AQA Sociology - Education Paper 1

Hi, Does anyone know key sociologists for the Differentials Education achievement (Ethnicity, Gender and Social Class) - Maybe like 5 sociologist for each topic

Example... Key sociologist that you would include in a 30 marker ethnicity question.

Sorry if the question is to complicated, i'm kinda panicky cuz i keep forgetting all the sociologist

Reply 1

onlinegyaah

Original post by Potterheads123

sewell is a major theorist for ethnicity and also talks briefly about gender in regards to boys achievement, gillborn, murray and flaherty
social class = douglas, bourdieu and oakley
gender = you can just say feminists would argue since it is primarily them who are critical. but barber, mitsos and brown for gender (boys), mitsos and browne for girls coursework as well.

it doesn't seem like a lot but considering a 30 marker, you'd only need two theorists in your main body paragraphs and then an opposing view for evaluation x

Reply 2

YL1MIS

I'mma give you 3-5 per important topic: Firstly for class differences you need to know cultural deprivation theorists: they believe basically the mindset of w/c people is why they fail - learn at least 3. I will give you 3 of my go-to people. Bernstein talks about language in regards to w/c kids and how their restricted speech codes contribute to their underachievement. Feinstein argues its how educated your parents are that decides whether kids achieve or not and poorer kids likely have uneducated parents. Sugarman says w/c kids have belief systems that act as a barrier to their achievement - one of these are fatalism: they essentially accept their underachievement and do not try to overcome obstacles, arguing "whatever will be will be" another is immediate gratification - only caring about feeling good in the present. Not thinking about the future.

Reply 3

YL1MIS

Okay another thing to note about working class under-achievement is what material deprivation theorists think - they argue w/c kids fail at school cuz of their material conditions. Smith and Noble particularly say poverty is a huge barrier to achievement. Howard talks about how w/c kids have poorer health with leads to lack of focus/attendance at school. Robinson says you should eliminate child poverty if you wanna meaningfully help aid the class divide in achievement. Callendar and Jacobsen identify w/c having a 'fear of debt' and wanting to avoid uni. Lastly, perhaps my favourite in this part of the course, Bull identifies what they call the 'cost of free schooling' - basically saying how working class kids struggle to afford the unmentioned expenses of school e.g. stationary and uniforms. Bull is so real for that: those things do NOT come cheap.

However, cultural and deprivation theories DO NOT necessarily contradict each other. Bourdieu essentially marries the two through his concept of capital - 3 types of capital: Economic, Educational and Cultural - Middle class are most likely to have all 3 which is why they do better - Sullivan's study makes this clear.

Reply 4

YL1MIS

One thing i forgot to mention is everything above is just the external reasons for underachievement across class boundaries. I'll get into the internal stuff now i'll do it in one post

Reply 5

YL1MIS

Okay to anyone with the exam on monday now we move on to internal reasons behind differences in educational achievement.

1st thing is labelling - this is important because labelling --> self fulfilling prophecy - Rosenthal and Jacobson's study made this fact very clear you'll find deets in your textbook (The library's about to close) according to Becker, kids are labelled based on who is, and who isn't the IDEAL PUPIL (THIS IS KEY - LINKS TO CLASS, RACE AND , GENDER,) THE IDEAL PUPIL IS A M/C WHITE MALE - YOU CAN ARGUE THIS IN ANY OF THOSE TOPICS. (except you'd have to accept that girls do better than boys on average when evaluating gender) GILBORN AND YOUDELL ARE HUGE -- READ UP ON A-C ECONOMY, EDUCATION TRIAGE AND MAKE NOTES - keep in mind they talk about race too, or racialised expectations of black students to underachieve.

2nd thing is pupil responses - pupils react to the labels innit - Woods argues that pupils all respond differently: Some conform essentially, others rebel, others retreat etc etc

I GOTTA GO THEY ARE KICKING US OUT BUT LOOK UP THE ARCHER SYMBOLIC CAPITAL IT IS KEY FOR CLASS AND GENDER ESPECIALLY - EVEN ETHNICITY YOU CAN APPLY IT

Reply 6

YL1MIS

USE GILBORN FOR ALL THINGS RACISM + INSTITUTION RACISM

MAC AN GHAIL MALE GAZE...

Sewell is huge for ethnicity and male underachievement: he blames underachievement on no role models and education being feminised.

McRobbie argues feminist is a huge reason girls take education serious

Hope this helped