Class Differences in Achievement External Factors Flashcards
What are External Factors?
Factors outside the education System
What is Cultural Deprivation?
Lacking the values, attitudes and skills needed for educational success from primary socialisation
What are the three external factors that affect pupil’s educational achievement?
Cultural Deprivation, Material Deprivation, Cultural Capital
What are the main aspects of Cultural Deprivation?
Language, Parents’ education, Working-class subculture
What do Cultural Deprivation theorists believe?
Many working-class families fail to socialise their children adequately, so grow up cultural deprived, leads to underachievement
What is language?
The way parents communicate with their children, how it affects intellectual development
Hubbs-tait et al (2002)
Found that where parents use language that challenge their children to evaluate their own understanding or abilities, eg. what do you think?
Feinstein (2008)
Found that educated parents are more likely to use challenging language and more likely to use praise
Bereiter & Engelmann (1996)
-Language used in lower-class homes is deficient
-communicate with gestures, single words, disjointed phrases.
-Children fail to develop necessary language skills
-grow up incapable of abstract thinking
- unable to take advantage of opportunities school offers
What are speech codes?
Different ways people communicate
Bernstein (1975)
Differences between WC and MC language that influences achievement.
Two types:
- Restricted Code
- Elaborated
What is the restricted code?
- WC
- Limited vocab
- Short, grammatically simple sentences
What is the elaborated code?
-MC
- Wider Vocab
- Grammatically more complex sentences
What is the significance about the differences in speech codes between classes?
- MC advantage, elaborated code used by teachers, textbooks, exams
- WC disadvantage
What does early socialisation into the elaborated code mean for MC children?
- Already fluent users of code when start school
- Feel more at home, more likely to succeed
What does the elaborated code mean for WC children?
- Lack code
- Feel excluded less successful
What is Parents’ Education?
The way in which parents’ academic ability and attitudes with their children affect their achievement
Douglas (1964)
- WC parents placed less value on education
- Less ambitious for their children
- Gave them less encouragement took less interested, visited schools less often
- Children had lower levels of motivation, led to underachievement
Feinstein (2008) Parents’ Education
- Parents’ Education most important factor
- MC parents better educated, give their child an advantage
Difference in Parenting Style
- Educated parents emphasise consistent disciple and high expectations, supports achievement encourages active learning
- Less educated parents include harsh inconsistent disciple, prevents child from learning independence, self control leads to poorer motivation, problems interacting with teachers
What are Parents’ Educational Behaviours?
- Educated parents more aware of what is needed to assist their children’s educational progress.
- Success in maintaining good relationships with teachers, value educational activities eg. museums , libraries
What is use of income?
-Better educated parents have higher incomes
- spend to promote their children’s educational success
- Better understanding of nutrition and its importance in childs development .
Bernstein & Young (1967) Use of Income
- MC mothers more likely to buy educational toys, books , activities , that encourage reasoning skills
- WC homes lack these resources means children from these homes start school without skills needed to progress
Feinstein ; Class, income & Parental Education
- Parents Education has an influence on children’s achievement regardless of class or income
- better educated = more successful, explains why not all WC children do equally badly and not all MC families are successful
What is a Subculture?
A group whose attitude and values differ from those of the mainstream culture
Sugarman (1970)
- Large section of WC have different goals, beliefs attitudes and values from rest of society
- Four key features that act as a barrier to educational achievement
What is Fatalism?
- Belief in fate
- ‘whatever will be, will be’
- nothing you do can change your status
- you can change your position through your own efforts
What is collectivism?
- Valuing being part of a group more than succeeding as an individual
- Individual should not be held back by group loyalties
What is immediate gratification?
- Seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices in order to get rewards in the future
What is present-time orientation?
- Present more important than future, so no long term goals or plans
Why do the differences in values exist?
- Sugarman argues they stem from the fact that MC jobs are secure
- Encourages ambition, longterm planning and willing to invest time and effort into gaining qualifications
What is Compensatory Education?
Programmes that aim to tackle the problem of cultural deprivation by providing extra resources to schools communities in deprived areas
Example of Compensatory Education.
Operation Head start in the US
- Aimed to ‘plan enrichment of the deprived children’s environment to develop skills
What is the myth of cultural deprivation?
Widely criticised as an explanation of class differences in achievement
Nell Keddie (1973) Cultural Deprivation
- Myth as sees out as a victim blaming explanation.
- Dismisses idea that failure at school can be blamed on culturally deprived backgrounds
- WC children aren’t culturally different, not deprived
- Fail because they are but at disadvantage by education system that is dominated by middle class values
Barry Troyna & Jenny Williams (1986)
- argue not the childs language that is the problem but is the schools attitude towards it
- Teachers have a ‘speech hierachy’
- They label MC speech highest , WC and then black speech
Tessa Blacstone & Jo Mortimore (1994)
- WC attend few parents evening, bc they work longer or less regular hours, put off by schools MC atmosphere
- May want to help their child progress, but lack the knowledge and education for that
What is material Deprivation?
Poverty and a lack of material necessities such as adequate housing and income
What are the main aspects of Material Deprivation?
Housing , Diet and Health, Fear of Debt & Financial support and the cost of education
Statistics
Nearly 90% of ‘failing’ schools” are located in deprived areas
What are the problems with housing?
- Overcrowing can make it harder for the child to study, less room for educational activities, nowhere to do homework, disturbed sleep from sharing rooms
- development can be impaired due to lack of space for exploration
- Temporary accommodation move frequently results in moving schools , disrupting education
- Cold or damp housing can cause ill health, so more absence off school
Howard (2001) Diet and Health
- lower intakes of energy, vitamins & minerals, weakens the immune system, lowers energy levels
- results in absence from school and not concentrating in class
Wilkinson (1996) Diet & Health
- Poorer homes, more likely to have emotional or behavioural problems
Blanden & Manchin (2007) Diet & Health
- Children from low income families more likely to engage in externalising behaviour such as fighting and temper tantrums, which disrupt school
What did sure smart do?
- Worked with parents to promote physical, intellectual and social development of the disadvantaged children, so they can break the cycle of disadvantage
- improved children’s ability to learn by encouraging high quality environments
What does financial supports & the cost of education do?
- Lack of financial support means children from poorer families have no equipment , miss out on experiences that would enhance their educational achievement
Bull (1980) Financial support & the cost of education
Lack of financial support as the cost of free schooling
Tanner et al (2003) Financial support & the cost of education
- Study in oxford area found that cost of items such as transport, uniform, books etc place heavy burden on poor families
- Means children have to make do with hand-me downs and cheaper equipment
- result in bullying from peers
Flaherty
Fear of stigmatisation explains why 20% of those eligible for Free school meals do not take up their entitlememt
Smith & Noble (1995)
Poverty acts as a barrier to learning in other ways such as inability to afford tuiton
Ridge
- Lack of funds means that children from low-income families often need to work
- Children in poverty take on jobs such as babysitting and cleaning , negative impact on their school work
What is the fear of debt?
- University involves getting into debt to cover cost of tuition fees and living expenses
- attitudes towards debt deter WC students from going to Uni
Callender & Jackson (2005)
- WC saw debt negatively, something to be avoided, saw more costs than benefits in going Uni
- Attitudes to debt was more important in deciding whether to apply to Uni
Reay (2005)
- WC students more likely to apply to local Uni’s, so could live at home and save on travel costs
- Gave them less opportunity to the highest status uni’s
- more likely to work part-time to fund their studies more difficult for them to gain higher- class degrees
What is Cultural Capital?
- The knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities, that MC transmit to their children
- gives an advantage
- More likely to develop intellectual interest and understanding of the education system
- Gives MC advantage in school where these abilities and interests are valued and rewarded with qualifications
What were Bourdieu (1984)’s 3 types of capital?
Economic
Educational
Cultural;
What is Educational and Economic Capital?
- Bourdieu argues all 3 capitals can be converted to one
- MC children with cultural capital are better equipped to gain qualifications
- Wealthy parents can convert their economic capital into educational by sending their children to private schools
Sullivan (2001)
- Used questionnaires to conduct a survey of pupils in 4 schools
- Assessed their cultural capital
- Found those who read complex fiction developed wider vocab and greater cultural knowledge which resulted in greater cultural capital
