1: Class and Achievement Sociologists

Question 1

Diet & Health (Material Deprivation)

Answer 1

Howard - lower intake of vitamins and minerals which affects their energy levels and in turn performance at school

Question 2

Finances (Material Deprivation)

Answer 2

Finances: Tanner - cant afford equipment/books. Bull calls this ‘cost of free schooling’ as hand me downs can lead to bullying and isolation

Question 3

Speech Codes (Cultural Deprivation)

Answer 3

Bernstein - restricted and elaborated code

Criticism: implies restricted code is inferior

Question 4

Working Class subculture (Cultural Deprivation)

Answer 4

Sugarman - w/c subcultural values such as fatalism, immediate gratification, present time orientation

Question 5

Parenting Style (Cultural Deprivation)

Answer 5

Douglas - w/c lack interest, seen through less contact with teachers and visits to school and this lowers aspirations

Question 6

Criticism of Parenting style (Cultural Deprivation)

Answer 6

Blackstone and Mortimore - parents cant attend due to shift patterns and some are put off because schools promote m/c values

Question 7

Criticism of Cultural Deprivation

Answer 7

Keddie - cultural deprivation is a myth and w/c values are culturally different not inferior

Question 8

Cultural Capital

Answer 8

Bourdieu - Cultural Capital: refers to values, attitudes, knowledge, experiences (VAKE) held by m/c and this is passed through cultural reproduction. Disadvantages w/c as this is valued by education system - Bourdieu

Question 9

Economic Capital

Answer 9

Leech and Campos - Economic Capital: m/c able to buy houses near good schools which increases chance of admission. ‘Selection by mortgage’ as this increases cost of houses near good schools

Question 10

Labelling (normalisation of underachievement)

Answer 10

Dunne and Gazeley: teachers normalise the underachievement of w/c students which leads to different treatment as underachieving m/c students are given extra help whereas w/c students are entered into foundation tier exams

Question 11

Labelling (ideal pupil)

Answer 11

Becker: interviewed teachers and found that teachers have an image of an ‘ideal pupil’ and judge students based on how closely they fit this ideal. M/c students are closest to this ideal pupil and w/c students are seen as badly behaved.

Question 12

Criticism of ideal pupil (Labelling)

Answer 12

Criticism: Hempel-Jorgenson says teachers have different notions of an ‘ideal pupil’ and this is not always linked to class background as in primarily working class school, teachers saw the ideal pupil as quiet and obedient

Question 13

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Answer 13

Rosenthal and Jacobson: carried out a covert study of labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy in which they told teachers they would identify students with the most potential to succeed however they just chose 20% students at random and labelled them as ‘spurters’. After returning a year later they found that the students they had chosen had made significant progress.

Question 14

Pupil subculture

Answer 14

Lacey: developed two key concepts to explain why pupil subculture is formed - differentiation and polarisation.
Differentiation: when teachers categorise pupils based on what they perceive the students ability and behaviour is. Streaming is a form of differentiation as it places students in streams based on ability.
Polarisation: is how pupils respond to streaming by moving to one of two extremes in which students form either a pro-school or anti-school subculture.

Question 15

Continuation of Labelling and Self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 15

Ball: studied a school that abolished streaming and now had mixed ability classes and found that it decreased polarisation and anti-school subcultures among students however w/c students still underachieved because of the continuation of teacher labelling and the self fulfilling prophecy. Teachers continued to differentiate and label students so this shows even without the influence of setting and streaming and the class differences in achievement continue.

Question 16

Criticism of Labelling

Answer 16

Criticism: blames the teachers for labelling but doesn’t explain why they label students. Marxists argue that teachers work in a system that reproduces inequality so it’s not their fault.

Question 17

Criticism of Pupil Subculture

Answer 17

Criticism: Woods identified that pupils can respond to labelling in streaming in 4 different ways not just two (anti/pro school)
Ingratiation – being the teacher’s pet.
Ritualism – going through the motions of attending lessons, doing the work, staying out of trouble.
Retreatism – daydreaming and messing around.
Rebellion – rejection of school’s values.
Furlong agrees with Woods, however states that students are not committed to one response and could rebel in one class yet be a teacher’s pet in the next depending on how much they enjoy the subject they are learning.

Question 18

A-C economy (Marketisation)

Answer 18

A-C economy: Gilborn and Youdell - marketisation widens the gap in achievement between w/c and m/c and this happens through A-C economy (a system through which schools allocate time, resources and effort towards pupils who have the potential to get 5+ A-C grades
Teachers carry out an educational triage in which they sort students into 3 categories and decide: students that will get A-C grades don’t need help, students that will fail anyways are beyond saving so there is nothing they can do to help and borderline C/D students who receive the most help as helping them would make the most impact on the schools league table position

Question 19

Selection (Marketisation)

Answer 19

Bartlett - marketisation allows popular high-achieving schools to cream-skim and slit-shift which allows them to make sure they pick students that will do well i.e students from m/c families
Cream-skimming: selecting high ability students who tend to from m/c backgrounds and offer them a place
Slit-shifting: reject applications from (w/c) students with learning difficulties or behavioural problems as they are most likely to underachieve.