Education and Social Inequality Essays

Education and Social Inequality Essays Education and Social Inequality Essay Education and Social Inequality Essay There are many current debates in education, ranging from the types of new schools that are being introduced like an increase in faith schools, to the changing the way schools are i.e. the new academys, also what is being taught in schools, like the policy on citizenship in schools where financial education will be taught. And the increase in independent schools where anyone can set up a new school as long as they have enough money behind them. I am briefly going to look at two of these current debates. First I am going to talk about the new diplomas. These have been introduced into school as an alternative to GCSEs and A-Levels but what makes them different is that they combine practical work with academic work so that the person studying doesnt just get the knowledge from learning in a classroom but also from doing it themselves. The diplomas are aimed at 14-19 year olds and there are 3 different levels that can be done and they take around 2 years on each level, the foundation diploma is equivalent to 5 GCSEs grade D G, the higher diploma is equivalent to 7 GCSEs grade A*- C and the advanced diploma is equivalent to 3.5 A levels. There has been big debates over this new scheme, many people believe that these new qualifications are worthless, in an article in the Mail online is says that two separate reports the new qualifications will do nothing for the career prospects for students in the future, that GCSEs and A level s are seen as higher qualifications than the diplomas even if they are the equivalent. To try and stop this from happening the government also included in the bill that schools and teachers will not be able to encourage brighter students to just take A levels but have to give them the option to choose. They have to give impartial advice, so that they are not promoting things that seek to promote things that do not have the pupils best interest at heart. There has also been some debate over the school leaving age increase to 17 by 2013 and 18 by 2018. The government are said to have implemented this for many reasons, one of these is that in the most recent figures in England that 11% of 16 18 year old are not in education, work or training. There will be repercussions if they are caught not in school potentially up to a à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50 on the spot fine and the potential of a criminal record. So this is not something to take lightly. There has been criticism for this that the government will only be moving the problem to the next age bracket that at 18 they will then be out of work even with their new qualifications, or if they do go on to university that they will then struggle to find work. They are looking towards countries like Canada who have compulsory education till a pupil is 18, they cannot get a drivers licence without proof that they are in fulltime education if they are under 18. The Education Secretary Alan Johnson told t he Times that it was repellent that a youngster of 16 is not getting any training. With the new diplomas and the age increase there is allot of changes for those in education today and these may or may not work but there has to be something done to ensure that people are coming out of education with the best possible start to go into the working world. There are many sociological concepts based around education and these are a few of them:- Multiculturalism this is the concept that schools have adapted a multicultural way to teach so that there is nothing that wouldnt be covered during teaching, now this has caused a current debate as if this was really the case would there be an increase in faith schools because those faiths feel that there are things that are not being covered as they should be, and if society was really multicultural would there be faith schools in the first place would there not just be schools that taught all faiths the same that none were better than others? To be Equality of educational opportunity this concept is centred round that everyone regardless of class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality etc must have the same chance in the educational system. Even though this may be true there is also the issue in the type and quality of this education from one school to the other. The children of wealthy parents do better in school than those from poorer backgrounds and tend to have a higher position in the work place. Now it is said that this is disguised in the education system through meritocracy. Also the people who do not succeed as well tend not to blame the system but themselves for not trying hard to do well. Hidden curriculum this is the concept that schools do not just educates children in the subjects that matter academically but also other things that help to socialise them with other people. It helps to reinforce things that have been taught at home, some of the simple things that it can teach are, sharing toys with each other, sports can teach team work and co-operation, manners are reinforced by encouraging people not to interrupt when others are talking etc. The Marxists believe that the hidden curriculum also has negative aspects that it encourages respect for authority and hierarchy, but not only this but they believe it encourages a submissive attitude and people that accept the norms set out by society without question. The actual term was supposedly first used by Phillip W. Jackson (Life In Classrooms, 1968). He argued that we need to understand education as a socialisation process. Counter school culture this has been display through various studies such as the study by Willis (1977) the study showed that some pupils did not take on board the hidden curriculum that they had little respect for teachers or authority. The counter school culture had many features, like they tended to see gaining qualifications as pointless, the main objectives where to be disruptive during lesson if they even bothered to attend. They tended to think that they were better than school and tried to be adults by drinking, smoking and not wearing correct uniform for school. During Willis (1977) study he found that they groups tended to be very sexist and racist and they believed manual labour was better than working in an office. In addition to that, there are many key factors that have an effect on achievement in education like Class, Gender and Ethnicity. Gender was a big issue back in the 1980s as men were achieving more than women in most aspects yet by the mid 1990s there was a big reversal, now Girls were being outstripped by boys at both GCSE and A level but more recent statistics show that Girls are doing better in most subjects that men and the increase has been quick. There are still subjects that girls are not out performing in for example Maths and Physics seem to be two subjects that are Boys tend to outperform the girls in. The way in which Ethnicity can affect achievement in education range from simple problems like the language barriers, but it also can be things like the attitudes that different ethnicitys have towards education, and the cultures different ways of appreciating education. Information on the national statistics online said that in 2004 Chinese pupils were the most likely to ach ieve five or more GCSE grade A*-C in England, the least likely to achieve this were from the Black Caribbean pupils. I am now going to look at one of the key factors (Class) in education in more depth. Class Statistics suggest that social class is directly related to educational success or failure. The wealthier the family the better the child seems to do. The National Child Development Study found that children aged 7 from low income households were on average 9 months behind in their education when compared to others. Material factors such as low income, poor diet, poor and overcrowded housing, and lack of resources all have a clear negative impact of the education of the working class child. There are many examples of this in sociological studies for example Halsey, Heath and Ridge in their study Origins and Destinations (1980) showed that material circumstances had a significantly bearing on whether a child went to University or not. Yet even with proof of this through these studies there is much criticism of them as some children that come from poorer backgrounds do succeed and go to university. Sociologist JWB Douglas (1964) did a study about home and school it was a study of over 5000 children born in the first week of march 1946 and followed them through education till there were 11, he gathered his information from teachers, school doctors and health visitors. During this study he concluded Home circumstances played a crucial role in childrens success. E.g. overcrowding, lack of space to do homework, sharing a bed with other children, diet, the immediate environment, all significantly disadvantaged many Working class children. The most important factor however was the degree of parental interest shown Middle class parents were three times more likely to visit the school to enquire about progress and show keen interest in progress at home. But this still goes on today Bynner and Joshi (1999) found that class differences still persisted from the 1950 to the 1990s, even today children whose parents are in higher classes are more likely to go to university and are more likely to pass with better exam results in school than those who come from working class backgrounds. The Marxist tend to believe that the reasons the working classes tend to struggle in education is due to the fact that it is a middle class institute run by the middle classes using middle class language, Bourdieu (1971) a French Marxist suggested that working class pupils lack the cultural capital to be able to succeed in the environment set, that it devalues the skills and knowledge of the working classes. Bourdieu refers to the dominant culture as the cultural capital due to it being translated in to wealth, status and power via the education system, and that peoples from upper class backgrounds have an advantage due to them being socialised into the dominant culture from the beginning. There is also the debate over intelligence, pupils who tended to do well in education also did well in IQ tests, but are IQ tests a good way in which to test intelligence, first of there are no culture free, culture fair tests, you can repeatedly complete IQ tests and then become good at doing IQ tests and how they test you, there are different types of intelligence and they dont test all of them. IQ tests tend to favour the middle classes by the language used in them also Bowles ; Gintis (1976) found no link between IQ and educational and economic success. There are also factors that make a difference for example the school itself, schools in middle class areas tend to be better equipped, and retain teachers more than schools in working class areas that tend to have more disruptive students or not as good of a reputation. Bernstein (1970) studied the difference between speech and attainment in the classes and during this he found that language was a significant factor in the success of working class and middle class children. He identified two codes of language, first there is the restricted code this is shown through a narrow vocabulary, a kind of short hand speech, short simple, and more instruction like, lacking detailed explanation or reasoning, e.g. dont do that! . . . . Because I said so! Then there is the elaborated code, this is shown through a wider vocabulary, more complex sentence structure, more explanation etc e.g. dont do that!.Because you will get hurt, it is hot! The restricted code was more likely to be typical of the working class home and vice versa. The elaborated code seemed to equip children better for the more formal setting of the school and middle class children could switch more readily from one to the other when necessary (i.e. in the playground and then in the classroom) the elaborated code was the language used by teachers, tests, textbooks and subsequently middle class children were at an advantage from an early age.