Educationsociology

How is the education system of great Britain organised?

• Education set up in 1945• Grammar schools• Secondary moderns• Technical schools• Middle class children were favoured over working

class.• Popular with many parents• Britain changed to have comprehensive schools in

the 1970’s

Grammar schools

• Sat and 11+ exam• Allocated a school type as a result og the

exam• Grammar school- academic• Secondary modern- physical learning• Only those attending grammar schools

could sit exams and go to college.

Comprehensive schools

• 1965, a weak, unpopular labour government sent out circular 10/65 to all education authorities.

• All children of all abilities went to one school• Margret Thatcher- conservative prime

minister from 1979- she made schools competitive.

• Tony Blair- labour prime minister from 1997.

1979

• Turning point in British society• Conservative government (Margaret Thatcher)• Set of beliefs called the new right- no rules are

needed for society, because economics can be relied upon.

• • Impacted schools because new right only

believed that they could improve.

Key points

• Labour party introduced comprehensive schools to encourage equality for all children.

• Conservative governments objected to comprehensive schools.

• Conservatives believed in market forces and competition between schools.

• They have encouraged a variety of different schools to develop

• The labour party under Tony Blair and more recent education ministers have continued with this policy.

What types of school are available in the UK

• Compulsory education• Age 5-16• Regulated by the national curriculum• Freely provided between the ages of 5-19• Local education authorities have a duty to educate all children.• Excluded children must have alternate provision. • Education and skills act (2008)- raised school leaving age to 18 from 2015 and has

given pupils the right to be consulted on school policy. • 4-10 ½- compulsory, primary education.• 10 ½- 16- compulsory, secondary education.• 16-19- optional sixth form/ colleges.• 19+ tertiary education, university.

Types of schools

• State schools• Owned by LEA• They allocate the £ and employ staff• They include comprehensive schools, grammar and secondary modern. • Community school• Community schools are owned by local authorities who allocated

money and employ staff. This is probably the most common type of school.

• Foundation schools• Have more freedom that community schools because their governing

body can select pupils and employ staff.• These schools may include comprehensive and grammar schools.

Types of schools

• Voluntary aided and faith schools• Owned by charities• May have religious faiths• Vocational qualifications• City academies• Independent from local authorities and many are funded by business or

charities.• Large numbers are linked to religious groups• They were often set up on the sites of failing schools and many offer

vocational education. • Specialist schools• Have extra funding to establish centre of excellence in certain subject areas

although having to teach he whole curriculum.• Over 2,600 in England.

Major changes in the education system since 1945

• 1945- the education act- 11+- came about to select children into the right schools for their abilities.

• 1965- circular 10/65, prepare for comprehensive schools (labour- Tony Blair)- labour party said prepare form comprehensive schools to create equality.

• 1979- conservative government (Margaret Thatcher), ‘new right’, schools could improve.

Purpose of education

• Socialisation• Route to social success• Training for future employment• Passing on culture and knowledge• Protection of young people from

employers• Control

Studies on the purpose of education

Jackson- if pupils are to succeed, pupils do not only need knowledge., but also conformity.

Pat McNeil (1986)- includes knowledge of how to get along with teachers and other pupils.

• •Protecting children:•The first government acts imposing compulsory education in Britain was 1880 and then partly it was designed to stop child labour in factories and affected children ages 5-10.•Also provided a trained workforce to operate new machinery.•The great debate:•1970’s, James Callaghan, a labour prime minister made a famous speech. Said Britain’s falling behind because the education system has failed to produce skilled workers. This Lead to national curriculum.

Key words

• Formal socialisation- deliberately setting out to influence people’s behaviour.• Social control- the way in which

the social rules of the cultures within, which affect their behaviour.

Policies encouraging competition

• Publishing league tables• Encouraging private investigators into

schools• Setting up the academy program• Offering parental choice of schools• Publishing GCSE and A-level league

tables• Inspections and the published reports.

Independent schools

• Fee-paying- independent sector• Parents paying money to schools

run as businesses. • Limited facilities, low pay for

teachers.• Selective with students.

Best schools or the best students

• Its hard to determine that schools with the best exam results are actually the best schools or if it’s the intelligent students.

Karl Turner – found that schools with high percentages of pupils with free-school-meals were unlikely to get good inspection reports.

Gorard and Tymms (2006)- says pupils results are effected by family wealth and ability.It could be linked to:• Poor diet• Poor health• Lack of recourses

Assess the view that competition between schools will encourage better education for pupils

•The view that competition between schools will encourage better education for pupils can be argued. Sociologists argue that schools that are fee-paying encourage students to do better, but it could also be argued that students with rich parents don’t do as well because they rely on their parents money to fall back on. On the other hand students in free, comprehensive schools may do better to ensure themselves a better future. But contrastingly Karl Turner found that schools with more pupils claiming free-school-meals are unlikely to get better expectations.

Alternative schools

• Summer hill- progressive school, doesn’t follow the nation curriculum, promotes happiness

• (Tony Blair changed the law so these types of schools were not aloud.)• Independent boarding school.

• “imagine a school where kids have freedom to be themselves. Where success is not defined by academic achievement but by the own child definition of success. Where the whole school deals democratically with issues/ with each individual having a right to be heard. Where you can play all day if you want to and there is time and space to sit and dream. … could their be such a school”

Alternative schools

• Eton college- • British independent boarding school.• Boys school• David Cameron, prince harry and William attended.• Pupil teacher ratio is 8:1

• “our primary aim is to encourage each Etonian to be self confident, inquiring, tolerant, positive young men, a well rounded character with an independent mind, an individual who respects the differences of others. By the time he leaves the school, we want each boy to have the true sense of self worth which will enable him to stand up for himself and for a purpose greater than himself, and, in doing so, to be of value society ”

Social class

• Social class- a measure based on occupational and educational background.

• Working class under achievement is because:• Catchment area• Resources• Parents job type• Parents educational background• Parents norms and values• Wealth (paid of free education)• Lack of cultural capitals• Diet

classes

• Underclass: unemployed• Cultural deprivation: not having full access to

the skills and knowledge needed to succeed. •Class examples:• Super class: J K Rowling • Upper Class: Katie Price• Middle class: solicitor or doctor etc.• Under class: unemployed

Class Key words and studies

• Material deprivation: students lack of money that deprives them from having the best chances at succeeding in their education.

• Cultural deprivation: not having the desired skills and knowledge needed to succeed in a good education.

• Immediate gratification: ‘I want it now’ – impatient• Deferred gratification: ‘waiting’ working hard for what they want

and being patient.• Cultural capital: having the valued knowledge and skills to succeed.• Elaborated code: middle-class- well • spoken –formal.• Restricted code: working-class- jargon-• informal.

Bernstein (1961)- discovered language codes (the way people use speech, grammar and vocabulary.) different language codes benefited the middle-classes to a better education.

Class studies

Diane Reay (1998)- looked at how mothers are making cultural capital work for their children.• Middle-class mother have the

knowledge to help their children more effectively with homework.

• Mothers can also communicate with teachers more effectively.

• She interviewed 33 mothers in 2 primary schools in london.

MARXIST!- JWB Douglas (1964)- he found that lower-working-class people are less likely to stay behind at school to catch up revise, or even for extra curricular. He found that the middle-classes are more likely to go onto completing their A-levels and going onto university. • He used longitudinal studies• IQ tests• Used a divide of 4 social classed

groups.

Class studies

• Ball, Bowe and Gerwitz (1994)- argued that there are 3 types of parents:

1. Privileged/ skilled choosers, have the money to move.

2. Semi-skilled choosers, strong motivation but likely to choose a school close to home.

3. Disconnected choosers, worried about children's happiness, and let them go where the child wants (underclass)

MARXIST!- Pierre Bourdieu (1971)- says that working-class failure is down to the fault of the education system.Agents of social control:• Economic capital• Social capital• Cultural capital

Charles Murry- argues that single parent families lack male role models.

- Disapline deacrease- Boys are not correctly socialised

- They develop a culture with characteristics of abuse, neglect, broken relationships,

crime and despair.

Cost of education

•Additional costs of free- paying schools (comprehensive): • Equipment• Trips• Uniform• School dinners• Charity events• transport

education (cost)

• The Halifax building society (2006):• A private education for a child between the ages of 3 to 18, will cost £326,000.• For top private schools, on average fee’s are £25,000 a year.• To get into a well performing comprehensive secondary school in England you are

looking to pay tens of thousands at the least for a house in catchment. • Money and attainment:• Material deprivation theories suggest that the working-class experience poverty

and deprivation. This leads to failure. • Children who grow up in poverty have the lowest levels of educational attainment.• The gap between the poor and the rest of the population is growing as the

children get older.• Fewer working-class students are continuing in higher education.• Material deprivation ^

Deprivation (cost of education)

• According to government statistics: The UK has the highest record of child poverty in Europe. In 2007 2.9 million children were poor. In 2004, on in four British children were poor. 10.2% of children in the UK are classified as being in serve poverty.

• ‘There is a strong association between parents low level of educational attainment and serve child poverty.’

• Impacts of deprivation:• Cramped small housing• Sickness , absences from school• Space• Jobs out of school• No money for resources or trips• Innutritious diet• Lack of sleep

Deprivation and education studies (cost of an education)

• Wedge and Prosser (1974):• They were studied at age 11.• Poor children are disadvantaged in

terms of ; low income, poor housing, family composition.

• Such children are often ill, lighter at birth, and do less well in school compared with advantaged children

Smith and Noble (1995): argues that there are a number of hidden costs that take part in maintaining a child's education.• school uniform• School dinners• Travelling to school• Necessary equipment• Educational trips with the school.

Feinstein (2003):

Argues that the educational achievement of a 26 year old can be predicted at 22 months old.

Gaps were already opening up in attainment levels between children of different social background before they ad all of their first teeth.

Deprivation and education studies (cost of an education)

• Hutchings (2003):• If students from low-income families

went to university, they would spend most of their spare time working evening shifts.

• This nay then possibly affect their degree level, or even affect them staying for the entire degree.

• Kingdon and Cassen (2007):• Factors such as free-school-meals, low

levels of employment, single parent families and poor educational

qualifications of parents all contribute to low achievement.

• Disadvantaged children also attend schools that rate low in the league

tables.

Oscar Lewis (1950’s):• Poor people develop distinct subcultural values to enable them to survive

poverty, but which disadvantage their children in school.• They feel helpless and disempowered.

• At 6-7 years of age children absorb values of their culture and cannot take advantage of opportunities that may occur.

Government policies supporting poorer children

• Government policy: funding• the government has persisted in tackling problems of underachievement

by creating policies that are directed at changing schools and teachers.• School funding under the new right (Margret Thatcher, Conservative)

was directed towards high achieving schools because it was believed that if schools were in competition for funding, they would all improve.

• Government policy: EMA• In 2002, the British government announced that it was providing a grant

of £30 per week from September 2004 onwards to help some 16-19 year old students to stay in education.

• Evidence showed 6% increase in those who stayed.• Unfortunately the £30 wasn’t enough for some of the poorest families.

Marxism and education

• Education is capitalist production. • Making the inequality's seem ok because meritocracy exists.

MARXIST!- Louis Althusser (1970’s)- believes education socialises the working-class into accepting their subordinate status.• Conveys the ideology of the ruling

class.• Education prepares individuals for

the world of work, in order to accept the capitalist society.

-links to internationalist theory/ labelling theory.

Bowles and Gintis (1970’s)- • Function of education in capitalist

society's is to create workers.• Correspondence theory education

inequality mirrors the inequality of wider society.

• If capitalism is to succeed it must have an industrious and obedient work-force that is to divide to challenge the authorities of the rulers.

• The education system succeeds in fulfilling this aim by means of the hidden curriculum.

Marxism and education

Ivan Illich (1973)-• Schools kill creativity, insist on

conformity, and offer an introduction into the capitalist society.

• Children learn to accept authorities in an unthinking fashion and this leads them to accept government ideas.

Paul Willis (1977)- Neo-marxist• Did ethnography of twelve anti-

school boys ‘the lads’- working class.

• These boys rejected school and other children within it, presenting themselves as superior.

• Willis claims working-class children choose to fail in school as a rejection of capitalism.

• Their rejection of school is an act of resistance.Neo-Marxists- modern Marxists, take in a

wider amount of knowledge other than class.

Strengths of Marxism

• It points out how ideology is transmitted within schools via the hidden curriculum.

• Marxism is linked to the labour party.• It recognizes conflict of interest in schools; not everyone shares

values.• It points out the inequality's of both opportunity and outcome in

the system.•Weaknesses- • it assumes teachers are unaware of class dynamics and are all

middle-class agents.• Many working-class children do not succeed in the education

system.• It overemphasizes class and ignores other structural inequality's,

ethnicity and gender.

Marxists (New left)

• Working-classes are victims of the system.

• New right>The new right say that the poor are to blame, they have developed a culture that is negative and selfish, it’s the poor's fault and their own responsibility.

• New left> the structure of society is to blame, the poor did not choose to be poor. If the poor fail, it is the responsibility of the culture we have created.

Pierre Bourdieu (1977): argues that the middle-class and the upper-classes have cultural capital and financial

capital, this means there parents can give them more support in terms of

equipment and educational trips. They share a similar culture to the school

and therefore they are more successful.

Alice Sullivan (2001): tried to measure cultural capital in four comprehensive schools in england. She handed out a questionair to discover which books,

newspapers and tv programs the children watched. She found strong connections between cultural capitals of parents and

children. She supports bourdieu’s supposition that cultural capital is taught by

parents in the home.

Gender (the gender gap in educational attainment)

• Reading is seen as a more feminine activity, and this is perhaps why boys struggle in creative subjects such as literacy/ English.

DFSC (2007)- says the gender gap is mainly the result of boys poorer literacy and language skills.

Gender gap in literacy

• 80% of boys and 88% of girls reached there reading goals at age 11.• At ages 14 12% more girls got better English grades. (73% A*-C in

girls 59% boys)• Its said that girls find creative activities more interesting that boys

do.

• The gender gap has said to have been widening reason for this include:• Inter-play of school and home • environment disadvantages boys.• Boys are less likely to be given • books as presents.

Tony Sewell (2006)- says schools do not nurture masculine traits but instead celebrate qualities more associated with girls.

Francis (2006)- most 7-8 year olds feel teachers gender doesn’t matter, and some feel male teachers treat boys more harshly.

Patterns of achievement between genders when boys were overtaking girls• 1960’s, boys achieved on average 5% better than girls.• 1980’s boys outperformed girls at all levels of achievement.• 1980’s, girls were offered a curriculum preparing them for life.

Whereas boys were offered practical subjects and were encouraged to study academic subjects.

• 1980’s, schoolbooks were written with focus on males.• School uniform based around masculinity (blazers)

• Mid 1980s, both genders began to improve their school performance.

Scrimgeour (1993)- investigated education with a small sample of scottish teachers and found considerable bias in favour of males in terms of practice and materials.

Girls beginning to over take boys attainment levels

• Girls outperformed boys at GCSE in 2007 by 9.1% in all subjects but maths.

• Girls performance has cause a moral panic over ‘boys failure’.• Girls have been moving ahead very fast in English.• 66% of girls and 57% of boys achieved 5 or more A*-C’s.

• Females are staying on longer into post 16 education, and are taking over in traditionally male jobs.

Warrington and younger (1999)- the success of girls should be a cause for celebration. Instead its viewed as a ‘problem 'because males are ‘failing’.

Becky Francis (2006)- despite the focus on male underperformance, a high proportion of working-class girls still fail.

Feminist views

• Feminists also argue that many females fail to achieve their full individual potential or choose to study ‘feminine’ subjects which are less valued than ‘masculine’ subjects’.

• Feminists still claim subjects are favoured towards boys.

Riddell (1992)- found that middle-class girls shared the achievement values of the school and sought the approval of teachers.

Hartman- attention on gender is larger than that on social-class.

Sharpe (1994)- found working-class girls attitudes had changed dramatically in the past 20 years with careers, travel and independence now increasingly valued.

Gender and class

• In 2005 figures doubled fro woman working in high status careers.

• Evidence shows that females are more likely to revise.• Girls blame themselves for poor performance whereas boys

blame other things.

Arnot (2004)- girls are more likely to adopt learning strategies on there own such as asking teachers to get better understanding.

Fuller (1984)- found black girls in Brent were motivated not to end up in dead-end jobs like their mothers.

Crisis of masculinity and laddism

• Writers suggest male underachievement is linked to the crisis of masculinity.

Carolyn Jackson- suggests girls are now engaged in similar behaviour to boys, which she calls ‘ladette behaviour’, she says its down to the extreme pressure of testing that occurs in modern British schools.

Aggleton (1987)- studied young men from the new professional middle classes and found that some boys distanced themselves from aggressive working-class masculinity.

Salisbury and Jackson (1995)- says that there is more than one possible form of masculinity for boys to identify with.

• Male identities are concerned with the hierarchies of power and dominance.

• Males feel academic school work is feminine.

Willis (1970’s)- pointed out that hard-working academic achievement among boys was seen, even by teachers as being indescribable.

Willis (1994)- its not ‘cool 'to be academically able, as you can become labelled as ‘boffin’.

Mac and Ghail (1994)- laddish attitudes are adopted. (crisis of masculinity).

Gender and single sex education

• Teaching is seen as a more feminine job.• 1970’s-1980’s, experimented with single sex classes. It was proved

helpful for girls in science and maths lessons.• There is evidence girls do better in same-sex schools. They come out

top in league tables.

Leonard Sax- same sex lessons should be encouraged, because different genders require different education. ‘schools are now more ‘girl friendly’.

Murphy and Elwood (1998)- argue that teachers are now more sensative to gender issues facing females

Mitsos and Browne (1998)- in mixed schools girls work harder than boys.

Lyon et al. (2006)- girls are more conscientious with homework

gender

• Woman were seen to be homemakers, mean bread winners.(functionalist)

• Due to globalisation their has been a decline in heavy industries, such as iron and steel engineering etc.

• Decline is mainly in manual working class jobs, which didn’t need qualifications.

Mitso and Browne- decline in male employment opportunities has lead to ‘identity crisis’.

Schools are feminised?

• Its said there more options for girls.• Theirs more female teachers that perhaps relate to

teachers better.• Schools do not nurture masculine traits such as leadership.• Instead schools celebrate qualities such as attentiveness in

class and methodical working.

• There's a lack of male role models at home and in school.

Tony Sewell- thinks coursework should be replaced with exams and emphasize in outdoor education within the curriculum.

statistics

• Yougov (2007)- 39% of 8-11 year old had no male teachers at all.• A majority said presence of male teachers made them behave better.

42% worked harder.

• Growth in laddish sub-cultures has contributed to boys underachievement.

• Non-manual work seen as inferior.• “real boys don’t work and if they do they are bullied”

Francis (2006)- found 2/3 of 7-8 year olds believed gender didn’t matter.

Epstien (1998)- if a working-class boy is a swot they are likely to be harassed, labelled as sissies and subjected to homophobic verbal abuse.

statistics

• Between 1985-2007 boy achieved 3% higher from 26%-56% A*-C.• DFE(2007)- class gap is 3 times wider than gender gap.

Fuller- the gender gap is greatest amongst black Caribbean pupils, is believed to be because of their wide variety of role models.

Cohnolly (2006)- different combinations of class, ethnicity and gender produces different affects in educational attinment.

ethnicity

• Sociological studies have found that:• White, teen, girls with absent fathers are more likely to get pregnant and leave

school early.• Afro Caribbean adolescents with absent fathers are more likely to commit

crimes.• White middle class people are more likely to go to university.• Some minority group like Chinese, Indian and Irish heritage perform better than

others such as African, Caribbean and Pakistani.• Children from Indian family are more likely to seek a career after school.• Chinese girls outperform all ethnic minority groups at GCSE.• Females outperform males in every ethnic group.• Middle class students outperform working class students in every ethnic group.• Unsuccessful ethnic minority students are more likely to stay in education than

white students.

Possible causes of the previous findings

Role modelsParents backgrounds/ upbringingParents educational backgroundsWealthReligionFaithsInstitutional racismLabelling of certain ethnic minorities.

race

• Colour/ nationality.• Ethnic/ national origin.• A racial group sharing the same colour, nationality and

ethnic/ national origin.• A persons protected characteristic, belonging to a group (e.g.

British people)• Racial groups can comprise two or more racial groups such as

Asian British.

• Ethnicity: relates to the characteristics of a human group such as race, language, origin, religion.

Differential educational achievement

• Variations in educational attainment between students according to their social class background, gender and ethnicity.

• Results are collected annually and reports are issued publically. Sociologists use the data to observe patterns in achievement.

• IQ tests• They are controversial.• They don’t measure everything that should be considered.• A study showed that by the change of admissions into one of Americas

elitist universities (Berkley university of California) in 1997, the admissions changing to become almost entirely based upon SATS (tests closely related to IQ Tests), which were also unbiased towards ethnic minority groups, affected the percentages of each minority group placements. 40% were Asians, and only 3% admissions from African American.

•

Social class disadvantage and ethnicity

• Disadvantages:• Low birth weight• Lack of pre-school provision• Poor diet/ under nourished• Care for younger siblings• Employment while in education• Home environment.• Studies argue that Indian families are more supportive and

encouraging that Afro Caribbean families.• It has also been argued that low educational attainment within the

ethnic minorities is down to being tought in their second language.

Ethnicity and teacher labelling

• Some ethnic groups are labelled by teachers as being unintelligent, time wasters and trouble makers. This is usually aimed at male black Afro-Caribbean's.

• White and Asian pupils may be labelled as more intelligent and as a result preform better.

•Self fulfilling prophecy:• Labelling theory often results in a self-fulfilling prophecy.• If a child is told they are intelligent of unintelligent, often

they will live up to that expectation.

Youth subcultures and ethnicity

• A subculture is a group that hold different values to the minority. They adopt and display different behaviours to the norm in society.

• Some minority groups can adopt sub-culture values which demote education (anti education). This results in feeling different from other school students, disobedient and anti establishment behaviour.

Tony Sewell (1998): ‘The rebels’ – were a small group of black pupils, they rejected both goals and the rules of school e.g. the boys smoked cannabis on school grounds, behaved like this because of the racism in the school.• In 2001 57% of Afro-Caribean families were single parent,

compared to 25% of white.

ethnicity

James D Watson- believes that your race determines attainment (black people have lower IQ’s). He also thinks that you should be able to find out if you baby is heterosexual before its born and be aloud to abort it.

• The national curriculum is ethnocentric.• Ethnocentric: focussed on one culture, usually British.• Some schools are believed to be institutionally racist.

• Institutionally racist: the rules and behaviour of the school can let out a racist vibe, through the hidden curriculum.

Tony Sewell, Lee Jasper and ethnicity

Tony Sewell- believes that Black attainment is nothing to do with institutional racism and simply a reflection of ‘poor parenting’, peer group pressure and inability to be responsible for their own behaviour.

Lee Jasper- believes the education system is institutionally racist, and blames the teachers and schools for underachievement of the black community.

• A report highlighted in 1985 highlighted racism in school as a cause of underachievement.

• The curriculum is heavily biased (history and religion- based on British beliefs usually.)

• Recently commissions have taken big steps in trying to eradicate racism in schools.

Ethnicity studies

•Bernard Coard (1971):• A disproportionate amount

of Afro-Caribbean children placed in SEN schools are wrongly placed.

• Less than 10% return to mainstream schools.

• Assumed the child could not cope academically.

Afro-Caribean children underachieve because…• Racism of teachers• Low expectations• Lack of attention by

teachers• Low self esteem• Denial of child

developing their own identity on a daily basis.

Labelling theory/ interactionalist theory

•Master status: the most obvious thing about a person. (a label we attach to people)•attitudes- we have a tendency to behave in a

certain way towards different people, negatively or positively. For example- a teacher may act differently towards different pupils.•Self-fulfilling prophecy: beliefs and expectations

influencing a persons behaviour.• ‘Pygmalion’ effect- self fulfilling prophecy steps.

Labelling theory / interactionalist theory

• Rosenthal and Jackson (1964)•Went to a school and did IQ tests with

kids and told teachers several of there were ‘spurters’.• Randomly selected these several

students.• Spurters showed significant

improvements in their IQ scores a year later.• (perhaps because of teachers

expectations)

Adonis (2006) repeated this, and got a variety of results, some did better but alot of them still failed.

Labelling theory / interactionalist theory

Positive and negative expectations of teachers and determine whether a student passes or fails.Working-class children are seen as poor learners, they then live up to this ad let middle-class students dominate top sets.