Sociology - AQA Unit 2 - Education and Research Methods Jan 2011

would someone be able to help me by posting a a skeleton essay to this question, I dont have much idea for how to tackle it

Does racism still exist in the UK's education system. Discuss.

Lets brainstorm!
Here's a few things I can think of to mention~

- We have a multicultural society, but an ethnocentric national curriculum. That may mean those of a different ethnic-background other than white (middle class male) may not find such areas of the curriculum very interesting. For example, learning about Kings and Queens of England, and World War II, a westernized, mainly UK based curriculum on history.

- Statistics also show that white ethnic children out preform miniority ethnics. Why is this? Well... It could be very well to do with the ethnocentric curriculum. Or it could be to cultural background. For example, certain Asian backgrounds may put a greater encouragement on education than backgrounds from other culture.

- This is rather useful. http://sixthsense.osfc.ac.uk/sociology/education/ethnic_minority.asp
Don't forget your labelling theories, and how students from other backgrounds including various ethnic backgrounds may be labelled and stereotyped by a teacher, leading to a self-fufilling prophercy. If I recall it is Robert K. Merton who first described this term in a published medium.

- http://www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level/sociology/inequalities/revise-it/ethnicity
Also very useful! It also mentions some sociologists - which examiners love if you can remember their names, and date of study. You could also mention Bernard Coard if you have came across him.

- You could also mention how education may be less racist/more racist depending on your view. As long as you have evidence/research to back you up it could rake in some marks ^_~

Tip: Try not to use the word 'race' in your exam, sociologists don't tend to like using that word, since race is regarded as unexisting.

Hope this helped...!

What are the predictions for what is gonna come up in the exam tomorrow guys? in terms of topics

much appreciated x

Is anyone doing this exam on the 18th of January 2011?

How is everyone finding it? (Myself am a little stuck with the methods in context questions)

How is revision going?

Discuss!

Never knew there were sociologist postgrads on this site yeah thanks alot man, it helped alot xD

Only three pages to look through here

Someone said: "Education - last time social policies and class came up so DEFINITELY revise ethnicity and gender.

Methods - last time questionnaires and PET came up so DEFINITELY revise interviews/PO/secondary data.

Remember to make sure to specificially link the METHOD to the SPECIFIC TOPIC for the M in C question."

Hope that helps. Predictions aren't always the best way to go revision wise...

Whatss PET?? lol

Education - last time social policies and class came up so DEFINITELY revise ethnicity and gender.

Methods - last time questionnaires and PET came up so DEFINITELY revise interviews/PO/secondary data.

Remember to make sure to specificially link the METHOD to the SPECIFIC TOPIC for the M in C question.

ahh last minute revision is stressful!

please can anyone give me any advice on how to approach the methods in context questions? I know that you have to link to interpretivism and positivism ... but any idea on structure and things?

PET Stand for "practical" "ethical" and "Theoretical" its basically an acronym to answering methods questions i believe =D

Also for methods questions as i stated above adopt the PET technique listing pro's and con's for a given research method. A way of linking interpretivism and positivism would be say you are discussing participant observation you could say it generally produces qualative data favoured by interpretivists "finding meanings and patterns of human interaction micro method of studying" then contrast with positivism being macro favoured by functionalists and marxists, quantative data finding cause and effect relationships"

Hope i was of some help

Also for methods questions as i stated above adopt the PET technique listing pro's and con's for a given research method. A way of linking interpretivism and positivism would be say you are discussing participant observation you could say it generally produces qualative data favoured by interpretivists "finding meanings and patterns of human interaction micro method of studying" then contrast with positivism being macro favoured by functionalists and marxists, quantative data finding cause and effect relationships"

Hope i was of some help