class and differential achievement in education Flashcards
What did Becker (1971) and Keddie (1971) say about teachers and labelling.
Becker (1971) and Keddie (1971) say that teachers tend to evaluate pupils in comparison to an imaginary ideal student, by looking at their social class. (as well as appearance, personality and speech).
Ball (1981)
found that the pupils in top streams tended to be from higher social classes.
Woods (1983)
argues that there are lots of different reactions to school, but non-conformist reactions were more likely to come from working-class students.
What has been found about material deprivation and achievement?
- Halsey (1980) found that the most important factor preventing working-class students staying on at school was a lack of financial support.
- Douglas (1964) found that children in unsatisfactory living conditions didn’t do very well in ability tests compared to kids from comfortable backgrounds.
- Unemployment or low income means less money for books, internet access and school trips. low income families can’t afford nurseries and private schools and they can’t afford to support their kids through university.
- poverty and unsatisfactory living standards may cause health problems and absence from school.
What has been found about cultural deprivation and achievement?
- Douglas (1964) thought that the level of parental interest was the most important factor in affecting achievement.
- some sociologists say that working-class kids don’t have the knowledge and values that help achievement. Books, museum visits, home internet access and parental knowledge of education may help middle-class pupils to succeed.
- some styles of parenting emphasise the importance of education more than others.
What has been found about class affecting attitudes to education?
- Sugarman (1970) said that pupils from non-manual backgrounds and manual backgrounds have different outlooks. Pupils from manual backgrounds lived for immediate gratification. The pupils from non-manual backgrounds were ambitious and deferred their gratification - they invested time in studying and planned for the future.
- Leon Feinstein (2003) found that social class continued to have a significant impact on educational achievement. He argued that redistributive policies (e.g. sure start) should carry on throughout a student’s entire education, rather than being restricted to their pre-school years.
- Hyman (1967) said that the values of the working-class are a self-imposed barrier to improving their position. He said that the working class tend to place a low value on education.
what are some criticisms of material and cultural deprivation theories?
- Material and cultural deprivation theories don’t explain how factors inside school affect achievement.
- cultural deprivation theory generalises a lot about differences between middle-class and working-class life. it ignores working-class families who do place high value on education, and tends to assume that working-class families have no culture at all. (ethnocentric)
What did Bernstein (1970) find about differences in achievement?
He found that working-class pupils in the East End of London weren’t comfortable with the style of language required by the school. They used a restricted code.
- middle-class students knew how to use the same elaborated code as the teachers.
- in terms of language, the working-class kids were at a disadvantage.
What are the problems with Bernstein’s theory?
- there are variations within the middle class and working class. different sections of these groups vary in how they use the elaborate code.
- some sociologists have developed his ideas to say working-class speech patterns are inferior or somehow ‘wrong’ - controversial… Labov (1973) thinks the elaborated speech code is just different.
What did Bourdieu (1971, 1974) find about differences in achievement?
He reckons middle-class students are at an advantage because they have the right kind of “cultural capital”.
- he thought that the more cultural capital you have, the more successful you’ll be in education. He believed working-class pupils don’t have access to cultural capital.
- middle-class families pass on cultural capital and expectations from parents to children. This is called cultural reproduction.
