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Summary AQA Sociology A/AS Level paper 1 education topic summaries
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AQA Sociology A/AS Level paper 1 education topic summaries. These are perfect for revision with clear sociologist names and theories.
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Introduction to Sociology Social norms are rules & expectations that govern the behaviour expected in social situations and can be formal or informal rules.
Each culture has its own norms and is a form of social control.
Values are general principles which underpin the norms of social behaviour.
Society is a group of people involved in persistent social action
Key features of human society: norms, rules, statuses, power, authority, groups and institutions. The norms give human society
stability
Culture refers to things that are learnt and shared by a society or group of people and are passed down from generation to
generation through socialisation (language, traditions, rituals and beliefs)
Socialisation is the process by which an individual learns their culture. There are two types of socialisation: primary (largely within
the family) and secondary (schools/media or work)
Agencies of socialisation: Family, Education, peer group, religion, workplace and the media.
Sociological perspectives are different ways of looking at society.
1. Functionalism: a consensus perspective in sociology that sees society as based on shared values into which members are
socialised. It sees society like an organism with each part performing functions to maintain the system as a whole.
2. Marxism views society as defined by capitalism and the rich have the power to define culture
3. Feminism views society as a patriarch and that ken have the power to define culture
4. Social action approach sees individuals’ having choices and culture is maintained through social interaction and shared
meanings are conveyed through language, clothes and gestures.
5. Post-modernism views society as too complex to fully explain but use the media to construct identities. Critics believe they
ignore class, gender, and ethnicity and age inequalities.
Ethnic differences in educational achievement-external
Asian and Chinese pupils exceed national average whilst black and white pupils are slightly below national average which is
46.6%.
CDT theorists argue that low-income black children lack intellectual stimulation and enriching experiences so are poorly equipped
to deal with the education system. Many argue they are socialised into a fatalistic background which undermines their
motivation.
Bereiter and Engelman (1966) said language spoken in low income black American families is inadequate.
Themina Basit (2013) suggested British-Asian parents hold a strong belief education would transform their children’s lives
Archer and Frances (2007) interviewed British-Chinese parents and found they placed exceptionally high value on education
Tariq Modood (2004) said ethnic minority parents possess high levels of cultural capital but often qualifications are not
recognised in UK but they can still help their children.
Tony Sewell (1997): Afro-Caribbean families have the highest proportion of lone parents and he argues boys who lack a father
role model turn to gang/street culture, rejecting school.
Historically, patterns of migration meant BAME people are more likely to live in economically depressed areas with high levels of
unemployment, low wages and discrimination in labour/ housing markets.
Whatever their ethnicity, children from lower income families do worse at GCSE, however low income affects some ethnic groups
more than others and ethnicity can counteract low income to some extent for some ethnic groups.
Wood et al (2010) study showed that only 1 in 16 seemingly BAME applications were offered an interview compared to 1 in 9
seemingly white applications.
Strengths: research evidence supports that some cultures place a strong emphasis on education and evidence also shows cultural
norms might impact internal factors.
Limitations: victim blaming, deterministic, black culture is seen as deficient not different, ignores positive impacts, deflects
attention from institutional racism and assumes white culture is superior.
, Class differences in educational achievement- external factors
Social class is a form of social stratification (hierarchy) and refers to groups who are divided in terms of wealth, income or
occupation. Marx identified two opposed classes however there is now seen to be 7. New Right also see a class called the
‘underclass’ below working-class
Schools and colleges measure achievement through free school meals or parents education levels.
In reception w/c students are 4 months behind m/c counterparts, by year 11 they’re 19 months behind.
Middle-class backgrounds tend to do better at GCSE, A-Level and take the majority of uni places.
Attainment gap refers to disparities in education between different classes, genders and ethnicities.
Attainment gaps are caused by external and internal factors.
Cultural Deprivation Theory
Claims that w/c children are inadequately socialised in primary socialisation and lack the ‘right’ culture needed for educational
success.
Anette Lareau (1990s) shows m/c parents have different parenting styles to w/c parents.
Bernstein (1971) argues m/c elaborated speech code is the key for success not w/c restricted code as schools use the elaborated
code.
Surgarman (1970) argues w/c subculture includes values such as fatalism, collectivism, immediate gratification and present time
orientation which mean children are less likely to achieve at school.
Social policy is the action plans and programmes of governments/agencies that aim to deal with a social pattern of problems or to
achieve a goal.
Compensatory education is a social policy aiming to tackle w/c underachievement by providing extra support and funding to
families in deprived areas with pre-school children. (sesame street, operation head start US, sure start centres and nursery
vouchers)
Strengths of CDT: recognises importance of primary socialisation, recognises cultural values can shape participation in education;
findings influence development of compensatory education.
Limitations of CDT: Victim blaming, ignores internal factors, assumes both m/c and w/c are homogenous, subjective as w/c
culture is seen as deficient not different, compensatory education has not reduced attainment gap.
Material deprivation is when you don’t have the material possessions needed for society
Absolute Poverty is when you can’t access your basic needs and relative poverty is when you can’t afford items others have in
your society.
Relative child poverty is measured as children living in a house with an average annual income of 60% below average wage which
is £25,428 a year before tax.
Hidden cost of State education refers to costs such as uniforms, trips, resources, meals
Link between material deprivation and education is that 90% of all failing schools are located in deprived areas. As well as
children from low income families facing educational barriers such as feeling excluded and stigmatised as can’t afford clubs,
uniform or trips, lack of diet and nutrition makes it harder to concentrate or ill, lack of study space at home or internet access.
Social policies in place to reduce barriers: FSM, breakfast, hwk clubs or second hand uniform sales.
Cultural capital theory
Capital means wealth in the form of money or other assets owned by a person or organisation.
Economic capital is possessing money such as savings or property, educational capital is possessing qualifications such as a
degree, cultural capital is having a lifestyle valued by society and symbolic capital is having valuable social contacts such as uni
professors of doctors.
Pierre Bourdieu argues capital can be converted to another form of capital, for example economic capital can pay for private
schools/tuition gaining educational capital.
In private education there is a higher standard of education, smaller class sizes. They educate around 7% of population but
account for almost ½ students who go to Oxbridge.
Adonis and Pollard (1998) argue private education is a way class privileges are transferred from generation to generation.
Alice Sullivan (2001) showed that w/c pupils could have the same level of cultural capital as m/c pupils but m/c pupils still did
better because they had economic capital.
Strengths of CCT: Doesn’t assume w/c culture is inferior, identifies bias towards m/c culture and recognises material factors shape
cultural factors.
Limitations of CCT: Fails to recognise internal factors, deterministic.
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