CLASS Flashcards
External Factors of how class effects achievement
material deprivation (housing, food and heating)
cultural deprivation (family backgrounds, inadequate socialisation, language skills and inappropriate attitudes/values).
cultural capital (Knowledge, language, attitudes and values, and lifestyle)
Cultural deprivation- Bernstein
Speech Codes - Differences in speech codes put working-class children at a disadvantage because the elaborated code is used by teachers, textbooks and exams. Early socialisation into the elaborated code means that middle-class pupils are already at an advantage
Cultural deprivation- Douglas
Parents’ Education - Working-class parents place less value on education; they are less ambitious for their children and give them less encouragement to participate in educational activities, such as homework. As a result of this, many working-class parents do not attend parents evening.
Cultural deprivation- Sugarmann
Working-class Subcultures - Sugarmann identifies 4 key acts that act as a barrier to educational achievement for working class pupils:
Fatalism- there’s nothing you can do to change your status
Collectivism - valuing being part of a group more than being an individual
Immediate gratification- seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices in order to get rewards in the future
Present time orientation- seeing the present as more important than the future, therefore having no long-term goals
Material Deprivation- housing
Overcrowding means there is no room for educational activities, such as homework and reading. It also means disturbed sleep from sharing bedrooms.
Families living in temp accommodation may find themselves having to move frequently, leading to disturbed education
Overcrowded homes mean greater risk of accidents and a higher risk of getting ill. This may lead to absence from school
Material Deprivation- diet + health
Young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals. Poor nutrition affects health, for example, by weakening the child’s immune system- this may result in more absences from school (Howard).
Cultural capital- Bourdieu
Middle-class children with cultural capital are better equipped to meet the demands on the school curriculum. Parents can convert the cultural capital into economic capital, for example, they can send their children to private schools.
Internal factors for class differences in achievement
labelling, streaming, pupil subcultures, pupil identities and the development of a self-fulfilling prophecy
Labelling- Becker
Teachers judge and label pupils according to how closely they fit the “ideal pupil”. This would therefore dampen the motivation of students who did not suit the ideal pupil, due to how teachers deferred their time away from them and were unwilling to help.
Self- fulfilling prophecy
When students are given a positive label, they react to it by creating a positive self-concept, which means they are motivated to work hard and improve their grades. This also works in reverse, with negative labels leading to negative self-concepts and less motivation.
Rosenthal and Jacobson studied this by informing teachers of students who scored highly on an IQ test and would be a quick learner. The catch was that these test results were fabricated. Teachers treated those who were falsely identified as ‘spurts’ differently. 47% of those who were identified to ‘spurt’ had made significant improvement due to how teachers paid more attention to them by giving them more feedback.
Streaming
Gillborn and Youdell found that teachers labelled working-class students as unintelligent, resulting in them being placed in lower streams and sets.
Pupil subcultures
Lacey found that there were 2 ways in which pupil subcultures developed: polarisation and differentiation. Polarisation is when pupils respond to streaming by either moving to a pro-school subculture or an anti-school subculture. Differentiation is a form of streaming, those who are placed in higher streams gain a higher status.
Hargreaves found that boys in lower streams were triple failures: they failed their 11+ exam; had been placed in lower streams; and then labelled as “worthless louts”- their solution to this was to form a group which provided status to those who flouted the school rules and guaranteed their educational failure.
Pupil identities
Archer et al found that working-class pupils invest in ‘nike’ identities, leading to self-exclusion from education because it does not fit their identity and way of life; they see it as unrealistic (it is for richer and cleverer people) and they also see it as undesirable (it does not suit their habitus).
