League Tables The New Right introduced school league tables in which schools were ranked based on their exam performance in SATs, GCSES, and A levels. The tables are published in many newspapers and online. The idea behind league tables was to allow...
New Labour were in power from 1997-2010, and during those years they certainly introduced an impressive range of new education policies – some of which were inspired by New Right principles and focused on enhancing marketization: increasing competition between schools...
In May 2010 the Conservative-Liberal Democratic Coalition government came to power. The Conservatives were the more dominant party and their views were correspondingly more strongly represented in educational policy. Marketization Policies (Choice/ Competition/...
What Are Free Schools? A Free School in England is a type of Academy, a non-profit-making, state-funded school which is free to attend. Free schools are not controlled by a Local Authority (LA) but instead governed by anon-profit charitable trust. To set up a Free...
What is Privatisation? Privatisation is where services which were once owned and provided by the state are transferred to private companies, such as the transfer of educational assets and management to private companies, charities or religious institutions. The UK...
The 1944 Education Act The 1944 Education act is a good example of a policy which selected students for different types of school by ability The 1944 Education Act established three types of secondary school – Grammar, Technical and Secondary Modern. The three schools...
What are grammar schools? In short, they are schools which focus on providing an academic education based on selection by ability, typically through an entrance test at the age of 11. The term ‘scholas grammaticales’ was first use in the 1500s when monarchs, nobles...
Indian and Chinese families have higher levels of Parental control and expectation Strand’s (2007)’s analysis of data from the 2004 Longitudinal Study of Young People found that Indian students are the ethnic group most likely to complete homework five evenings a week...
Teacher Pupil Relationships Cecile Wright (1992) Found that teachers perceived ethnic minority children differently from white children. Asian children were seen as a problem that could be ignored, receiving the least attention and often being excluded from classroom...
A recent parliamentary report has found that poor white boys and girls do worse in schools than children in other ethnic groups. How much worse do poor white children do? The report uses students who received free school meals (FSM children) as an indicator of...
The labels which teachers give to pupils can influence the construction and development of students’ identities, or self-concepts: how they see and define themselves and how they interact with others. This in turn can affect their attitudes towards school, their...
Pupil subcultures are groups of students who share some values, norms and behaviour, which give them a sense of identity, and provide them with status through peer-group affirmation. Pupil subcultures take a variety of forms, ranging from pro-school to anti-school...
The Hidden Curriculum refers to the unwritten rules, values and normative patterns of behaviour which students are expected to conform to and learn while in school. Examples of things taught through the ‘Hidden Curriculum include: respecting authorityrespect for other...
The 1944 Tripartite System Main aims Selective education – to provide different education to different types of studentEquality of opportunity – ability not money to determine schooling for the first time Details of the Act Tripartite system 11+3 Types of school...
Social democrats believe that governments should invest heavily in education and use education as a means to improve equality of opportunity, which in turn is the best way to ensure that education also contributes to economic growth. Social Democratic perspectives...
The New Right refers to a set of ideas that emerged in the 1970’s. It has significantly influenced the policies of the UK Conservative Party and is a set of political beliefs about how the country should be run. New Right ideas have most been mostly strictly followed...
Changes in women’s employment According to Social Trends (2008) the number of men and women in paid work is now virtually the same. There is a growing service sector where women are increasingly likely to be employed over men and employers increasingly seek women for...
Research on the development of gender identity has shown that children become keen to demonstrate their awareness and knowledge of gender at the age of five to six. Consequently, seven to eight-year olds have a relatively well-established sense of gender identity. For...
Material Deprivation can prevent a child gaining a good education because parents are less able to meet the Hidden costs of education such as finding money for school trips and home resources such as computers. Material Deprivation also means a family is more likely...
Parsons argued that, after primary socialisation within the family, the school takes over as the focal socializing-agency: school acts as a bridge between family and society as a whole, preparing children for their adult roles in society. Within the family, the child...
Traditional Marxists see the education system as working in the interests of ruling class elites. According to the Marxist perspective on education, the system performs three functions for these elites: Reproduces class inequality In school, the middle classes use...
Marxists sociologists Bowles and Gintis (1976) argue that the main function of education in capitalist societies is the reproduction of labour power. They see the education system as being subservient to and performing functions for the Bourgeoisie, the capitalist...
Willis’ research involved visiting one school and observing and interviewing 12 working class rebellious boys about their attitude to school during their last 18 months at school and during their first few months at work. Willis argues pupils rebelling are evidence...
The New Right introduced the 1988 Education Reform Act and believe in Marketisation and Parentocracy within the framework of a National Curriculum and with teaching and learning monitored by OFSTED. Underlying principles of the New Right They believe the state...
A good example of the New Right perspective on education comes from the work of the Americans, John Chubb and Terry Moe (1940). They argue that American state education has failed and they make the case for opening it up to market forces of supply and demand. They...
Gibson and Asthana (1999) pointed out that there is a correlation between low household income and poor educational performance. There are a number of ways in which poverty can negatively affect the educational performance of children. For example – Higher levels of...
All of the studies below suggest that working class cultures are deficient and that working-class children are deprived as a result. These explanations thus put the blame for working-class underachievement on the working-class families themselves. In these...
Cultural Capital refers to the skills and knowledge middle class parents have that they can use to give their children an advantage in the education system. A closely related concept is Social Capital – which is the support and information provided by contacts and...
Cultural Capital can be defined as the skills and knowledge which an individual can draw on to give them an advantage in social life. In this post, I explore Bourdieu’s foundational concept of the Habitus and then look at how cultural capital can give children an...
The Marxist sociologist Pierre Bourdieu is the theorist most closely associated with developing the concept of cultural capital and applying it to education. Bourdieu argued that each class has its own cultural framework, or set of norms, values and ideas which he...
This topic looks as how in school processes such as teacher- pupil relationships, subcultures, banding and streaming and the Hidden Curriculum all relate to class differences in education Teacher-Pupil Relationships Howard Becker: Labelling and the Ideal Pupil – In...
What is The Gender Gap? The gender gap in education refers to the fact that girls get better GCSE and A level results than boys, in practically every subject, and women are much more likely to go to university than men. For more specific statistics on the relationship...
Functionalists focus on the positive functions performed by the education system. There are four positive functions that education performs Creating social solidarity We have social solidarity when we feel as if we are part of something bigger. Emile Durkheim argued...
Functionalist sociologist Emile Durkheim saw Education as performing two major functions in advanced industrial societies – transmitting the shared values of society and simultaneously teaching the specialised skills for an economy based on a specialised division of...
Intro for class difference: A striking feature of education is the difference in achievement between pupils of different social classes. This difference can be explained for a myriad of ideas. Referring to internal such as labelling, setting and streaming as well as...
INTRO: =Statistics to show ethnic differences in achievement? 50-60% white pupils attain 5 or more A*-C GCSEsOn average, over 75% of Chinese pupils attain 5 or more A*-C GCSEs40-50 % of Pakistani and Black pupils attain A*-C GCSEs EXTERNAL FACTORS 3 cultural factors...
INTRO: Within the past 40 years there has been a shift in patterns of achievement according to gender; with recent studies showing girls outperforming boys at GCSE and A level. This can be due to a number of factors such as the impact of the feminism movement, laws...
INTRO: Sociologists have conflicting views on the role education has in society. This is often because they have different sociological perspectives that see society differently. This essay will focus on the theories of education from functionalism, neoliberalism and...
INTRO: Educational policy refers to the plans and strategies for education introduced by government, for example Acts passed through Parliament. Since the late 19th century, the government has taken an active role in providing education for the masses, to ensure...