Class and achievement - external factors Flashcards
Who does better in education
M/c children tend to do better in education than w/c children.
External factors
Factors outside the education system which influence the educational achievement of pupils such as the influence of home. family and wider society.
They include:
1. Material deprivation [Howard + Wilkinson]
2. Cultural deprivation [douglas, Douglas, Sugarman, Bernstein]
3. Cultural capital [Bordieu, Gerwitz]
Material deprivation
Refers to living in poverty and lacking material necessities such as housing + income.
HOUSING
1. overcrowded living conditions - no quiet study space for H/W, tiredness due to lack of sleep from sharing beds - prevents children from learning - underachievement
- temporary accommodation - frequent home moves result in changes in school leading to a feeling of insecurity - low self-esteem + depression. This can cause underachievement
- cold or damp conditions - illness = absence - leads to difficulties in classwork
HEALTH
1. Howard - poorer families have a lower intake of vitamins and minerals. Effects energy levels and in turn performance at school.
- Wilkinson - emotional problems - among 10 yr olds - the lower the social class the higher the rate of hyperactivity, anxiety + behavioural disorders - exclusions from lessons + underachievement
FINANCES
1. lack of money - leads to no books, lack of school equipment, PE uniform, all which can affect educational achievement
Many students have P-T jobs which reduce the amount of time they have for studying
Cultural deprivation
Refers to the lack of values, skills and attitudes needed for educational achievement such as language, self-discipline and reasoning skills.
Children begin to learn these from their parents through primary socialisation.
However, some w/c parents fail to socialise their children properly so their children lack the skills needed for educational success. These children are said to be culturally deprived.
Cultural deprivation
[intellectual development]
Intellectual development
Refers to the development of reasoning and thinking skills.
Douglas – m/c parents help develop their children’s intellect by reading to them, providing educational activities/toys in the home that encourage thinking and reasoning skills.
This gives m/c class children an advantage in education as they start school equipped with reasoning skills.
Cultural deprivation
[language]
Language - Bernstein
1. Restricted - used by w/c. Limited in vocab, uses short, unfinished and grammatically simple sentences. It is descriptive and context-bound - speaker assumes the listener is familiar w/the topic.
- Elaborated code - used by m/c. Has a wide vocab, consists of longer, grammatically correct sentences, context-free - assumes the speaker isn’t familiar with the topic so explains their meaning in detail
- used by teachers, textbooks and exams
w/c not familiar with this code when they start school - disadvantage
Cultural deprivation
[attitudes and values]
Douglas
due to w/c subculture values, w/c parents lack interest in education and have fewer ambitions for their children
- illustrated by their infrequent visits to school or contact with teachers.
w/c parents are less interested in their children’s education because of their w/c subculture which gives them different values to the mainstream values.
these values are passed onto their children, so the children themselves lack interest in education - educational underachievement.
Sugarman - w/c hold 4 subcultural values:
Fatalism – believe that they have no control over their lives.
Collectivism – being useful to your family/friends is more important than individual success.
Immediate gratification – seeking rewards now, rather than working for long term rewards.
Present time orientation – living for today.
Evaluation of Cultural deprivation
Compensatory education
gov policy designed 2 tackle problems of C.D by providing extra resources to schools & communities in deprived areas. It aims to compensate w/c children for their lack of knowledge, skills and experiences - necessary for educational success
Example – Operation Head Start – USA, 1960s, provided enrichment for the most disadvantaged pre-school children to give them a better start in life.
Myth of C.D - Keddie
claims that C.D is a myth because w/c children are culturally different rather than deprived.
- schools should stop seeing w/c culture as deficient and instead build on its strengths and challenge teachers prejudice
Bernstein can be criticised because he implies that the restricted code is inferior to the elaborated code.
Cultural capital
knowledge, language, attitudes and experiences held by the middle class.
Bordieu
[cultural capital]
Cultural capital - Bordieu
passed from parents to children through socialisation - cultural reproduction. Gives m/c children an advantage in education because the abilities, knowledge, experiences they have are highly valued and rewarded at school.
- w/c children lack cultural capital which leads to educational failure
Therefore the E.S is not neutral as it favours and transmits m/c culture
Bordieu
[other types of capital]
Economic capital
A term used to refer to material wealth
Educational capital
A term used to refer to educational qualifications
Privileged-skilled choosers
[Gerwitz]
Professional middle-class parents.
They use their own economic, educational and cultural capital to gain educational capital for their children.
They have cultural capital – know how the education works and how to go about getting a place for their child at the best school.
They have economic capital – can afford travel costs to the best school or even move home to be in the catchment area of the good schools.
Disconnected local choosers
Gerwitz
w/c parents lacking cultural, educational and economic capital. This limits their choices.
They lack cultural capital – unfamiliar with the admissions procedures, pay more attention to school’s facilities than to league tables.
They lack economic capital – can’t afford the cost of travel to better schools.
end up going to the nearest comprehensive school.
Semi-skilled choosers
Gerwitz
w/c parents with ambition for their children, however, they lack cultural, educational and economic capital so find it difficult to understand how to E.S works.
- tend to rely on others opinions about schools
