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Sociology notes
Functionalism
Society is a system held together by shared culture and interdependent parts
Key theorists: Durkheim, Parsons, Davis and Moore
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Parsons 1961: Secondary socialisation and meritocracy
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Secondary socialisation: Education teachers children to value achieved status,
sees school as the focal socialising agency, bridge between family and wider
society
Meritocracy: prepares us to move from family to wider society, equal
opportunity to achieve full potential

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Believe some people are naturally talented than others
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Education should socialise pupils into shared values
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Compared the achievements of 60,000 pupils from low-income families in 1015
state and private high schools in USA
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State education is not meritocratic
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Private schools deliver higher quality education because they are answerable to
paying consumers (parents)
Evaluation of new right
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Low standards in some state schools are the result of inadequate funding
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Marxists argue that education imposes culture of ruling class

The role of education Marxism
Conflict view, see’s society based on class divisions + exploitations
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Marxists argue two classes- ruling class + working class
Ruling class own means of production, make profit exploiting working class
Creates class conflict
Social institutions such as education reproduce class inequalities + play an
ideological role by persuading exploited workers that inequality is justified +
acceptable

Althusser 1971: ideological state apparatus
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State consists of two elements, which help to keep them in power
Repressive state apparatus – protect capitalist interests, police, law
Ideological state apparatus – controls ideas, beliefs
Education system performs reproduction of class inequality, class background of
parents determines similar future for children
Legitimisation – class inequality, education convinces people that inequality is
inevitable + that failure is the fault of individual

Bowles and Gintis 1976: capitalism needs workers with obedient attitude’s +
submissive personality + works hard/ low pay
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Role of education reproducing obedient, exploitable workers, accept social
inequality,
Close correspondence between relationships in school and those found in the
workplace
Correspondence principle – school is long shadow of work, relationships and
structure of education mirrors the workplace

School – Pupils lack control over education
Work – workers lack control of production
School & work – Hierarchy of authority
School – Competition + divisions among pupils
Work – Competitions + divisions amongst workers (pay and status)
Myth of meritocracy – prevent people from recognising exploitation, Functionalists
argue that education + work are meritocratic, believe everyone has equal opportunity to
achieve, those who gain highest deserve them

However Bowles and Gintis, argue success is based on class background, but by
promoting untrue claim rewards are based on ability – myth of meritocracy
persuades workers to accept inequality
Bowles and Gintis reject functionalist claim education allocates most talented people
meritocratically to roles
Willis 1977: Learning to labour
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Studied the counter-school culture of the lads group of 12 working-class boys’
Transition from school to work
Willis rejects Bowles and Gintis correspondence theory, rather than lads passively
accepting ruling-class ideologies, he found that working-class pupils may resist
attempts to indoctrinate them in school
They can see through the meritocratic ideology slightly
Lads form a culture opposed to school rules
Lads identify strongly with male manual work – explains why they see
themselves as superior to girls
Call conforming pupils ‘ear’oles’
By resisting schools ideology the lads will fail, ensuring they end up in manual
work that capitalism needs
Reproducing class inequality
Marketisation policies, privatisation of educational services, business
sponsorship result in more direct capitalist control over education
Education system functions to provide a willing workforce for capitalism, but
makes profit for capitalists
Evaluation of Marxist view
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Post modernists – Marxism is out of date, class divisions no longer
important, where Marxists see inequality is diversity + choice
Feminists – schools reproduce patriarchy
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Threatens masculine identity, working class cultures sees non-manual work as
effeminate + inferior
- (Epstein 1998) pro-schooling working class boys were likely to be harassed, labelled as
‘gay’ + subjected to verbal abuse

Gender + subject choice
- National curriculum – most subjects are compulsory, but boys and girls choose
differently where choice is available
- Boys choose resistant materials Tech/ girls choose food
- Post 16 educations – more choice available, gender differences emerge
- Boys choose maths + science/ girls choose languages + English + sociology
- Vocational subjects: 1% of female’s construction apprentices gender segregation at its
greatest
Gender differences in subject choice
Early socialisation
- Boys + girls dressed differently + given different toys by the family, boys rewarded for
being active + girls passive
- (Byrne 1979) in schoolteachers encourage boys to be tough + show initiative
- Girls expected to be quiet, helpful, clean + tidy
- (Murphy + Elwood 1998) boys read hobby books + information texts + prefer science
subjects
- Girls read stories about people + prefer English
Gendered subject images
- Subjects are either seen as male or female

- Science mainly taught by men
- Textbooks relate to boys interests
- Seen as a masculine subject
Peer pressure
- Others pressurise individuals to conform
- Boys often opt out of music due to negative peer response
- Girls who choose sport to contend with accusations from boys that they are ‘butch’ or
‘lesbian’
Gendered careers
- Many jobs are seen as either men’s or women’s

Gender identity and schooling
- (Feminists) argue experiences in school act as a form of social control to reproduce
patriarchy
- Name calling puts girls down if the behave in a certain way, form of social control,
make them conform to male expectations
- (Lees 1986) Boys call girls ‘slags’ if they appear sexually available, no equivalent for
males
- (Mac an Ghaill 1992) anti school working class boy’s subcultures use verbal abuse to
reinforce masculinity, called working class boys who worked hard ‘dickhead achievers’
- (Haywood + Mac an Ghaill 1996) male teachers reinforce gender identities by telling
boys off for behaving like girls + ignoring boys verbal abuse of girls
- Male gaze – from of social control, male pupils + teachers look girls up and down as
sexual objects
- (Lees 1993) boys boast about their sexual exploits, but label girls negatively for the
same behaviour

Ethnic differences in achievement
Ethnic groups see themselves distinct based on religion, geography or language
- Black Pakistani + Bangladeshi pupils do worst
- Indian pupils do the best
- White pupils average
- Black working class girls do better than boys
- Asian boys do better than girls
- Working class black girls do better than working class white girls
Cultural deprivation
Intellectual and language skills
- Children from low-income Black families lack intellectual stimulation
- Fail to develop reasoning and problem solving
- (Bereiter + Engelmann) language of poorer black American families is ungrammatical
+ disjointed
- Children unable to express abstract ideas – major barrier to educational progress

- Children who don’t speak English at home are held back
Attitudes, values + family structure
- Immediate gratification: Black children socialised into immediate gratification so lack
motivation to succeed
- Lack of male role model: African-Caribbean boy’s home life may encourage them to
turn to an anti-educational macho ‘gang culture’
- (New right Murray 1984) high rate of lone parenthood + lack of positive male role
models leads to underachievement of some minority pupils
- (Moynihan 1965) absence of male role model of achievement in black lone parent
families produces inadequately socialised children, fail at school + become inadequate
parents themselves
- (Pryce 1979) Black Caribbean culture less resistant to racism because of slavery, many
black families have low self-esteem + under achieve
- (Khan 1979) Asian families obstacle for achievement (girls) because they are
controlling over them
White working class pupils
- (Lupton 2004) studies four mainly working class schools with different ethnic groups,
teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour in white working class schools, linked to
lower level parental support + negative attitudes towards education
- (Evans 2006) street culture in white working class areas can be brutal and brought into
school, strong pressure to reject education
Compensatory education
- Counter the effects of cultural deprivation
- Sure start: support development of pre-school children in deprived areas
Criticisms of cultural deprivation
- Victim blaming: (Keddie) argues victim-blaming situation, minority ethnic group
children are culturally different not deprived, under achieve because school is
ethnocentric
- (Ball) minority ethnic group parents are disadvantaged, less aware of how to negotiate
the British education system
- Results in ‘cultural exclusions’ rather than deprivation
- (Gewirtz) complex school application forms are an example of cultural exclusion
practices
- Compensatory education imposes dominant white middle-class culture on minority
ethnic group pupil’s own culture

Material deprivation and class
- Lack of physical + economic resources essential for normal life in society
- Educational failure is the result of material factors such as substandard housing + low
income
- Pakistani + Bangladeshi is more likely to be poor than whites
- Unemployment is higher, pay is lower, overcrowding in the home
- (Swann report 1985) social class accounts for at least half of the difference in
educational achievement between ethnic groups
Racism in wider society
- Members if minority ethnic groups face direct + indirect discrimination at work + the
housing market
- Low pay and unemployed
- Effects children’s educational opportunities
Internal factors + ethnic differences
Labelling
- Small scale, face to face interactions between pupils + teachers
- Interest in impact of the labels that teachers give to children from different wthnic
backgrounds
- Black pupils often seen as disruptive
- Asian pupils as passive
- (Gillborn + youdell 2000) teachers had ‘racialised expectations’ about black pupils +
expected more discipline problems + saw behaviour as threatening
- Black pupils more likely to be punished, pupils felt that teachers underestimate their
ability and picked on them
- (Gillborn + Youdell) conclude that conflict between white teachers + black pupils stem
from the racist stereotypes that teachers have rather than pupil’s actual behaviour
- Higher levels of exclusion of black boys
- Back pupils being placed in lower sets or streams
- Asian pupils evidence of teacher stereotyping
- (Wright 1992) Asian primary school pupils were stereotyped by their teachers + treated
differently
- Teachers assumed the children would have a poor grasp of English
- Mispronounced children’s names
- Saw them as a problem that they could ignore

- (Connolly 1998) primary school teachers saw Asian pupils as passive + conformist,
teachers + pupils saw Asian boys as more ‘feminine’ + vunerable
Pupil subcultures
- (Sewell 1998) black boys adopted a range of responses to teachers racist labelling of
them as rebellious + anti-school
- Conformist large group, keen to succeed, accepted rules
- Innovators pro education but anti-school, valued success but not teachers approval
- Retreatists disconnected from both the school + black subcultures outside
- Rebels rejected school values/rules, despise white boys + conformist black boys
Rejecting negative labels
- (Fuller 1984) high achieving black girls in year 11, London comprehensive, girls
maintained positive self image by rejecting teachers stereotypes of them, recognised the
value of education + were determined to achieve, only conform in schoolwork, work hard
without appearing to do so, don’t seek teachers approval, maintained friendship with
black girls in lower streams
- (Mac an Ghaill’s 1992) study of black and Asian ‘A’ level students at a sixth form
college found that they did not completely accept teacher’s negative labels
- (Mirza 1992) black girls strategies for dealing with teachers racism, not asking certain
staff for help, sometimes restricted their opportunities
Institutional racism
- Discrimination against ethnic minorities that is built into the way institutions such as
schools + colleges operate on a routine
- The ethnocentric curriculum: refers to an attitude or policy that priorities the culture of
one ethnic group while disregarding or downgrading others
- British curriculum ethnocentric
- Troyna + Williams – gives priority to white culture + the English language
- David argues that the national curriculum is specifically British
- Setting and streaming
Selection and segregation



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