Differential Achievement - Class Flashcards
Define the term class
Class can be defined as a way of dividing groups in society by their socio-economic status and it can be generally measured by occupation and income.
Patterns of wc in education
- less likely to be in nursery
- more likely to fall behind in numeracy and literacy
- more likely in lower sets
- more likely to leave school at 16 in the past
- less likely to be found in higher education
External factors that affect achievement - maternal deprivation + research
Maternal deprivation - lack of money, economic capital and poverty could be why wc do worse in education
Cant afford private education
Cannot afford educational resources (ONS 2013) found in Britain poorest households, 29% no computer and 36% no internet compared to 99% in richest
Poor overcrowded housing (Waldfogel and Washbrook)
Poor diet (Howard)
Hidden cost of free education (Tanner)
EVALUATION of maternal deprivation theory as an external factor that affects class and achievement
STRENGTHS
- highly influential in developing compensatory education initiatives
WEAKNESSES
- having money or lack of does not always influence academic achievement
- doesnt take into account cultural factors
- schemes like Sure Start and EAZ havent worked so suggest other factors
External factors that affect achievement - cultural deprivation - linguistic deprivation
Cultural deprivation - idea wc do not have the language or values needed to do well in education
Linguistic deprivation - Bernstein believed there were differences in wc and mc language and this influences achievement.
WC speak in restricted code - shorthand speech, short sentences, gestures and slang
MC speak in elaborated code - full sentences, wider vocab
Education requires elaborated code so MC at advantage.
EVALUATION of cultural deprivation and linguistic deprivation as an external factor affecting class and achievement
STRENGTHS
- takes into account cultural factors
- empirical evidence
WEAKNESSES
- Out of date - differencesin speech patterns have declined
- small unrepresentative sample - cant generalise
External factors that affect achievement - cultural deprivation - values and attitudes (parental interest and wc subculture)
Parental interest - Douglas suggests mc parents more likely to visit schools and encourage them to stay on. wc demonstrated little interest in childrens education, Measured by teachers opinions and how often they visit.
Working class subculture - Sugarman says WC have a subculture made up of characteristics like fatalistic, collectivistic, present time orientated and immeditae gratification which is why they fail. Measured with questionnaire and interviews.
EVALUATION - cultural deprivation theory
STRENGTHS
- highly influential
- explains why some people materially deprived succeed because they may not be culturally deprived
WEAKNESSES
- myth of cultural deprivation
- wc people are interested in childs education
- internal factors may explain
Cultural capital - Bourdieu
Cultural capital - refers to the knowledge, attitudes, values and tastes of the MC. Education and qualifications are based on MC culture so they are placed at an advantage in education as they have already being socialised into the culture of education.
EVALUATION of cultural capital
STRENGTHS
- Bourdieu takes a positive view of WC
- evidence that mc use cultural capital to get their children into best schools (Gerwirtz)
WEAKNESSES
- cultural capital is a weakly defined concept
- ignores factors inside the classroom
Internal factors that affect achievement - labelling theory with research
internal - interactions that take place in the classroom
Labelling theory (interactionism) - Rosenthal and Jacobson carried out IQ tests and gave the names of 20% of them saying that these spurters would make progress and when restested they did due to self fulfilling prophecy and label of spurter nad encouragement from teachers
A label is to attach a stereotype to an individual - negative or positive.
Further evidence from Becker ( ideal student), Rist (tigers and clowns) and Dunne (wc parents labelled as uninterested in childs education)
Internal factors that affect achievement - Setting and Streaming + educational triage
WC fail because they are placed into lower sets so the only way they can gain status is by engaging in anti school activities.
Gilbourn and Youdel found schools are only interested in students passing at GCSE and carry out an educational triage. Students are sorted into those who will pass anyway, those with potential and the hopeless who are placed into lower sets and placed at lower tier for GCSE which denies chance to achieve
Internal factors that affect achievement - anti school subcultures
Lacey said students are classed on ability so this causes polarisation where pupils move to one of two extremes. pro school subculture in top set and anti school subculture in bottom set. - eg Willis the lads study.
EVALUATION of labelling theory and anti school subcultures
STRENGTHS
- takes into account in school factors
- less deterministic in ways
WEAKNESSES
- doesnt explain why we stereotype
- ignores outside of school factors
- Hempel sayus wc actually recieve positive labels often as they are more obedient and quiet
School policies - cream skim and silt shift
cream skim - select high ability MC pupils who do well and are cheap to teach
silt shift - offload WC pupils who tent to fail and cost more
as a result of marketisation
