Key Concepts

Front 1

Bourgeoisie

Back 1

Marxist term.

Capitalist class - upper class, owners of means of production.

Those with political and ideological power

Front 2

Compensatory education

Back 2

Government education policies that seek to tackle problem of under-achievement, providing extra support and funding to schools and families

Hint 2

Operation head start in US

Front 3

Comprehensive system

Back 3

Where all children attend same type of secondary school (non selective system)

Front 4

Correlation

Back 4

When two or more factors vary together

E.g. correlation between low social class and low educational achievement

Front 5

Correspondence principle

Back 5

Way organisation and control of schools mirrors / corresponds to workplace

Front 6

Cultural capital

Back 6

Knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities that middle class transmit

Hint 6

Educational success largely based on possession of cultural capital

Front 7

Cultural deprivation

Back 7

Theory that working class are inadequately socialised and lack cultural capital

Front 8

Culture

Back 8

All things learnt by society or group of people (norms, values, knowledge, beliefs, skills)

Front 9

Hidden Curriculum

Back 9

All things learnt without being formally taught, acquired through everyday workings of school (rules, dress, attendance, obedience, competitiveness)

Front 10

Deferred gratification

Back 10

Postponing immediate rewards with aim to produce greater reward at later day

Front 11

Deviance

Back 11

Behaviour that does not conform to norms

Front 12

Ethics

Back 12

Issues of right and wrong, moral principles

Front 13

Ethnocentric

Back 13

Seeing/ judging things in biased way from viewpoint of one particularly culture e.g. national curriculum, tends to value white culture (history, literature, religion)

Front 14

Fordism

Back 14

Type of industrial production , using supervised Low skill workers and assembly line technology to mass produce

Front 15

Hawthorne effect

Back 15

Where subjects behave differently because they know they are being studied

Front 16

Hypothesis

Back 16

Untested theory/explanation expressed as a statement

Front 17

Immediate gratification

Back 17

Preference for immediate reward without regard for longer-term consequences

Front 18

Individualism

Back 18

Belief that individual is more important than group or community , actions influenced by own self interest than sense of obligation to others

Front 19

Internationalism

Back 19

Sociological perspective that focuses on small scale (micro level) interactions between individuals and groups. Seek to understand meaning behind actions

Front 20

Interpretivism

Back 20

Focus on how we construct society through meaning we attach to events, actions and situations. Favour qualitative data.

Front 21

Labelling

Back 21

Attaching a definition/ meaning to individual or group. Often stereotypes.

Front 22

Macro-level

Back 22

Focus on large scale, social structure as a whole. See individuals as shaped by society

Hint 22

Theorists such as functionalism and Marxism

Front 23

Material deprivation

Back 23

Poverty, lack of basic necessities such as food, housing, clothing, money to buy these.

Front 24

Meritocracy

Back 24

System Where everyone has equal opportunity to succeed, rewards and status acchieve by own efforts

Front 25

Micro-level

Back 25

Do use on small scale, face to face interactions. See individuals constructing society.

Hint 25

Theorists such as interactionism

Front 26

Modernism

Back 26

Society has fairly clean cut. Predictable structure. Can gain true scientific knowledge on how society functions . Can be used to improve society

Hint 26

Modernist perspective - functionalism. Marxism, positivism

Front 27

Myth of meritocracy

Back 27

Ideology legitimating inequality by falsely claiming everyone has equal opportunity

Front 28

New vocationalism

Back 28

Idea education should meet need of economy, equipping young people with knowledge, skills, attitues and values need to prepare for work.

Hint 28

Practical subjects

Front 29

Objectivity

Back 29

Absence of bias or preconceived ideas. See things as they really are

Front 30

Operationalisation

Back 30

Process of turning sociological concept/theory into something measurable e.g study effects of social class on academic achievement, use parental occupation to measure social class .

Front 31

Parentocracy

Back 31

Rule by parents, ideology of parental choice of school

Front 32

Polarisation

Back 32

Process resulting in creation of two opposite extremes e.g pupils response to labelling create pro school and anti school subculture

Front 33

Positivism

Back 33

Belief society is made up of social facts that can be studied scientifically to discover cause and effect

Front 34

Postmodernism

Back 34

Belief in progress and view true knowledge of society will enable us to improve it

Hint 34

Reject the modernist

Front 35

Proletariat

Back 35

Working class, are wage slaves, forced to sell labour to bourgeoisie to survive

Front 36

Post Fordism

Back 36

Type of industrial production. Highly skilled, adaptable workforce combined with computerised technology

Front 37

Self fulfilling prophecy

Back 37

Prediction made about personal or group comes true simply because it's been made

Front 38

Social control

Back 38

Means by which society tried to ensure members behave as other expect them to .

Front 39

Socialisation

Back 39

Process by which individual learns/ internalises culture of society

Front 40

Stigma

Back 40

Negative label or Mark of disapproval, shame attached to person, group or characteristic

Front 41

Stratified diffusion

Back 41

Spread of beliefs and practices from one class to another

Front 42

Structural theories

Back 42

Individuals shaped by way society is structured and organised

Front 43

Subjectivity

Back 43

Viewpoint influences perception or judgement