Class differences in achievement (EXTERNAL) Flashcards
Hubbs-Tait et al
Found that where parents use language that challenges their children to evaluate their own understanding or abilities, cognitive performance improves.
Feinstein
Found that educated parents were more likely to use language that challenged their children.
Argues that parents’ own education is the most important factor affecting children’s achievement.
Bereiter and Engelmann
Claim that the language used in lower class homes is deficient. They describe lower class families as communicating by gestures, single words or disjointed phrases.
Bernstein
Identifies differences between working class and middle class language that influence achievement; restricted code and elaborated code
Douglas
Found that working class parents placed less value on education. As a result, they were less ambitious for their children, gave less encouragement and took less interest in their education. Visited schools less often.
Bernstein and Young
Found middle class mothers are more likely to buy educational toys, books and activities that encourage reasoning skills and stimulate intellectual development.
Sugarman
Argues that working class subculture has four key features that act as a barrier to educational achievement: fatalism, collectivism, immediate gratification, present-time orientation.
Keddie
Describes cultural deprivation as a myth and sees it as a victim blaming explanation. Culturally different not culturally deprived.
Troyna and Williams
Argues that the problem is not the child’s language but the school’s attitude towards it.
Blackstone and Mortimore
Working class parents attend fewer parents’ evenings, not because of lack of interest, but because they work longer or less regular hours or are put off by the school’s middle-class atmosphere.
Howard
Notes that young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals which affects health by weakening the immune system and lowering children’s energy levels. = more absences
Wilkinson
Among ten year olds, the lower the social class, the higher the rate of hyperactivity, anxiety and conduct disorders all of which are likely to have a negative effect on the child’s education.
Blanden and Machin
Found that children from low income families were more likely to engage in externalising behaviour (such as fighting and temper tantrums), which are likely to disrupt their schooling.
Bull
“costs of free schooling” where students lack financial support and have to do without equipment and miss out on experiences that would enhance their educational achievement.
Tanner et al
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
Add that poverty acts as a barrier to learning in other ways, such as inability to afford private schooling or tuition, and poorer quality local schools.
Callender and Jackson
Found that working class students are more debt averse - they saw debt negatively, as something to be avoided. They also saw more costs than benefits of going to university.
Reay
Found that working class students were more likely to apply to local universities so they could live at home and save on ravel costs, but that this gave them less opportunity to go to the highest status universities. They were also more likely to work part time to fund their studies, making it more difficult for them to fain higher class degrees.
Robinson
Argues that tackling child poverty would be the most effective way to boost achievement as material inequalities have the greatest effect on achievement.
Bourdieu
Three types of capital: cultural and material factors are interrelated.
- educational capital
- economic capital
- cultural capital
Leech and Campos
Study of Coventry shows, middle class parents are also more likely to be able to afford a house in the catchment area of a school that is highly placed in the exam league tables. This has become known as selection by mortgage because it drives up the cost of houses near to successful schools and excludes working class families.
Sullivan
Used questionnaires to conduct a survey of pupils in four schools. Asked them about a range of activities, such as reading and TV viewing habits and whether they visited museums and theaters. Tested their vocabulary and knowledge of cultural figures.
