Education Mind Map (A Level Sociology)

Durkheim: education creates social solidarity and teaches specialist skills. Parsons: school is a bridge between family and society, based on meritocracy. Davis and Moore: it sifts and sorts people into roles.

Education should prepare people for work, and state schools are inefficient. Chubb and Moe argued for marketisation, so schools compete for pupils.

Althusser: education is an ideological state apparatus that reproduces class inequality. Bowles and Gintis: the correspondence principle, and the myth of meritocracy.

Learning to Labour (1977): working-class "lads" formed a counter-school culture that prepared them for manual work, showing pupils can resist.

Bernstein: working-class pupils use a restricted speech code, while schools use the elaborated code. Douglas: differences in parents' interest in education.

Poverty affects housing, diet, and the cost of uniforms, trips and resources.

Bourdieu: middle-class families pass on cultural, economic and educational capital, which schools reward.

Becker: teachers label pupils by how closely they fit the "ideal pupil", which can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Lacey: streaming polarises pupils into pro- and anti-school subcultures.

Cultural deprivation explanations, material deprivation, and racism in wider society.

Gillborn and Youdell: teachers expected more discipline problems from Black pupils, leading to more conflict and exclusions.

Archer: teachers' views of the "ideal pupil" can exclude some ethnic minority pupils.

Critical race theory sees racism built into the system, such as an ethnocentric curriculum and setting, creating what Gillborn calls locked-in inequality.

The impact of feminism, changes in the family and in women's employment, and changing ambitions: Sharpe found girls' priorities shifted from marriage in the 1970s to careers in the 1990s.

Equal opportunities policies, more female role models, and assessment styles such as coursework.

Explanations include a crisis of masculinity as manual jobs declined, and laddish subcultures that see studying as feminine.

Early socialisation, gendered subject images and peer pressure steer girls and boys towards different subjects.

The 1944 Education Act created grammar, secondary modern and technical schools, with selection by the 11-plus exam.

From 1965, comprehensive schools for all abilities aimed to reduce inequality, though setting and streaming continued.

The 1988 Education Reform Act brought league tables, the National Curriculum and parental choice. Ball and Gewirtz argue it helps middle-class parents most.

New Labour introduced the Education Maintenance Allowance and academies. From 2010, the Coalition expanded academies, created free schools and introduced the pupil premium.

Pupils are young and less powerful, which raises issues of consent, vulnerability and the way they respond to adult researchers.

Teachers are busy and may act differently when observed, presenting a positive image.

Gaining access through gatekeepers such as head teachers, and the effect of school rules and routines on the research.