Class and Educational Attainment Flashcards
How is class defined by sociologists?
Wealth/income
Power
Status
Why does class matter?
-The lower your class the more likely you are to;
-Suffer from physical and mental illness.
-Live in sub-standard housing.
-Be a victim of crime
-Be unemployed
-Lack qualifications
-And to have a relatively short life-expectancy.
This can have an impact on educational attainment.
How do the classes compare in terms of educational achievement?
-Lower reading ability at the start of school
-Less well in SATs
-Less likely to go to good state schools
-More likely to be placed in lower sets / streams
-Poorer exam results
-More likely to leave school as NEETs
-More likely to go on to vocational training
-Low skilled and low paid
-Less likely to apply for and get into higher education
Sugarman Cultural deprivation:
The idea that the reason why low-income groups under-perform educationally is because the culture of low-income groups is deficient in a few key ways:
Attitudes and values
-WC parents are less interested in Education/ show less support (Douglas, Feinstein)
-WC value immediate gratification, are fatalistic and collectivistic (Sugarman)
Language skills
-Bernstein: Restricted way of speaking means they cannot access the elaborated language of the education system.
Evans 2007 Study AO2:
Found that WC parents did encourage a good education but she found it was differences in primary socialisation.
* MC Mothers use formal style learning in their play early on and so this builds up strong learning habits and a platform to do well at school.
- WC mothers do not play and socialise their children through formal learning styles, they leave this to the school to do. For WC mothers play is all about fun.
Therefore, MC have a head-start when they get to school.
Feinstein 2003 AO3:
He suggested that lower rates of educational achievement by working-class children was linked to a number of factors such as the extent of parents’ education; the quality of the school attended and material deprivation.
Evaluation of Cultural deprivation theory:
Low-income groups are made up of a diverse range of individuals – this statement is making a crass and unfair generalisation. (New Right focus on individuals).
It is placing all the blame on working-class kids and their parents – they system itself must at least have something to do with it (Social Democrat).
Is working-class culture deficient – or is it just different to middle-class culture but made out to be worse? (Marxist)
Bernstein Speech patterns AO2:
M/C are able to switch into using the elaborate code, with complex sentence structures and vocabulary which allows them to communicate with the teachers.
Bourdieu and the middle class values AO2:
argues that the habitus (tastes, attitudes, values, dispositions and expectations of a particular class) of the dominant class provides them with an advantage in the education system as those from the dominant class can then more easily access the system and achieve. The working-class habitus and thus cultural capital is different to that of the dominant class and thus they are less likely to do well in the education system.
Waldfogel and Washbrook (2010) Cognitive development:
Cognitive development of children in poverty when they started school was nearly a year behind that of middle-income children.
Poverty = lower cognitive development
Smith and Noble - Impacts of low income:
-Bullied in school due to material dep.
-Sick due to poor diet = More days absent in school.
-Lack of space and resources at home to do schoolwork.
Sutton Trust 2014 - Extra curricular / private tuition:
Research indicates that extra-curricular activities can have a positive impact on educational attainment. M/C can afford private tuition which helps them with educational attainment.
Disadvantaged areas impact on educational attainment:
Cambridge study: teachers in disadvantaged areas are more likely to be inexperienced and less effective.
Weale (2016) found that for low-income students, having a very effective teacher could mean they gain a year and a half of learning in a year, compared to 6 months with an ineffective teacher.
Pupil Premium :
Children who qualify for free school meals could also be entitled to the pupil premium that gives money to their school to help their education.
Sure Start centres:
They give help and advice on child and family health, parenting, money, training and employment.
Educational Maintenance allowance (EMA)
where students from low-income backgrounds would be given an allowance of between £10-£30 a week depending on their household income. Designed to encourage students to stay in education beyond the age of 16.
What are external factors that effect educational attainment ?
cultural and material capital as well as policies government compensatory policies – things that go on outside the classroom.
What are internal factors that effect educational attainment ?
what goes on in school to impact differential educational achievement.
Rist - Labelling
Rist found that teachers judged and labelled according to the degree to which they conformed to middle-class standards; neat appearance, parents education and if parents were middle-class. Not ability.
Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968) - Labelling
Labelling can lead to a self fulfilling prophecy. The students who were labelled as spurters made greater progress than other group in IQ tests
AO2: Paul Willis and the Lads.
What is setting and streaming?
Setting: placing students in ability groups for a particular subject.
Streaming: placing students in ability groups for all subjects. The whole class becomes an ability group – often based on English/ Maths assessment.
Mac an Ghalill (1994) - Teachers give priority, respect and high expectations to students in higher sets. Lower-set children are seen as low-ability, they are given inexperienced teachers that are not keen on teaching these sets.
Eval of setting and streaming / labelling :
Fuller (1984) Black girls in London were expected to fail. They resented this expectation and proved it wrong by working hard and getting good results.
Anti-school subculture:
subcultures which reject the norms and values of the school. They are usually found amongst lower-set students.
