Education Revision 2013
Role of
Education
Education
Policy
Social class &
attainment
Gender and
attainment
Ethnicity and
attainment
In school
processes
Vocational
education
Gender &
Subject Choice
Role of Education
Focus:
What is the purpose of schools? What do they do for society and individuals? What do we
learn and why? Are schools good for society or not?
Typical Questions
• Explain what is meant by the ‘correspondence principle’. (2 marks)
• Suggest three criticisms that other sociologists may make of the functionalist view
of the education system. (6 marks)
• Explain what is meant by the term ‘meritocracy’. (2 marks)
• Outline some of the functions that the education system may perform. (12 marks)
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the view that the education
system exists mainly to select and prepare young people for their future work roles.
(20 marks)
• Suggest three ways in which Marxists see school as being similar to the world of
work. (6 marks)
• Suggest three functions that education may perform for individuals and/or society.
(6 marks)
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What you need to consider…
The different theories on the role/function of
schools:
• Functionalist
• Marxist
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Functionalist
Durkheim
• Integration to larger group
• Teaching social rules
• Specialist work schools
Davies & Moore
• Meritocracy
• Motivate
• Reward talent
Parsons
• Universal values
• Ability judged fairly
• Value consensus
• Role allocation
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Functionalism: Evaluation
• Education is a two-way process
• Shared values?
• So much learning not linked to jobs/economy
• Is school meritocratic? Inequality
• Schools ‘crush individuals’ into conformity
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Marxist
Basics
• Ideological conditioning
• Reproduce inequality
Althusser
• Ideological
conditioning
Bowles & Gintis
• Correspondence principle
• Social reproduction
• Hidden curriculum
• Myth of meritocracy
Willis
• Counter-school
culture
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evaluation
Hidden curriculum and work
• School rules,detentions, merits, • Promote conformity and
prizes
encourage obedience
• School assemblies
• Mass conformity,respect for
authority
• Competitive games/sports day
• Competitive in the work place
• Respect authority of teachers
• Respect employers without
question
• Be punctual to lessons
• Respect time at work
• Complete boring tasks at school • Put up with boring work
• Value hard work/achievement
• Work hard/be industrious
• Grading by ability – success
and failure
• Differences in pay at work
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Bourdieu – ‘social and cultural reproduction’
Social reproduction
HOW SCHOOLS
REPRODUCE THE
CLASS SYSTEM
•Schools
reproduce
social inequality
•Success/failure is
legitimated by
social hierarchy
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Social function of
elimination
Cultural reproduction
HOW SCHOOLS ‘PUSH
WORKING CLASS OUT’
HOW SCHOOLS
REPRODUCE
DOMINANT CULTURE
•working class
exam failure
(due to lacking
dominant culture)
•Schools reproduce
dominant class
•Self-elimination
choose to drop
out/see unfair
system
•The powerful
impose their ideas on
others
•Dominant culture =
cultural capital
(socialization)
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Marxism: Evaluation
• Docile workers for capitalism?
• Education benefits us all (Functionalism)
• The hidden curriculum not hidden
• Many pupils rebel
• Conspiracy theory
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Education Policy
Focus:
What are the aims of different policies? How have different policies affected attainment?
What are the pros and cons of different policies?
Typical Questions
• Outline some of the ways in which government educational policies may have
affected social class differences in educational achievement. (12 marks)
• Identify three policies that may promote the marketisation of education. (6 marks)
• Identify three educational policies that may have contributed to social class
differences in achievement. (6 marks)
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the claim that the main aim of
education policies in the last 25 years has been to create an education market.
(20 marks)
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What you need to consider…
• What are the main education policies since
WW2?
• What are their aims?
• How have they impacted on attainment?
• What are their pros/cons?
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Exam tips
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The main aims of policies have been…
•
•
•
•
To meet the needs of the economy
To raise standards
Marketization – competition/accountability
To promote equal opportunities (reduce
inequality)
THESE POLICY AIMS CAN OVERLAP
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The Policies..
• 1944 Tripartite System
• 1965 Comprehensive system
• 1988 Education Reform Act
• 1997-2010 New Labour policies
• 2010-present Con-Dem policies
RECENT POLICY = 1988 Onwards!
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1944 Tripartite System
Aims
To provide a free education service to meet the needs of different types
of students
Details
Intelligence exam at age 11.
Students went to school depending on if they passed or not.
Evaluation
Pros
• Different ability students get
the support they need
• Resources can be better
targeted.
• Less able don’t feel inferior
and more able do not get held
back.
Cons
• 80% students felt like ‘failures’
• Most children develop after the
age of 11.
• Exam was biased in favour of
‘middle class’ students.
• Divided children from different
backgrounds.
• Some children received a
‘second class’ education.
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1965 Comprehensive Education
Aims
Ensure all students no matter what their ability had a similar education.
Details
• No entry examinations. Schools serve their catchment areas.
 All students of all ability attend the same school.
 Both boys/girls attend the same school.
 Reflected catchment - locality
Evaluation
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Pros
Cons
• One education for all –
fairness!
• Brings together children from
different social classes.
• No entrance exam – all
treated fairly.
• Larger schools = cheaper to
run.
• Serves its local catchment
area.
• No choice for parents…children have
to attend local school.
• The most and least able suffer as
teachers ‘ teach to the middle’.
• Bright working class children cannot
rise to the grammar school standard.
• They ‘dumb down’ the curriculum.
• Setting divides children by ability.
• Some catchments are more middle
class than others – social mixing?
1988 Education Reform Act
Aims
•
•
•
•
Details
League Tables, National Curriculum, SATS (testing), Grant Maintained
Schools, Formula Funding, Open-Enrolment, Ofsted Inspections
Evaluation
Pros
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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To raise standards
To make schools more accountable
To run schools on ‘market principles’ and improve efficiency/competition
To give parents (consumers) greater choice
Compare performance of schools
Continuity between schools
Central government control
Same diet for all
Specialist schools – more choice
Schools compete – raise
standards
Greater freedom for headteachers
– prioritise spending
Cons
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Political interference in education
Less choice – minority subjects gone
Quite academic
Pressure on pupils
Many students fail and feel worthless
Schools become exam factories
Do not analyse ‘value added’
Create sink schools
Some schools had more money
Entry examinations re-emerged
Too much parent power
Marketization policies
1997 New Labour
Aims
Various policies to raise standards and to reduce inequality.
Details
More nursery places, reduce class sizes, national literacy/numeracy, beacon
schools, EMA, EAZs, Aim Higher, Surestart Scheme, After school clubs,
University tuition fees. Introduce academies/specialist achools
Evaluation
Pros
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Early years education for all
More individual support in smaller
classes
Improved basic skills
Schools sharing best practice
Support for ‘deprived’ students
More resources in ‘deprived’ areas
Reading support/parenting skills to
‘deprived’ families
Promoted diversity/choice in
schools
Cons
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Expensive to fund small classes
Some schools valued more
Schools in wealthier areas lose out
Too biased in favour of working class
Greater competition and inequality
between schools
More selection introduced in schools
Curriculum becoming too
prescriptive/dictated to schools
Geoff Whitty = very critical of New
Labour
2010 Con-Dem
Aims
More choice for parents, Raise standards, Compensatory Education
Details
Increased university fees, The end of EMA, Increased contributions
from parents, Baccalaureate qualifications from 14-19, compulsory
education to the age of 18, The end of coursework, Increased OFSTED
inspections, Higher entry requirements for teachers, Free Schools
introduced, Expansion of academies, Pupil Premium
Evaluation
Pros
• More competition = greater
choice
• Quality of education
increasing
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Cons
• More academic – less suited to
weaker students
• Less LEA involvement
• Students ‘forced’ to stay on
• University fees are expensive
Conservative Election Promises 2010
Conservative manifesto: eduction policy
• Raising the entry requirement for taxpayer-funded primary teacher
training
• Requiring new graduates to have at least a 2:2 in their degree to get
state-funded training
• Paying the student loan repayments for top maths and science
graduates while they remain teachers
• Giving teachers the strongest possible protection from false
accusations
• Strengthening home-school behaviour contracts
• Establishing a simple reading test at the age of six
• Reforming the National Curriculum
• Overhauling Key Stage 2 tests and league tables
• Allowing all state schools to offer high quality international
examinations
• Extra funding for children from disadvantaged backgrounds
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Marketization Policy
Marketization is…
The development of an ‘education market’ which
includes:
- Reducing direct state control over education
- Increasing competition between school
- Increasing Parental Choice of schools.
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Marketization Policies
Policy
Whe Details
n?
Pros
Cons
League
Tables
1988
Annual publication of exam results
Raise standards.
Compare schools.
Increase
accountability.
Sink schools.
‘creaming off’ able.
Not measure value added.
Too focused on competing.
Open
enrolment
1988
Parental choice over desired school
(consumers)
Choice for parents.
Expensive advertising.
Sink schools.
Grant
maintained
schools
1988
Opt out of LEA control – responsible
for own finances
More efficient
spending.
Reintroduced entrance
exams.
Unequal funding.
Formula
Funding
1988
Schools paid per student on roll
Competition to be
successful.
Marketing and competition.
Specialist
Schools
1997
Offer choice of ‘specialist schools’ to
parents
More choice for
parents.
Entrance exams.
Business
sponsorship
1997
Businesses as partners, funding in
schools
Business interference
Unfair competition
Ofsted
1988
Inspections of schools and grading
‘quality’
Quality assurance.
Pressure on schools and
students.
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Evaluation
Evaluation of Marketization
For
New Right
 Increase efficiency
 A free market means that schools can
compete against each other = the best will
succeed.
 Parentocracy = consumer rights/choice
 Greater variety of schools for different
students
 Raise standards
Chubb & Moe
• Reduce state control
• Power to parents
• Raise standards for all
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Against
• Parentocracy = myth (Gerwitz)..
• Sink schools
• ‘survival of the fittest’ (inequality)
Ball
• Middle class exploit the ‘education
market’ (not free choice/fair)
• Middle class move catchment area.
• Working class have limited choice.
• Schools keen to attract able students
• Less attention to SEN students
• ‘entry exams’ (selection)
• Schools stopped co-operating.
• Schools portrayed more academic image
Gilborn et al
• Educational ‘triage’+ labelling
Bartlett
• Cream skimming/silt-shifting
Exam considerations…
If a question asks about impact on social class, keep
in mind:
• How compensatory education has aimed to
reduce inequality (New Labour)
• How ERA policy focused more on competition
and increased inequality (Conservative)
• Marketisation policies increase competition to
raise standards (but do not deal with inequality)
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Exam considerations…
If a question asks about marketisation:
• Look back at different policies since 1988
• Discuss aims – their benefits/pros
• Note Functionalist/New Right support
EVALUATE:
• Note disadvantages/downside
• Theoretical views against (Marxists)
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Social Class & Attainment
Focus:
Why do working class students underachieve? To what extent is it due to factors
outside/inside school?
Typical Questions
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the importance of cultural
factors in causing social class differences in educational achievement. (20 marks)
• Explain what is meant by the term ‘immediate gratification’. (2 marks)
• Explain what is meant by the term ‘cultural deprivation’. (2 marks)
• Outline some of the ways in which cultural deprivation may lead to educational
under-achievement for working-class pupils. (12 marks)
• Explain what is meant by the term ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’. (2 marks)
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the view that working-class
under-achievement in education is the result of home circumstances and family
background. (20 marks)
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The debate….
Working class students do not do so well
because of..
• Home background factors
• In-school factors
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Home-Background Factors
This is about:
• Cultural Factors
• Material factors
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Cultural Factors – Cultural Deprivation
Norms and values/Socialisation
• Immediate gratification
• Fatalism
• Collectivism
M/C Parental attitudes/pre school
socialization:
• Reward effort
• Visit school more
• Go to museums/educational visits
• Educational toys/books (stimulating
environment
• Focused on ‘future success’
• Praise
Language codes
• Elaborate language & teachers/learning
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Evaluation
• Ethnocentric
•
Is social class so distinct
today?
•
Vacuum?
•
Poverty not values
•
Hard to research culture
•
Victimisation
•
The working class is not just
one group – it is not a
homogenous mass…so
inaccurate to treat it as
such.
•
School are biased in favour
of middle class
Marxist Cultural Factors
Marxist cultural Factors- Cultural Capital
Pierre Bourdieu
• ‘Cultural capital’ - How middle class
‘dominant culture’ converts into
educational success and gives
advantage to the middle class.
 Cultural capital = knowledge, attitudes,
values, language, tastes and abilities of
the middle class.
 This is because the culture, knowledge
and language of the school fits more
closely to middle class culture, therefore
middle class students have an in-built
advantage.
 Cultural deficit = working class culture
that school does not value.
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Evaluation
• This view doesn’t criticise
working class culture
• Emphasises bias in school and
curriculum
• Social class cultural differences
are not so distinct
Material Factors
Raymond Boudon
• Lack of resources and inequality
in unfair society
Smith & Noble (1995)
They note :
1.
Marketisation – ‘creaming’ off the
middle class ‘talented’
• Social class position (stratification)
2.
Money = educational toys, books,
healthy diet, space, travel, private
tuition
 Primary effects of stratification:
subculture/values
3.
Schools now charge for much
 Secondary effects of stratification
Evaluation
• Social effects – cost/benefit, rational
choice, demotion/promotion, class &
pressures
• Social mobility rates
• Decline of traditional w/c
culture
• Material effects - poverty
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In School Factors
Labelling/stereotyping:
• Teacher expectations
• Judge on background not ability
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
• Biased treatment
• Influence self-concept and performance
Setting/banding:
• Lower sets = working class
• Poorer quality teacher
• Mass labelling
Pupil subcultures:
• Low status = frustration
• Rebellion = anti-school
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Evaluation
• Teacher training prevent bias
• Teachers judged by grades so
want all to do well
• Students reject labels
• Too deterministic
• Can all teachers label students
identically
Criticisms of SFP
 Deterministic
= 1 way
process
 Some students
resist/challenge label
 Small scale
studies…representative?
 How can all teachers
share a consistent label?
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Gender & Attainment
Focus:
Why do girls do better than boys? Is it due to factors inside/outside of school?
Typical Questions
• Outline some of the ways in which factors outside the education system have
resulted in improved educational achievement for girls. (12 marks)
• Suggest three reasons for boys’ educational under-achievement. (6 marks)
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the claim that gender
differences in educational achievement are primarily the ‘result of changes in
wider society’ (Item A, lines 6 – 7). (20 marks)
• Outline some of the reasons for the educational under-achievement of boys.
(12 marks)
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Girl’s
attainment
Back
Boy’s
attainment
Girl’s Attainment
• External Factors
• In-School Factors
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EXTERNAL FACTORS
• Impact of feminist movement
• Gender role socialisation
• Successful female role models
• Women’s careers (non-manual
jobs)
• Independence = less
dependency on men
• Literacy levels
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EVALUATION
EVALUATION OF EXTERNAL FACTORS
• Working-class girl’s still ‘traditional’
• Mainly middle-class girls with highest
aspirations
• Socialisation still having effect on expectations
(ie, few girls in science/engineering)
• Ethnic differences in socialisation/expectations
• Many feminist ideas seen as radical by many
• Careers ‘on hold’ for motherhood
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INTERNAL FACTORS
• Introduction of national curriculum
(same subjects + coursework)
• Girl’s better at coursework
• Teacher expectations
• Equal opportunities in schools
• Less sexist resources/books etc
• Teacher training + anti-sexism
• WISE/GIST
• Mature, motivated, positive behaviour
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EVALUATION
EVALUATION OF INTERNAL FACTORS
• Still a subject divide
• Class/ethnic differences
• Primary schools still traditional/sexist
stereotyping
• Working class girls’ behaviour
• Budget + resources
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Boy’s Attainment
• External Factors
• In-School Factors
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EXTERNAL FACTORS
• Changing job market (decline of
manual jobs)
• Gender role socialisation and
expectations
• Macho subculture
• Leisure + active (literacy
impact)
• Identity crisis (undermined by
‘new woman’)
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EVALUATION
EVALUATION OF EXTERNAL FACTORS
• Social class differences
• Middle class boys more ‘focused’
• Ethnic differences
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INTERNAL FACTORS
• Teacher expectations/labelling
• Schools do not ‘differentiate’ enough for
boys
• National curriculum works against boys
(literacy/organisation)
• Poor behaviour/can’t concentrate
• Teachers less strict with boys
• Boys are over-confident (and unrealistic)
• Schoolwork seen as ‘cissy’
• Lack of male role models in Primary
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EVALUATION
EVALUATION OF INTERNAL FACTORS
• Teacher training – combat stereotypes/support all
• Social class differences
• Teachers do differentiate for boys
• Coursework phased out
• Boys are ‘naughtier’
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Gender & subject choice
Focus:
Why do girls choose different subjects to boys?
Typical Questions
• Outline some of the reasons for gender differences in subject choice. (12 marks)
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Gender and subject choice
Girls and boys choose
different subjects because…
•
•
•
•
•
Gender role socialisation
Gendered subject images
Parental expectations
Careers guidance at school
Sexism in ‘subject’ gender
domains
• Peer pressure
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Evaluation
•
Pupils in single sex schools
make less traditional choices –
no opposite-sex peer pressure
•
Some subjects are becoming
less gendered
•
Changing ideas about gender
‘being a woman’ today – less
stereotypical (postmodernism)
•
More female science teachers
and less exist stereotypes in
resources (equal opps etc)
Ethnicity & Attainment
Focus:
Why do students from Pakistani/Bangladeshi and West Indian backgrounds do least well in
examinations? Is it due to out of school or in-school factors?
Typical Questions
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess sociological explanations for
ethnic differences in educational achievement. (20 marks)
• Suggest three factors within schools that may lead to the educational underachievement of pupils from some minority ethnic groups. (6 marks)
• Explain what is meant by the term ‘ethnocentric curriculum’. (2 marks)
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Ethnicity & Attainment
• External Factors
• In-School Factors
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EXTERNAL FACTORS
• Subcultural values/socialisation
• Language barriers
• Social class factors (see notes)
• Family type
• Material deprivation (racism)
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EVALUATION
EVALUATION OF EXTERNAL FACTORS
• Social class is more significant than
ethnicity
• Language does not hold back Indian
and Chinese students
• Evidence of high expectations and
support for Afro-Caribbean students
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INTERNAL FACTORS
• Racist stereotyping/expectations by
teachers
• Racist stereotypes in resources
• Ethnocentric curriculum
• Setting
• Pupil subcultures
• Lack of black teachers (role models)
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EVALUATION
EVALUATION OF INTERNAL FACTORS
• Teacher training and anti-racism
• Modern resources are less biased
• Gender/class affect attitudes and
experience of school
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In School Processes
Focus:
What happens inside schools? How do interactions and relationships within schools
(teacher-pupil relationships etc) affect students?
Typical Questions
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the view that factors and
processes within the school are the main cause of differences in the
educational achievement of different social groups. (20 marks)
• Outline some of the ways in which the labelling process may lead to
educational under-achievement for some pupils. (12 marks)
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In school processes
Include focus on:
• Labelling and the SFP
• Banding and streaming
• Subcultures
And how these affect:
• Social class
• Gender
• Ethnicity
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General Focus for
Questions
Labelling and SFP
Setting/banding
Subcultures
• Stereotypical
expectations
• Different quality of
learning
• Students respond to
being in lower sets
• Negative
judgements
• Mass labelling
• Frustration and
rebellion
• Influence the self
concept and
performance
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• Low expectations of
certain groups
• Alternative culture
to ‘win’ (boost self
• Poorer behaviour
esteem)
becomes the norm
Social class
• Ideal pupil –middle class
• Judged by family background/father’s
occupation
• Working class in lower sets = lower
expectations
• Lower standard of teaching to lower sets
• Low sets = feel inferior
• Working class students denied access to
‘higher level’ learning opportunities
• Working class students in low sets =
rebellious
• Seeking status and overcome frustration
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Evaluation
• Students reject labels
• Teachers want all students
to do well
• Teacher training and less
prejudice
• Marxists see schools as
anti-working class
supporting capitalism
(hidden curric.)
• Research based on small
samples
Gender
• Boys labelled negatively =
low confidence
• Teachers expect less of boys
• Boys are more ‘troublesome’
than girls
• Girls rebel but respond to
discipline
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Evaluation
• Middle class boys don’t fit
label
• Some girls don’t fit label
• Can’t ignore impact of
ethnicity and class
Ethnicity
• Teachers have lower expectations of
‘black’ boys
• Self-fulfilling prophecy = failure
Evaluation
• Students reject labels
• Racist resources/ethnocentric
curriculum impact
• Teachers want all students
to do well
• Educational triage = low sets = poor
educational opportunities/denied
higher level of work
• Teacher training and less
prejudice
• Low sets = feel inferior
• Research based on small
samples
• A range of subcultural responses, ie)
macho lads, academic achievers etc
• Can’t ignore gender/class
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Vocational Education
Focus:
What is the relationship between education and employment? What initiatives have been
introduced to prepare young people for work? Is vocationalism the only aim of schools
today?
Typical Questions
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the view that the education
system exists mainly to select and prepare young people for their future work
roles. (20 marks)
• Explain what is meant by the term ‘vocational’ education. (2 marks)
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Vocational education
Think back to theories on the ‘Role of Education’
Note how:
• Functionalists supported schools helping the
economy (specialist skills, role allocation,
meritocracy)
• Marxists are opposed to schools supporting
the capitalist economy (hidden curriculum,
correspondence principle, social reproduction)
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Aims of vocational education
A government policy to make education/training link to
the economy and world of work:
• To reduce youth unemployment
• To help get school-leavers ‘off welfare’ and into work (train the
unemployed)
• To teach ‘core skills’ linked to specific jobs
• To record skills/qualities and achievements
• Prepare young people for work (socialisation/attitudes)
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Vocational Education focused on:
• Reducing youth unemployment
• Developing a curriculum to fit the economy
• Making young people into ‘effective workers’
(via the above two initiatives)
Evaluation of vocational education polices
Reducing unemployment
• YOP (1970s) – Youth Opportunities Programme – college training and work
placement
• YTS (1983) – Youth Training Scheme – 1 year foundation course and work
placement. Became 2 years in 1985. A basic wage £25/week in 1983
• These were funded local by TEC’s
Research
• LEE (1990) – Noddy jobs – dogsbodies
• Buswell (1987) – trainees ended up in low skill jobs
• Gleeson (1989) – mainly followed by low attaining students – low skilled
jobs – stigmatised
• ALSO SEE LATER CRITICISMS FROM MARXISTS
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Developing the curriculum for the economy
• GNVQs (1980s) – later ‘Applied A-levels’ – specific practical based
courses – hands on experiences and developing skills/knowledge
• National Curriculum (1988) – core subjects/technology /languages
• WISE/GIST (1990s) – encourage girls to follow science
• ICT in schools (1990s) – technology and how to use
• TVEI (1983) – promoted school-employment links. Local funding.
• NRA (1990s) – National Record of Achievement
• Young Enterprise (1990s) – set up small-scale businesses
• Work Experience (1980s) – work placements in year 11
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EVALUATING VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
• Arguments FOR
• Arguments AGAINST
Arguments for…
• Testing in schools has raised standards and competencies (skills)
• Work experience is valuable for developing behaviour/attitudes
• TVEI projects, etc, have developed links between economy and curriculum
• Post-16 training has provided opportunities for developing skills and workbased experience
• All students now study science and ICT
• Enterprise culture is promoted – awareness of business and the economy
• Young people learn transferrable skills for life
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Arguments against..
•
The National Curriculum has too much content.
•
Work experience can be irrelevant and time-wasting.
•
The link between economy and school is too great.
•
Problems of society do not lie with schools but a poorly managed economy.
•
Post-school schemes only exist to reduce unemployment statistics amongst youth.
•
Post-school schemes are low paid.
•
Post-school schemes keep the young in ‘suspended animation’ as a cheap pool of labour for
exploitation.
•
Such schemes are ‘deskilling’ and not ‘reskilling’.
•
Concern for growing academic-vocational divide.
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Theoretical criticisms (MARXIST)
Dan Finn
• The post-16 schemes divert attention from the fact there are no jobs
• The schemes help to ‘hide unemployment’ figures
• Many students have work experience already
• Courses are poor standard
• Training schemes do not create jobs
Clarke and Willis
• Help keep young people in ‘suspended animation’
• Provide a ‘cheap pool of labour’
Philip Cohen
• Schemes are ‘de-skilling’ not re-skilling
• Mainly designed to ‘condition’ young people – develop obedience and
attitudes/behaviour (Marxist – hidden curriculum)
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Marxists focus on:
• How schools are serving capitalism more and more – producing
obedient/docile workers (hidden curriculum) – links back to Bowles and
Gintis
• They prepare working class children for working class jobs (Willis)
Roberts (1989)
• Need real jobs.. Not schemes (Finn – economy is failing – not young people)
• Schools should develop free-thinking individuals (not zombies)
Cohen
The idea of vocationalism blames young people – idea that youth need
changing.
Feminists focus on:
• See schemes as sexist and encouraging traditional gender roles
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