What's covered
Key facts
Differential achievement: class, gender, ethnicity
The 'A-to-C economy' is the pressure on schools to maximise the proportion of pupils gaining five good GCSEs (grades A*–C / 9–4), which drives educational triage.
Education and capitalism: Bowles and Gintis
Bowles and Gintis directly oppose the functionalist view: where functionalists see meritocracy and value consensus, Marxists see a myth of meritocracy that hides ruling-class control.
Processes within schools: labelling, subcultures, the hidden curriculum
An anti-school (counter-school) subculture rejects the school's values, gaining status from rule-breaking and disruption rather than academic success.
Roles and functions of education: functionalism
A criticism of the claim that school simply teaches obedience and fixed skills is that modern economies increasingly need active, creative and adaptable workers, not passive ones.
Differential achievement: class, gender, ethnicity
Howard Becker found teachers judge pupils against an image of the 'ideal pupil' that matches middle-class characteristics, positively labelling middle-class pupils.
Education and capitalism: Bowles and Gintis
Bowles and Gintis set out their Marxist theory of education in their 1976 book Schooling in Capitalist America.
Processes within schools: labelling, subcultures, the hidden curriculum
Howard Becker argued teachers judge pupils against an image of the "ideal pupil", and middle-class pupils tend to fit this image and are placed in higher streams.
Roles and functions of education: functionalism
Marxist critics argue the functionalist role-allocation view (Davis and Moore) legitimises inequality: because qualifications appear fairly earned, people accept unequal rewards as deserved.
Differential achievement: class, gender, ethnicity
Basil Bernstein argued working-class pupils use a restricted speech code while schools and teachers use the elaborated code, advantaging middle-class pupils.
Education and capitalism: Bowles and Gintis
School corresponds to work because both are hierarchical: pupils obey teachers just as workers obey managers.
Practice questions with answers
A taste of the 85 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
What does Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital refer to?
- •A pupil's natural intelligence measured by IQ tests
- ✓Middle-class knowledge, language and tastes that schools reward
- •The money working-class families spend on private tutoring
- •The wealth and property a family owns
According to Bowles and Gintis, what is the main function of education in a capitalist society?
- •To encourage creativity and independent critical thinking
- •To promote genuine equality of opportunity for all
- ✓To reproduce an obedient, docile and hardworking workforce
- •To teach pupils specialist skills they freely choose
According to interactionists, teachers most often label pupils based on which of these?
- ✓Appearance, behaviour and social class
- •Exam results and homework scores
- •Reading age and IQ test data
- •Teachers' own training and years of experience
What does Durkheim mean by 'social solidarity' as a function of education?
- •Rewarding pupils fairly based on effort and talent
- •Sorting pupils into jobs that match their ability
- •Teaching the technical skills needed for specialised work
- ✓Transmitting shared values so members feel part of a community
According to Bernstein, which speech code do schools and teachers mainly use?
- •The deferred code
- ✓The elaborated code
- •The ethnocentric code
- •The restricted code
What does the correspondence principle state?
- •Letters home correspond to a pupil's classroom behaviour
- •School grades correspond exactly to a pupil's true ability
- •School subjects correspond to careers pupils later enter
- ✓School's social relationships closely match the workplace's
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