SED2601 - Sociology Of Education Exam Pack

SED2601 - Sociology Of Education Exam Pack. Outline two reasons why marketisation policies may produce inequality of educational achievement between social classes. Answer:  cream-skimming; successful schools can attract higher achievers, who are more likely to be middle-class.  silt-shifting; successful schools can avoid taking less able, largely working-class pupils, who thus end up in low-achieving schools. Question Outline three reasons for gender differences in educational achievement. Answer:  laddish subcultures; boys are more likely to join antischool subcultures that prevent them from achieving.  changes in the job market: more jobs for women/decline in traditional men’s jobs increase girls’/reduce boys’ motivation to achieve.  feminisation of education; more female teachers as role models today gives girls an advantage over boys.  leisure pursuits; for example, girls’ leisure often involves a ‘bedroom culture’ of talking with friends, which develops their communication skills. Question Item A According to Marx, capitalism is based on the ownership of the means of production by a wealthy minority. Capitalism continues to exist because each new generation of workers is forced to undertake low-paid, alienating work to survive. This makes capitalism potentially unstable, since it depends on the proletariat not seeking to overthrow this unequal system. Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which the education system might serve the needs of capitalism. Answer: There will be two developed applications of material from the item, eg the proletariat do not seek to overthrow capitalism because the education system acts as an ideological state apparatus; the education system reproduces capitalism by preparing each generation of working-class children to fill their future roles as alienated, exploited workers. There will be appropriate analysis/evaluation of two ways, eg the education system meets capitalism’s need by legitimating class inequality through ideologies such as the myth of meritocracy, thus preventing its overthrow; the education system meets capitalism’s need to continue through the correspondence principle, whereby the schooling of working-class children mirrors the capitalist workplace in terms of hierarchy, alienation, extrinsic rewards, fragmentation and competition. Question Item B Social class differences in achievement are found at all stages of the education system and sociologists have put forward several explanations for these differences. Some sociologists focus on factors outside school, such as the material circumstances of pupils’ families or the ways in which parents socialise their children. Other sociologists see factors internal to the education system itself as responsible. However, it can be argued that it is the interaction between these external and internal factors that produces class differences in educational achievement. Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate sociological explanations of social class differences in educational achievement. Answer: Appropriate material will be applied accurately and with sensitivity to the issues raised by the question. Analysis and evaluation will be explicit and relevant. Evaluation maybe developed, for example through a discussion of the relative importance of material or cultural factors and/or internal or external factors, or their interrelationship. Analysis will show clear explanation. Appropriate conclusions will be drawn. Application of material is largely explicitly relevant to the question, though some material maybe inadequately focused. Some limited explicit evaluation, for example of cultural deprivation as a victimblaming approach, and/or some appropriate analysis, eg clear explanations of some of the presented material. Applying listed material from the general topic area but with limited regard for its relevance to the issues raised by the question, or applying a narrow range of more relevant material. Evaluation will take the form of juxtaposition of competing positions or one to two isolated stated points. Analysis will be limited, with answers tending towards the descriptive. Question Item C Investigating pupil exclusions Pupil exclusions take many forms. Permanent exclusions from school are rare, but about 1 pupil in 20 is excluded for a fixed period, often for physical assaults against staff. There are no reliable figures for pupils sent out of individual lessons. Pupils may also self-exclude by truanting or simply by ‘switching off’ in class. Boys, pupils with special educational needs, poorer pupils and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils are much more likely to be excluded. One way of studying pupil exclusions is to use participant observation. By adopting an appropriate role, the researcher may be able to get close to pupils. However, participant observers usually can only study fairly small groups. Furthermore, success greatly depends on the researcher’s ability to establish a good relationship with those being studied. Applying material from Item C and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the strengths and limitations of using participant observation to investigate pupil exclusions. Answer: Students will apply knowledge of arrange of relevant strengths and limitations of using participant observation to research issues and characteristics relating to pupil exclusions. These may include some of the following and/or other relevant concerns, though answers do not need to include all of these, even for full marks:  the research characteristics of potential research subjects, eg individual pupils, peer groups, teachers, welfare/truancy officers (eg class, ethnic and gender differences; teachers’ professionalism, self-interest or stereotypes of pupils)  the research contexts and settings, eg classrooms, staffrooms, school premises, the street, pupil referral units  the sensitivity of researching pupil exclusions (eg policy and resource implications for schools, local authorities etc.; schools’ market and league table position; its impact on achievement or behaviour; stigmatisation; parental consent). Evaluation of the usefulness of participant observation will be explicit and relevant. Analysis will show clear explanation. Appropriate conclusions will be drawn. Answers in this band will show accurate, broad or deep but incomplete knowledge of the strengths and limitations of participant observation. Understands a number of significant aspects of the question; good understanding of the presented material. Application of knowledge will be broadly appropriate but will tend to be applied in a more generalised way or a more restricted way; for example:  applying the method to the study of education in general, not to the specifics of pupil exclusions, or  specific but undeveloped application to pupil exclusions or a focus on the research characteristics of pupil exclusions, or groups/contexts etc involved in it, with implicit links to some features of participant observation. There will be some limited explicit evaluation, eg of one or two features of participant observation as a method, and/or some appropriate analysis, eg clear Answers in this band will show largely accurate knowledge but limited range and depth, including a broadly accurate, if basic, account of some of the strengths and/or limitations of participant observation. Understands some limited but significant aspects of the question; superficial understanding of the presented material. Applying material (possibly in list-like fashion) on participant observation, but with very limited or non-existent application to either the study of pupil exclusions in particular or of education in general. Evaluation limited to briefly stated points. Analysis will be limited, with answers tending towards the descriptive. Answers in this band will show limited undeveloped knowledge, eg two to three insubstantial points about some features of participant observation. Understands only limited aspects of the question; simplistic understanding of the presented material. Limited application of suitable material, and/or material often at a tangent to the demands of the question, eg perhaps drifting into an unfocused comparison of different methods. Very limited or no evaluation. Attempts at analysis, if any, are thin and disjointed. Answers in this band will show very limited knowledge, eg one to two very insubstantial points about methods in general. Very little or no understanding of the question and of the presented material. Significant errors and/or omissions in application of material. Some material ineffectually recycled from the item, or some knowledge applied solely to the substantive issue of exclusions from school, with very little or no reference to participant observation. Question Outline and explain two problems of using the functionalist perspective to study today’s society. Answers in this band will show very good knowledge and understanding of two problems of using the functionalist perspective to study today’s society. There will be two applications of relevant material, eg functionalism cannot provide scientific explanations of social phenomena; functionalism fails to recognise and explain the conflict-ridden nature of today’s postmodern society. There will be appropriate analysis, eg functionalism explains all social institutions in terms of their functions or effects, whereas science explains phenomena in terms of their causes. Answers in this band will show a reasonable to good knowledge and understanding of one or two problems of using the functionalist perspective to study today’s society. There will be one or two applications of relevant material, eg functionalism’s conservative ideological bias prevents a proper understanding of social change today. There will be some basic analysis. Answers in this band will show limited knowledge and little or no understanding of the question or the material. There will be limited focus on the question, eg there may be some drift into an account of, how functionalists explain a particular social phenomenon such as crime.