Education

Anti-school subculture Those who reject the school’s values and try to seek status

Collectivism valuing being a part of a group more than succeeding as an individual

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Colour-blind teachers teachers who believe all pupils are equal but in practice allow racism to go unchallenged

Compensatory education government education policies that seek to tackle the problem of under-achievement by providing extra support and funding to schools and families in deprived areas

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Comprehensive schools schools that are non-selective and where all children attend the same type of secondary school (introduced in 1965)

Conformists (Sewell) – pupils who were keen to succeed, accepted the school’s values and had friends from other ethnic groups

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Correspondence theory – Bowles and Gintis’ concept describing the way that the organisation and control of schools mirrors or ‘corresponds to’ the workplace in capitalist society

Cream-skimming – selecting higher ability students who gain the best results and cost less to teach

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Cultural capital – the knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities that the middle class transmit to their children

Cultural deprivation – the theory that many working class and black children are inadequately socialised and therefore lack the ‘right’ culture needed for educational success

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Deferred gratification – making sacrifices now for greater rewards later (middle-class culture)

Deviance – behaviour that does not conform to the norms of society or group

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Educational triage – the process whereby schools sort pupils into ‘hopeless cases’, ‘those who will pass anyway’ and ‘those with potential to pass’, and then concentrate their efforts on the last of these groups as a way to boost the school’s tables

Elaborated code – the speech code typically used by the middle class – has a wider vocabulary and is based on longer, grammatically more complex sentences

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Ethnocentric– seeing or judging things in a biased way from the viewpoint of one particular culture

Exam league tables – a table which ranks school’s exam performance

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External factors – factors outside the education system such as the influence of home and family, background and wider society

Fatalism – a belief in fate – that ‘whatever will be will be’ and there is nothing you can do to change your status

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Feminisation of education – the belief that the school celebrates qualities more closely associated with girls, and has stopped nurturing ‘masculine’ traits

Feminism – a sociological perspective and political movement that focuses on women’s oppression and the struggle to end it

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Fordism – a type of industrial production based on a detailed division of labour, using closely supervised, low-skilled workers and assembly-line technology to mass produce standardized goods

Funding formula – a policy which provides schools with money for each pupil they take on

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Gender – the social and cultural characteristics of men and women – learned through socialisation

GIST – Girls Into Science and Technology – encourage girls to take up non-traditional careers in these sectors

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Globalisation – the idea that the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and barriers are disappearing

Hidden curriculum – The things that are learnt outside the formal education system often acquired through the everyday workings of the school such as obedience, conformity and competitiveness.

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Ideological state apparatus – Maintain rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling people’s ideas, values and beliefs

Ideology – a set of beliefs that serve the dominant social groups interests and justify their social position.

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Immediate gratification – a preference for immediate pleasure or reward without regard for the longer-term consequences

Individualism – the belief that the individual is more important than the group or community – in modern society, actions are influenced more by calculations of their own self-interest than by a sense of obligation to others

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Innovators (Sewell) – those pupils who were pro-education but anti-school. Only conform as far as school work was concerned

Intellectual development – the development of thinking and reasoning skills

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Internal factors – factors within schools and the education system, such as interactions between teachers and pupils, and inequalities between schools

Labelling – to attach a meaning or definition to a student – often based on stereotyped assumptions

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Legitimation – justifying something by making it seem fair and just. The main function of ideology

Liberal chauvinists teachers – teachers who believed black pupils are culturally deprived and who have low expectations of them

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Life chances – the chances that different social groups have of obtaining those things society regards as desirable or suffering those things regarded as undesirable

Marketisation – the policy of introducing market forces of supply and demand into areas run by the state.

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Material deprivation – In education, the theory of material deprivation explains working-class underachievement as the result of the lack of such resources

Meritocracy – an educational or social system where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed where individuals’ rewards and status are achieved by their own efforts rather than ascribed by their gender, class or ethnic group

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Myth of meritocracy – , but Bowles and Gintis claim that the meritocracy is an ideology legitimating inequality by falsely claiming that everyone has equal opportunity and that unequal rewards are the ‘natural’ result of unequal ability

National curriculum – a standard set of core subjects that must be taught in all schools

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New vocationalism – the idea that education should be about meeting the needs of the economy by equipping them with the knowledge skills attitudes and values needed for work.

Overt racist teachers – teachers who believe blacks are inferior and actively discriminate against them

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Parentocracy – literally ‘rule by parents’. Associated with the marketised education systems which are based on the parental choice in schools.

Polarisation – a process which results in the creation of two opposite extremes.

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Post-Fordism – a type of industrial production. A highly skilled adaptable skilled workforce combined with technology allows the production to change to consumer demands.

Present-time orientation – seeing the present as more important than the future, so not having any long-term goals or plans

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Pro-school subculture – pupils who gained status through academic success; their values are those of the school

Pupil subcultures – a group of pupils who share similar values and behavior patterns

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Racism – a system of belief that defines people as superior or inferior and justifies the unequal treatment due to biological difference such skin colour.

Rebels (Sewell) – pupils who rejected both the goals and the rules of the school, expressing their opposition through peer group membership

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Repressive state apparatus – Maintain rule of the bourgeoisie by force or the threat of it

Restricted code – the speech code typically used by the w/c – limited vocab, short often unfinished grammatically simple sentences

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Retreatists (Sewell) – pupils who were disconnected from school and black subcultures

Role allocation – where we are sifted and shorted into roles according to our ability, with the most able gaining access to higher rewarding jobs

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Selection – the process of choosing and allocating pupils to a particular school in the tripartite system after 1944.

Self-fulfilling prophecy –where a prediction about a person or group comes true.

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Silt-shifting – off-loading pupils with learning difficulties, who are expensive to teach and get poor results

Social class – social groupings based on differences in wealth income or occupation.

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Social control –the means by which society tries to ensure its members behave like they’re supposed to, can either be informal or formal.

Social solidarity – where members feel part of a community – education transmits society’s shared culture and beliefs

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Stereotype – a simple one sided and often negative image of a person or group which assumes that everyone in that group is the same.

Stigma –a negative label or mark of disapproval or shame attached to a group or a person, this is used to justify the exclusion of the individual from normal social interaction.

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Stratification –the division of society into distinct groups.

Streaming –where children are separated into different ability groups or classes and are taught depending on the group that they are in

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Sub-culture –a group of people with different attitudes morals beliefs and values than mainstream society.

Tripartite system –the system of secondary education created in 1944. Grammar schools secondary moderns and technical schools. This was decided by the 11+ exam.

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Universalistic standards – impersonal rules and standards that apply to everyone in school and wider society

Vocational training – transmitting knowledge skills and attitudes needed for a particular career

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Education

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Other cards in this set

Card 2

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Card 3

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Card 4

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Card 5

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Back

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