Education - Class & achievement Flashcards
What is the assumption about class and educational achievement? What are the external factors?
M/c children do better in education than w/c children.
External factors = factors outside the education system which influences the achievement of pupils (family, home and wider society) = includes: material deprivation, cultural deprivation, cultural capital
Explain material deprivation (external factors)
=refers to living in poverty and lacking basic necessities (housing, income)
1) Housing = w/c living in Overcrowded houses (no space to study, lack of sleep, prevents learning) ;
Temporary accommodation due to recession (move homes, feelings of insecurity, depression, stressful);
Cold/damp living conditions (lack of money, illness leads to absence at school, difficult to catch up with work)
2) Health = Howard says poor families have lack of money (children lack vitamins/minerals as healthy food is expensive, can’t afford it, low energy, become ill, miss school)
Emotional problems = Wilkinson = w/c children suffer stress & anxiety, anger issues at school, exclusion from school)
3) Finances = w/c lack money for resources (no access to books, internet, revision guides, underachieve, so they take on part-time jobs which reduces time to study)
Explain cultural deprivation (external factors)
= lack of values, skills, attitudes & knowledge needed for educational success (w/c) = children learn from primary socialisation = some w/c parents fail to socialise children into mainstream culture’s norms so they lack skills
1) Intellectual Development: reasoning & thinking skills = Douglas says w/c parents cannot afford toys that encourage these skills (e.g puzzles) = m/c parents develop their children’s intellect by reading to them and provide toys and activities so they start school with skills
2) Language: Bernstein says there’s 2 different speech codes = w/c use ‘Restricted code’: limited vocab, simple short sentences, context banned - the speaker assumes the listener is familiar with the topic = m/c use ‘Elaborated code’: wide vocab, long grammatically correct sentences, context free - the speaker assumes the listener is not familiar with the topic so they explain in detail = elaborated is used by teachers, books, exams = w/c are at a disadvantage = m/c are socialised into using the elaborated code = white people don’t value education as much as e/m
3) Attitudes and Values: Sugarman says w/c have different subcultural values compared to m/c : Fatalism (belief in faith, have no control over their life), Collectivism (family and friends are more important that success), Immediate gratification (seek rewards now than working for long-term rewards), Present time orientation (living for today)
What are the criticisms for cultural deprivation?
- Compensatory education = a gov policy that tackles the problem of cultural deprivation by providing extra resources to schools & communities in deprived areas = it aims to compensate w/c children for their lack of knowledge and skills for success (example: UK, 1960s, gov set up ‘Education Priority Areas’ as part of Head Start = recently, there are ‘Education Action Zones’ and ‘Sure Start’ helps to work with parents to promote physical, intellectual & social development of children
- Myth of Cultural Deprivation = Keddie says it’s a myth as w/c children are ‘culturally different’ not deprived = schools should stop seeing w/c culture as deficient and should build on its strength and challenge teachers’ prejudice against the w/c = also, Bernstein can be criticise as he implies that the restricted code is inferior to the elaborated code
Explain cultural capital (external factors)
= refers to having values, knowledge, skills, language, attitudes for educational success
- Bourdieu says m/c parents pass this through ‘Cultural Reproduction’ (read stories, take trips to galleries) = education system promotes m/c value & m/c children have an advantage in education as they are highly valued and rewarded = m/c parents have knowledge about top school league tables for the best schools, know how to appeal to get children into the school by being friends with m/c headteacher = but w/c lack cultural capital leading to failure
- Economic Capital = material wealth which m/c families have with their high income jobs = buy resources needed for school, buy houses near high-achieving schools in m/c areas & get children into schools
- Educational Capital = educational qualifications which m/c parents have by going to uni and give advice to children and teach them = combines cultural, economic, educational capital = gives children advantage = one capital leads to another capital (e.g m/c children use cultural capital to do well in exams which creates educational capital)
- Gewirtz studied how parents use their capitals to select schools = she provided evidence for Bernstein’s cultural capital theory = interviewed teachers & parents in 14 London schools:
1) Privileged- skilled choosers: m/c parents use all 3 capitals to gain educational capital for their children; they have cultural capital to know how the education system works and how to apply for the best schools; they have economic capital to afford travel cost and move to the catchment area of good schools
2) Disconnected-local choosers = w/c lack all 3 capitals which limits their choices; unfamiliar with applying to good schools & pay more attention to how the schools looks, giving a false impression; can’t afford costs; children go to local schools
3) Semi-skilled choosers: w/c with high ambitions for their children but lack all 3 capitals so find it difficult to understand how the education system works so they rely on other’s opinions about schools when making their choice; class determines what school the child goes to
What is the Labelling Theory? What are internal factors?
=attaching meanings/judgements to individuals or groups = based on stereotypes about the person’s social class, gender and ethnicity
= internal factors are within schools which influence educational achievement
-Interactionism is a sociological perspective which developed the labelling theory = studies interactions between individuals, how they label each other & how the labels affect their behaviour
Who are the interactionists and what do they say on how processes in school affect educational achievement?
-Becker = interviewed 60 American high school teachers = teachers label based on their class background and have an image of an ‘ideal pupil’, judging them on how close their fit to this ideal = m/c seen as the closest but w/c seen as far from the ideal, being negative = teacher sees a one-off incident and sees them as an angel ‘halo effect’ = criticism: British studies by Hempel-Jorgenson found that teachers in w/c schools judge behaviour instead of class so they have different ideals of the pupil
