Cultural deprivation Flashcards
Intro
what happens to disadvantage children when starting school?
-most children from disadvantaged backgrounds are already up to one year behind those from a more priveleged background
-sociologists believe this is due to ‘cultural deprivation’
Intro
cultural equipment
it is due to use acquiring the basic skills, attitudes and values needed for educational success form the primary socialization of family- known as ‘cultural equipment’
Intro
culturally deprived
working class families fail to socialize children properly and they grow up ‘culturally deprived’- meaning a lack of cultural equipment
intro
victim blaming
this theory has been criticised as it is seen as victim blaming parents for children’s failures instead of blaming poverty or poor schools
The working-class sub-culture: Suggarman
-the working class subculture is a reason W/C children fail at school
-states that the W/c subculture has 4 key barriers to education:
fatalism- the belief in fate, ‘whatever will be, will be’, therefore nothing you do can change your status
collectivism- valuing being part of a group more than succeeding as an individual
immediate gratification- seeking pleasures now instead of making sacrifices to benefit you in the long run
present-time orientation- seeing the present as more valuable than the future, not having long-term plans/goals
believed that W/c parents passed down these values onto their children through primary socialization, children internalised them and this causes failure
why do differences occur?
M/c jobs offer prospects for continuous individual achievement, how?
-secure jobs- this encourages ambition and long term planning, willingness to invest time and effort to gain qualifications
W/c jobs:
-no career structure, less secure, few promotion opportunities
Language:
ways in which parents communicate with their children, affects their cognitive development
Hubbs tait et al and Leon Feinstein
- when parents who use language that challenges children to evaluate their own understanding, their cog dev improves
- more highly qualified parents (who are likely to be m/c) use language like this and praise children, which makes them develop their own sense of competence- this contrasts with w/c parents as they use language that only requires children to make simple descriptive statements- low performance
language of w/c parents is ‘defficient’, result?
-fail to develop necess
the early socialization into the EC means m/c students are already fluent users of this code when starting school- makes them feel more at home, more likely to succeed
w/c students are lacking in the EC meaning they feel more excluded and are less likely to be successful
- exaggerates the difference between classes e.g. Gaine and George criticised bernstein for oversimplifying the differences between w/c and m/c speech patterns—-> they have probably reduced further since conducting research
-w/c parents place less value on education, how?
-less ambitious for their children
-give less encouragment
-take less interest in education
-visit schools less often
-less likely to discuss child’s progress with teachers
children have low levels of motivation and achievement
parents involvement in child’s education/schooling was the single most important factor affecting achievement
argues parents education was the most important factor that affected a childs achievement - so since m/c parents have higher qualifications, they are able to give children an advantage by how they socialise them
parents with HQ emphasise consistant
discipline/higher expectations of their children and this supports their achievement by encouraging active learning/exploration
-this contrasts with parents of FQ, likely to apply harsh or inconsistant discipline that emphasised ‘doing as you are told’/’behaving yourself’- this prevents a child from learning indepenendance and self-control- leading to poor motivation at school and problems interacting with teachers
parents with HQ are more aware of what is needed to assist their childs educational progress- results?- they engage in behaviour such as ‘reading to children, teaching them letters, numbers, songs, nursery rhymes, painting and drawing, helping with homework and being actively involved in their schooling’
parents with HQ have high income and spend it in ways that will benefit/promote child’s success
Bernstein and Young- m/c mothers are more likely to but educational toys, books etc, that stimulate intellectual dev. w/c parents are more likely to lack these resources- children might start school without skills needed to progress
better paid m/c parents have HQ than lower paid w/c parents—>feinstein states that regardless of class or income, parents education has an influence on childrens achievement in its own rights
within a given social class, the more HQ the likely the child is to succ
aims to tackle CD:
-provides extra resources to schools/communities in deprived areas
-intervene early in socialization process which compensates children for deprivation experienced at home
-this can include programs to prove parenting skills
-setting up nursery classes or raising students aspirations to go to uni
-operation head start (1960s)
-educational priority areas (1967)
-educat
CE had little impact due to fewer resources allocated to them, examples?:
-EPA only accounted for 0.2% of educational spending
Diane reay (2017)- programmes assume w/c children fail due to a lack of aspiration- true cause is the poverty/lack of resources
victim blaming- CDT deficit view as it blames children for their own failure for lacking the cultural qualities needed for educational success- however it ignores the inequalities built into the educational system and wider society which are to blame for underachievement
different not deprived- Nell Keddie (1973) points out that one cannot be deprived of their own culture. w/c children are simply culturally different not culturally deprived- failure is due to the disadvantages they face by an education system dominated by m/c values. rather than seeing them as deficient, schools should recognise and build on its strengths and challenges anti-w/c prejudice
labelling- idea of CD itself contributes to the underachievement- acting as a negative label teachers can apply to w/c fam and this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that leads to failure fo those labelled CD
**parental interest- **Evans (2006) most want their children to do well in school as they know it will lead them to a better job
Blackstone and Mortimore (1994) w/c parents attend fewer parents evenings not because they lack interest but because they work irregular hours
