Class Differences And Achievement Flashcards
Centre for longitudinal study
By age of 3, people of lower class already at a years delay than children from affluent areas
How does language contribute to cultural deprivation?
Parents of middle class, stimulate cognitive response by child by asking questions such as “what do you think”
Simplistic language used by WC parents = disadvantage at school
Restricted code (Bernstein)
Used among WC families- descriptive only.
Elaborated Code (Bernstein)
MC families- large vocabulary to explain abstract ideas
Douglas (Sociologist)
WC parents place less value on Education with less encouragement
Difference in parenting style
MC- consistent discipline with encouragement to education
WC- harsh and inconsistent discipline leading to no motivation to do well at school
Sugarman (1970)
WC ideologies
- Fatalism - believe in fate, no effort to get something they want
- Collectivism - subcultures, group success over individual success
- Immediate gratification- No sacrifices for success in future- wants direct results
- Present-time orientation - no long term goals
Values passed onto child via primary socialisation!
Sociologists that are against the concept of cultural deprivation- parents aren’t not interested in a child’s education but due to long work hours to provide for the family - may also be put against MC hierarchy present in schools
Blackstone and Mortimore (1994)
Material deprivation
Lack of material due to poverty
Material Deprivation
When a child is deprived of adequate materials in order to excel in schools such as household, and diet and health
Household Deprivation
Overcrowding –> Disturbed sleep –> Development affected –> Sickness –> Absence from school–> Lack of applied knowledge used in exams –> Underperformance
W/C children among 10 yrs= more hypersensitive and behavioural problems = more fights to externalise problems = disrupt schooling
Wilkonson - diet and health
Material Deprivation and stigmitisation
20% of those eligible for free school meals do not take up offers
Lowered self-esteem due to exclusion from other students because they aren’t wearing the latest brands - wearing second hand and cheap clothes
Material Deprivation and Social Policies
Raised university tuition fees - in 2012 raised to £9,000 making it very hard for students of WC to apply due to fear of debt and lack of financial support by family members
Cultural Capital (Bourdieu)
middle-class knowledge, values, norms taught in primary socialisation giving those children an advantage in the educative system. WC culture looked down upon - symbolic violence
Educational and Economic Capital (Bourdieu)
MC children have cultural capital allowing them to get best out of education - educational capital allowing them to get best jobs - economic capital
MC Parents have economic capital to be able to afford catchment areas
Catchment areas
Areas of houses near schools - prices range on standards of the school.
External Factors
Processes outside of school that causes class differences
Internal Factors
Processes within the school that causes class differences
Labelling
Attach meaning or definition to a student based on stereotypical attitudes towards child ie based on social class or ethnicity
The normalisation of WC underachievement due to lack of encouragement by teachers to change results
Dunne and Gazeley
WC seen as a disruptive student and labelled as badly behaved
MC seen as an ideal pupil and labelled positively
Becker
Self-fulfilling Prophecy
Teacher labels student, the teacher acts accordingly to label, pupil internalises treatment and accepts success or failure opportunity. The pupil becomes the label and prophecy is fulfilled
Results from Rosenthal and Jacobsen’s study of teacher expectation of spurters in a primary school
random 20% chosen to be labelled as ‘spurters’ and half of those chosen had made significant improvement a year later- resulted from teacher encouragement and belief despite those chosen were completely random
Streaming
Separating children into different classes/streams based on ability
Educational Triage (Gillborn and Youdell)
Process in which teachers sort children into streams
- Those who will pass always - placed in a higher stream -typically MC (can afford extra tuition)
- Those with potential by the encouragement of teachers
- Those who are hopeless cases - typically WC and black students - placed in lower-tier exams
Pupil Subcultures
+
Sociologist
pro-school (MC) in high streams: status gained
vs
anti-school subcultures (WC) in low streams
Sociologist that discovered this concept- Lacey
Pro-School Subculture
Middle Class, a status gained via academic successes, approved by teachers
Anti-School Subculture
Working Class, a status gained via peers, undermined by teachers - children reject school principles
Pupil Responses (besides labelling and streaming)
Ingratiation - teachers’ pet
Ritualism- staying out of trouble -following order
Retreatism - doesn’t focus in class
Rebellion- Reject everything about school.
Symbolic Capital
Status from a school recognized as valuable, typically the middle-class habitus.
Symbolic Violence
(Archer) Argues Middle-Class stigmatize working-class identities - disapproval of Bourdieu argues it is the oppression of the working class through claims that their lifestyle as inferior.
Nike identities
Symbolic Violence –> symbolism through clothes such as Nike –> Conflict with dress code –> Child actively rejects school system –> anti-school subculture –> underachievement
Habitus + Sociologist
Bourdieu
tastes and preferences are taken by a group - reflecting their position in society.
Class identity, and self exclusion from University
As Reay Et Al, found that by limiting themselves from elite and distant universities because of prices/habitus that “it’s not for the like of us’ they subconsciously limit their successes
Outline 3 ways in which a student may respond to labelling and streaming?
- Reject School Values and join anti-school subculture due to lack of encouragement and low placement in streaming causing them to fufill label teacher placed on them which was to be typical and join anti-school subculture
- the ingratiation student which acts as a teacher pet often gets labelled positively and gets rewards for hard efforts
- Differentiation causes pro-school subculture where those that confine to school’s values (ideal pupil = middle class) to excel in an environment around like-minded pupils in higher streamed classes.
Outline 3 ways in which home background factors may affect pupils’ achievement?
Overcrowding –> disturbed study time –> poor ventilation –> illness–> absence from school –> Educational successes declined
The elaborated code being taught allows a child to express complex ideas and understand and apply knowledge to unfamiliar situations –> allows the child to excel in school
Parents having economic capital allows them to afford a house in the catchment area of high standard school. Can also afford extra tuition for the child in order for the pupil to achieve high in school.
