Hw

How may a participant observational study be conducted?

Participant observation is join the ob servants` daily activities and observe what they do and say.
Researcher have to gain entry to the group.And follow the rule' go with the flow'. Research should just looking and listening, not to disturb their normal daily life and activities.
Asking questions if needs, further and more detailed information could be obtained.A key informant who is a member of the group has special relationship with the researcher and provide vital information. Researcher need to go hanging around with their observances, follow and join their daily activities.Lastly, to record the finding of the process which have to depends on the memory of the researcher which can be selective, it is normally done in the evening when the memory still fresh.The time of completing the process could be long, and sometimes dangerous.

Why do interpretivists favour unstructured participant observation?
Interpretivists are interested on the meaning of particular action and what cause the actions.They argue that understanding people should seeing the world through their view point.Unstructured participant observation offers observants more freedom and flexible , open-ended answers, it is more informal therefore, the observants` behaviour will less likely to be influenced by researcher, less interview bias resulted. In turn, as research participate in their daily activities, they are more likely to interpret their action in the view point of the observants and to discover the meanings.



Why do positivists favour structured non-participant observation?

Hw 2

Compare and contrast the main types of observational methods

There are two main types of observational methods, participant observation and non-participant observation.

Participant observation is when reseachers join observant`s daily activities and observe what they do and say.while non-participant observation , researcher do not join them, the researcher 'hide' and observing their behaviour. Therefore, for those who use participant observation need to gain entry to join their daily activities which sometimes is extremely difficult and had high risk, such as the criminal group or the group of people taking drugs.

Participant observation offer chance to ask them more questions and collect further and detailed information.As researcher participate in observant`s daily activities, they could discover what people actually do, a higher valid data could be produced and find out how people see the world. And participant observation can provide insight, new direction of research which are less likely to be found out through other type of researches.Sometimes to use participant observation is the only way to obtain results, there are some groups that closed to outsiders such as criminal groups, therefore, join them and gaining trust is the only way to obtain data.
However, It could be very costly in term of time and money, and there is dangers involved. And there is the likelihood of loss of objectivity, observer may 'go native' and never return to normal live.People behaviour would be influenced as they noticed they are been observed.

Whereas Non-participant observation is less likely to influence observant.And they have more opportunities for using research aids such as notebooks.However, they will have much fewer opportunities to discover insights or even detailed information and the meaning of their actions. Therefore, much actions are interpreted based on researchers own views.

Interpretivisits showed favour to participant observation as a method for collecting data since it see the world from the observant`s view.

Research methods HW

One problem of using survey methods such as interviews and questionnaires to study people is what they say do and what they actually do may be two different things. For example, in interviews, people may conceal information or lie about their real behaviour in order to please the interviewer, save face or create a better impression of themselves.



Discuss ways to overcoming this problem.

Self-completion questionnaires could be used as it is left with respondents to be picked up later or posted back to the researchers. By doing this, there is no interviewer bias, they are likely to write about what they think.however, there may be problem of low response rate.And to avoided leading phrase such as ''Don`t you agree...''. Try to make the questions mean the same to most of the people.
Most importantly, the standard advice to interviewers is to be non-directive, avoid leading respondents and to allow them to express themselves`s views. Through it would minimise interviewer bias and it is important to establish rapport, a friendly and understanding relationships to be develop in between while at the same time maintaince distance to not to influence respondents own views. It is certainly hard to achieve such stage.However, be non-directive could make respondents feel uneasy as the there is no clear guidance, and high level of unrelevent information.
By participant observation, where researchers jion observers daily life and observe what they say and do. As researchers "go with the flow" rather than forcing the pace and influence people`s behaviours and not disturb their daily.It offered a chance to researcher to discover the meaing of their behaviour and what they actucally do, a high level of validity.However, it was argued people`s behaviour changed as soon as they notice they are been observed. But according to Hargreves`s studies conduct in school, pupils behaved normally after they got familiar to him.
By Non-participant observation where researcher need not participate to observe people`s behaviour, they"hide" and observing behaviour without joining.As there is no direct contact, the observer is less likely to influence the group.But researchers have fewer opportunities for discovering the meaning of their actions which interpretivists emphasised on, and the researchers would tend to interprete the behaviour on their own view.
Structured interviews may be less chance of interviewer bias since it is more formal than other types of interviews, it is straight forward.

useful link

Forgot to tell you guys,I think it is useful, just add a little more to the mountain high notes. http://www.sociology.org.uk/rc2000b.pdf

without note this time

Marxists view of family

they see the basic conflict of interest between ruling class and subject class, they see family is the Conner stone of capitalism, it is a institution to maintain capitalism and it is shaped by the need of capitalism.
According to Engel, the private property is the heart of capitalism and it is largely own by men.it gave men greater control over women. Marxists some views are similar to functionalists, such as socialising children and reproduction.but there are some differences, they see the reproduction is reproduce 'labour power' which are the future generation, Unit of consumption of the product of capitalism. Provide emotional support to worker endure the harsh realities of capitalism.Socialising children to accept the inequalities of capitalism.They see women are essential to capitalism, they give support and health care to worker which lead to higher productive, and it is free. Men`s responsibilities of family force them cannot be out labour force.

Criticism.
They only focus on the benefits of family to economy of society , they ignore the benefits to individual and other societies.They assume all workers are male and female as housewives. Some sociologists reject the theory of capitalism, therefore , they reject the view of family. Generally sociologists agree economy system influence family but they disagree the family is shaped by the need of the system.

Liberal feminists
They emphasise the culture norms and values are reinforced by family, they family is sexist because it support mainstream culture. They seek to balance the inequalities in the society, so they try to put pressure on legal system and government to change laws and social policies which discriminate women. And they achieved The Equal Pay Act 1975.

Criticism
they did not recognise all pervasive of patriarchy.all other criticism against feminists .

My weak points

Before start my revision on my weak area on topic of family, i need to clarify one thing. Mr.chris, i think you understand what is the meaning of 'going to'. Going to do something is future time>.<>~~~~)

See, my english is good~~~
Anyway, sociology time

Marxists` view of family
Marxists see a basic conflict of interest between ruling class and subject class. They see family is one of the institutions which maintain the position of ruling class and family is shaped by the capitalism. According to Engel, private property which is the heart of capitalism and is largely owned by men, it gave men greater control over women. In some respects, Marxists`s view are similar to functionalists` view, such as reproduce and socialising children. But the difference are the family are reproducing 'labour power' future generations. Unit of consumption of product of capitalism. Provide emotional support to distress worker to cope with harsh realities of capitalism and socialising children to accept the inequalities of capitalism. They see the role of female as housewife, they give emotional support and health care to workers that make worker more productive, it benefit capitalism hugely and it is free. It is the same view of point as Marxist feminist.And family responsibilities force men not to withdraw form work force.

Criticisms Of Marxism
Marxists entirely focus on the benefits that the family bring to the economy, it ignore the other benefits to individual and society.And they assume that the workers are male, female are housewives.Some sociologists did not accept the Marxist theory, therefore, they reject Marxists view of family. Sociologists generally agree economic system influence family, but disagree family is shaped by the need of the system.

Liberal feminists
Liberal Feminists seek equal rights with men and believe individuals should be treated in accordance with their talents and effort etc as opposed to characteristics of their sex ,so they try to put pressure on legal system and government to change the laws and social policies which discriminate against women.And they achieved The Equal Pay Act in 1975.

Criticism of liberal feminists
They does not recognise the all pervasive nature of patriarchy.And criticised they tries to bring more equality without changing social structure.and other criticise against feminists.

Policies of family

Starting from what i like the most.



Civil partnership Act in 2005 which grant same sex couples identical rights and responsibilities as opposite sex couples do.

1967, the Abortion Act which states that women have the right to have an abortion.

A series of factory act beginning in 1819 that gradually restrict child labour.

Divorce Reform Act of 1969, which made divorce easier and quicker.

1989, the Children Act which make the children have a choice in decision who they will live with.

1991 Child Support Act, It’s aim was to transfer the burden of the costs of the child from social security to the father.

The Adoption and Children Act of 2002, which came into affect in 2003, and made it easier for the biological, but unmarried father to obtain parental responsibility .

Is the nuclear family universal nowadays?

Nuclear family consist a husband and wife and one or more children, own or adopted, it is defined by Murdock, and according to him, he believed that the nuclear family is 'a universal social grouping.'

There are statistics shows the development of diversity of family, such as cohabiting, lone-parent, reconstituted,gay and lesbian families. In Britain，26% of families with dependent children were headed by lone parents in 2000(Social Trends,2002), 24% of non-married men and women under 60 were cohabiting in 2005.(Social Trends,2007) and etc.In Asia, around 20% of families are extended families.
The figures are increasing around the world, since people are tolerating the other forms of family.Governments are start to admit all type of family especially in Western countries, for example, the Civil partnership Act in 2005 in Britain which grant same-sex couple identical rights and responsibilities as the opposite-sex couples do.Many believes we are now live in the postmodern era. According Stacey, she sees family diversity as a reflection of postmodern society.There is no one family form to which everyone aspires.There are no generally agreed norms and values directing family.

All evidences seem to prove that nuclear family is not the dominant type of family.However, living in a nuclear family is a phase that most people, as children and adults, go through in the course of their life.The majority of British children still live in couple-headed households, up to 76% in 2006.(Social Trends, 2007).Most Asian households are based on nuclear families. Most importantly, the idea of the Universal Nuclear Family is so widely accepted due to the attention receives in the media. And the Governments seem to be more preferable to nuclear family, as the nuclear family can be a nurturing environment in which to raise children as long as there is love, time spent with children, emotional support, low stress, and a stable economic environment.So, although there is an increasing diversity of family, nuclear family is still universal now.

Statistic of family

Diversity of family

In Britain, 26% of dependent children were headed with lone-parent family in 2000, while there was only 7% in 1971. (Social Trends, 2002)

There are 75% of women in working age were economically active in 2000. 17% of women see their occupation as "take care of family." in 1991, and it has been declined to 13% in 2001.(Social Trends, 2002)

From 1970 to 2005, the proportion of women in paid employment had raise from 56% to 70%.(Social Trends.2007)

The above could be used to show the increasing lone-parents, women are economically independent, women see successful career as a alternative to traditional role as mothers and child-raisers.

The Civil Partnership Act in 2005 which grant same-sex couples same identical rights and responsibilities as opposite-sex married couples. There were 18,059 civil partnership in 2005 and 2006.

24% of non-married people under 60 were cohabiting in 2005 in the Britain, which is around twice the proportion in 1986.( Social Trends,2007)

The Divorce Reform Act in 1969 involved a major change in divorce. In 1969, the number of divorce in England and Wales was 51,310. In 1972, it increased to 119,025 and in 2006, it was 132,562. (Office of National Statistics.)


Nuclear family

Anderson found there is 23% of family contain kin beyond nuclear family based on data from 1851 in Preston of Lancashire.

During 1961 to 2006, the proportion of household that made up of couple with dependent children had declined from 38% to 22%. ( Office of National Statistics, 2007)

The majority of British children still live with couple headed household, 76% in 2006 compared to 92% in 1970. ( Social Trends. 2006)

Ethnic

In 2001, 48% of African-Caribbean families with dependent children were lone-parent families, compared to 22% for Britain as a whole. ( Social Trends, 2007)

Around 20% are extended families in Asia, a higher proportion than the other groups. (Westwood and Bhachu, 1988)
The above could be used to show ethnic groups have their own subcultures which differ from the mainstream culture)

Over the past 40 years, people had tended to marry later. In 1976, the average age for first marriage for men is 25 and 23 for women, in 2005, it was 32 for men and 29 for women.

Homework No.2

Examine the reasons for changes in the position of children in the last 200 years.

Industrialisation and Policy. In the 16th century, the upper classes sent their children to schools to be educated. In 17th century, the early year of the industrial revolution, child labour was widespread, they and adults worked side by side. Until 19th century, a series of factory acts banned the employment of children in mines and factories. By end of 19th century, elementary state education was compulsory in most European countries. Children were now physically separated from adult setting and had a separate legal status. 1989, Children Act states that " the child`s welfare must be paramount."

The diversity of family.In the early time, nuclear family seems to be the norm that most of people accepted. Most of the children are taken care by their mother.However, the increasing diversity of family have effect on the position of children. The increased divorce rate, there are evidence suggests that children of divorced family have a higher probability of experiencing a range of problem such as poverty, poor housing and behavioural problems, teenage pregnancy and educational under achievement. Only a minority of children actually have a better life after their parents divorced. Lone-parent family where a mother or father live without their partner but live with with their dependent child or children who must be never married and under 16 or 16 to 19 and taking full time education. In the New Right views, the lone-parent family fail to provide adequate socialisation. as most lone-parent family is headed by female, thus in the lone-mother family, the child have on father present to discipline the children and provide a male model. This can lead to anti-social behaviour.Lesbian and gay family. Their children are mostly adopted.Most studies show that children raised by gay and lesbian family are no different from those raised by heterosexuals family.

Social values.The most recent studies shows that the UK has the highest teenage birth rates in Western Europe - twice as high as in Germany, three times as high as in France and six times as high as in the Netherlands.This is a resulted by people`s openness about sex and relationships,low expectations of education and employment opportunities for some young people, ignorance about contraception, and mixed messages about sex from the adult world are all cited.And people do not feel it as shame that become pregnant before marriage or at teen-ages.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4584175.stm

In the 21th century. According to Nick Lee, adulthood has become less stable and more uncertain.In this respects, adults` behaviour are more like a child while children are increasingly seen as having their own rights and interests.

Homework~~~

Examine the effects of urbanisation and industrialisation on the family and household structure.



Urbanisation is the concentration increases in population in the cities or towns. And industrialisation is where a large part of workforce is entry to industries rather than agriculture or cottage and many production is mechanised.

According to Talcott parsons,this leads to isolated nuclear family.There is a loss of function performed by family as many of the function are taken by government. Family is no longer the production unit.A person`s statues is achieved rather than ascribed, so the children are less likely to have the same job as their parents had before. The extended family network may be harmful to the society as they might tie down the mobility of the worker.However, family still perform the function of socialisation of children and stabilisation of adult`s personalities.And the picture of isolated nuclear family may most probably been exaggerated.Modified extended family where people contact their extended family through the advanced technology is widespread,

Peter Laslett`s research shows that nuclear family was the norm in the pre-industrial England and Western Europe. And research by Michael Anderson suggest that the early stage of industrialisation may encourage the development of extended family, especially for working-class, they operated it as a mutual aid organisation, provide supports.

Okaley argues industrialisation have effects on women. During the early stage of industrialisation, married women often work in the factories. But since the restriction of the child labour began, they are gradually exclude from labour force and restricted to home. The housewife become the primary role for women. However, today the marjority of women have returned to labour force.

Michael Young and Peter Willomtt claim that the family in Britain has developed through three stage of industrialistion.
Firstly, the Pre-industrial family while family is a production unit.
Secondly, the early industrial family.extended family are widespread in working-class, some functions of family are taken over by government, school, industries and hospital.
Lastly, the symmetrical family. the typical family is nuclear, home-centred and privatised,most importantly, it is symmertrical which meant the role of husband and wife become increasingly similar.
However, they had been criticised for falling to address the negative aspect of changed in the modern family.Feminists argues the concept of symmetrical family, as women are still mainly reponsible for household tasks.And the extended family may be more important to address up than nuclear family.

In the 21st century,The family is undergoing radical changes under the pressure of an ageing population, longer lifespans, increased female working, the tendency to marry later in life, the falling birth rate and the rising divorce rate.A study of london based group says.With fewer brothers,sisters and cousins, the children are growing faster.This could lead to social dislocation since children are growing up isolated from other children and young adult, they would tend to adopt selfishness attitude.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/may/05

Homework of family

a. the expressive role is the role that women are take responsibility of childcare, house work, give emotional support and create home comfort.

b.Unpaid domestic labour; male domination; economically dependent on their husband.

c. firstly, with advances in medicine, all major diseases are declining. Secondly, nutrition and living standards, a health diet give a better health system thus raises levels of resistance to infection. lastly,welfare. governments began to be more responsibility for the health and welfare of their citizens, provided a healthier environment and reduced poverty.

d.Socially construction means something that is created by society. Childhood were not simply a natural state, it varies between different societies and different time.
According to Philippe Aries, the concept of childhood did not exist in medieval Europe,as previously children were considered adults as soon as they were physically able to perform adult tasks.Aries sees the modern concept of childhood developing from the separation of children from the world of adults as they are withdrawal from work place.However, Aries has been criticised for overstating his case. Children in medieval Europe were seen as different from adults.
Welfare state has changed in order to help improve childhood(the Children Act).Lone parenthood, particularly in lone-mother families, there is no father present to discipline the children and provide a male role model, this could have negative effect on children.Increase in divorce and its impact of children.According to Rodgers and Pryor, children of divorced families have a greater chance to experience a range of problems.Such as Financial hardship, behaviour problems, addiction to smoking or drink, poor educational out come. A nuclear family normally is the surest foundation for raising the children.However,children are still socialised within the family, and the vast majority of UK families are still nuclear in structure. Even though new family structure have emerged they still provide emotional and financial support.
According to Nick lee,in the end of 20th century,High divorce rate,labour market is changing rapidly .Adults has become more like children.Both were in a continual state of becoming, both were unstable and incomplete , when in the earlier, both were stable and complete.So, Children are increasingly seen as having their own rights and interests.
Neil Postman argues that children can be seperated, protected from adult world,but media is breaking down the bounaries between the worlds of children and adults,which results a disappearance of childhood.He has been criticied again, for overstating his case.childhood is a long way from disappearing.

e.With a number of changes have taken place, such as the rise in the number of same-sex couples and of lone parents. these have resulted in families becoming much more diverse.It might tend to give people an impression that nuclear family are no longer the norm.According to Anthony Giddens, we live in an era known as late modernity which characterised by choice and change.People have far more freedom to try on different identities and to try out different lifestyles. So family diversity is a reflection of the late modernity.They can choose to cohabit, to divorce, construucting gay and lesbian families, become lone parents rather than accept an unsatisfactory relationship.David Willett had admitted that family comes from all shapes and sizes, state has the duty to support them all.

However, Diana Gittins argues that the idealised picture of the nuclear family acts as a powerful ideology, defining what is normal and desirable and labelling alternative family forms as abnormal and undesirable.Most of the people would like to form nuclear family, this is only the second-best choice to form others when their marriage is failed.Somerville (2000) argues that these changes are exaggerated. The apparent diversity of family life is based on a snapshot at any one time and, if a life cycle approach is taken, many people have a fairly conventional experience of the family.Conservatives tend to see nuclear family as the best social arrangement for raising children.

Homework 2

Outline New Labour's Educational Policy since 1997.

Labour was elected in May 1997 in the way of new policies of education.They focus on education in a global market and view education and training as crucial for economic success.

Labour inherited 196 specialist schools from Conservatives. By 2007, there were over 2500 specialist school in England. The idea of specialist schools is to provide centres of excellence and expertist in particular subject area, and raising standards of teaching and learning in these areas.

However, it has be criticised rising standards may be due to the additional government funding or a growing middle-class intake.

Labour accept competition between schools would raise standards and school league tables as a means for parents to assess a school`s performance. But, despite the league tables, parents tend to accept the original measure, which is the exam results.

Part of Labour`s education policy was based on social democratic views with an emphasis on equality of opportunity. It aim to "overcome economic and social disadvantage and to make equality of opportunity a reality." And they introduced a range of measures designed to raise standards in low-income , inner-city areas. These included Sure Start which aimed mainly at pre-school children and had disadvantaged area of England, Education Action Zones that located in deprived urban areas with low levels of educational attainment, Excellence in Cities and Academies which is to raise achievement is deprived areas by replacing poorly performing secondary schools.

Labour has attempt to reduce inequality of educational opportunity by increases the number of students and the proportion of working-class students in Further and Higher education.

Vocational education and training are introduced to for a high wage or high skill economy, and reduce unemployment.GNVQs(general national vocational qualification) were replaced by vocational GCSEs and vocational A levels to raise the status of vocational qualifications to the level of academic qualifications. NVQs( national vocational qualification ) were extended to raise skill levels in a wide range of jobs. However, surveys suggest that many employers see little value in these qualifications, the government might overestimate the demand for highly skilled jobs.

Labour introduced the New Deal in 1998. It offered education and training for young people between the age of 18 and 24 who had been out of work for more than six months, it was later extended to older people.

Homework

Marxists, those believe that economic system shapes the rest of society, therefore, educational system is shaped by economic system.

• ruling class ideology
• School transmit an ideology which states that capitalism is just and reasonable.
• School prepare pupils for their roles in the workforce.( to be obedient, punctual, had qualification)
• Education reproduces the next generation of workers for capitalism.
• Serveral close correspondence between social replationships in the classroom and those in the workplace.( Bowles and Ginitis)
• The relationship between teachers and pupils mirrors the relationship between bosses and workers.
• School, like the capitalist society, are based on hierarchy.
• Capitalist society is unequal, different the class of origin, different educational qualifications and jobs they are going to get.

Feminist, they focus on gender inequalities in society.

• Gendered language.
• Gendered roles . School textbook tended to present males and females in traditional gender roles, women as mother and housewife.
• Gendered stereotypes, reading schemes tended to have male bias.
• The hidden curriculum reinforces gender socialisation.
• Subject choice. Girls` subjects had lower status and lower market value.
• Discrimination. The pass mark for boys was set lower than the pass mark for girls.
• Teachers gave more attention to boys.
• Sexual harassment of girls and women teachers by male pupils is a major feature of mixed schools.

The New Right. They think market forces should be introduced into schooling.

• raising educational standards.
• Competition between schools and colleges.
• Allow schools and colleges become self manage.
• League tables to show comparative results for schools are published.
• Parents have the right to choose schhol
• Restore enterprise and initiative.

Interactionist. They focus on the interaction between pupils and teachers and between pupils and pupils within the classroom

• Labelling and self-fulling prophecies
• setting and streaming
• Teachers play an important role in the success of their students.
• Some pupils reject the value of school
• Peer groups are seen as having considerable influence on some pupils.

Sociology homework---researching school and teachers

First of all, the research methods are triangulation, which means that it combine different reserch methods and different type of date in order to check the validity and reliability of their finding. In this case, They are using both quantitative data and qualitative data, closed questions ,which the different rating are set, the respondent simply has to choose one, it is easy , quick and cheap to classify and quantify.
However, the researcher provided limited information of schools and teachers, it might let respondents feel uncertain about which school or teacher it is refering to. Picture of teachers seen to be unneccessary, how about the picture and address of school?
There will be a relatively low response rate, ( If Mr.chris did not told me the web-site, i will never find it out) and respondents did not obtain much qualitative data.
Respondents might interpreted different meaning towards questions and answers. Such as helpfulness of teachers, some respondents might view the helpfulness as all student matter(family problem and life outside of school etc) or some might view it particularly helpfulness towards study, such as homework only.
These closed questions might seriously limit what respondents want to say.
Are the data availble in the web-sites reliable? The aim of this research is to provide the real facts of school, but what if the school itself is rating it, will that present a false picture of the school?
And sometime the data shown might be confuse, the respondents, in instance, the students most probably cannot rating teachers in a balance point of view. Eg, a student might be favour to one teacher and another are not, then the rating number may appear two extreme, thus it is confused.


There are some advantage by using internet to carry out such research.

• Inexpensive--no interviwers to pay, cheap to classify results.
• It is possible to survey a large sample.
• Fast and efficient analysis possible with pre-coded closed questions.
• Answers are obvious ( can be understand easily) and easily quantified.
• The most important--No interviewer bias. The interviewer does not influence the respondent`s answer. In this case, it is really important to the respondents when they are accually jusifying their school and teachers.
• Save time. When set up an internet research, researcher might simply put it aside and do other research at the same time.

Sociologists

Rosenthal & Jacobson ( Self-fulfilling prohecy)

Students with poor expectations internalize their negative label , and those with positive labels succeed accordingly.



Paul willis ( Anti-school subculture)

The lads` anti-school subculture is shaped mainly by their expectations about the jobs they hope to get and by the working-class subculture they bring with them to school.



Education doen not turn out an obedient workforce. some kids from an anti-school subculture and cope with school and then adult work by mucking about.



William Lobov (language deprivation)

Working class children speech patterns were not inferior to standard English, they just different.Those who saw them as inferior simply failed to understand the black dialect. he made this conclusion by examing the low-income of african-american children.

Carl Bereiter

The speech pattern from low-income children are inadequate to meet the demands of the education system.

Basil Bernstein

identified two speech pattern. restricted code and elaborated code.

Swann Report

language didn`t afftect progress for later generations.



Daniel Defoe

errr..published novel <<>> ( i only found this...strange..)





Talcott Parsons

School is a bridge between the family and adult roles of society.That`s it, the main agency of secondary socialisation.
Role allocation as main function of the educational system.
Bowles and Gintis
Reject the view of role allocation, as social background influences the most.

today`s mock test

I had a U in today`s sociology test, it made me feel very depress indeed. i know i must do Mr.chris homeworks now, and cannot hope it is luckly that he did not check-.-

Now i know all the sociologists` name are important, i would remember them as well as what they said...

Relationship and processes within school

In school, the relationship between teachers and students seems to be very important for the effectiveness of education. Since social class influence in educational attainment the most, so as this. Teachers tends to share an image of 'ideal pupil', whereas teachers perceived middle-class(MC) pupils as closet to the idea, and lower working class(WC) pupils as furthest from it. Label is a major characteristic placed on a person by others. Teachers tends to label MC as 'able', 'good student', this may discourage WC pupils. When a pupil labelled as 'bright',others will tend to respond to them and interpret their actions in term of this label, there is a tendency for a self-fulfilling prophecy to result. Teachers assume MC pupils were highly motivated , well-discipline and able. And they tend to think WC pupils as disruptive and lacking in parental support.According to Gillborn & Youdell, teachers systematically discriminated aganist WC pupils.



In genernal, teachers perfer to teach pupils they see as able, hard working and highly motivated, therefore, a positive relationship might be built up between teachers and pupils. Otherwise, vice versa.



Pupils tends to bring their subculture to school. First of all, pupils subculture are the distinctive norms and values developed by groups of yound people in schools. White, male, MC subculture tends to be two extreme. Pupils in the top stream well-behaved, always praised by teachers. Pupils in the bottom stream refusing to do homework and smoking,drinking. White, male, WC subcultures. The lads just think the school is waste of time, they want to leave school as soon as possible. White, female. subcultures seems that their resistant to schooling is less than the male, however, their exaggerated femininity might sometimes wrote school off. In Davies`s words ' Girls accentuate their femininity in exaggerated displays of physical maturity and hyper-concerns with romance on the one hand,and prioritise domestic roles such as marriagem household duties over schooling on the other hand. African-caribbean, male subculture, they tends to bring Black street culture into the classroom which it can be seen by teacher as disruptive. African-caribbean female subculture. They are pro-education, ambitious, determined to succeed, aming for well-paid jobs. There is anti-school subculture, which defined by Paul Willis.According to him, it is mainly shaped by their expectations about the jobs they hope to get and by WC subculture they bring with them to school.For instant, It is those who rejected the values of school, a lack of respect, behave badly, having a laugh and looking after their mates etc. It usually happens in bottom steams and among the WC pupils.



The hidden curriculum refers to the messages schools transmit to pupils without directly teaching them or spelling them out, it consists of values, norms, beliefs and ideas which are embedded in the normal routines and procedures of school life.In Functionalist views, the transmission of society`s core values can be seen as part of hidden curriculum.Such as the value of individual achievement, pupils are encouraged to achieve good grades, qualification, it prepares them to achieves as individuals in the wider society.In Marxist view, the hidden curriculum of schools is the transmit rulling class ideology, produing next generation of workers schooled to accept their roles in capitalise society.



Label is a major characteristic placed on a person by others. Teachers tends to label MC as 'able', 'good student', this may discourage WC pupils.When a pupil labelled as 'bright',others will tend to respond to them and interpret their actions in term of this label, there is a tendency for a self-fulfilling prophecy to result.



There are two types of teaching group, ability group and mixed ability group. Ability groups are pupils who seens to have the similar ability. Setting and streaming are two ways to dividing pupils into ability groups.The idea is based on young people have different abilities,therefore, they should be taught in different level, different speed and have different exams. Mixed ability groups are those randomly mixed in terms of their perceived ability. by doing this, they reduce class differences and class conflict.