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Monday 19 April 2010

Give An Argument For And Against Grammar Schools

A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally schools teaching classical languages but more recently academically-oriented types of secondary school. Grammar schools became the selective tier of the Tripartite System of state-funded secondary education operating in England and Wales from the mid-1940s to the late 1960s and continuing in Northern Ireland.




With the move to non-selective comprehensive schools in the 1960s and 1970s, some grammar schools became fully independent and charged fees, while most others were abolished or became comprehensive. In both cases, many of these schools kept "grammar school" in their names. Some parts of England retain forms of the Tripartite System, and there are also a few surviving grammar schools in otherwise comprehensive areas.


In today's society 7% of students are in Grammar schools, and this rises post 16 (mainly with males and not as much with females). This is still quite a high percentage seen as the Labour party promised to abolish the Tripartite System completely. Grammar Schools are living proof that this system is still been used and that you can essentionally buy your way into a good education. This is very unfair on the working class as just because they are born into a certain class doesn't mean they shouldn't have the same chance as someone born into a middle class family.



When Tony Blair came into power he promised that they'd reduce inequality among society, and yet if anything they have just helped promote it. Whitty (2006) explains that "Labour contradict themselves regularly, for example they bring in EMA to struggling children and yet are charging these same students to get into University". So this means that many working class students will not be able to get into University, whereas middle class students are much more likely to be able to afford it. Marxists believe that this is a way of maintaining divisions in society.


On the other hand, Grammar Schools are extremely useful in the world. For example the majority of students who leave Grammar Schools (such as Harrow or Winchester) carry on to become Politicians or part of the Armed/Civil Services. This therefore means that if Grammar Schools had been abolished that Politicians would not have the same level of intelligence as they do now. At the moment not making working class citizens get into Politics, and if Grammar Schools were taken away then the middle class and working class would mix.



Also the children who go there normally come from quite wealthy families. This is backed up by The New Right who believe that parents have the right to spend their money when and where they like and that it's part of their rights and they also believe that Grammar Schools exist because of the free market. Labour backs this up with the ‘power to the parents’ scheme, and believe that if a family can financially support their child going into Grammar School then it's their right as to whether he/she does or not.


In conclusion, although Grammar Schools do indivertibly promote class inequalities they do produce very important people who this country need. Due to this I believe that the Tripartite System will still be used for a while whether it's intentional or not and that as long as there are parents who are willing to pay excessive fee’s for their child's education, there will be Grammar Schools happy to let them.

Friday 26 March 2010

Assess The Importance Of School Factors Such As Racism And Pupils Response To Racism In Creating Ethnic Differences In Educational Achievement

There is an obvious correlation between educational achievement and ethnicity, and many sociologists believe this is to do with two factors; Internal (School) Factors and External (Out Of School) Factors. Both factors play their part in the educational achievement of a pupil however ethnicity is very difficult to measure as both Internal Factors and External Factors should be considered.


Many sociologists believe Internal Factors play a major part as racism within the school, from pupils and teachers, can severely affect educational achievement. Pupils at a young age do not understand how offensive racism is and teachers are not always directly racist but are inadvertly racist. A very good example of this is labelling student which comes as almost second nature to teachers, and people in general. For example if a student labels a student as 'bright' they are more likely to stick to this label and achieve higher grades. Unfortunately this also works on the opposite side of the spectrum. Teachers may label students due to their ethnic background without considering their actual level of cleverness. For example black students do not fit the ideal pupil silhouette and may therefore be labelled as a 'troublemaker', leading them to not do as well as, say, white British pupils.


Cecile Wright (1992) found that Asian pupils are a main target of labelling by the teachers. Teachers may speak down to them assuming that they can not speak the English language as well as white pupils. Because of this they are more likely to be left out of class discussions and will therefore feel isolated. Wright explains that Asian students are seen as a "problem they can ignore". She found that this leads teachers to have ethnocentric views about these students. Gillborn and Youdell also back up this view with black pupils, showing that teachers tend to view black students as having behavioural problems, even if they are the most well behaved in the class. This can lead the teacher to leave them out of class discussions and essentionally try to avoid them, and Gillborn And Youdell believe this is due to racial stereotypes.


If a student feels they are a victim of racism/labelling, they will either revolt against this label and try even harder (which unfortunately does not make much of a difference) or more commonly simply accept this label and go along with it. Within the group of students who do revolt, they will tend to group together with other students of the same race.


A study by Heidi Mirza (1992) identified three types of teacher racism that occurs within the school; the overt racists (teachers who believe white pupils are superior and that black pupils are inferior), the colour blind teachers (teachers who believe in race equality but will still let racism carry on) and the liberal chauvinists (teachers who have low expectations of black pupils as they believe them to be culturally deprived). Although many teachers do not consciously do these, it still occurs. Mirza also showed that black girls were more likely to go against their label and work even harder to prove the teacher wrong.


However, even though school factors are a main part of the educational achievement, there are other factors that must be considered. An example of these other External factors are Home factors. Gordon Bowker (1968) believes that foreign students not been able to speak standard English is a major barrier towards the educational progress. On the other hand sociologists like Gillborn who found that, despite the language barrier, Indian pupils do very well in education. Another factor is parental support/family structure and black families are seen as a single-parent families, and this causes many problems such as not having a role model of male achievement. Charles Murrey (1984) supports this idea stating that the lack of a male role model can lead to educational underachievement.


However, Ken Pryce (1979) believes that Asian students are higher achievers as they are more resistant to racism whereas black students are not. He believes this boils down to the slavery of black people and any racism today brings back the attitude of the slavery period whereas Asians have had hardly any experience of this. Although Asian students tend to be higher achievers, there are many home factors that go against this. For example, Asians tend to live with an extended family structure where 3-4 generations may be under one roof. This therefore gives no privacy, or silence for that matter which is essential for when you're revising or doing homework. This is backed up by 15% of ethnic minorities live in an overcrowded household, where as only 2% of whites do.


Foreign families tend to live in poorer conditions as racism does not only occur within the school but at work as well. Pakistani workers will get paid as little as £1.50 per hour in some cases, leading onto a poor working class household. This will therefore directly affect the educational achievement of the children, and if it is a single parent household the problem is escalated. John Rex (1986) explains how racial disrimination in many cases can lead to social exclusion. Mike Noon (1993) backs this up with his famous experiment where he sent out 100 identical letters to 100 companies but with one signed "Evans" and the other "Patel". The majority of companies wrote back to the ones signed "Evans" as they would prefer to have a white British person working for them than foreign people. Another experiment carried out by the BBC sent a employe of the BBC to work in a buisness undercover, and it showed how the buisness were a lot more likely to hire white British than Polish, for example.

In conlusion, even though Britain likes to think of itself as a multiculteral society rasicm is still very prominent. Within the school, just by the colour of a students skin, their futre can be decided from day one. This is due to labelling and major steriotyping, which can make a pupil stop trying or make them work even harder. This can be escalated through Home factors via extreme poverty and family structures. School factors and Home factors combined can severley affect a students educational progress and achievement. 






Wednesday 24 March 2010

To What Extent Do Factors Within The School Affect Educational Achievement?

Many sociologists have debated that differences in educational achievements are a result of factors within the school; on the other hand others have said that it is the result of differences in their home background/

School factors can be used to explain the poorer educational achievement of working class pupils. Examples of these are teacher expectations, labelling, subcultures, setting and streaming and the ‘ideal pupil’. Some sociologists believe that teachers are more likely to have lower expectations of working class pupils; they are also more likely to negatively label them and subsequently place them in lower sets/lower tier exams.

Many Interactivist sociologists have carried out research into the factors within schools that can lead to working class underachievement. These researchers include Becker who shows that teachers have a preconcepted image of the ‘ideal pupil’ who is polite and hard working. Becker argues that teachers compare pupils to this ideal pupil and middle class pupils are far more likely to reach this expectation than working class pupils.

Other interactionists have shown how labelling can also have an impact on the performance of a student. These labels can carry on to self-fulfilling prophecy; therefore the idea of labelling shows us the power that teachers have to influence the behaviour and achievement of students. Teacher expectation is another factor that occurs within schools that can lead to differential achievement between working class and middle class pupils. Rosenthal and Jacobson carried out an experiment to try and test the power of teacher expectations. Their findings showed the impact it has. Teachers can transmit low expectations to groups of pupils in a number of ways such as ignoring them in the classroom, paying less attention to them than others, setting a lower level of work and failing to encourage them. Although the concept of teacher expectations can be faulted in many ways, for example many questioned the ethics of Rosenthal and Jacobson work. Also teacher expectations are often justifiable.

When considering the extent to which factors within the school affect educational achievement, you must also consider setting and streaming. This is common in most secondary schools. Harqreaves and Lacy identified the way middle class pupils were over represented in higher sets and working class in lower ones. Keddie found that streaming was often based in how well pupils matched the ‘ideal pupil’ image. Keddie believes that working class pupils are more likely to challenge teachers and therefore will be labelled and placed in lower sets. Keddie’s view represents the Marxist view.

Several sociologists have also highlighted the formation of subcultures as an important factor that occurs within the school, which can lead to differential achievement. For example Willis found that the ‘lads’ (working class boys) developed behaviours to help them deal with their school situation. However, critisms of Willis can be made as his sample only involved 12 boys; therefore representativeness and reliability of his research can be questioned. Also it can be argued that Willis romanticised these boys as working class heroes.

The marketisation of education has also had an affect on factors within the schools. Barlett argues that the schools ‘cream’ the weaker ones in order to improve their market position. You can see therefore that teachers within the school do affect educational achievement to some extent. However home factors can also play a major part. These cultural deprivations include different levels of parental interest as shown by Hyman who identified a difference between the working class and middle class. Middle class are seen to place more emphasis on achievement and draw on their cultural capital. Bourdieu also showed this by saying that middle class parents are more likely to attend parents’ evenings and help with homework. But research in this area can be seen to show working class families as failing their children. Material deprivations need to be considered otherwise we have a ‘victim blaming’ situation that ignores the wider picture.

Basil Bernstein argued that language has a major influence on achievement. He identified two codes of language; the restricted code used primarily by the working class and the elaborate code used by the middle class. The elaborate code is universalistic and is used by schools. Many shun the working class about their code but as Labor put it; “The working class language is simply different.”

Charles Murrey has recently identified the underclass, which have a distinct set of norms and values. He claims that these stem from many single parents, welfare dependency and poor socialization. Again criticisms can be made of all these factors. The working class do not share all share the same beliefs just as the middle class don’t, both middle class and working class values are diverse and varied.

In conclusion, many sociologists argue that factors within the school play a major part in educational achievement to a large extent, on the other hand there are many who believe outside factors need to be considered before jumping to any conclusion. All factors are difficult to measure; therefore consideration of both sides must be taken into account when determining the factors that affect educational achievement

Explain The Marxist View Of Education And Give An Evaluation Of It

Explain The Marxist View Of Education And Give An Evaluation Of It

As a society we are led to believe that education is fair and equal, but if you look deeper into it you find that there are many factors that affect a child's achievement in education.

Emile Durkheim states “Education has two main functions for society; creating social solidarity and teaching specialist skills”. Durkheim, also said that education was the bridge between affective relationships (family) and instrumental relationships (society) and that education teaches you skills such as manners, norms, values, uniforms and rules.

Talcott Parsons says that education teaches you to value achieved status rather than ascribed status and that it teaches children universalistic standards. He also believes that meritocracy is still alive, where every child is given an equal opportunity, and that individuals achieve rewards through their own effort and ability. The Correspondence Theory reflects this as the teachers are like bosses, the students are like workers and pupils who conform rise above those who challenge the system.

Unfortunately this is not always the case. A common misconception about Marxism is that it is "economic determinist." That is, everything that happens in society is determined by the means of production in some kind of automatic way. In their writings, Marx and Engels showed the relation between the base of society and the superstructure which arose upon that foundation. While they emphasized the underlying role that the productive forces played in any process of social change, all their writings are based on an understanding that political change could only occur through the conscious intervention of human beings.
Another problem with education is the idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If a teacher pays less attention to a certain pupil or labels them, that student may then accept that label and carry it out. These labels are normally brought on whether the pupil is working class or middle class, as the middle class are seen as better, or of more value and worthy of reward.

Willis rejects the view that school simply 'brainwashes' pupils into passively accepting their fate. Morrow and Torres criticize Marxists for taking a class first approach that sees class as the key inequality and ignores all other kinds. Instead Morrow and Torres argue that society is more diverse. They see no class inequalities such as ethnicity, gender and sexuality as equally important.

Practical Issues

Examine The Extent To Which Practical Issues Are The Most Important Influence When Selecting Research Method And A Research Type




If a sociologist wants to carry out an experiment there are many things they must consider like practical issues. These are things that may get in the way of an experiment. The experiment may have to change and develop to suit these practical issues, this can have a drastic effect on the experiment and may even stop it from been carried out.



For example; ethics. If you research on a person/group it can have a powerfuleffect on their lives, therefore a researcher must consider the impact of the experiment on their lives. The six ethics are: Consent, Deception, Privacy, Confidentiality, Protection and Legality. If these are not followed, the experiment could have serious effects on the person’s/group’s life. One example where these ethics were not carried out was the “Pygmalia In The Classroom” by Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968). In this experiment, Rosenthal predicted that, when given the information that certain students are brighter than others, elementary school teachers may unconsciously behave in ways that facilitate and encourage the students’ success. This is called a self-fulfilling prophecy. All of the ethics were broken; Consent, as the class did not know they were been observed. Deception, as the class were lied to. Privacy, as they kept the results. Confidentiality, as the results were released. Protection, as the students that were told they would do well had an unfair advantage over the other students. And legality, as now-a-days due to charities such as Barnardo’s you must have legal rights to observe children.



Another problem is bias. If TESCO were to ask the public what their favourite

supermarket is a biased experiment would be to ask the customers of TESCO instead of people on the street. The customers are a lot more likely to answer TESCO than any other supermarket if they are asked in the store whereas if people on the street were asked it would be much more fair. This can be used in many examples like official statistics where they may attempt to portray the government in a good light eg. Winning the war on crime.



In conclusion, practical issues are a major problem when deciding to carry out an experiment and all the ethic’s should be taken into consideration, and cleared. Only after doing so, can you begin to think about selecting a research method and a research type.





Chris Hopkin