CAIE
Sociology
(9699)
2023
Oct/Nov Paper 32
Questions & Answers
Q1.
Short Answer
4 marks
Describe two examples of how education can be a commodity for private profit.
Model Answer:
Education can be sold as a private good, for example through fee-paying private schools or independent schools that charge parents for access to education.
Explanation: This shows education being treated as a product that generates profit for providers.
Model Answer:
Education can be commodified through tutoring, exam coaching, and private educational services that charge students or parents for extra support.
Explanation: These services are bought and sold in a market and can be run for profit.
Q2.
Short Answer
8 marks
Explain two reasons why boys may be disadvantaged at school compared with girls.
Model Answer:
Boys may be disadvantaged because teachers may perceive them as less compliant and more disruptive, leading to lower expectations and more negative labelling than girls.
Explanation: This can affect teacher attention, discipline, and achievement.
Model Answer:
Boys may be disadvantaged because changes in the labour market and family life have reduced the appeal of traditional masculine identities linked to school success, while girls may be more likely to adopt attitudes and behaviours that fit school norms.
Explanation: This explains why girls may be better adapted to the hidden curriculum and classroom expectations.
Q3.
Structured
12 marks
'The lower educational attainment of some ethnic groups is due to the culture of those ethnic groups.' Using sociological material, give two arguments against this view.
Model Answer:
One argument is that underachievement may be caused by institutional racism rather than culture. Schools may stereotype some ethnic minority pupils, place them in lower sets, or discipline them more harshly, which can reduce attainment.
Explanation: This challenges the idea that culture alone explains differences in achievement.
Model Answer:
Another argument is that material factors such as poverty, housing, and parental employment can explain lower attainment. Some ethnic minority groups face economic disadvantage, which limits access to resources, private tutoring, and educational support.
Explanation: This shows that social class and material deprivation may be more important than culture.
Q4.
Essay
26 marks
Evaluate the Marxist view that education supports the capitalist economic system.
Model Answer:
Marxists argue that education reproduces class inequality by transmitting ruling-class ideology, preparing pupils for obedience, and sorting them into roles needed by capitalism. The hidden curriculum, correspondence principle, and meritocracy ideology are often used to support this view.
Explanation: This is the core Marxist argument about the role of education in capitalism.
Model Answer:
Education may also reproduce labour power by teaching punctuality, discipline, hierarchy, and acceptance of authority, which mirrors the workplace and helps maintain capitalist relations of production.
Explanation: This links schooling to the needs of employers and the economy.
Model Answer:
However, critics argue that education is not simply controlled by the ruling class. Functionalists see education as promoting value consensus, role allocation, and social cohesion rather than serving capitalism specifically.
Explanation: This is a major alternative perspective to Marxism.
Model Answer:
There is also evidence that education can benefit working-class and minority students through social mobility, qualifications, and access to better jobs, suggesting it does not always just reproduce capitalism.
Explanation: This challenges the deterministic view that schooling only serves capitalist interests.
Model Answer:
A balanced evaluation may conclude that education does often reflect wider inequalities and can support capitalism, but its effects are not uniform and depend on policy, school type, and wider social changes.
Explanation: This provides a nuanced judgement for an evaluative essay.