Formal and Informal Education

Formal vs. Informal Education

• Formal education is structured learning within institutions with a set curriculum.
• Informal education occurs outside these institutions, through interactions, media, and personal experiences.
• Official curriculum includes subjects taught and assessed in schools.
• Hidden curriculum includes unwritten lessons like gender norms, punctuality, and obedience.
• Émile Durkheim viewed formal education as a way to socialize people into shared values.
• Bowles & Gintis (1976) believe the hidden curriculum reinforces class inequalities in capitalist societies.

Different School Types

• State/public schools are government-funded and provide free education.
• Private schools are fee-paying and often have smaller class sizes and more resources.
• Selective schools admit students based on exams or specific criteria.
• Single-sex schools educate only boys or only girls.
• Co-educational schools educate both boys and girls.
• Faith schools integrate religious teachings with the standard curriculum.
• International schools follow international curricula and often cater to expatriates.
• Stephen Ball (2003) criticized private education for reinforcing class privilege.
• Cecile Wright (1992) studied racial inequalities in education and found ethnic minorities experience discrimination.

Alternative Education Approaches

• Online learning delivers education via the internet, providing flexibility but with less social interaction.
• Homeschooling occurs when parents take responsibility for their children's education at home.
• Unschooling is a child-led approach using natural life experiences instead of structured lessons.
• Vocational learning focuses on job-related skills, combining classroom learning with practical experience.
• Progressive schooling encourages creativity, critical thinking, and student autonomy over rote memorization.
• John Holt (1976) advocated for unschooling, viewing formal education as a creativity stifler.
• Ivan Illich (1971) criticized traditional schooling, advocating for informal, community-based learning in "Deschooling Society."
• Albany Free School, established in 1969, is an alternative school in the USA, operating without grades or fixed schedules.
• Fairhaven School, founded in 1998, embraces a Sudbury model, empowering students to manage their education.

Functionalist View on Education

• Functionalists see education maintaining social stability through shared norms and values.
• Émile Durkheim (1925) argued schools build social solidarity through collective conscience.
• Talcott Parsons (1961) viewed schools as a bridge from familial to societal values, introducing meritocracy.
• Standardized testing and ability setting are seen as mechanisms for efficient role allocation.
• Davis & Moore (1945) claimed education sorts people into roles based on ability.
• Bowles & Gintis (1976) challenged it, they argue education serves capitalism interests, not meritocracy.

Marxist View on Education

• Marxists see education reproducing class inequalities and legitimizing exploitation to serve capitalism.
• Karl Marx (1867) viewed education as part of the "ideological state apparatus" maintaining ruling-class dominance.
• Bowles & Gintis (1976) developed the correspondence principle, saying school structure mirrors workplace hierarchies.
• Pierre Bourdieu (1986) introduced cultural capital, where middle-class students succeed due to linguistic and cultural advantages.
• Working-class students are disadvantaged by material deprivation, as noted by Howard Becker (1971).
• Teachers negatively label working-class students, reinforcing self-fulfilling prophecies.

Feminist View on Education

• Feminists argue education reinforces gender inequalities by upholding patriarchal values.
• Heidi Hartmann (1979) noted schools limit female aspirations through subject choices.
• Sue Sharpe (1976, 1994) found girls' aspirations shifted from marriage to independence, showing progress.
• Liberal feminists, like Ann Oakley (1974), advocate for reforms to achieve gender equality in education.
• Radical feminists, such as Dale Spender (1983), believe schools marginalize women by prioritizing male perspectives.
• In 2000, Becky Francis observed girls still face labor market discrimination despite academic success.

Social Class & Educational Achievement: Schools

• Private schools get better results because they have more resources and smaller class sizes.
• Bourdieu says that private schools give students cultural capital.

Social Class & Educational Achievement: Material Deprivation

• Includes poor nutrition, lack of study space, and inability to afford learning resources.
• Howard (2001) linked poorer diets in poorer children lead to illness and absence from school.

Social Class & Educational Achievement: Part Time Work

• Working-class students often take part-time work, which lowers their grades
• Aligns with Sugarman's theory of students choosing short-term financial gain over long-term academic success.

Social Class & Educational Achievement: Pre-School Education

• Can give children a strong start to education, but lower social classes struggle to afford it.
• Feinstein (2003) says middle-class children gain more from pre-school due to home support.

Social Class & Educational Achievement: Area and School Quality

• Schools in disadvantaged areas often have fewer resources and teachers with less experience.
• Schools in wealthier areas have more parental financial involvement, as per Ball, Bowe, and Gewirtz (1994).

Social Class & Educational Achievement: Fatalism

• Sugarman (1970) suggested working-class students may believe they cannot escape social position.

Social Class & Educational Achievement: Immediate gratification

• Working-class students choose make money over long term earning that more education can deliver.
• Sugarman says cultural differences contribute to social economic class divisions.

Social Class & Educational Achievement: Role Models

• Middle-class families are likely to value education and have university education.
• Douglas (1964) found that parents strongly influencing children improves education.

Social Class & Educational Achievement: Cultural Capital

• Bourdieu (1984) introduced cultural capital, that is skills that help students succeed.
• Middle-class families provide their children with educational resources such as books and learning.

Social Class & Educational Achievement: Linguistic Skills

• Bernstein (1971) argued that your context-dependent language affected educational success; it was linked to your economic class.
• Middle-class students use elaborated code and working-class use restricted code
• Elaborated code is used in exams which puts working class students at disadvantage.

Social Class & Educational Achievement: Teacher Labelling

• Becker (1971) found teachers see middle-class students as 'ideal' and working-class ones as disruptive.

Social Class & Educational Achievement: Subcultures

• Willis (1977) notes anti-school subcultures are more common in lower social classes.
• Peer groups from the same class who resist school are called "The Lads"
• Pro-schooling subcultures are more likely in middle-class students, which encourages achievement.

Arguments: Socialisation

• Reinforces society's rules.
• Durkheim said it promotes togetherness by teaching people to work together.

Arguments: Shared Values

• Encourages people to come together as a nation and see themselves as one people.
• According to Parsons (1961), it instills values such as fairness, competition, and respect.

Arguments: Fairness

• Parsons called family-based standards to society-based an equal system of education where success is based on hard work.

Arguments: Role Allocation

• Education makes sure talented people get the important jobs in society by ensuring people go into roles that suit them.

Arguments: Teaching abilities

• Ensures students have abilities for work such as literacy and communication
• Ensures people merge easily into the economy and boosts stability.

Arguments: Workplace Training

• It prepares students to be respectful, compliant, and work well in teams - which are all needed for work.

Arguments: Meritocracy

• Gives everyone a reasonable chance to do well through work.

Arguments: Against the Functionalist View

• Diverse beliefs prevent the teaching of one set of rules.
• Marxists argues that schools exists to brainwash not share rules

Arguments: The Hidden Curriculum

• Marxists say it benefits capitalism by training kids to accept workplace exploitation.

Arguments: "Myth of Meritocracy"

• As noted by Bowles and Gintis (1976), financial position is what drives success not talent.

Arguments: Social Mobility

• Bourdieu (1984) said education worsens class inequalities due to cultural advantages of the middle class.

Arguments: Links: Work and School

• Graduates need basic skills to adequately prepare them for their future careers due to lacking basic skills.

Arguments: Job Selection

• Job selection isn't often based on ability but instead: personal relation, ethnicity, or if people can afford intern work.

Arguments: Gendered Curriculum

• Girls told to do subjects like texts and boys told to do STEM subjects that affect what work they do in later life.

Arguments: Teacher Bias

• There are different views on each gender.

Arguments: School Type

• Students don't get the same school quality as it goes off what their family can afford, as noted by Ball et al. in 1994.