Education: How Does Social Class Affect Educational Experience?

Question 1

What are the home factors?

Answer 1

Material Deprivation:
Lack of resources/Poor diet/Poor housing
Cultural Deprivation:
Lower aspirations/Lack of motivation/Lack of cultural capital/Language differences

Question 2

What are school factors:

Answer 2

Labelling
Self-fulfilling prophecy 
Streaming/Setting
Subcultures
Curriculum

Question 3

What is the key evidence?

Answer 3

• Children who have free school meals are less likely to reach their expected targets
• Social class remains the largest factor in determining different results

Question 4

How does marketisation affect education experiences?

Answer 4

Increases gap between working and middle class

Question 5

What does sociologist Barry Sugarman claim?

Answer 5

He claims that the working class has a particular culture that compresses four characteristics that prevent children from doing well in education:

• Collectivism - social group is more important than school
• Present time orientation - focuses on the immediate situation
• Fatalism - belief that it is not worth working hard when it is likely you will fail anyway
• Immediate Gratification - wanting to have fun straight away, rather than work

Question 6

What are Bernstein’s language codes?

Answer 6

Elaborated speech: associated with the m/c, where sentences are more complex, with correct grammar, and meaning is context free.
Restricted speech: associated with the w/c, where sentences are simple, with a limited vocabulary, and is context bound.

Question 7

What is Lacey’s process of differentiation?

Answer 7

1) Teachers begin to differentiate between high and low achievers
2) Polarisation begins whereby students gravitate towards higher of lower outcomes
3) High achievers end up forming pro-school subcultures, and low achievers end up forming anti-school subcultures