class differences in achievement EXTERNAL Flashcards
Topics - EXTERNAL
- Culture Capital - social, economic, cultural
- Cultural Deprivation - language, WC subculture, parents
- Material Deprivation - housing, diet and health, financial support
MATERIAL DEPRIVATION - housing
DIRECTLY - overcrowding means less room for educational activities, nowhere to do HW, and disturbed sleep from sharing rooms, making it harder for the child to study
For young children, development can be impaired through lack of space for safe play and exploration. Families living in temporary accommodation may find themselves having to move frequently, resulting in constant changes in school and disrupted education.
INDIRECTLY - cold or damp housing can also cause ill health. Families in temporary accommodation suffer more psychological distress infections and accidents - health problems mean more school absences
MATERIAL DEPRIVATION - diet and health
Howard notes that young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals. Poor nutrition affects health and so are more likely to have emotion or behavioural problems. According to Wilkinson, among 10 year olds the lower the social class, the higher the rate of hyperactivity, anxiety and conduct disorder
MATERIAL DEPRIVATION - financial support
Children may not have or have limited access to resources, such as transport, uniforms etc. They may have to make do with second hand equipment / clothes
CULTURE CAPITAL - cultural
Bourdieu (MARXIST) defines cultural capital as knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities of MC. He sees MC culture as a type of capital because like wealth, it gives an advantage to those who possess it.
He introduces the idea of ‘Habitus’ which defines everyday ways of doing things / constructs ways of seeing the world and states what is reasonable, appropriate and what’s to be expected. Education favours MC cultural traits and devalues WC cultures, seeing it as rough and inferior. WC students ‘get the messages’ and respond by truanting, early leaving or not trying
TEST OF BOURDIEU’S IDEAS - Sullivan used questionnaires to conduct a survey of 465 pupils in 4 schools. To access their cultural capital, she asked them about a range of activities, such as reading and TV viewing habits and whether they visited art galleries, museums and theatres
CULTURE CAPITAL - social
PUTNAM - identifies the significance of social networking when realising ones potential. An individuals level of social capital impacts highly on an individuals life chances
Social capital refers to the social networks of influence and support that people have through involvement with neighbours, community life and social and professional groups
CULTURE CAPITAL - economic
GEWIRTZ (1995)
- The marketisation of education creates a ‘free market’ of educational choice and promotes parental choice in relation to a child’s schooling (1998 education act)
- Parent’s level of cultural capital and economic capital leads to major class differences in the choices that parents have when choosing a school for their child
PRIVILEGED SKILLED CHOOSERS - mainly professional MC parents who used their economic and cultural capital to gain educational capital for their children
DISCONNECTED LOCAL CHOOSERS - these were WC parents whose choices were restricted by their lack of economic and cultural capital
SEMI SKILLED CHOOSERS - these parents were also mainly WC, but unlike the disconnected local choosers, they were ambitious for their children
Pupil premium
Pupil premium is a government scheme that was introduced in 2011 to improve the education of underprivileged children. It was launched after several research papers suggested that there was a significant gap between the educational performance of disadvantage children and their classmates. In contrast to the rest of their classmates, many children who are eligible for pupil premium have a face extra challenges daily.
CULTURAL DEPRIVATION - language
These theories suggest that the WC lack the necessary economic capital and views, attitudes and support that’s needed to succeed within education. This is because the MC are the dominant social group
BEINSTEIN argues that the WC and the MC use two different language codes. The. MC are advantaged as the education system uses the elaborated code. WC children are unable to fully engaged in class with educational materials and therefore teachers make assumptions on their ability
WC restricted code - limited vocabulary, grammatically simple, particularistic
MC elaborated code - large vocabulary, grammatically complex, universal
EC allows individuals to deal with higher level concepts, developing argument and making generalisation. Formal education is carried out in EC, meaning that those used to RC are disadvantaged. EC is the language of exams and teachers. MC children socialised into EC are then fluent for when arriving at school
CULTURAL DEPRIVATION - parents
- Style - emphasises consistent discipline and high expectations of their children, and this supports achievement by encouraging active learning and exploration. Less educated parents’ parenting style marked by harsh or inconsistent discipline that emphasises ‘doing as you’re told’ and ‘behaving yourself’
- Behaviour - reading with child, teaching letters, numbers or songs, helping with HW and access advice
- Use of income - better educated parents have higher income and spend it on ways to promote their children’s educational success. Bernstein and Young found that MC mothers are more likely to buy educational toys, books and activities that encourage reasoning skills and stimulate intellectual development. WC homes are more likely to lack these resources and this means children from these backgrounds start school without the intellectual skills needed to progress
CULTURAL DEPRIVATION - wc subcultures
Cultural deprivation theorists argue that lack of parental interest in their children’s education reflects the sub cultural values of the WC. A subculture is a group whose attitudes and values differ from those of mainstream culture. According to cultural deprivation theorists, large sections of the WC have a different goals, beliefs, attitudes and values from the rest of society and this is why their children fail at school
WC SUBCULTURES - continued
WC children internalise the beliefs and values of their subculture through the socialisation process and this results in them underachieving at school. SUGARMAN argues that they stem from the fact that MC jobs are secure careers offering prospects for continuous individual advancement. This encourages ambition, long term planning and a willingness to invest time and effort in gaining qualifications. By contrast, WC jobs are less secure and have no career structure through which individuals can advance. Cultural deprivation theorists argue that parents pass on the values of their class to their children through primary socialisation. Mc values equip children for success, whereas WC values fail to do so
The Myth of Cultural Deprivation
- Why does Keddie say CD is a myth? - she sees it as a victim blaming explanation. She dismisses the idea that failure at school can be blamed on a culturally deprived home background. She points out that a child cannot be deprived of its own culture and argues that WC children are culturally different NOT culturally deprived
- Why do Troyna and Williams say CD is a myth? - they argue that the problem is not the child’s language but the schools attitude towards it. Teachers have a ‘speech hierarchy’, they label MC speech highest, followed by WC speech and finally black speech
LANGUAGE - evaluations
- Victim blaming exercise
- Schools are able to accommodate all kinds of language types
- Children are able to switch from RC to EC when needed
- No expectations of children all knowing EC
PARENTS - class/income/parental education
- Better paid, MC parents tend to be better educated than lower paid, WC parents
- Feinstein notes that parents education has an influence on children’s achievement in its own right, regardless of class or income
- Better educated parents tend to have children who are successful at school
- Compensatory education - programmes aim to tackle the problem of cultural deprivation by providing extra resources to schools and communities in deprived areas. They intervene early in the socialisation process to compensate children for the deprivation they experienced at home
