Cambridge International AS & A Level Sociology (9699): Paper 3 Education 5.1-5.3 – Education, society and the curriculum – Revision Notes

These notes condense the Education, society and the curriculum study guide. Read that first for full explanations and worked paragraphs.

They cover sections 5.1 (Theories about the role of education), 5.2 (Education and social mobility) and 5.3 (Influences on the curriculum) of the Cambridge International AS & A Level Sociology (9699) syllabus for examination in 2024, 2025 and 2026. This content is assessed in Paper 3 – Education: 1 hour 15 minutes, 50 marks, four compulsory questions, with Question 4 an essay worth 26 marks.

Keep the Cambridge A Level Sociology hub and the Cambridge A Level Sociology checklist open as you revise. When you are ready, test yourself with the practice questions for this unit. For research-methods terms you may need in evaluation, see the socialisation and methods revision notes.

Paper 3 at a glance

Question	What the syllabus says it asks	Skills
1	Short-answer question	AO1
2	Two explanations for an issue, theory or viewpoint	AO1, AO2
3	Two arguments against a view in a quotation	AO2, AO3
4	Essay, 26 marks	AO1, AO2, AO3

Questions 1-3 share the remaining 24 marks; your teacher will confirm the split. Paper 3 is 21% of the A Level.

Key terms

Term	Definition
Value consensus	Broad agreement among members of a society on shared values
Social solidarity	A sense of belonging to, and commitment to, society
Role allocation	Sorting people into the jobs that suit their talents
Particularistic standards	Judging a person as a unique individual (as in the family)
Universalistic standards	Judging everyone by the same rules (as at school)
Ascribed status	Status fixed at birth
Achieved status	Status gained through effort and ability
Ideological state apparatus	An institution that controls people through ideas, not force (Althusser)
Correspondence principle	School life mirrors work life (Bowles and Gintis)
Cultural reproduction	Education passing on dominant-class culture and so reproducing class inequality
Marketisation	Making schools compete for pupils, like firms in a market
Human capital	Skills and knowledge treated as an investment that raises productivity
Meritocracy	Rewards based on ability and effort, not background
Life chances	A person’s chances of gaining good things such as income, health and secure work
Absolute mobility	The total amount of movement between classes
Relative mobility	The chances of people from different class backgrounds compared with each other
Qualification inflation	Employers asking for higher credentials as more people hold them (Dore)
Social construction of knowledge	What counts as valuable knowledge is decided by people, not fixed by nature
Ethnocentric curriculum	A curriculum that gives priority to one ethnic group’s culture, history and language
Gendered curriculum	Content and subject choices that follow gender stereotypes
Hidden curriculum	What pupils learn from how school is organised, not from formal lessons
Cultural capital	Knowledge, tastes, language and attitudes valued by the dominant class
Habitus	Tastes and dispositions learned early in life (Bourdieu)

Theories and studies at a glance

Who	What	Key idea or finding	One evaluation point
Durkheim (1858-1917)	Functionalist	Education passes on shared values and builds social solidarity; school is a society in miniature; teaches specialist skills	Assumes one set of shared values in diverse societies
Parsons	Functionalist	School is the bridge from particularistic family to universalistic society; status becomes achieved	Ignores class barriers to achievement
Davis and Moore (1945)	Functionalist	Education sifts the most able into the most important, best-rewarded jobs	Tumin: high pay does not prove importance
Althusser (1970; English 1971)	Marxist	School is the dominant ideological state apparatus in capitalist societies	Sees pupils as passive
Bowles and Gintis (1976)	Marxist	Correspondence principle; used Meyer’s study of 237 seniors at a New York State high school: grades linked to perseverance and punctuality, not creativity	Based on 1970s American schooling
Willis (1977)	Marxist	12 working-class “lads” resisted school yet still entered manual jobs	Small sample of boys in one school
Bourdieu (with Passeron)	Cultural reproduction	Schools reward middle-class cultural capital	Some working-class pupils succeed
Halsey	Social democratic	Equality of opportunity through state action, such as comprehensive schools	Expansion has not closed class gaps
Schultz; Becker (1964)	Human capital theory	Education is an investment that raises productivity	Wolf (2002): spending does not automatically drive growth
Chubb and Moe (1990)	New Right	Democratic control causes poor schools; choice and competition improve them	Gewirtz, Ball and Bowe (1995): markets favour privileged/skilled, mainly middle-class choosers
Young (1958)	Meritocracy	Merit = intelligence + effort; satire warning of a new elite	Written as a warning, not a blueprint
Dore (1976)	Credentials	Qualification inflation weakens the value of each credential	Qualifications still matter for many jobs
Goldthorpe (1980)	Mobility	Absolute mobility rose; relative mobility stayed broadly stable	Focuses on Britain
Krueger (2012), Corak’s data	Mobility	“Great Gatsby curve”: more unequal countries tend to have less mobility	Correlation, not proof of cause
Michael F. D. Young (ed.), Knowledge and Control	New sociology of education (1970s)	School knowledge is socially organised	Others argue some knowledge is genuinely more powerful
Apple (1979)	Curriculum	Asks whose knowledge becomes “official”	Teachers and pupils can reshape content
Coard (1971)	Ethnocentric curriculum	Schools treated West Indian children’s culture as second-rate	A campaigning booklet, about Britain in one period
Spender (1982)	Gendered curriculum	Curriculum left out or played down women’s contributions	Many curricula now include more women
Jackson (1968)	Hidden curriculum	Coined the term in Life in Classrooms	Rules are now often written down openly
Illich (1971)	Hidden curriculum	Schooling as an institution cannot deliver true education for all	Critics doubt his informal “learning webs” could replace schools at scale

Must-know distinctions

• Functionalist vs Marxist hidden curriculum. Functionalists: it teaches shared values everyone needs. Marxists: it trains a compliant workforce for capitalism.
• Social democratic vs New Right. Both link education to the economy. Social democrats want state action for equal opportunity; the New Right wants markets and choice.
• Formal vs substantive equal opportunity. Formal removes legal barriers; substantive also tackles hidden barriers such as poverty.
• Absolute vs relative mobility. More upward movement (absolute) can happen while class chances stay just as unequal (relative).
• Cultural reproduction vs cultural capital. Cultural reproduction is the process; cultural capital is the resource that makes it work.
• Formal vs hidden curriculum. Formal is the planned subjects; hidden is what the organisation of school teaches.

Mini essay plan

Question: “Evaluate the view that the main role of education is to serve the needs of the economy.” (Extended-response style; the real Question 4 is worth 26 marks.)

1. Introduction. Define the economic role (skills, role allocation, human capital). Name the perspectives: functionalist, Marxist, New Right, social democratic.
2. For: functionalism. Durkheim on specialist skills; Davis and Moore on role allocation. Apply to a modern economy that needs engineers and nurses.
3. For: human capital and the New Right. Schultz and Becker; Chubb and Moe on competition. Apply to vocational and science-focused policy.
4. For, but critical: Marxism. Bowles and Gintis: education serves capitalism, not “the economy” as a whole. The correspondence principle.
5. Against: other roles. Durkheim’s social solidarity; Althusser’s ideological control; cultural reproduction (Bourdieu); the hidden curriculum.
6. Against: evidence. Wolf (2002) on growth; Dore (1976) on qualification inflation; Willis (1977) on resistance.
7. Conclusion. Weigh the evidence: education is linked to the economy, but whose interests it serves is contested. Reach a judgement based on the evidence you used.

Quick self-test

1. What did Durkheim mean by school as a “society in miniature”?
2. Name Parsons’s two types of standards.
3. What year did Davis and Moore publish “Some Principles of Stratification”?
4. What is the difference between the repressive and ideological state apparatus?
5. What traits did Bowles and Gintis find linked to higher grades?
6. Which book by Chubb and Moe argued for school choice, and when?
7. Who is widely credited with coining “meritocracy”?
8. Define relative mobility.
9. What is qualification inflation?
10. Give the three forms of cultural capital.
11. Who coined the term “hidden curriculum”?
12. What is an ethnocentric curriculum?

Answers

1. Pupils follow rules that apply to all, learning self-discipline and cooperation with people who are not family.
2. Particularistic (family) and universalistic (school and wider society).
4. The repressive state apparatus controls by force (police, army, courts); ideological state apparatuses, such as education, control through ideas.
5. Perseverance, consistency and punctuality.
6. Politics, Markets, and America’s Schools (1990).
7. Michael Young, in The Rise of the Meritocracy (1958).
8. The chances of people from different class backgrounds reaching a given position, compared with each other.
9. As more people gain a credential, employers ask for higher ones, so each one is worth less (Dore, 1976).
10. Embodied, objectified and institutionalised.
11. Philip Jackson, in Life in Classrooms (1968).
12. A curriculum that gives priority to the culture, history and language of one ethnic group.

Where marks are usually lost

• Describing a theory without applying it to the question or the quotation.
• In a quotation question, writing arguments that support the view instead of arguments against it.
• Giving one explanation in depth when the question asks for two.
• Writing “Marxists say schools are bad” instead of naming the mechanism: ideological control, the correspondence principle or cultural reproduction.
• Confusing the New Right and social democratic views, which both link education to the economy.
• Claiming rising absolute mobility proves a system is meritocratic.
• Treating the hidden curriculum as a Marxist idea only, when functionalists also use it.
• Using cultural capital to mean money or income.
• Essays that list studies with no judgement; AO3 is 36% of Paper 3.

Official syllabus

These notes follow the Cambridge International AS & A Level Sociology (9699) syllabus for examination in 2024, 2025 and 2026. Check the current version on the Cambridge International website; your teacher will confirm anything the syllabus does not print.