Education and Social Class Flashcards
What is intellectual stimulation?
Working class parents less likely to buy educational toys and read to their children which stimulate thinking and reasoning skills.
Affects intellectual development so are at a disadvantage.
Language
Bernstein
Working class use restricted code
Middle class use elaborated code
Teachers, exams, textbooks and university interviews use the elaborated code
Parents’ education
Feinstein
Parenting style - educated parents give more discipline and have higher expectations
Parents’ educational behaviour - educated parents more aware of how to progress
Language - communication between parent and child affects cognitive development
Use of income - educated parents spend more to promote development
Working class subculture
Immediate gratification
Fatalism - working class children do not believe they can improve their position through their own efforts
Low value on education - working class do not believe they will benefit from education so they don’t try
Material deprivation
Poor housing - overcrowding or cold and damp rooms means nowhere quiet to do homework. Homeless or living in temporary accommodation may mean frequent school changes.
Poor diet - can lead to illness, absences from school and lack of concentration due to hunger
Financial costs
Poorer families can’t afford much educational opportunities such as trips and private tuition
Children may be stigmatised or bullied for lacking the right uniform or latest fashion
Higher education - working class students more debt adverse, see more costs than benefits from Uni
Cultural capital theory
Bourdieu
Middle class pupils more successful than working class pupils because parents own more capital and assets
Economic capital - wealth middle class families own
Cultural capital - attitudes, values, skills and knowledge of the middle class
Educational capital - use of economic and cultural capital to get qualifications
Labelling
Becker
Teachers label middle class students as the ‘ideal pupil’ and prefer to teach them than working class
Self fulfilling prophecy
Teachers can create SFP’s through labels they attach to pupils
‘What teachers believe, pupils believe’
Streaming
‘Bright’ students formed together in top stream, ‘thick’ ones in the bottom
Lacey
‘Differentiation’ - separating sheep from goats and educating them differently
Lower streams may be denied access to same curriculum
Pupil subcultures
Pro school subcultures - students from higher streams, enjoy school and accepts rules, goals of hard work, regular attendance and respect to teachers
Anti school subcultures - students from lower streams, reject schools values, dislike school, avoid doing schoolwork and truant
Status and subcultures - lower stream pupils form or join anti school subculture because school deprived them of status by labelling them as failures. They create own status hierarchy by gaining status from peers by rejecting schools values and breaking its rules
Class identities and achievement
Habitus - social class’ habitual way of thinking being and acting. Middle class have power to define its habitus as superior and impose it on the education system
Symbolic capital and symbolic violence - schools commit this by devaluing working class pupils’ habitus: judging their clothing, accent, interests
‘Nike’ identities - symbolic violence leads to alternate class identities and gain symbolic capital from peers through consuming brand goods. Leads to conflict with the schools middle class habitus
‘Losing yourself’ - succeeding at schools means to be unauthentic; changing how you present yourself to fit in
Working class identity and educational success
Self exclusion from success - even successful working class girls struggle as felt their identity would not fit the habitus of elite universities
Educational policies
Marketisation policies have increased the amount of streaming in schools
Policies such as grants, fees, maintenance allowances, school leaving age have an impact on home background factors
