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aqa alevel sociology education summary
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A concise summary of all the content needed for aqa sociology A-level for the education module
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TOPIC ONE AND TWO CLASS DIFFERENCES IN ACHIEVEMENT7% of children in the UK go to a private school
31% working class students achieve 5 or more GCSE passes
63% middle class students (within state schools) achieve 5 or more GCSE passes
External factors:
Cultural deprivation: (lacking the norms and values needed to succeed in education)
Language- Bernstein noted that working class children have the restricted (short simple
sentences and vocab) language code and middle class children have the elaborated more
complex varied speech) language code so middle class children already use the same as
language as education (in books/teachers instructions etc) but working class kids feel
excluded
Parental attitudes- Douglas found that working class parents place little value on education
so encouraged their kids less and visited the school less, their kids naturally took on this
view. However Douglas and Mortimore found that they were interested just worked longer,
irregular hours so couldn’t attend parents evenings etc
Subculture (different values as barrier to success)- Sugarman said these are fatalism
(believing your future is inevitable), collectivism (group success>individual success),
immediate gratification and present time orientation (the present is more important than the
future so not making plans or goals). However Keddie said they were culturally different not
deprived eg collectivism is good
Compensatory education like Operation headstart (1960s) aimed to resolve these gaps like
Sesame street to teach numeracy/literacy/values.
Material Deprivation: (lacking the resources needed to succeed in education)
Housing- overcrowding means less sleep (or place to work) so less concentration in school
Diet- Howard said working class kids have less fresh fruit/vitamins so have a compromised
immune system which leads to increased absence and lack of concentration. Cheap sugary
food can lead to hyperactivity/misbehaviour.
Financial support- miss out on things that enhance education like trips, technology or books.
Ridge says that working class kids often have to take on part time work which is a distraction
and makes them more tired in the classroom
Fear of debt- Uni costs are not affordable and working class parents can't help out so less
incentive to achieve at school. Reay found working class kids are more likely to go to a local
uni to save money which reduces their chance of going somewhere with status.
However Feinstein said educated parents make positive contributions to their kids' education
regardless of income so cultural deprivation is the bigger issue.
capital (wealth assets and resources):
Bourdieu said it comes in cultural (attitudes, language, hobbies etc) economic (know how to
spend money smartly to make a return) and educational (qualifications). The Middle Class
have all 3. Sullivan did questionnaires about cultural capital and found that the children of
graduates did activities like reading, museums etc and did better in the GCSEs
, Internal factors:
labelling/self fulfilling prophecy- Becker used interviews with teachers to find out that
the ideal pupil was m/c with manners/behaviours/appearance needed to succeed but
working class pupils often got a label of troublemaker. Teachers then treat them
slightly differently so the label is internalised and will be lived up to.
Rosenthal/Jacobson pretended to be part of the local authority in order to give IQ
tests to an early years class, then picked a random 20% to label as gifted bloomers.
They returned in a year and the bloomers were outperforming.
But labelling is deterministic like Fuller's black girls rejecting their labels as
motivation.
Setting/streaming: (setting is subject specific, streaming is same for all subjects)
Higher ability classes have higher quality lessons and behaviour but lower ability
classes have bad behaviour which needs crowd control so content being taught up
to a lower maximum level. w/c often end up in lower sets due to their label so can't
achieve.
However school are moving towards mixed classes with differentiation
Gillborn and Youdell say that due to league tables and results being published
there's an A-C economy in schools which leads to educational triage into those who
will pass anyway and will be left alone, those with potential who will be helped to
pass and hopeless cases.
Subcultures: groups of pupils who share similar values/attitudes/behaviour
Lacey found that there's two main groups, pro school (middle class kids who value
education are committed and positively labelled) and anti school (their values go
against school eg truancy, drinking, disruption etc). But external factors like
material/cultural deprivation play into the development of subcultural beliefs.
Pupils class identities
Your habitus (disposition on life including your life preferences and expectations) is
based on your capital and class. Education has a middle class habitus so these
students feel comfortable and confident here as it's familiar to them. The working
class habitus is devalued by the school and seen as inferior so these pupils develop
“nike identities” by identifying with brands that are distinctly different from middle
class brands. This strengthens their working class identity because they got the
message that they're not welcome in education so choose to reject it as it doesn't fit
in with their lifestyle or identity.
External factors explain why w/c pupils are already behind when they start school.
Internal factors explain why the attainment increases throughout school.
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