Class differences in achievement (1) external factors Flashcards
Centre for Longitudinal Studies (2007)
By the age of three, children from disadvantaged backgrounds are already up to a year behind those from more privileged homes
Basic ‘cultural equipment’ includes…
Language, self-discipline and reasoning skills
What do cultural deprivation theorists argue working-class parents do?
Fail to socialise their children adequately
Three main aspects of cultural deprivation
Language, parent’s education and working-class subculture
Language - Hubs-Tait et al (2002)
Where parents use language that challenges their children to evaluate their own understanding or abilities (e.g. ‘what do you think?’), cognitive performance improves
Language - Feinstein (2008)
Educated parents are more likely to challenge their children’s language understanding
What kind of language do working-class parents use when talking to their children?
Simple language that only requires children to make descriptive statements (e.g. ‘what colour is the sky?’)
Language - Fernstein found that educated parents are more likely to…
Use praise which encourages children to develop a sense of their own competence
Language - Bereiter and Engelmann
Claim that the language used in lower-class homes is deficient. They describe lower-class families as communicated by gestures, single words or disjointed phrases
What are Bernstein’s two types of speech code?
The restricted code and the elaborated code
The restricted code
Typically used by the working class. It has limited vocabulary and is based on the use of short, often unfinished, grammatically simple sentences. It is descriptive not analytic
The elaborated code
Typically used by the middle class. It has a wide vocabulary and is based on longer, grammatically more complex sentences. Speech is varied and communicates abstract ideas
Why do speech codes give middle-class children an advantage at school?
The elaborated code is used by teachers, textbooks and exam boards
What is Bernstein’s view on why working-class children fail to achieve at school?
He argues that these children fail not because they are culturally deprived, but because schools fail to teach them how to use the elaborated code
What did Douglas (1964) find surrounding working-class parents?
Working-class parents placed less value on education. They were less ambitious for their children and gave them less encouragement
According to Douglas, why did working-class children have lower levels of motivation to achieve?
Working-class parents gave their children little encouragement, they visited the school less often than others and were therefore less likely to discuss their child’s progress with teachers
Parents’ education - Feinstein (2008)
He argues that parents’ own education is the most important factor affecting children’s achievement
Parenting style
Educated parents’ parenting style emphasises consistent discipline and high expectations of their children. However, less educated parents’ style is marked as harsh or inconsistent discipline that emphasises ‘doing as you’re told’ and ‘behaving yourself’
Parents’ educational behaviours
Educated parents are more aware of what is needed to assist their children’s educational progress. They are also able to get expert advice on childrearing, more successful in establishing good relationships with teachers and better at guiding their children’s interactions with school
Use of income
Better educated parents are more likely to have a higher income and therefore more likely to spend this in ways that promote their child’s educational success
Use of income - What did Bernstein and Young (1967) find?
Middle-class mothers are more likely to buy educational books, toys and activities that encourage reasoning skills and stimulate intellectual development
Class, income and parental education
Better educated parents tend to have children who are more successful at school
Subculture
A group whose attitudes and values differ from those of the mainstream culture
Sugarman (1970)
Working-class subculture has four key factors that act as a barrier to educational achievement