Education

Different types of schools:

Faith school-gives a general education but was founded or supported by a religous group

Grant maintained-A school which has opted out of local authourity control

Grammar school-A school which selects students on ability

Private school-Refer to independant school

Academies-State maintained independant schools which are set up with help from outside sponsors the school must raise money to become one

Public schools-One of the older independant schools eg. eton

Independant schools-Outside of the state system so do not have to follow the national curriculum

Comprehensive school-Takes students from all abilities and backgrounds from the local area

Adavantages: Breaks down social barriers 

Cheaper to fund

Accepts lower ability

Disadvantages: Parents get less choice

More able could be held back

Less able not given enough help

Larger class sizes

The things that are learned in schools which are not part of the national curriculum

Such as: Manners

Arriving on time

Obeying teachers

Dress code

Gender roles

Marxist see this as negative as they think it teaches students to conform to society and for boys and girls to accept their different gender roles

Labelling is where a teacher or another person puts a label on an individual such as that they are misbehaved or are clever. Labels can influence how other people percieve the person and influence the behaviour of the individual.

Self fufilling profecy is where an individual responds to the label and conforms to how they are expected for example a child labelled as naughty could start to act up.

Mixed ability: Pupils of all abilities are taught together

Setting: Grouped by ability for particular subjects

Streaming: Grouped by ability for all/most subjects

Streaming can lead to people in bottom sets not trying as they believe they aren't clever or the opposite where they try very hard. It can also lead to higher ability pupils not trying as hard as they think they are already clever.

Mixed ability gives students a chance to work with all abilties but may hold back more able students and not give less able students adequete help

A school subculture is a group of students within a school who share the same values and norms, they can be pro or anti school.

Students that find themselves in subcultures may be influenced to either try hard in school or try and be naughty to find approval from the friends. This can be due to peer pressure

Girls before 1980's: Take subjects which lead to low paying jobs

Not much is expected of them by their teachers or parents

Textbooks are sexist and show women as inferior

After: Teachers aware of gender issues so treat girls and boys equally

Girls try harder in school as they have more career prospects

Parents and teachers have higher expectations of them

Boys before: Parents encourage them to do better at school more than their daughters

Boys after: Boys dominate the classroom

No longer have as many reasons to try hard at school due to no longer being sole breadwinner

Fewer men only jobs

Boys develop 'laddish' subcultures where the think learning is not 'cool'

The better of you are the more likely you are to achieve at least 5 A*-C

Factors that can affect achievement linked to social class:
Language-elaborated/restricted code
Cultural capital
Teachers expectations
Teachers labelling
Parental achievement
Material deprivation
Subcultures

Some people can only afford unhealthly food which can make them ill so have more time off school
Poor housing can lead to inadequete space so not enough room to study

SCHOOL FACTORS-

Setting/streaming- Middle class pupils more likely to be put in higher sets

Meritocracy-A society which educational success is the result of ability and individual effort

The curriculum-Some people think the curriculum is ethnocentric so focuses on western culture

Subcultures-Pupils may form anti school subcultures based on their ethnicity

Language-Students that speak English as a second language may find it harder to learn and understand than someone where English is their first language

Teachers attitudes/expectations-Teachers may have higher expectations of pupils from certain ethnicities

Parental expectations-Parents with high expectations such as those from ethnic minorities like indian parents have children who on average do better

Material deprivation-Minority groups who do worse have the highest proportion of students from the working class, pupils from minority groups are more likely to suffer from material deprivation as their incomes are significantly smaller

Home school

Summer hill

Vocational courses- Students are trained for a specific employment eg. hairdressing