Chapter 6: Low-Income Students and Social Class

Question 1

What did Anisef et al. study?

Answer 1

Studied educational attainment by 1979 of graduates in 1973 (by various characteristics) in %

Question 2

What did Anisef et al. find in relation to graduation of low-SES students?

Answer 2

15.5% of students born in low SES graduated university, compared to 53.2% of students born into high SES families
52% of students born in low SES only attained high school graduation, compared to 14.8% of high SES families

Question 3

What did Anisef et al. find in their follow-up study in 1995?

Answer 3

In a follow-up study they looked at occupational attainment in 1995; by parental SES in 1973 (in %)

Social class has short-term effects on post-secondary education and long-term effects on occupational attainment
High SES: 31% in high level employment, 9% in unskilled work
Low SES: 15% in high level employment, 29% in unskilled work

Question 4

Why does it matter that there is an unequal access to education?

Answer 4

• We’re in a knowledge economy and this means that a lot of talented people are being wasted (the cure for cancer can be in the mind of a low class child)
• Social justice; we’re excluding a large group of people from a high class luxury

Question 5

What are the two explanations for education inequality?

Answer 5

• Individualistic/economic explanation: rational choice

- Sociological explanation: cultural reproduction

Question 6

What is the rational choice explanation?

Answer 6

People make decisions based on cost-benefit calculation:

• relative cost
• relative risk
• relative value

Question 7

What are the difference between social classes in the rational choice explanation?

Answer 7

Middle/upper class:

• educational relatively cheap
• outcomes relatively certain
• not participating = downward mobility

Working/lower class:

• education relatively expensive
• outcomes relatively uncertain
• not participating = mobility neutral

Question 8

What is the cultural reproduction explanation presented by Bourdieu?

Answer 8

Rational choice: focus on individual (or family) decision independent
- class reduced to an economic consideration

Cultural reproduction in education focuses on:
- role of home and social environment
- role of school culture, structure, and curriculum
- role of individual dispositions
Inequality is reproduced through resources other than money

Question 9

What is social capital in the cultural reproduction explanation?

Answer 9

People’s networks or connections (can help get into the right schools and the best jobs)

Question 10

What is culture capital in the cultural reproduction explanation?

Answer 10

Valued resources that help with school success and getting high-status jobs;

• knowledge of dominant culture
• high cultural capital aids school performance and integration
• working-class (and ethnic minority) students unfamiliar with euro-centric, middle class values and culture expected in school

Question 11

What is habitus presented by Bourdieu?

Answer 11

Your dispositions and attitudes, shaped by our social environment

• shaped by family and larger social environment; do your parents have much schooling? are they supportive of schooling?
• influences (educational) dispositions
• creates cultural capital

Question 12

What is field presented by Bourdieu?

Answer 12

Habitus and cultural capital have different value in different fields - ex. having a lawyer parent will help you be a lawyer but not a mechanic

• schools values middle-class cultural; is reading Shakespeare more important than knowing how to fix a car? → this is symbolic violence
• we value certain kinds of intelligence more than other forms

Question 13

What are the two parenting approaches developed in the “Invisibility Inequality” research by Lareau?

Answer 13

• Studied families by spending an extensive amount of time with them

Parenting approaches:
1. Concerted cultivation: middle/upper class
act as managers for their children; extracurriculars, tutors, very involved
2. Natural growth: working class
letting children grow more independently

Question 14

What are the differences and outcomes between the parenting approaches presented by Lareau?

Answer 14

Differences:

• access to resources
• organized activities
• input in child’s life
• negotiation
• interactions with schools

Outcomes:

• development of cultural capital
• emerging sense of entitlement: middle/upper class
• emerging sense of constraint: working class

Question 15

What did the “I Need Help” research by Calarco study?

Answer 15

Studied children in school environments;

• how do children themselves affect their learning experience and outcome?
• help seeking in class; interactions with teachers
• studied through ethnographic observation

Question 16

What were the findings for the middle-class students vs. the low-class students? What are the outcomes for these findings? (in the Lareau study)

Answer 16

Findings for the middle-class kids:

• actively seek help, a lot
• don’t hesitate
• make sure they are noticed

Findings for working-class kids:

• reluctant
• seek very little help
• rather try on their own

Outcomes:

• middle-class children are noticed more by teacher and learn more
• working-class children are more overlooked and learn less
• working-class children seen as less capable

Question 17

What explanations were given for the differences between social classes? What explanations are given for these explanations? (for the Lareau study)

Answer 17

Explanations:

• middle-class children have learned to ask for help at home (through extracurriculars, tutors), working-class have not
• cultural capital and entitlement: parenting strategies influence children’s school behaviour

Explanations explained: role of cultural capital

• middle-class parents have more education
• middle-class parents have negotiated schooling and understand the importance of asking for help
• middle-class children learn help-seeking outside of school (music lessons, dance, soccer, etc.)

Question 18

What did Lehmann’s case study classify as habitus dislocation?

Answer 18

Working class students at university;
- potential for conflict: university = middle-class institution, lower-class students feel like a fish out-of-water

There’s a clash between students’ working-class habitus and university’s middle-class culture, resulting in alienation and uncertainty

Question 19

Why Lehmann find that working class students went to university?

Answer 19

• They wanted to get social mobility; to get better jobs than their parents
• Knowledge economy; they knew they needed a university education to get a good job

Question 20

According to Lehmann, what are the areas of disadvantage and success for working class students at university?

Answer 20

Areas of disadvantage:

• money, working during university
• not knowing the “rules of the game” (cultural capital), not knowing how university works since parents/family can not give their experiences
• being different (habitus dislocation) and surrounded by middle-class students
• declining relationships with parents; more education better opinions
• declining relationships with old friends; becomes competitive

Areas of success:

• academic success; low income students do tend to succeed
• social integration; gaining connections to friends and the campus

Question 21

According to Lehmann, what are the explanations for success of working class students in university.

Answer 21

• strong work ethic and class pride; they want to succeed, show them what they could do
• independence and maturity; struggling makes you stronger
• responsibility and motivation; they can’t afford to fail

Habitus transformation: cultural capital

• lifestyle and cultural preferences - we gain a new way of living
• freedom to learn new ideas

Question 22

In chapter 6, what was the research methods of the study done?

Answer 22

Interviews with 122 parents
Two schools: both in urban locations, economically depressed areas
Variation in parental education

Question 23

How do Aurini, Milne and Hillier define linguistic capital and comfort? What were the results from the study conducted?

Answer 23

Linguistic capital is the mastery of language and the relative ability to effectively communicate with other people
ex. a parents’ ability to talk to and feel comfortable with teachers.

They found a difference in linguistic capital by social class, specifically lower SES felt less comfortable and high SES felt more entitled to demand changes. Both levels felt comfortable speaking with school authorities, but asking for changes was where the differences lie.
Relationship to parents’ own educational experiences in the past, and parents who had bad school experience will be less likely to be involved in children’s’ schooling.
Differences were rooted in parents comfort levels with schools, teachers, curriculum.

Question 24

Define parent engagement.

Answer 24

Describes parents’ involvement in their children’s lives inside and outside of schooling. The actions associated with parent engagement range widely and include everything from communicating with the school, volunteering for and attending school functions, and supporting learning at home. These activities are seen to facilitate children’s successful movement through the education system. Parent engagement is also seen to improve children’s emotional and social well-being and reduce behavioural problems.

Question 25

What is the reactive hypothesis?

Answer 25

Premised on the assumption that parents become more involved when their children is experiencing acute behaviour or academic difficulty.
No research to support this hypothesis. Some even found that parents become less involved when children show difficulties.

Question 26

What does parent engagement vary along?

Answer 26

1. Connections and comfort level
2. Roles and responsibility
3. Agency

Question 27

Define agency.

Answer 27

The capacity of an individual or a group to make a choice and to act.