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
What are the four key features that Sugarman identifies?
Fatalism, collectivism, immediate gratification, present-time orientation
How do parents pass on their values according to cultural deprivation theorists?
Through primary socialisation
What is compensatory education?
These programmes aim to tackle the problem of cultural deprivation by providing extra resources to school and communities in deprived areas
What is an example of compensatory education?
Sesame Street was initially part of Head Start, providing a means of transmitting values, attitudes and skills needed for education success
Keddie (1973)
Describes cultural deprivation as a ‘myth’ and sees it as victim-blaming explanation. She dismisses the idea that failure at school can be blamed on a culturally deprived home background
Department for Education (2012)
Barely a third of pupils eligible for free school meals achieve five or more GCSEs at A*-C including English and maths, as against nearly two thirds of other pupils
How can poor housing affect pupil’s achievement?
For young children especially, development can be impaired through lack of space for safe play and exploration. Overcrowding can have a direct effect by making it harder for the child to study and educational activities. Poor housing can also effect the child’s health and welfare, overcrowding can run the risk of accidents. Cold or damp housing can also cause ill health. Families within temporary accommodation can also cause psychological distress. These problems mean absence from school
Howard (2001)
Young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals. Poor nutrition affects health, for example by weakening the immune system and lowering children’s energy levels. This could result in absence from school due to illness
Blanden and Machin (2007)
Children from low income families were more likely to engage in ‘externalising’ behaviour (e.g. fighting and temper tantrums), which are likely to disrupt their schooling
Tanner et al (2003)
Found that the cost of items such as transport, uniforms, books, computers, calculators, and sports, music and art equipment, places a heavy burden on poor families
Smith and Noble (1995)
Poverty acts as a barrier to learning in various ways also. There is an inability to afford private schooling and tuition, and poorer quality local schools
Callender and Jackson (2005)
Working-class students are more debt averse. They see university as having more costs than benefits. Therefore, working-class students are less likely to go to university as they fear debt
What impact did the increase of tuition fees in 2012 have on university applicants according to UCAS (2012)?
UCAS found that the number of UK applications fell by 8.6% in 2012 compared to other years
What are the three types of capital that affect achievement according to Bourdieu (1984)?
Cultural capital, economic capital and educational capital
Cultural capital
The knowledge, attitudes, values, language etc of the middle-class. Through socialisation, middle-class children gain the advantage of grasping and analysing abstract ideas. This gives middle-class children the advantage in school as the education system favours this middle-class culture. Whereas working-class children find that schools devalue their culture, therefore their lack of cultural capital leads to exam failure
Educational and economic capital
Bourdieu argues that these types of capital can be converted into one another. Wealthier parents can convert their economic capital into educational capital by sending their children to private schools and paying for extra tuition
Leech and Campos (2003)
Middle-class parents are more likely to be able to afford a house in the catchment area of a school highly placed in the exam league tables
According to Leech and Campos (2003), what does ‘selection by mortgage’ mean?
Middle-class parents are able to buy a house in the catchment area of a school they desire to send their child to, this drives up the cost of houses near to successful schools and excludes working-class families
Sullivan’s (2001) study
Used questionnaires to conduct a survey of 465 students, assessing their cultural capital. She asked them about the types of activities they did e.g. reading, what kind of TV shows they watched, whether they visited galleries
What did Sullivan (2001) find in her study?
She found that the students who read complex fiction and watched documentaries had greater cultural capital. These pupils were more likely to be successful at GCSE. However, these students were more likely to be middle-class. She concluded that the greater resources and aspirations middle-class parents offered the bigger the class gap in achievement became
