An example of a ‘methods in context’ question take from an AQA specimen paper – suggested strategy below…
(05) Read item B, then answer the question below (hooks in bold)
Item B
Investigating the role of parents in pupils’ achievement
Parents play a vital role in pupils’ achievement. There may be social class differences in parents’ income levels, cultural capital, educational qualifications, attitudes to school and how they socialise their children, for example into using different speech codes. Similarly, ethnic differences among parents, for example in family structure, discipline styles or home language, may affect pupils’ achievement.
Questionnaires may be a good way of investigating the role of parents in pupils’ achievement. Pupils can be asked to distribute them to parents atno cost, giving wide coverage. Parents are accustomed to supplying information to the school on a regular basis and this will help to ensure a good response. However, the questions asked may be very personal and some parents may feel that they are being judged. However, they may be less useful when dealing with sensitive issues
Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the strengths and limitations of using questionnaires to the role of parents in pupils’ achievement (20 marks)
Section 1 – Deal with the method –
Remember to deal with
Theoretical
Practical
Ethical
And link education in general, or the topic at this stage if you can…
Section 2 – Link the method to the specific topic.
Examples of top mark band statements – these will be quite different from the previous exemplar because the topic under investigation is different, although there will also be some overlap because there are similarities.
Questionnaires might be a quite useful method for researching some aspects of the role of parents in pupils’ achievement because they make it easy to compare differences in home background. Some aspects, such as income levels and educational qualifications of the parents are relatively easy to measure, and would be simple to correlate this with the educational achievement of the child.
However, other aspects of home life would be more difficult to measure – cultural capital for example is much more complex than income levels, as it appears in many different forms – how could you measure how ‘skilled’ a parent is at choosing a school in a questionnaire, for example?
Similarly with speech codes and language differences, if parents have linguistic deprivation, they may not be happy completing a questionnaire designed to measure their poor language skills, they may not even be able to, thus you would get poor representativeness from such parents.
Again with socialisation practices, which takes place over many years, questionnaires wouldn’t allow you find out with any depth the many interactions that go into making up the child.
A stated strength in the item is that parents are used to giving information to schools, and so would be happy to complete a questionnaire, this may be true of parents who have a good relationship with the school, but less so with those who value education less, or feel that school is biased against them, maybe because they perceive it as ethnocentric.
Also, as stated in the item, if you were going to give the questionnaires to students, those students with poor performance in school may not give their parents the questionnaires, possibly because they think it may harm them.
A final problem mentioned is that parents may feel they being judged, and the formal nature of the questionnaire wouldn’t help this, again meaning a low response rate is likely from such parents.
Conclusion
You decide! Personally I think it’s not as stupid a choice of method for this topic as compared to some others, as it’s not that sensitive or complex.
A selected list of definitions for some important key concepts in AS Level and A Level Sociology – families and households.
Beanpole Family
A family with a long, thin structure. For example, there might be 4 generations alive, but each generation hasn’t had many children so there are relatively few uncles, aunts and cousins.
This is a 21st century example of an extended family, but its members are more likely to live apart than in the past.
Blended family
A type of reconstituted or step family where parents with children from previously existing relationship form new relationships come together as one new, blended family.
Birth Rate
The number of babies born per thousand of the population per year.
Cereal Packet Family
A critical term for the traditional nuclear family consisting of heterosexual parents and two children which was presented as the norm on cereal packets (and in the media more generally) in the 1950s.
Civil Partnership
The legally or formally recognised union of a man and a woman (or in some countries two people of the same sex) in a committed relationship.
Cohabitation
Two people living together in the same household in an emotionally intimate, committed relationship without being officially married.
Commercialisation of Housework
Where new technologies lead to new products which people can buy which reduces the amount of domestic labour people have to do at home – e.g. hoovers, washing machines, microwaves and microwave meals reduce the amount of time spend cleaning, washing and cooking.
Death Rate
The number of deaths per thousand members of a population per year.
Divorce
The formal and legal end to a marriage.
Dual Burden
When someone does both paid work and a significant amount of the domestic labour, such as housework at home. According to radical feminists, it is mainly women who suffer this.
Economic Factors
Refers to things to do with money – for example how wealth a society is and the amount of wealth and income an individual or family has.
Emotion Work
Thinking about the emotional well-being of other members of the family and acting in ways which will be of emotional benefit to others. For example, hugging and reassuring children when they have nightmares, organising Christmas and birthday parties so that everyone feels included and has a good time.
Extended family
Family beyond the traditional nuclear family, incorporating aunts, uncles, and grandparents. In the traditional extended family, members live in the same household, in more modern extended families
Family as a Unit of Consumption
A Marxist idea that the primary function of the family in capitalist societies is to consume products to keep capitalism going. Two main ways this is done is through spending on the children, especially at Christmas, and through spending on house and household purchases and improvements.
Functional Fit Theory
The main type of family changes as the structure of society changes so that the former better fits with the later. See Parsons’ Functionalist theory of the family for more details.
Gender Norms
The ‘expected’ patterns of behaviour associated with masculinity and femininity – for example, femininity = caring, masculinity = competitive.
Gender Roles
The social positions and occupations we associate with men and women – for example we tend to associate the caring role with women, and the ‘provider role’ with men.
Globalisation (simple definition)
The increasing interconnectedness of societies across the globe.
Ideological Functions
Refers to the ways in which the ideas spread through institutions work top maintain the power of dominant groups in society.
Individualisation
The process where individuals have more freedom to make life-choices and shape their identities because of a weakening of traditional social structures, norms and values. For example, secularization means people have more choice over whether they should get married or simply cohabit.
Instrumental Role
The provider or breadwinner role which involves going out to work and earning money for the family – the traditional male role within the family.
Matrifocal Household
A family structure in which mothers are the heads of household and fathers have less power and control in family life and the allocation of resources.
Migration
Moving from one country or area to another.
Multigenerational household
Where at least three generations live together in one household, such as grandparents, parents and children.
Negotiated Families
Vary according to the wishes and expectations of their members, who decided what is best for them by discussion. Negotiated families are more equal than traditional nuclear families, but more unstable. This is the typical type of family in postmodern society.
Net Migration
The difference between the numbers of people immigrating to and emigrating from a country.
Nuclear Family
A father and mother with their dependent children, either their own or adopted, living together in one household.
Patriarchy
A society where men hold the power and women are excluded, disadvantaged or oppressed. An example of a patriarchal society is one which women are not allowed to vote, but men are.
Personal Life Perspective
A sociological perspective which believes we should understand family life from the perspective of the individuals who make up the family, focusing on the diverse ways in which different individuals within the family define and perceive their own experiences of family life.
Polygamy
Where one husband legally has many wives. The opposite is Polyandry, where one woman has many husbands.
Postmodernism
The view that social changes (such as globalisation and more consumerism) since the 1950s have resulted in a world in which individuals have much more choice and freedom than is suggested by Modernists social theories such as Functionalism, Marxism and Feminism.
Primary Socialisation
The first stages of learning the norms and values of a society which is primarily done within the family with parents as the main agents of socialisation. This is where children learn the basic skills and norms, such as language, and basic manners.
Promiscuous Horde
Engels’ ideas of a tribal group structure which is found in ‘primitive societies’ in which all members share property and sleep together, such that no one knows who the fathers of the children are. It is lack of private property which ’causes’ the promiscuity: there is nothing to pass down to the next generation and so it is not necessary to know who the biological farther of a specific child is.
Pure Relationship
Where couples enter an intimate relationship purely for their own mutual benefit, rather than doing so because they feel they should be in a relationship to fit in with social or religious norms or societal or parental pressure.
Reconstituted families
A reconstituted family is where one parent with a child from a previous relationship starts a new relationship with another partner who may or may not have children themselves and thus a new family is formed. Also known as a step family.
Serial Monogamy
Where an individual has a string of committed relationships, one after the other.
Social Construction of Childhood
The idea that the norms and values and social roles associated with childhood are influenced by society, rather than being determined by the biological age of a child.
Stable satisfaction of the s*x drive
One of the four essential functions of the nuclear family according to Murdock who believed that the nuclear family provided a long term monogamous relationship in which s*xual desires could be met without recourse to frustration and promiscuity.
Stabilisation of Adult Personalities
Where the nuclear family provides a structure in which both adult partners gain emotional and psychological support from one another.
Symmetrical Family
A family in which the roles of husbands and wives, although not identical are more similar. There are three elements: – Both men and women do paid work. – Men and women both do housework. – Couples spend their leisure time together rather than separately
Total Fertility Rate
The average number of babies a woman will have during her fertile years (15-44).
Toxic Childhood
Where social changes, especially the invention of new technologies, does increasing amounts of harm to children. For example, the internet and mobile phones results in screen saturation with increases anxiety and reduces attention spans.
Triple Shift
Builds on the idea of the dual burden: women in families have three types of work: paid work, housework and emotion work.
Warm Bath Theory
The Functionalist idea that within the nuclear family the wife takes on the role of the carer, providing support as a homemaker and carer while the man goes out to work. The role of the wife is to ‘run him a warm bath’ when he gets home to help him destress after a hard day of earning income for the family.
An example of how you might answer a methods in context question on the AQA’s A level sociology paper 1.
(05) Read item B, then answer the question below (hooks in bold)
Item B
Investigating pupils with behavioural difficulties
Some pupils experience behavioural difficulties and problems interactingwith others. This can create a major obstacle to learning, for both themselves and their classmates. In some cases, they are taught in specialist schools or in pupil referral units separate from mainstream education. Often, their behavioural difficulties result from problems outside school and many pupils come from materially deprived and chaotic home backgrounds.
Some sociologists may study pupils with behavioural difficulties using covert participant observation. This method enables the researcher to witness directly the pupils’ behaviour and its context. It may also allow the researcher to build a relationship of trust with pupils and parents. However, the researcher may find it difficult to fit in and he or she may need to adopt a specialised role such as teacher or support worker.
Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the strengths and limitations of using covert participant observation to investigate pupils with behavioural difficulties.
Section 1 – – Deal with The Method (and hit the middle mark band, 9-12) – If possible, link to education general or even the topic using words in the item from the beginning.
Covert participant observation is generally preferred by interpretivists – good for insight, depth.
Validity is generally good, but in this case it may not be (see below)
Reliability and representativeness are poor
Practically – difficult to do, especially with closed institutions like PRUs
Ethically – highly problematic, especially within education, researching vulnerable students.
Section 2 – Main body – Covert PO directly applied to the specific topic of pupils with behavioural difficulties – all of these hit the top mark band descriptor (17-20)
Students with behavioural difficulties are vulnerable, thus gaining access would be a problem, especially with any type of PO given the close contact you would have with the students. Gatekeepers would be reluctant to let people in in order to protect students, they may also not be keen for a researcher to see how chaotic life is in such institutions. Thus Covert PO is a sensible choice because you’re more likely to get into a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) if you pose as a professional and thus appear on ‘the side of the institution’.
However, covert would still be difficult to gain access, because getting into a PRU covertly would require you to be trained as a teacher or LF, they won’t just let anyone in!
In terms of validity, while PO is good for getting respondents to trust you, if you were covert, apparently working with the PRU, then they may not open up to you because such students wouldn’t trust authority figures, thus this major advantage is nullified.
Having said this, it would still allow the researcher to observe how peer groups reinforce bad behaviour in the context of the institution.
Ethically, there is a possibility of the researcher being put in danger, they may come across violent students and not be able to break cover easily if in a class room.
Practically, if you were to adopt to role of covert observer as a support worker, you would not be able to follow the students to their home backgrounds or onto ‘the street’ to see how they behaved outside of the institution where you ‘worked’, thus you wouldn’t get any insight into where they spend most of their time. Thus this method is pretty useless for this topic.
On a similar level, you wouldn’t be able to gain access to their homes either, to explore their ‘chaotic’ backgrounds, so you wouldn’t be able to observe this, you’d be stuck with asking them about it while in the PRU.
Section 3 – Conclusion
Overall, participant observation may well be a sensible choice of method for researching this topic, but there is nothing to be gained from doing covert compared to overt, and with covert, it probably wouldn’t happen because no one would fund it given the ethical problems surrounding researching vulnerable students, so all of this has been a rather pointless discussion.
The last sentence is optional!
If you like this sort of thing, then why not purchase my handy ‘How to Write Methods in Context Essays‘ hand-out, a bargain at only £1.49, and who knows, it may prevent you from being the victim in a future research study focusing on why certain students fail their A levels…
It covers the following processes of how to deal with Methods in Context (MIC) questions.
It starts off by looking at an example of a methods in context question and a mark scheme and outlines what you need to do to get into the top three mark bands.
It tells you how to plan methods in context essays.
It tells you how to actually write methods in context essays – presenting a ‘safe’ strategy to get into at least mark band 4 (13-16)
In total it provides three examples of how you might go about answering a three different MIC questions.
Privatisation involves the transfer of public assets to private companies
This is an example of a possible 4 or 6 mark question for the A Level sociology paper 1 education exam, possible answers below…
Marketization = exogenous privatisation, or introducing the principles of the free-market, private sector into how schools are run. This involved giving parents the right to choose (like consumers) and making schools compete for funding (funding per pupil) =
The expansion of Academies – Many academy chains are private companies (such as Harris) and have an ‘executive structure’ like businesses, with one ‘CEO’ overseeing many schools.
The control of exam boards by international companies – Edexcel is owned by the global publishing company Pearson’s for example, which makes money from exams (colleges pay for students to enter exams), but also publishing text books and running revision courses linked to those exams.
Global ICT companies such as Apple and Google producing educational hardware and software which schools are required to purchase. iTunes Edu is a good example of this (may overlap with the point above!
Education or knowledge becoming a commodity – through the introduction of fees in higher education – this turns students into ‘consumers’ and makes them want knowledge they can use to get a career and make money, rather than knowledge for its own sake. So Marketing courses expand, English Literature courses decrease.
The emergence of the Education Services Industry – Private companies building and maintaining schools through public-private partnerships – in which the state enters into a long term contract and pays a private company to either build a school or carry out repair and maintenance work (electrics/ plumbing/ gardening)
The expansion of private tuition – increased competition for results has led to most parents employing private tutors in addition to regular education – sometimes through agencies, which are private businesses.
* (you don’t need to write the definition when you answer this particular question!)
An example of a methods in context question, mark scheme, and some thoughts on how to answer the question. The ‘methods in context question’ appears on paper 1 at both AS and A Level, and it’s the same format in both papers.
The item and question below are taken directly from an AQA AS sociology specimen paper, I’ve put in bold the useful ‘hooks’ in the item.
Example of a Methods in Context Question:
(05) Read item B, then answer the question below
Item B
Investigating unauthorised absences from school
There is a close correlation between frequent unauthorised absence from school and educational underachievement. Those pupils who are not doing well at school are more likely to truant. Similarly, those who truant regularly are likely to finish their school career with poor qualifications. Pupils may be absent without authorisation for many reasons, from caring responsibilities at home or dislike of school, to parents arranging family holidays in term time.
Sociologists may use self-completion written questionnaires to study unauthorised absences. These can be distributed easily to large numbers of pupils, parents or teachers. The findings of the questionnaires can also be used to establish patterns and trends in relation to unauthorised absences. However, self-completion questionnaires often have very low response rates, especially when they ask about sensitive issues.
Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the strengths and limitations of using self-completion written questionnaires to investigate unauthorised absences from school (20 marks)
Examples of ‘Top Band’ Statements
If you top and tail this with an intro paragraph about Positivism and the strengths/ limitations of the method (thus show good knowledge and evaluation of the method in general) and a conclusion saying it’s a pretty crap method, then just 3-4 of these statements below should be enough to get you into the top mark band (17-20)
An advantage of self-completion questionnaires is that they can be distributed easily to large numbers of pupils, parents, or teachers, HOWEVER there are numerous reasons why pupils who are absent from school without being authorised won’t want to fill in the questionnaires – as the item states, such pupils may not be doing well at school and would be reluctant to fill in a questionnaire about something they don’t like (school), which could result in a low response rate
A second reason for a low response rate is, as the item states, because students have caring responsibilities at home, and they may not have time to complete the questionnaire, or they may not see it as important as their caring duties.
Another problem is that validity of responses may be low – if unauthorised absences are due to parents arranging holidays in term time, they may not want to admit to this in a questionnaire because they may have lied about this reason to the school to avoid a fine.
The item states that self completion questionnaires are a good way of finding trends and you could use them to explore the relationship between unauthorised absences and low qualifications, however, if people have low qualifications they may have low literacy levels, meaning they would not be happy filling in a questionnaire, so a booster sample would be required, or another method for such people, such as structured interviews, but this would reduce the reliability.
One advantage of the method is that you can distribute large numbers of questionnaires quickly, and they are usually quick to fill in, so teachers would like them as they have busy schedules, and would also probably be happy to talk about this issue, given its negative effects.
One problem with this method is the imposition problem – you need to set questions in advance, and as the item says, there are many reasons for unauthorised absences, they problem is that you may not discover these reasons if you don’t include it in the questionnaire in the first place.
This imposition problem would be a problem especially if absences are due to bullying, which is a sensitive issue – even if it is on the questionnaire, it’s quite a cold method and so respondents may not want to discuss it in a ‘tick box’ manner.
A final advantage of this method is that it is anonymous, which may outweigh some of the problems above.
If you like this sort of thing, then why not purchase my handy ‘How to Write Methods in Context Essays‘ hand-out, a bargain at only £1.49, and who knows, it may prevent you from being the victim in a future research study focusing on why certain students fail their A levels…
It covers the following processes of how to deal with Methods in Context (MIC) questions.
It starts off by looking at an example of a methods in context question and a mark scheme and outlines what you need to do to get into the top three mark bands.
It tells you how to plan methods in context essays.
It tells you how to actually write methods in context essays – presenting a ‘safe’ strategy to get into at least mark band 4 (13-16)
In total it provides three examples of how you might go about answering a three different MIC questions.
The Mark Scheme (top three bands)
Top Mark Band (17-20) – Good knowledge of method and applies the method to the specific topic
‘Students will apply knowledge of a range of relevant strengths and limitations of using self-completion written questionnaires to research issues and characteristics relating to unauthorised absences from school.
These may include some of the following and/or other relevant concerns, though answers do not need to include all of these, even for full marks:
the research characteristics of potential research subjects, eg individual pupils, peer groups, parents, teachers (eg class, ethnic and gender differences; parental literacy skills; teachers’ professionalism, self-interest or stereotypes of pupils)
contexts and settings (eg classrooms; staffrooms)
the sensitivity of researching unauthorised absences from school (eg policy and resource implications for schools; schools’ market and league table position; its impact on achievement or behaviour; stigmatisation; parental consent).’
Fourth Mark Band (13-16) – Good knowledge of method and applies the method to education in general.
‘Application of knowledge will be broadly appropriate but will be applied in a more generalised way or a more restricted way; for example:
applying the method to the study of education in general, not to the specifics of studying unauthorised absences from school, or
specific but undeveloped application to unauthorised absences from school, or
a focus on the research characteristics of unauthorised absences from school, or groups/contexts etc involved in it.’
Middle Mark Band (9-12) – Good knowledge of method, loosely applied to education
‘Largely accurate knowledge but limited range and depth, including a broadly accurate, if basic, account of some of the strengths and/or limitations of self completion written questionnaires.
Understands some limited aspects of the question; superficial understanding of the presented material.
Applying material (possibly in a list-like fashion) on self-completion written questionnaires, but with very limited or non-existent application to either the study of unauthorised absences from school in particular or of education in general. ‘
Methods in Context- Here you need to be able to assess the strengths and limitations of using any method to research any topic within education.
The different methods you need to be able to consider include –
Secondary documents
Official statistics
Lab/ field experiments
Questionnaires
Interviews
Participant observation (overt and covert)
Non participant observation (overt and covert)
Some of the different topics within education you might be asked to consider include
Researching how the values, attitudes, and aspirations of parents contribute to the achievement of certain groups of children
Why boys are more likely to be excluded than girls
Why white working class boys underachieve
Exploring whether teachers have ‘ideal pupils’ – whether they label certain groups of pupils favourably!
Looking at whether the curriculum is ethnocentric (racist/ homophobic)
Exploring the extent to which sexist ‘bullying’ disadvantageous children
Examining how ‘gender identities’ enhance or hinder children’s ability to learn
Assessing the relative importance of cultural deprivation versus material deprivation in explaining underachievement
Assessing the success of policies aimed to improve achievement such as ‘employing more black teachers’.
The above isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s a start.
A useful activity is to pick one method and go through 2 or more of the topics, stating how you might use the method to research the topic, and what SPECIFIC advantages are and what SPECIFIC problems you might face.
For example:
Structured questionnaires would be a good method to research the values and attitudes of parents and how these affect achievement, because this is a relatively simple topic, and it would be quite easy to operationalise and measure how long parents spend helping with homework, or whether they want their child to go to university. However, a problem is that if parents aren’t that interested in their children’s education, they wouldn’t bother to fill in a questionnaire.
Structured questionnaires would be a bad method to research ‘gender identities’, especially from a postmodernist perspective, because gender identities are quite complex, and ‘played out’ within groups. It would be an especially bad method to use to explore the gender-identities of groups of boys – ‘lads’ are unlikely to take structured questionnaires seriously, as if one member of a laddish subculture completed it, he would be ridiculed by the group for doing so.
The above two sentences are examples of ‘top band’ (17-20) statements – they relate an aspect of the method to the topic.
You need to include good knowledge and evaluation of the method in addition to a number of such question-specific-statements, ideally developed even further, to get into the top mark band.
The role and functions of the education system, including its relationship to the economy and to class structure (the perspectives: functionalism etc.)
Differential educational achievement of social groups by social class, gender and ethnicity in contemporary society.
Relationships and processes within schools, with particular reference to teacher/pupil relationships, pupil identities and subcultures, the hidden curriculum, and the organisation of teaching and learning.
The significance of educational policies, including policies of selection, marketisation and privatisation, and policies to achieve greater equality of opportunity or outcome, for an understanding of the structure, role, impact and experience of and access to education; the impact of globalisation on educational policy.
How most text books break the specification down further….
Topic 1 – Perspectives on Education (‘role and function of education’)
There are 4 Main Perspectives:
Functionalism
Marxism
The New Right
Postmodernism
You can also use knowledge from these perspectives: Feminism/ Social Democratic/ Liberalism
Functionalism
Focuses on the positive functions performed by the education system. There are four positive functions that education performs
Creating social solidarity (value consensus)
Teaching skills necessary for work
Bridge between home and school
Role Allocation and meritocracy
Marxism
Traditional Marxists see the education system as working in the interests of ruling class elites. The education system performs three functions for these elites:
Reproduces class inequality.
Legitimates class inequality.
The Correspondence Principle – School works in the interests of capitalist employers
The New Right
Created an ‘education market’ – Schools were run like businesses – competing with each other for pupils and parents were given choice. This required league league tables
Schools should teach subjects that prepare pupils for work, Hence education should be aimed at supporting economic growth. Hence: New Vocationalism!
The state was to provide a framework in order to ensure that schools were all teaching the same thing and transmitting the same shared values – hence the National Curriculum
Postmodernism
Not a major perspective on education.
Use to criticise the relevance of the previous three perspectives.
A ‘one size fits all’ education system does not fit with a post-modern society
Education needs to be more flexible and targeted to individuals.
Topic 2 – In-School Processes
Make sure you explain the difference between Interactionism and Structural Theories
School Ethos and The Hidden Curriculum
Teacher Stereotyping and the halo effect
The ideal pupil
Labelling and the Self Fulfilling Prophecy
Banding, streaming and setting
Definitions of banding/ streaming setting
Summaries of evidence on the effects of banding etc.
Unequal access to classroom knowledge
Educational triage
Student responses to the experience of schooling: school subcultures
Differentiation and Polarisation
Pro-School subcultures
Anti-school (or counter-school) subcultures
Between pro and anti-school subcultures: a range of responses
Gender and differential educational achievement
There are three main types of question for gender and education – achievement, subject choice the trickier question of how gender identities affect experience of schooling and how school affects gender identities.
Distinguishing between out of school and in-school factors in explaining these differences is one of the key analytical skills for this topic (and in class/ ethnicity)
Achievement (why do girls generally do better than boys)
In the 1980s boys used outperform girls
Today, girls do better than boys by about 8% points at GCSE.
There are about 30% more girls in University than boys.
Subject Choice (why do they choose different subjects)
Subject choice remains heavily ‘gendered’
Typical boys subjects = computing/ VOCATIONAL especially trades/ engineering
Pupils’ gender identities may influence the way they experience school.
Schools may reinforce traditional (hegemonic) and femininity
Gender identity varies by social class and ethnicity.
Out of school factors and differential educational achievement
Changes in Employment – Rise of the service, decline in manufacturing sector, crisis of masculinity.
Changes in the family – dual earner households, more female worker role models. LINK TO FAMILY MODULE
Changing girls’ ambitions – from marriage and family to career and money (Sue Sharp)
Differential socialisation –girls socialised to be more passive/ toys related to different subjects (Becky Francis) LINK TO FUNCTIONALISM/ PARSONS.
Parental attitudes – traditional working class dads may expect boys to not try hard at school.
Impact of Feminism – equal opportunity policies.
Policy changes – introduction of coursework in 1988/ scaling back of coursework in 2015.
Gender and In-School Factors
Teacher Labelling – typical boys = disruptive, low expectation, typical girls = studious, high expectations (Jon Abraham) – LINK TO INTERACTIONISM, Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Subcultures –boys more likely to form counter-school cultures (Willis) – LINKS to out of school.
Feminisation of teaching – increase in female teachers puts boys off
Subject counsellors advise boys to choose boys subjects
Gendered subject images match traditional gender domains
Boys’ domination of equipment puts girls off practical subjects like PE
Traditional masculine identities – boys just don’t see school as a ‘boy thing’ – Working class boys saw school as ‘queer’, middle class work hard but hide this (Mac An Ghail)
Hyper-Feminine identities (hair/ make up) clash with the school (Carolyn Jackson)
Verbal Abuse – boys who study hard get called ‘gay’ as a term of abuse.
Social class differences in educational achievement
Why do working class kids do worse than middle class kids? (Free School Meals to measure, not class!)
Material Deprivation
Lots of ways!
Hidden costs
The cycle of deprivation
Selection by mortgage
Cultural Deprivation – blame the working classes
Immediate/ deferred gratification
Restricted/ elaborated speech codes
Cultural Capital – Marxist – blame the middle classes
Skilled and Disconnected Choosers
In-School Processes
Labelling, the ideal pupil (Becker)
Counter School Culture (Willis)
Aspirational culture in school (links to cultural capital)
Ethnicity and differential educational achievement
Chinese/ Indian kids do best/ African-Caribbean, Gypsy Roma worst.
Material Factors
Differences in income/ class don’t explain the difference (poor Chinese kids compared poor white kids)
Cultural factors
Family structure (single parent households)
Parental attitudes (Steve Strand 2007)
Language differences (linguistic deprivation)
Black anti-school masculine street cultures (Tony Sewell)
In-School Processes
Teacher racism/ labelling (Gilborn)
Subcultures and anti-school attitudes (Tony Sewell)
Subcultures as a means of resisting racism (Mac An Ghail).
Banding and Streaming/ Educational Triage
Ethnocentric Curriculum
Experiences of institutional racism and from other pupils (Crozier)
Also – racism in admissions at Oxford University
Education Policies
Main policies
1944 – The Tripartite System
1965 – Comprehensivisation
1988 – New Right – Education Act – Marketisation
1997 – New Labour – Academies, Expansion of HE, Sure Start, EMA.
2010 – Coalition/ New Right – Forced Adacademisation, Free Schools, Funding Cuts, Pupil Premium, and MORE STATE GRAMMARS.
Compenstory Education – E.G. EMA.
Vocationalism – e.g, Apprenticeships.
Policies – key questions
To what extent have policies raised achievement?
To what extent have policies improved equality of opportunity?
How have policies changed the way schools select pupils and what are the consequences (apply the perspectives)
In what ways has education becoming more privatised and what are the consequences (apply the perspectives)?
What is the relationship between globalisation and education policy?
If you get a question on education policies, the chances are you will be asked about ‘education policies since 1988’. This post is designed to get you thinking about how you could use the info on the New Right’s 1988 Education Act and New Labour’s policies from 1997 onwards to answer an exam question in this area.
The New Right’s 1988 Education Act
Not interested in equal opps, mainly interested in raising standards…
• Parentocracy – parents get to choose schools • Marketisation – schools have to compete like businesses for students • League tables to be published • The above should raise standards as no parent would send child to failing school • National Curriculum – ensures all schools teach core subjects • OFSTED inspections
How 1988 worsened equality of opportunity…
• Middle classes had more choice – cultural capital/ skilled choosers • School/ parent alliance (Stephen Ball) • Also selection by mortgage • Polarisation of schools – sink schools
New Labour’s Policies
More interested in equal opps
• Academies (Mossbourne) – set up in poorer areas • EMA • Sure start • Expanded Vocationalism
Other aims of New Labour/ criticisms of the idea that New Labour’s policies raised standards
• Sure start didn’t work • EMA did work but the Tories have now scrapped it • Academies did work but new Tory academies are more selective • Vocationalism offers more opportunities to the lower classes, but it is regarded as inferior.
The coalition government
Introduced the pupil premium which was extra funding for schools to take on disadvantaged pupils, with the funding being spent specifically on disadvantaged pupils.
HOWEVER in the long run there is mixed evidence the pupil premium works as the funding sometimes gets spent generally, rather than on disadvantaged pupils.
The coalition scrapped the EMA, one of the few policies which seemed to have worked to promote equality of opportunity.
The Tory government since 2015
T-levels may promote equal opportunity by offering more choice for non academic students, this may also help raise the status of academic subjects, breaking the traditional view that they are inferior to academic A-levels.
Lockdown policies harmed equal opportunities as poor students lost out on more learning than rich students and then covid-catch up policies were insufficient to actually help students catch up.
Funding cuts to education over several years harm equal opportunities as state schools fall further behind private schools.
The tories expanded grammar schools by stealth – this harms equal opportunities as grammar schools are over-attended by the the middle classes.
Other Information you could include…
• Compensatory Education – lots to say here….
• You could talk about Gender and Ethnicity too….
Conclusions: have education policies promoted equality of opportunity?
The main policy of the last 40 years has been marketisation which allows middle-class parents more freedom to exercise their cultural, material and social capital to get their children into the best schools, which works against equality as it favours the rich.
There have been policies such as the EMA/ Sure Start and Pupil Premium designed explicitly to tackle inequality but these have mostly been short lived or underfunded and failed to make any significant difference.
However the attainment gap overall has decreased slightly which suggests that these policies haven’t harmed equal opportunities too much.
The continued existence of private schools is the policy which harms equality the most as these institutions are vehicles of privilege for the wealthiest to hot house their average kids into the best grades and the top jobs they don’t deserve.
Just a few thoughts on how you might answer this in the exam.
Introduction – A variety of factors influence a Sociologist’s decision as to what research method they use: the nature of topic, theoretical, practical and ethical factors.
Theoretical factors – Positivism vs Interpretivism – Positivists are interested in uncovering the underlying general laws that lie behind human action. They thus prefer quantitative methods because these enable large samples to be drawn and allow for the possibility of findings being generalised to the wider population.
They also prefer quantitative methods because the data can be put into graphs and charts, allowing for easy comparisons to be made at a glance.
Another method that is linked to the positivist tradition is the experiment – laboratory experiments allow researchers to examine human behaviour in controlled environments and so allow researchers to accurately measure the effects of one specific variable on another
Interpretivists generally prefer qualitative methods which are regarded as having high validity. Validity is the extent to which research provides a true and accurate picture of the aspect of social life that is being studied. Most sociologists would agree that there is little point doing sociological research if it is invalid.
Theoretical factors – Validity – Qualitative methods should be more valid because they are suitable for gaining an in depth and empathetic understanding of the respondent’s views of life. Qualitative methods are flexible, and allow for the respondents to speak for themselves, which avoids the imposition problem as they set the research agenda. Qualitative methods also allow for rapport to be built up between the respondent and the researcher which should encourage more truthful and in depth information to flow from the respondents.
The final reason why qualitative methods such as Participant Observation should yield valid data is that it allows for the researcher to see the respondents in their natural environment.
Theoretical factors – Reliability – Is the extent to which research can be repeated and the same results achieved. Positivists point out that it is more difficult for someone else to replicate the exact same conditions of a qualitative research project because the researcher is involved in sustained, contact with the respondents and the characteristics and values of the researcher may influence the reactions of respondents.
Moreover, because the researcher is not ‘detached’ from the respondents, this may detract from his or her objectivity. Participant Observers such as Willis and Venkatesh have, for example, been accused of going native – where they become overly sympathetic with the respondents.
Interpretivists would react to this by pointing out that human beings are not machines and there are some topics that require close human contact to get to the truth – sensitive issues such as abuse and crime may well require sympathetic researchers that share characteristics in common with the respondents. Interpretivists are happy to forgo reliability if they gain in more valid and in depth data.
Representativeness – Obviously if one wants large samples one should use quantitative methods – as with the UK National Census. However, one may not need a large sample depending on the research topic.
Practical Factors – Practical issues also have an important influence on choices of research method. As a general rule quantitative methods cost less and are quicker to carry out compared to more qualitative methods, and the data is easier to analyse once collected, especially with pre-coded questionnaires which can simply be fed into a computer. It is also easier to get government funding for quantitative research because this is regarded as more scientific and objective and easier to generalise to the population as a whole. Finally, researchers might find respondents more willing to participate in the research if it is less invasive – questionnaires over PO.
However, qualitative methods, although less practical, may be the only sensible way of gaining valid data, or any data at all for certain topics – as mentioned above UI are best for sensitive topics while participant observation may be the only way to gain access to deviant and criminal groups.
Ethical Factors – Ethical factors also influence the choice of research methods. In order for research to gain funding it will need to meet the ethical guidelines of the British Sociological Association. How ethical a research method is depends on the researcher’s efforts to ensure that informed consent is achieved and that data is kept confidential and not used for purposes other than the research.
Real ethical dilemmas can occur with covert participant observation. However, sometimes the ethical benefits gained from a study may outweigh the ethical problems. McIntyre, for example, may have deceived the hooligans he researched but at least he exposed their behaviour.
Howard Becker also argued that there is an ethical imperative to doing qualitative research – these should be used to research the underdog, giving a voice to the marginalised whose opinions are often not heard in society.
Nature of topic – There are certain topics which lend themselves naturally to certain modes of research. Measuring how people intend to vote naturally lends itself to phone surveys for example while researching sensitive and emotive topics would be better approached through UI.
Conclusion – In conclusion there are a number of different factors that interrelate to determine a sociologist’s choice of research method – practical, ethical, theoretical and the nature of the topic under investigation. In addition, sociologists will evaluate these factors depending on their own individual values. Furthermore it is too simplistic to suggest that sociologists simply fall into two separate camps, Positivists or Interpretivists. Many researchers use triangulation, combining different types of method so that the advantages of one will compensate for the disadvantages of another.
Theory and Methods A Level Sociology Revision Bundle
If you like this sort of thing, then you might like my Theory and Methods Revision Bundle – specifically designed to get students through the theory and methods sections of A level sociology papers 1 and 3.
Contents include:
74 pages of revision notes
15 mind maps on various topics within theory and methods
For these questions you need to make a point and then develop that point to explain further.
Possible questions for the A Level Sociology Education (71912) PAPER 1 exam – the two short answer questions in this paper will ask you to outline two reasons/ ways/ criticisms. You will have one 4 mark question and one 6 mark question in this format (outline 2 and 3 ways/ reasons/ criticisms respectively).
The five examples below are all taken from the Perspectives part of the education topic, but draw on other parts of the module, as you should do.
NB these are my (over qualified) educated guesses about why might come up, and the answers are my best guesses as what will qualify as full markers).
Also the questions may be more obscure, or much nastier – remember, there is a theory that the people who write these exam papers have a burning hatred of teenagers and haven’t seen daylight since 1984.
If you like this sort of thing, why not buy my ‘short answer practice questions and answers for A Level sociology‘ – it’s as much fun as it sounds, actually more because I’ve colour coded the skills. It includes examples of 4,6 and 10 mark questions in the education bit of the A level paper 1 exam.
Anyway, enough wittering – some exemplar questions and answers:
Outline two ways in which education might prepare students for work (4)
Two developed examples, should get 4/4
Teaching specific skills for specific jobs – a complex economy requires lots of people doing different jobs, requiring different skills – school starts off with some people specialising in sciences, other in humanities – later, education splits into more vocational courses and degree courses to offer more specialisation.
Motivation by external rewards – at school, pupils learn to put up with boring lessons in order to reap the rewards of exam results at the end, this prepares them to put up with dull work in reward for pay at the end of the month in later life.
Possible additional identifiers (1 mark for each, you’ll need to add in the plus 1s)
Teaching soft skills such as team work
Role allocation (if developed appropriately)
Teaching to accept hierarchy/ authority as normal
Exams being competitive
Outline two ways in which the education system might perform ideological functions (4)
Two developed examples, should get 4/4
Passive subservience of authority/ hierarchy – in school students learn they should accept the authority of teachers, later at work they have to accept the authority of managers – this makes them passive and obedient, thus easily controlled, according to Marxists
Teachers ignoring sexual abuse of female students – according to Radical Feminist analysis this reinforces patriarchal control as it means girls are more likely to grow up learning to say nothing about male violence against women in later life.
Possible additional identifiers (1 Mark each, add in the plus 1s)
Motivation by external rewards
Fragmentation of subjects
Reinforcing of gender domains in subject choice
Outline two reasons why schools today might fail to create value consensus among pupils (4)
Possible identifiers (you’ll need to add in the plus 1s)
The ethnocentric curriculum
The growth of home schooling
The existence of private schools
Marketisation
Outline two criticisms of the Marxist view of education (4)
Possible identifiers (you’ll need to add in the plus 1s)
There are many critical subjects taught at university that criticise elites
It is deterministic – not every child passively accepts authority
Some students from poor backgrounds do ‘beat the odds’ and go on to achieve highly
Marking Practice…
Outline two positive functions which the education system may perform (4)
Mark the 2 examples below (1 mark per point +1 for development of that point). Feel free to comment below, and I’ll respond with my marks/ comments if enough people do. If you can’t wait, you’ll find the marks and comments here.
Candidate X
The first positive function is, according to Emile Durkheim, schools might create value consensus among pupils.
The second positive function is that schools teach pupils the same subjects through the national curriculum, thus making them think the same.
Candidate Y
Role Allocation – where pupils are sorted into appropriate jobs based on their qualifications. The idea here is that different pupils have different levels of ability, and the more able/ harder working get higher qualifications, proving they are more suited to the more demanding, professional jobs.
Social solidarity – making people feel as if they are working together towards a shared goal.
If you like this sort of thing, then why not purchase my handy ‘
If you like this sort of thing, then you might like my Theory and Methods Revision Bundle – specifically designed to get students through the theory and methods sections of A level sociology papers 1 and 3.
