A Change in the Achievement Level of Students - Term Paper Example

Discuss and evaluate the sociological explanations, for the differences in UK educational achievement in schools related to gender, ethni socialclass and the hidden curriculum The difference in educational achievements of students in the United Kingdom is related to the various differences in the society. Sociological reasons are combined with educational policies like meritocracy that has led to a change in the achievement level of students from different backgrounds. The topic is researched on the basis of various criterions to give in depth details about the varying education achievement levels of students. Educational achievement is directly influenced by social factors like ethnicity, gender and social class due to the difference in their levels of intelligence, organizational ability, professional ambitions, encouragement from family to acquire quality education and the resultant upward social mobility of individuals. 1.1 Changes in UK education since 1944 The 1944 Education Act was milestone legislation for the improvement of student’s academic and personal progress and also for the improvement of social and welfare policies. Frozen milk in winter, free medical examination and transport payment from regional education authority were some of the highlights of the Act. It was a whole child welfare policy similar to the Every Child Matters green paper of 2003. There have been several changes in Britain to ensue the practice of the Act in the following six decades. The United Kingdom is now an expanded community with other European nationalities and a greater requirement for professionals at various levels. The earlier culturally homogenous population in schools is now comprised of many faiths and cultures. Therefore, the realization of the Act is now extensively challenging when compared to the society that prevailed in 1944. The challenges in implementing the Act and measuring the outcomes are basically from the changes in the moral, spiritual, cultural and social progress and personalized learning. The 1944 Education Act demanded LEA’s to offer state funded education for students till the age of fifteen, based on their aptitude, abilities and age. The prilimnary step to substantiate the Act was the provision of adequate schools. Though the Act did not specify the nature of secondary school it gave strong stipulation to increase the number of technical, grammar and secondary schools. But the number of schools were restricted to grammar and secondary schools with a few number of technical schools. The Act was reinterpreted in the 1960’s and a comprehensive education was rapidly expanded with schools like academies and specialist schools. The shift in school designation has catered to the pupil of different abilities and ages and has increased the performance of schools with relatively better attention for students in arts, scientific and practical studies. The curriculum under the Act had no central control until the Education Reform Act of 1988 proclaimed the national curriculum. The higher certificate and the following A-levels instituted under the post-16 curriculum has remained resistant to change. But the 2004 curriculum does not fully cater to all the requirements of students and specifically to their varying aptitudes. However, various factors of the curriculum has developed with the hardwork of teachers and carers. Further there is improvement in the teaching of numeracy and literacy in primary schools. It may also be noted that the improvement in standard has come to a halt in the recent past. The curriculum is extensive with social, personal and health education and communication technology and information learning is making strong aspects of curriculum in various schools and GCSE’s are conducted for vocational subjects by every six out of ten secondary schools. The expectation of Rab Butler in the 1944 Education Act to provide mandatory part time education for students from fourteen to nineteen years of age requires special attention because it has not gained much achievement due to the voational / academic divide (Bell). 1.2 Changes in education in terms of meritocracy The implementation of meritocracy as the assessment criterion for higher education and post-compulsory education serves as the sole method to provide admission is only partially successful because it assesses only the past performance and does assess the potential capacity of a student. The implementation of meritocracy however overcomes the disadvantage in schools for highly able students by gaining rewards from all public examinations since successful candidates can obtain a place in grammar school irrespective of their social standing. Meritocracy does not give equality in education but reinforces disadvantage and privilege and does not signify the causes of underachievement and educational success. However, meritocracy assists pupils with outstanding ability to overcome their social disadvantage and does not offer a better educational experience for those with lesser educational ability . Though there are several limitations for meritocracy, this method is used for assisted places in elite schools and offers limited opportunities in terms of admission for a negligible number of students who exhibit good performance in pre-entry examinations. The Sutton Trust has suggested the provision of state assisted scholarships to private schools to increase the number of admissions in elite schools to students from poor socio economic background. Comprehensive schools however offer a broadened equal opportunity for students through the meritocracy method by not considering the performance in the exam when students are eleven years of age. Meritocracy has not paved way for a representative participation of the social class in the post compulsory education. The performance of students in examinations continues to be the criterion to gain entry into higher education universities (Thomas & Thomas p.76). Therefore students from low socio economic groups are largely excluded if they underachieve in school level exams. Meritocracy thus does not change the correlation between student output to higher education and the social education that restricts students from poor backgrounds to gain better educational achievement (Thomas & Thomas p.77). 2. Sociological explanations of the role of education Status attainment model is one of the most informative models of sociological explanation for the role of education due to its influence on education policy and the sociology of education. Research on status attainment has gained importance after the Second World War and the developments in computer hardware and software has enabled the study of large volumes of data effectively. Researchers have used survey data and statistical techniques to explain social and personal reasons that impact life course results and individual attainment. In the national interest, status attainment describes a nation’s policy to emphasise individual responsibilities and rights and assist people to establish political and philosophical relation between public policies and education practices (Croninger p.1). Status attainment model supports the principle that education is of significance as a social institution in present day societies for collective and personal benefits by acquiring higher education. Policy makers view that policy issue or social problem is to offer extensive education opportunities and increase effectives in universities, colleges and schools. Sociologists believe that access to educational opportunities has a profound impact on personal life opportunities and attainment. Education policies like curriculum differentiation, school choice and school assignment redraw the educational opportunities available for students. This provides equity to students though it results in certain consequences for students from varying sociological backgrounds based on race, gender, ethnicity and social class (Croninger p.2). Debunking refers to the search for the causes of events in everyday life. It may also be referred to the tendency to unmask the reasons behind process and patterns that formulate a behavior. This method is used to find out the sociological reasons for education and its implications in schools. Sociologists reveal that school students not only acquire social knowledge by attending school, but they also form awareness about the expectation of the society and their standing in it. When compared with boys, girls obtain less encouragement and attention from the school system. Likewise class and race conflicts are also prevalent in the educational scenario. Students from poor socio economic background do not have equal access to resources as the elite or middle class students. There is also an assumption that poor students do not have the capacity to do school work and there is discrimination in the treatment of these students. The grave reality then proves to curtail the educational opportunities of these children rather than educate them to become successful. Debunking is an easy method of sociological explanation while researching a society or culture’s influence on education (Andersen & Taylor p.7). 3.1 Hidden Curriculum Hidden curriculum refers to the social rules observed by students in the class room though they are not taught directly. In simple words, hidden curriculum is unwritten social rules and the expected norms of behavior. For instance, students know that if they use gum in the classroom they will definitely get into trouble. Students also know that cannot crack off colour jokes before their teacher but it can be funny to say the same in the locker room and that it is not good to argue with policemen. Likewise students also know about the strictness of teachers in the classroom and who is stricter than other while following classroom rules. Students tend to adjust their classroom behavior according to the nature of teachers and their expectations considering the consequences and therefore prepare themselves to make a choice (Hidden Curriculum: Introduction). Hidden curriculum is prevalent in every setting, whether it is a place of worship, classroom, ancestral house, town pool or a sibling’s music recital. Hidden curriculum has several factors like expected actions, behaviors and skills special to a particular setting, extent of responsibility and also conventional style of dress. A complicated hidden curriculum changes with location, people, situation culture and age (What do we mean by a "hidden curriculum"?). 3.2 The impact the hidden curriculum has on pupils Philip Jackson was the first to use the term Hidden Curriculum in 1968 though the idea has been familiar for sometime. He argues that what pupils learn from schools is more that the complete curriculum learnt from school. He further argues that schooling is a socialization process where pupils learn messages through the practice of being at school rather than from the lessons explicitly taught by teachers. The hidden curriculum is passed on to the pupils by the school and not by the teacher alone. It is something that comes across to the pupil that cannot be spoken in English lesson or prayed about during the school gathering. Hidden curriculum is picking up a technique to live and an attitude to learn. Hence, pupils pick up traits from their setting, according to the school’s design, materials employs, cleanliness and subsequent maintenance and all this has an influential factor in education. For example, a prison like school building has a type of impact while an airy inviting school building has another. The school setting and building gives a message to the staff and pupil about the extent of their value and about the validity of their education (Hidden Curriculum). 4.1 The importance of social factors in influencing life chances Social factors have a direct impact on the life chances of pupils. A survey on the progress of children over a period of thirty years suggests that children from working middle class backgrounds show an upward mobility. This trend suggests that working class parents encourage their children to have good qualifications. 4.2 The significance that social factors such as gender, social class and ethnic origin have on the impact on educational attainment An analysis of information stored in the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study by Lucinda Platt on the social progress of children during the period 1960 to 1980 indicates that class and family background has a significant impact on the later employment: Children of parent from professional or managerial classes had the likelihood to gain high status jobs though they were from varying educational achievement. Children from better background were less likely to be unemployed. A relative study between children of parents born abroad and children of British parents revealed that there is disproportionate upward social mobility among minority ethnics. The upward social mobility of minority ethnic children is mainly due to their educational achievements. However, there is less upward mobility in the case of Pakistani and Bangladeshi working class families due to their education and certain other features of their background. A survey based on the religion of migrants indicate that second generation Hindus and Jews are more upwardly mobile when compared to their Christian counterparts not considering their background aspects. Similarly Sikhs and Muslims are less probable to end up in high paid jobs than their parents. The research by Lucinda Platt indicates that privilege and social class continues to assist students to avail educational opportunities to attain high status employment. However, the United Kingdom is yet to fully implement meritocracy to overcome the privileges availed on the basis of social class to give better life chances for children from all walks of life. Social factors have played a significant role for the upward mobility of children from migrant parents (Minority ethnic groups). Another research shows that the performance of girls from non poor ethnic groups is better as they complete the GCSE (Hirsch p.14). 5.1 Differential educational achievement The main objective of education system is to differentiate children based on their abilities before they reach the wider society. The differentiation of children may not be of significance if it is based on educational qualifications because it is simply the difference between each person based on their fundamental personality. This may be further defined as the varying level of intelligence or ability of children, and the education system differentiates students on the basis of the attainment level through examinations. In this case sociological explanation does not hold good for differential education achievement. But a sociological explanation for differential education achievement is important because educational attainment is based on certain social factors that fall under the society or the education system. The difference in educational achievement is basically categorized under the social class, gender and ethnicity of children (Education and Training p.2). 5.2. Strengths and Weakness of Differential educational achievement Differential educational achievement clearly indicates that student achievement rates are based on social class, ethnicity and gender and the amount of intelligence of individuals. The strengths of differential education achievement is in assessing the intelligence of individuals from their performance in examinations while the weakness lies in measuring the actual extent of intelligence though social factors like ethnicity, class and gender plays a crucial role (Education and Training p.3). Examinations are not considered as the sole method of differentiating students because intelligence of a person is spread over a person’s characteristics like innate intelligence, cultural organization, family organization, poverty level, socialization, peer group / teacher labeling and hidden curriculum (Education and Training p.5). In conclusion, the difference in achievement level of students in the UK has direct relation to social factors like gender, ethnicity and social class which is revealed in the difference in the social mobility of people based on their background. Works Cited Andersen, Margaret L. & Taylor, Howard Francis. Sociology: understanding a diverse society. Ed: 4 Kentucky: Cengage Learning, 2005 Bell, David. Change and continuity: reflections on the Butler act. April 21, 2004 Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/apr/21/ofsted.schools Accessed on March 31, 2009 Croninger, Bob Available: http://www.education.umd.edu/EDPA/courses/EDPL613Croninger.pdf Accessed on March 31, 2009 Education and Training. Differential Educational Achievement (1) Available: http://www.sociology.org.uk/diffed1.doc Accessed on March 31, 2009 Hidden Curriculum Available: http://www.volcom.org.uk/dataobservatory/Experiences%20of%20learning/School%20design/Hidden%20curriculum.htm Accessed on March 31, 2009 Hidden Curriculum: Introduction Available: http://www.autismnetwork.org/modules/social/hidden/index.html Accessed on March 31, 2009 Hirsch, Donald. Chicken and egg: child poverty and educational inequalities September 2007 Available: http://www.cpag.org.uk/campaigns/education/EducationBriefing120907.pdf Accessed on March 31, 2009 Minority ethnic groups break through the class barrier – with exceptions. January 1, 1970 .Available: http://www.jrf.org.uk/media-centre/minority-ethnic-groups-break-through-class-barrier-%E2%80%93-with-exceptions Accessed on March 31, 2009 Thomas, Liz & Thomas, Elizabeth. Widening Participation In Post-Compulsory Education London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005 What do we mean by a "hidden curriculum"? Available: http://www.autismnetwork.org/modules/social/hidden/lecture01.html#topic1 Accessed on March 31, 2009 Read More