Roles & Functions of Education (AQA A Level Sociology): Flashcards

Human capital (Schultz, 1961) is the knowledge and skills individuals possess; investing in it increases a country's productivity.

Davis and Moore saw role allocation as a main function: education selects and allocates individuals to future work roles.

True.

Unequal rewards, such as pay and status, motivate the most talented to strive for important positions, e.g. surgeons and judges.

Critics argue that education is not truly meritocratic because achievement is greatly influenced by class background rather than ability, e.g. through private tutoring.

The Wolf Report questioned the value of many vocational qualifications, finding that students were leaving school unprepared for the workplace.

Dennis Wrong (1961) argued that functionalists have an over-socialised view of people, seeing students as passive conformists.

The New Right views education through an economic lens, seeing schools as part of a system that should promote competition, choice and efficiency.

Marketisation is where schools compete like businesses and parents act as consumers, which the New Right says improves standards.

Neoliberals argue that underperforming schools should lose funding or be taken over.

False.

The New Right argues that the state has failed to provide high-quality education, so its role should be limited.

The New Right supports a national curriculum to promote shared values, such as British history and citizenship, which create social cohesion.

The state monitors school quality through Ofsted, league tables and standardised testing, while still allowing school choice and competition.

Chubb and Moe argued that private schools perform better because they are accountable to paying consumers.

A voucher system is where parents are given public money to spend on a school of their choice, forcing schools to compete and raise standards.

False.

Chubb and Moe argued that state schools had low standards, especially for disadvantaged groups.

Brown (1990) called a system driven by parents' consumer power a parentocracy.

New Labour showed New Right influence by supporting academies and performance targets, even as a centre-left government.

Cream-skimming (Bartlett, 1993) is when schools select the most able students and discriminate against those who require extra support.

Marxists argue that school choice reproduces inequality because middle-class parents are better able to exercise choice due to their economic and cultural capital.

The National Curriculum is criticised as ethnocentric because it reflects a white, middle-class, Eurocentric view of British history and culture.

One strength is that making schools accountable for student outcomes has improved results in some failing schools.

Marxists argue that education serves the interests of capitalism and the ruling class (bourgeoisie).

The myth of meritocracy is the idea that success is based on merit, which makes inequality seem fair by blaming individuals rather than the capitalist system.

Althusser (1971) argued that education is an ideological state apparatus used to maintain ruling-class dominance.

According to Althusser, education reproduces class inequality across generations and legitimises that inequality.

False.

The hidden curriculum teaches acceptance of capitalist values such as obedience, competition and hierarchy.

Bowles and Gintis found that schools rewarded pupils who were hard-working, disciplined, obedient and unquestioning of authority.

The correspondence principle is Bowles and Gintis's term for the way education and the workplace mirror each other.

False.

Students showing greater independence and creative thinking were more likely to gain lower grades.

The fragmented curriculum mirrors the workplace, where jobs are broken down into separate tasks with little knowledge of the overall process.

Students learn to be motivated by external rewards, such as exam results, just as workers are motivated by pay.

Willis argued that students actively oppose ruling-class values, rather than passively accepting them.

Willis studied a group of 12 working-class boys, whom he called 'the lads'.

The counter-school culture ironically prepared the boys for low-skilled work by giving them attitudes suited to unskilled labour.

The social democratic critique is that Marxists ignore educational reforms that have improved opportunities for working-class students, e.g. comprehensive schooling.

Saunders argued that middle-class achievement stems from genetic advantages rather than systemic exploitation.

False.

Feminists criticise Bowles and Gintis and Willis for ignoring how schools reproduce patriarchy as well as capitalism.

False.

Feminists argue that the values schools teach are not neutral but benefit a specific group: men.

One way schools help sustain male dominance is by rewarding 'masculine' traits, such as assertiveness and competitiveness.

Liberal feminists want the remaining barriers between girls and boys removed, so that they have equal chances.

Sharpe found a shift from marriage and family to career goals.

Stanworth (1983) found that teachers had higher expectations for boys.

Francis found that gender stereotypes from society and educators lead girls to think STEM fields are better suited for boys.

One way the hidden curriculum teaches patriarchy, according to Heaton and Lawson, is through traditional family structures in textbooks, e.g. women in domestic roles and men in leadership roles.

False.

Banyard found that sexual harassment in schools is often not treated as seriously as other bullying.

According to Walby, working-class girls face dual disadvantages because patriarchy and capitalism are separate systems that work together.

Hartmann argued that patriarchal ideology in schools normalises gendered labour divisions.

Subject and career guidance reproduces gender hierarchies by steering girls towards 'feminine' subjects and boys towards STEM or vocational subjects.

Difference feminists argue that not all girls share the same experiences, as gender interacts with ethnicity, class, disability and sexuality.

Wendell (1996) researched how barriers and gendered expectations affect disabled girls' participation and self-esteem.

Mirza showed that Black girls face low expectations and racialised stereotypes, e.g. the 'angry Black girl'.

Feminists argue that girls' better results do not end gender inequality because, despite qualifications, women face invisible barriers at work, such as unequal pay, and schooling normalises acceptance of these.

True.

Radical feminism paints all schooling as oppressive, overlooking differences across schools; liberal feminists argue reforms have improved opportunities for girls.