ identities, reflecting their desire for recognition and status.

Jones and Myhill

Masculine identities emphasizing physical strength, sexual virility and aggressiveness are not helpful to educational attainment

Barber

Boys see themselves are more capable than they really are. This belief runs through to their GCSE exams where they fail to do as well as they imagined but blame everyone but themselves.

Mirza

Establishment of Supplementary Schools from general lack of satisfaction among black parents and children with ‘white institutions’ and teachers that seem to often fail them.

Francis

Changes within school and wider society have altered the way girls construct feminity, they no longer see it mainly in terms of the home

Gorard

• There is little measurable difference in male/female attainment in maths and science

• There is a closer correlation between achievement and class than there is between achievement and gender

McRobbie and Garber

Highlighted the concept of “bedroom culture” align with school success, making girls more likely to achieve educational attainment.

Jackson

Girl's desire to achieve leads to self-fulfilling prophecies and higher attainment.