1. Class differences in Achievement: External Factors Flashcards
What are internal factors?
Factors within school and the education system, such as interactions between pupils and teachers, and inequalities between schools
What are external factors?
These are factors outside of the education system, such as the influence of home and family background and wider society
What did the nationwide study by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies find?
Age 3, Children with disadvantaged backgrounds are already up to one year behind those from more privileged
What is cultural equipment?
Things such as language, self- discipline and reasoning skills
Language
- Hubbs- Tait et al: Those parents who use language that challenges their children to evaluate their own understanding or abilities for example “are you ready for the next step” improve their cognitive performance
- Leon Feinstein: Educate parents are more likely to use language in this way and educated parents are more likely to use praise
- Bereiter and Engelmann claim that the language used in lower class homes is deficient. They describe lower-class families as communicating be gestures single words or disjointed phrases. As a result they grow up incapable of abstract thinking and unable to use language to explain,describe, enquire or compare and this means they cannot take advantage within schools
- Bernstein
[] Restricted code: typically used by the working class. It has a limited vocabulary and is based on the use of short, often unfinished, grammatically simple sentences.
[] Elaborated code: typically used by the middle class. It has a wider vocabulary and is based on longer more grammatically more complex sentences. Speech is more varied and communicates abstract ideas.
Parental Education
- Douglas: working class parents placed less value on education. As a result they were less ambitious, gave them less encouragement and took less interest in their education, less likely to discuss their children’s progress with teachers.
- Leon Feinstein: Agrees with Douglas, he argues that parents own education is the most important factor affecting children’s achievement and since middle class tend to be better educated they are able to give their children an advantage by how they socialise with them
Use of income - Bernstein and Young: found that middle class mothers are more likely to buy educational toys, books and activities that encourage reasoning skills and stimulate intellectual development.
Class, income and parental education - Feinstein notes that parental education has an influence on children's achievement in its own right, regardless of class or income. This explains why not all children of working-class parents do equally badly and why children from middle-class families are equally successful.
Working-class subculture
- Barry Sugarman: Working-class subculture has four key features that act as a barrier to educational achievement [] Fatalism - a belief in fate, nothing you can do about it [] Collectivism - valuing being part of a group more than succeeding as an individual, contrast with the M.C view in which that an individual should not be held back by group loyalties [] Immediate Gratification - seeking pleasure now rather making sacrifices in order to get rewards in the future, in contrast the M.C have deffered gratification [] Present-time orientation- seeking the present as more important than the future and so not having long term goals, in contrast middle-class culture has a future-time orientation.
Compensatory Education
- Aims to tackle the problem of cultural deprivation by providing extra resources to schools and communities in deprived areas.
- Operation Head Start in the United States: “Planned Enrichment” of the deprived child’s environment to develop skills and instil achievement motivating. Including parental skills, setting up nursery classes and home visits by educational psychologists.
The myth of cultural deprivation?
- Keddie: describes cultural deprivation as a ‘myth’ and sees it as a victim-blaming explanation. Doesn’t blame home but. They fail because they are put at a disadvantage by the education system that is dominated by middle-class values
- Troyna and Williams: Schools have a speech hierarchy they label M.C speech highest, followed by working- class
- Blackstone and Mortimore: M.C attend fewer parents evenings, not because of lack of interest but because they work longer or less regular hours. Want to help their children but lack the knowledge too
What is material deprivation?
Refers to poverty and the lack of material necessities such as adequate housing and income
Housing
- Overcrowding: Making it harder to study, disturbed sleep.
- Young children: lack of space for safe play
- Temporary homes: Moving more frequently, resulting in constant changes of school and disrupted
Diet and Health
- Marilyn Howard: Notes that young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals. Leading to weaker immune systems more days off school.
Financial support and the cost of education
- David Bull: Cost of free schooling, poor families have to do without equipment and miss out on experiences that would enhance their educational achievement.
- Tanner et al: found that the cost of items such as transport, uniform, books, computers, calculators etc put a heavy burden on parents.
Fear of debt
Callender and Jackson: working-class students are more debt averse, they see university more costly than beneficial
Bourdieu: Three types of capital
- Bourdieu: both cultural and material factors contribute to educational achievement and are not separate nut interrelated
Cultural capital: Refers to the knowledge, attitudes, values, languages, tastes and abilities of the middle class. Like wealth it gives an advantage to those who posses it, Like Bernstein, middle class children acquire the ability to grasp analyse and express abstract ideas.
Educational and economical capital and cultural capital can be converted to one another MC children are better equipped to meat the demands of the school curriculum and gain qualification.
