Differential achievement Flashcards
What is the trend for social class differences in achievement?
Children from WC backgrounds are more likely to achieve
What are the 4 social class external material factors?
Housing
Diet and Health
Finances
Fear of debt
What are the 3 social class cultural external factors?
Parental interest
Attitudes and values
Language
What are the 4 social class internal factors?
Labelling
Setting and streaming
Subcultures
Marketisation policies
What are the 4 marketisation policies?
A-C economy
Educational triage
Cream skimming
Silt shifting
What is material deprivation?
lacking the physical necessities of life
eg. housing
How can poor housing affect achievement? (4 ways)
Inadequate space to do homework
Overcrowding finding it hard to concentrate
Poor living conditions may cause illness and affect attendance
Sleep being affected
What is a criticism of poor housing affecting achievement?
Schools can help by giving them a quiet space to study
How can diet and health affect achievement?
Poorer families can’t afford good foods with vitamins that give them energy and weakens the immune system
Who is the theorist for diet and health causing differential achievement?
Howard
What does Wilkinson say about diet and health?
Children from poor homes often face behavioural problems and hyperactivity
What is a criticism of diet and health affecting differential achievement?
Schools can now provide free school meals to help with these problems
How can finances affect achievement?
The Wc can’t afford educational necessities such as books and computers
Hand me downs may lead to bullying
Can’t afford uniform or transport
Who are the theorists for finances affecting children achievement?
Bernsteing and Young
Tanner
What is a criticism of finances affecting differential achievement?
Bursary funding
Pupil premium
What is the theory for fear of debt affecting achievement?
WC are more likely to apply for local universities to save on finances by living at home
Who is the theorist for fear of debt affecting achievement?
Reay
What is a criticism for fear of debt affecting achievement?
Scholarships and hardship funds
What is cultural deprivation?
Lacking the right norms and values for educational success
Who is the theorist for parental interest?
Douglas
How does parental interest affect achievement?
Wc parents lack parental interest as they didn’t have have good experiences in school themselves
They don’t discuss their childrens progress and don’t encourage then to stay in school after minimum leaving age
What is a criticism of parental interest?
WC parents may have work shifts so cannot attend parents evenings
Show an interest at home
WC parents feel uncomfortable in an MC school environment
How do attitudes and values affect achievement?
MC and WC have different attitudes due to planning on what what they want to do in the future and not planning which lands people in manual jobs
Who is the theorist for attitudes and values affecting achievement?
Sugarman
What is deferred gratification?
When the MC plan what they are going to do in the future
What is immediate gratification?
Thinking about what you only have to do to succeed in the moment
Who is the theorist for speech codes?
Bernstein
Which speech code do the MC use?
elaborated code
Which speech code do the WC use?
restricted code
What is restricted code?
Short, grammatically simple, unfinished sentences
What is elaborated code?
Details, explanations, spells out relationships
What type of speech code is used in the education system and what does it mean?
Elaborated which means the MC overachieve and the WC can’t get the skills needed for educational success
What is a criticism of speech codes?
He only studied 2 boys so the small sample cannot be generalised about all children- not representative
What did Bernstein find in his research?
Two 5 year old boys given pictures and the MC was able to analyse objects
What did Hubbs Tait et al find about linguistic development?
When parents use language that challenges their children to evaluate understanding their cognitive performance improves
What did Feinstein find about linguistic development?
Educated families use language in the same way and praise more which encourages children to develop a sense of their own competence
What is a criticism of linguistic development?
Educational underachievement is most likely not due to language but schools attitude as teachers have speech hierarchy
What does Feinstein say about parents education?
Parents education has an affect on children achievement through how they are socialised
What are examples of MC parenting?
Discipline and high expectations
What are examples of WC parenting?
Harsh and inconsistent- cannot learn independence
What is a criticism of parents education having an affect on children education?
Compensatory education programmes which help the culturally deprived by helping them to improve their skills, values and attitudes needed for educational success
eg. Sure start
What is cultural capital?
Knowledge, attitudes and values, abilities in the MC that can be exchanged for educational success
What two factors contribute to educational achievement? (cultural capital)
Material and cultural as they are interrelated
What is an example of the MC having economic capital?
Afford to send their child to private school and pay for tutoring
What is the equation for cultural capital?
Economic + cultural = educational success
What is the criticism for cultural capital?
Keddie- cultural deprivation is a myth and sees it as victim blaming as the WC just have different cultural values and aren’t deprived
Disadvantaged as education system is dominated by MC values
What are the 7 in school factors for class being a factor in educational achievement?
Labelling
Setting and streaming
Subcultures
Marketisation policies
A-C economy and educational triage
Competition and selection
Who are the 3 theorists for labelling class affecting educational achievement?
Becker
Hempel-Jorgensen
Rosenthal and Jacobson
What did Beckers study say about labelling and class in education?
Interviewed 60 teachers to find what is the ‘ideal pupil’ which was students from non-manual backgrounds (MC) and the WC furthest from it
What did Hempel-Jorgensen study say about labelling and class in education?
Two English primary schools
Teachers have different opinions of the ideas pupil
WC primary school- discipline problem and ideal pupil was quiet, passive and obedient
MC primary school- behaviour not an issue and ideal pupil defined by personality and academic ability
What did Rosenthal and Jacobsons study say about labelling and class in education?
Tested for IQ
Informed teacher 20% were ‘sputters’ which would show rapid intellectual growth even if they weren’t the most able and after being re-tested they showed greater gains for being labelled as spurters
Teachers expectations can affect pupils performance
In Rosenthal and Jacobsons study, how did teachers treat the spurters?
Teachers manners, facial expressions which produced a self fulfilling prophecy
What is a criticism of labelling affecting educational achievement?
Fuller- not everyone accepts the label
She studied Black girls who resisted their negative label and studied to be successful and prove teachers wrong
Who is the theorist for setting and streaming for class?
Ball
What did Ball study? (setting and streaming)
Comprehensive school where students were placed in 3 bands based on information from primary schools
What were the different bands that Ball found in schools?
First band- most able (hardworking)
Band 2- hardest to teach and least cooperative (more absences and homework rare)
Third band- least able (troublesome- WC= more disadvantaged)
What did Ball find in his study?
Non- academic factors were used to band pupils for example those whose fathers were non manual workers
How did teacher expectations have an impact on Balls study?
Bands were taught differently and encouraged to follow different paths
What did Douglas find about setting and streaming?
Those placed in lower streams suffered a decline in their IQ and higher increased IQ
MC seen as ideal students as their positive self concepts so improves achievements
What is a criticism of setting and streaming?
Schools no longer set people based on their fathers occupation
What are pupil subcultures?
Pupils of similar values and behaviour patterns that emerge as a response to the way pupil have been labelled and a reaction to streaming
What 2 types of subcultures are there?
Pro school
Anti school
Who are the theorists for subcultures?
Lacey
Willis
What does Lacey say about subcultures?
Differentiation and polarisation are how they are formed
What is differentiation?
Teachers categorising pupils according to perceived ability eg.streaming
What is polarisation?
Pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite ‘poles’ or extremes
What did Willis include in his study?
Used group interviews and non-participant observation to find the perspective of 12 WC’s boys experiences of education
What did Willis’ study find about subcultures?
Boys known as ‘the lads’ who were in an anti-school subulture which mean they shared negative attitudes towards school
What did the lads do in their subculture?
Looked down on other pupils
Didn’t attend lessons and did little work (had a laugh)
Smoking drinking and not wearing uniform correctly
Little interest in work or gaining qualifications
Rejected authority
Racist and sexist
What did ‘the lads’ subculture prepare them for?
Manual jobs that capitalism needed to fill meaning that they will be exploited
What is a criticism on Willis’ study?
Small sample size and not big enough to generalise with most WC students
What are Marketisation policies?
Policies that have created competition between schools
What do marketisation policies do for the WC and MC?
MC students are seen as more desirable and achieve better exam results
WC students are seen as a ‘liability’ that are barriers to efforts by schools to climb league tables
What do marketisation policies do for schools?
Schools that are oversubscribed are unlikely to select WC students
What does Gillborn and Youdell say about streaming and the A-C economy?
The schools are ranked according to its exam performance and this attracts pupils and funding (league tables)
What is the A-C economy?
They focus their time, effort and resources on pupils seen as having the potential to achieve 5 grade C’s as this will improve overall performance as teachers don’t have all time they focus on MC as they are seen as having potential
What is educational triage?
Pupils are categorised into 3 types and receive extra help, resources and support and WC are seen as hopeless cases meaning they are doomed to fail
What does competition and selection mean?
Less popular schools take the less able students making them even more unpopular due to their low table position which has created class segregation between schools
What does Bartlett sat about marketisation?
Marketisation leads to popular schools cream skimming and silt shifting
What is cream skimming?
Selecting higher ability pupils who cost less to teach
What is silt shifting?
Off load pupils with learning difficulties who are expensive to teach
What are selective schools?
Schools that sit entrance exams which makes it harder for WC pupils to attend the school and the best performing schools enrolled the most talented pupils
What are the 4 out of school factors for gender differences in achievement?
The impact of feminism
Changes in the family
Changes in women employment
Changes in ambitions
What are the 5 in school factors for gender differences in achievement?
Equal opportunities policies
Positive role models
GCSE and Coursework
Teacher interactions
Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum
What was McRobbies study about?
She compared Magazines in the 1970s and 1990s
What did McRobbies study find out?
Feminism changed the stereotypes of women roles and raised expectations and in 1970 women wanted the traditional housewife role and getting married where in 1990 they emphasised career and independence
What is a criticism of McRobbies study?
Full equality has not yet been achieved
Girls have better exam results but are less likely to get the top jobs due to the patriarchy
What are the 3 major changes in the family in the past 30 years?
Increase in divorce rates
Increase in cohabitation
Increase in female headed lone parent families
How do changes in the family impact education?
Changes girls attitudes and creates a financially independent career minded role model for girls
eg. increase female headed lone parent families mean women need to take on the major income earner role
What is a criticism of changes in the family impacting education?
Most people still aspire to form a traditional nuclear family and live in one for some part of our childhoods which undermines the explanations importance