Education: Social class

Question 1

What are external factors?

Answer 1

Factors outside of school
-Materials
-Culture

Question 2

What are internal factors?

Answer 2

Factors within the school

Question 3

Material deprivation

Answer 3

Lack of financial resources and physical necessities that are crucial for educational success

Question 4

Examples of material factors

Answer 4

-Housing conditions
-Diet and health
-Access to educational resources
-Financial stress
-Fear of debt

Question 5

Evidence that poor housing conditions affect attainment?

Answer 5

-Smith and Noble(1995):
Highlight how poor housing conditions can lead to frequent illness, affecting school attendance and performance

-Waldfogel and Washbrook (2010):
Suggest that overcrowded and poorly maintained homes contribute to difficulties in studying at home

Question 6

Evidence that diet and health affect attainment?

Answer 6

-Howard (2001):
Found that children from poorer homes are more likely to have poor nutrition, leading to low energy and more absences form school due to illness

Question 7

Evidence that access to educational resources affect attainment?

Answer 7

-Douglas (1964):
Middle class children have more access to educational resources at home, contributing to their higher achievement

-Bernstein and Young (1967):
Middle class parents are more like to buy educational toys and books and activities that stimulate intellectual development, giving the child an early advantage

Question 8

Evidence that financial stress can affect attainment?

Answer 8

-Ridge (2002):
Financial stress can lead to students taking on part time work, which often negatively impacts their academic performance due to time constraints and fatigue

Question 9

Evidence that fear of debt can affect attainment

Answer 9

-Callander and Jackson (2005)
Working class students are more debt-averse and see more costs than benefits in higher education making them less likely to apply to university

Question 10

Criticisms of material factors

Answer 10

-Although they do influence attainment, their exact impact is difficult to determine because they are often closely linked with cultural factors so it is challenging to isolate the effects of material deprivation alone

-Material factors have different impacts on different social groups.
For example, Indians and Chinese. The difference in achievement between those who recieve school meals and those who don’t is very slim compared to the white population. This suggests that some groups can overcome deprivation more effectively, possibly due to higher community expectations.

Question 11

Cultural deprivation

Answer 11

a person has inferior norms, values, skills and knowledge.

Question 12

Future orientation

Answer 12

Planning for the future

Question 13

Deferred gratification

Answer 13

Putting off today’s pleasures for future gain

Question 14

Present-time orientation

Answer 14

A lack of emphasis on long term goals and future planning

Question 15

Immediate gratification

Answer 15

Getting pleasures now, rather than putting them off for the future

Question 16

Fatalism

Answer 16

Not seeing the point in working hard

Question 17

What did Sugarman say about the different values and attitudes of classes and how they impact achievement?

Answer 17

-Different values and attitudes of the middle class and working class influence their educational progress

-Middle Class: The promise of a good career through effort and qualifications leads to a future orientation and deferred gratification . Individual effort and intelligence = key to educational success

-Working Class: WC jobs do not require educational qualifications as much as MC jobs. The lack of promotion opportunities leads to present time orientation, immediate gratification and fatalism.

Question 18

Strength and criticism of Sugarman’s work on values of different classes

Answer 18

-Despite his work being very old, Perry and Francis’s 2010 review identifies evidence that similar attitudes and values are still found today and have an impact on aspirations and achievement

-Critics argue that this perspective unfairly blames working class culture for underachievement without considering systematic issues within the education system or recognising the strengths in working class culture

Question 19

What did Douglas find out about working class parents attitudes to education?

Answer 19

-Placed less value on education
-Less ambitious for their children and gave less encouragement
-Took less interest in educational progress e.g not going to parents evenings

-As a result, their children had lower levels of motivation and achievement

Question 20

What did Douglas find out about Middle class parents attitudes towards education?

Answer 20

-Visited schools more often
-More likely to discus their children’s progress with their teachers

Question 21

What did Feinstein say about middle class parents attitudes towards education?

Answer 21

-Feinstein argues that parents own education is the most important factor in affecting achievement and since middle class parents tend to be better educated they are able to give their children an advantage by how they socialise them:

-Their parenting style tends to consist on high disciple and expectations of their children, which encourages active learning and exploration
-Educated so are more aware of how to assist their child’s progress. For example, they are more likely to read to them, paint, teach letters and numbers and help with homework
-They tend to use their income on things that promote educational success e.g toys, books that stimulate intellectual development and private school and tutors

Question 22

Who said middle class mothers were more likely to buy their children educational toys, books and activities ?

Answer 22

Bernstein and Young ( 1967)

Question 23

3 main aspects of cultural deprivation?

Answer 23

-Parental attitudes
-Language
-Subcultural explanations

Question 24

What does Bernstein say about restricted code?

Answer 24

-Informal language
-Ungrammatical and with limited explanation and vocabulary (slang)
-Used by both MC and WC but WC are limited to this form of language

WC:

-Less likely to understand information in class
-More likely to struggle in interviews and less likely to not get the job = less opportunities

Question 25

Criticisms of Bernstein’s research on speech codes

Answer 25

-He tends to put all middle class together as having equal use of the elaborate code but there are wide differences between the higher and lower middle class (similarly with higher and lower working class) so generalisation cannot be made

-Rosen : He gives very few examples to back up his arguments and accuses him of creating a myth of the superiority of the middle class speech

-Labov 1973: critical of the notion that working class speech is in any way inferior to that of the middle class. Based on his research in Harlem, he claims that they are just simply different and that in many ways working class speakers are more effective in making their points and that middle class speakers frequently get bogged down in a mass of irrelevant detail.

Question 26

What does Hubbs-Tait et al (2002) say about the impact of language on attainment?

Answer 26

-Parents who engage in complex, cognitively challenging interactions with their children significantly boost their child’s cognitive performance. This helps to develop the child’s reasoning skills and foster greater intellectual growth

Question 27

What does Feinstein say about the impact of language in educational attainment (2008)

Answer 27

-Found educated are more likely to use such cognitively demanding language, which is instrumental in advancing their child’s achievement

Question 28

Criticisms of the cultural deprivation theory

Answer 28

-Keddie- Cultural deprivation is a myth and it victim blames. A child cannot be deprived of its own culture, working class culture is just different from the middle class culture, putting them at a disadvantage as the education system is dominated by middle class culture
-Bourdieu- Blames parents and suggests wc culture is inferior. Instead he blames capitalist society and the education system.

Question 29

What does Bernstein say about elaborate code ?

Answer 29

-Formal language
-Used in the classroom and workplace
-Wider vocab, more grammatically complex sentences and words
-Mainly used by middle class
-Have an advantage over WC as they are more likely to find writing essays, understanding textbooks and detailed explanation easier to understand

Question 30

What is success in education based (Bourdieu)?

Answer 30

-Each social class has its own habitus.

-Success in education is based on the possession of cultural capital and of access to the habitus of the dominant social class

Question 31

What does Bourdieu mean by ‘habitus’?

Answer 31

The norms values attitudes and behaviours of a particular social class

-This cultural framework contains ideas about what counts as good and bad taste, good books, programmes etc

Question 32

What are the 3 types of capital (Bourdieu, 1984)

Answer 32

-Cultural capital- Advantages the middle class have over the working class
-Economic capital- The amount of wealth someone has
-Educational capital- How many qualifications you have achieved

Question 33

Criticisms of Bourdieu’s Cultural capital theory?

Answer 33

-While he acknowledges the importance of material factors (economic capital), some argue he does not give it sufficient weight in his theory

-The concept of cultural capital= somewhat vague and difficult to measure (However attempts have been made to try to operationalise it for research purposes E.G Sullivan)

-His concept of social reproduction exaggerates the extent to which children end up in the same social class as their parents. For example, the Oxford Mobility Study revealed upward social mobility by children from working class backgrounds into higher social classes

Question 34

Cultural captial

Answer 34

The advantages that the middle class over the working class

Question 35

What types of capital does Putnam propose? (1995)

Answer 35

-Social capital- The membership of social networks that can bring about particular benefits

MC parents more likely to have this.

Question 36

Strength and weakness of Putnam’s research on social capital

Answer 36

-Highlights the importance of social networks in educational success, adding a crucial dimension to our understanding on how middle class families maintain their educational advantages

-May overlook the role of other structural factors in perpetuating educational inequalities, for example, economic capital

Question 37

How does Sullivan’s research support the cultural deprivation theory (2001)

Answer 37

-She carried out a survey based on questionnaires to children approaching school leaving age across 4 schools in England

-She found that cultural events and playing music= little affect on attainment. Watching television and knowledge of cultural figures= associated with better results. Middle class have the most cultural capital.

-However, she also points out that there are differences in educational attainment between social classes which could not be attributed to the effects of capital alone ( material resourced and aspirations)

Question 38

Which sociologist rejects the idea of cultural deprivation and why?

Answer 38

-Bourdieu
-Blames the parents and and implies that working class culture is inferior to Middle class culture

-Instead he blames capitalist society and the education system

Question 39

According to Bourdieu, what is the main role of the education system?

Answer 39

-Cultural reproduction
Meaning the culture of the upper classes is passed to the next generation

Question 40

What do interactionists focus on?

Answer 40

Try to understand how individuals interpret situations as they interact with others in daily life

Question 41

What did Becker(1971) find in his case study on labelling?

Answer 41

-Working class students are less likely to be seen as the ‘ideal pupil’ and tend to be seen as lacking ability, leading teachers to have low expectations of them.
-These students are likely to find themselves in lower streams, making it harder to progress

Question 42

Strength and criticism of Becker’s labelling theory

Answer 42

-Highlights how teacher perceptions can be shaped by class based biases which can have long term effects on student achievement

-The study was based on interviews with 60 teachers and so does not observe the actual classroom interactions and so the full impact of these labels might not have been captured

Question 43

What did Rosenthal and Jacobson(1968) find in his case study on labelling?(pygmalion effect)

Answer 43

-Teachers beliefs about students determined the way they interacted with the students throug, body language , the amount of attention they give to them and the encouragement hey recieve, leading to the self fulfilling prophecy.

Question 44

Strength and criticism of Rosenthal and Jacobsen’s study on the self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 44

-Provides clear experimental evidence of how teacher expectations can create a self fulfilling prophecy where students conform to labels imposed on them

-The deception that was involved in the study raises ethical concerns, particularly with the manipulation of both students and teachers.
Additionally, the cultural specificity of the research ( a Californian primary school) may limit its broader applicability

Question 45

What did Jorgensen find in his study on labelling (2009)

Answer 45

-Both teachers and pupils hold ideas about what the ‘ideal pupil’ was like.
-It was characterised by traits such as, hard working, concentration, good behaviour and academic performance. These conceptions influenced how students thought of themselves as learners, impacting their educational motivation, aspirations and attainment

Question 46

Strength and criticism of Jorgensen’s research on the self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 46

-Acknowledges that both teacher and pupil perceptions can impact social class differences in attainment

-Focuses on a specific geographical area so is hard to generalise to other settings (Only focuses on primary schools in Hampshire)

Question 47

What is the self fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 47

• When students internalise with a label they are given and act out accordingly to this label

Question 48

Criticisms of the self fulfilling prophecy and labelling in general?

Answer 48

-The labelling theory is too deterministic , suggesting that students are passive recipients of labels. Fuller (1980) found that students can resist negative labels and still succeed , challenging the idea that labelling leads to self fulfilling prophecy

-Marxist critics suggest the labelling theory overlooks the wider
power structures in education. Labels are not just individual teacher biases but are part of a system that devalues working class culture and so reinforces class inequalities.

Question 49

Criticisms of streaming and setting as an explanation for social class differences in attainment

Answer 49

-Limits working class opportunities as they are guided to less academic courses, unlike the middle class and so this limits their future opportunities and reinforces social class divisions
-Some students are streamed based off of stereotypes rather than their actual ability

Question 50

What is setting?

Answer 50

A way of organising students by ability, only for individual subjects, not all together

Question 51

What is streaming?

Answer 51

A way of organising students into ability groups or ‘streams’ for all subjects.

Question 52

what did Dunne and Gazeley find in their case study on the self fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 52

-The way teachers explained and dealt with underachievement itself constructed class differences in levels of attainment
-Teachers saw working class students as less capable, normalising their underachievement, while viewing middle class students as capable of overcoming setbacks

Question 53

Strength and criticism of Dunne and Gazeley’s research on the self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 53

-Shows how teacher expectations can perpetuate class based inequalities, with working class students being given fewer opportunities to improve their performance

-Primarily focuses on teacher perceptions and does not fully explore the student perspective, which could provide and more complete understanding of the impact of these expectations (Jorgensen)

Question 54

What did Douglas find in his study on streaming?

Answer 54

-Streaming contributes to the widening gap in achievement between different social classes
-Children placed in lower streams showed a decline in their IQ. In the same amount of time, children placed in higher streams showed in an increase in IQ

Question 55

What did Ball find in his study on streaming?(1981)

Answer 55

-Those in higher streams (Middle class) received more encouragement and were ‘warmed up’ for academic success. Lower streams (working class) were ‘cooled out’ and guided towards less academic courses.( leading to underachievement)

Question 56

What did Keddie find in her study on streaming? (1971)

Answer 56

-Top streams (middle class) received more high status knowledge and more challenging materials as they are believed to be more capable of handling it.
-Lower streams (working class) are given simplified content and less challenging materials, meaning they don’t have the knowledge required for academic success

Question 57

What did Smyth et el (2006) find in his study on streaming?

Answer 57

-Lower streams had more negative attitudes towards education, engage with less homework, and do not engage with school life as much.
-They are more likely to feel alienated from academic progress, leading to lower aspirations and reduced educational achievement

Question 58

Evaluation of streaming and setting as an explanation for social class differences in attainment

Answer 58

-Working class students are disproportionally placed in lower sets, due to social class biases, which limits their access to educational success
-Students in top streams benefit but lower streams do not

Question 59

What did Hargreaves find in his study on school subcultures? (1967)

Answer 59

2 types:
-Delinquent subculture: rejected school values and gained status through rebellious behaviour
-Conformist subculture: Worked hard, followed school rules and sought academic success

-Students in lower streams were labelled as failures, leading to status frustration. To cope they formed anti subcultures, gaining status through defiance, reinforcing their educational failure

Question 60

What did Collin Lacey find in his study on subcultures? (1970)

Answer 60

-Streaming polarised boys into pro school and anti subcultures

-Pro-school subculture: Students placed in high streams, shared the same values as the school and gained their status through academic success.
-Anti school subculture: Students placed in lower streams, who get labelled as ‘failures’, leading them to forming an anti school subculture and gaining status through alternative ways.

These lead to the self fulfilling prophecy

Question 61

What did Willis find in his study on school subcultures? (the ‘lads’,1977)

Answer 61

-The ‘lads’ saw through the ‘smokescreen of meritocracy’: They understood that social mobility was unlikely for people in the working class, reinforcing their anti-school stance (school would not benefit them or change their destined future in manual jobs)
-Their status was derived from the defiance of school authority, e.g prioritised having a laugh and engaging in rebellious behaviour
-They valued traditional working class masculinity e.g toughness
-conformist were called ‘ear oles’
-They resist the school system, reproducing class inequality

Question 62

Strength of Willis’s research on ‘the lads’

Answer 62

-Offers valuable insight into how WC boys resist the school system but ultimately reproduce class inequality

Question 63

Criticisms of Willis’s research on ‘the lads’

Answer 63

-The study was done on a very small sample and so lacks generalisability to all working class students, for example some from different ethnic backgrounds have shown to resist

-Feminist: McRobbie- Ignores gender by focusing solely on males. His work might tell us more about masculinities than social class

-Ignores the full range of subcultures within schools

Question 64

What did Woods find in his research on school subcultures?(1983)

Answer 64

-Identified 8 responses to school ranging from anti school to pro school, depending on the ways that the values are rejected or accepted.
-The study of school subcultures a lot more complex than it used to be.
-Students may change their responses over time

-Ingratiation
-Compliance
-Opportunism
-Ritualism
-Retreatism
-Colonisation
-Intransigence
-Rebellion

Question 65

What did Mac an Ghaill find in their research on subcultures? (1994)

Answer 65

-Identified several distinct male subcultures, in a largely working class school, demonstrating different responses to school:

-Academic achievers
-Macho lads
-New enterprisers
-Real Englishmen

-This suggests that WC have mixed attitudes towards school not just negative.

Question 66

What did Ward find in his research on subcultures? (2015)

Answer 66

-Identified a group called ‘the Boiz’ similar to the ‘the lads’ in Willis’s study
-They displayed anti school attitudes, maintained macho swagger and dressed in colourful tracksuits, differentiating themselves from the ‘Geeks’ who conformed.

-The ‘Boiz’ were more aware of the importance of education for securing future employment as post-industrial society meant traditional working class jobs, e.g coal mining, were unavailable, even though they continued to reject school authority in the short term

Question 67

Criticisms of subcultural explanations for underachievement in the working class

Answer 67

-Some of the theories overlook the diversity within working class pupils, as not all adopt anti school attitudes. There are examples of WC students who succeed academically, highlighting that subcultures alone cannot fully explain differences in attainment

-Some theories focus on internal school processes but underplay the role of external factors, such as economic deprivation, that also contribute to working class underachievement

Question 68

What did Archer mean by symbolic capital?

Answer 68

-Having status and recognition within the school environment because of a students possession of middle class habitus (tastes and preferences)

Question 69

What did Archer mean by symbolic violence?

Answer 69

-When the school devalues the working class habitus
, considering their norms, tastes and lifestyles as inferior to the middle class habitus.
-This process reproduces the class structures by reinforcing the idea that working class culture is less valuable

Question 70

What did Archer mean by the ‘Clash of habitus’?

Answer 70

-The clash between WC and MC habitus makes the education environment feel unnatural and unfamiliar with the WC.
Archer found that WC students often felt the need to change their speech, appearance and behaviour to succeed academically, experiencing educational success as a process of ‘losing yourself’

Question 71

What did Archer mean by ‘Nike identities’

Answer 71

-Many WC pupils sought alternative ways to construct self worth, status and identity as a result of symbolic violence.
They did this by embracing consumer culture, mainly through branded clothes like ‘Nike’. These Nike identities became a way to express themselves and reject the schools MC expectations.

-The ‘Nike identities’ clash with the schools dress code and MC values , leading to conflicts with teachers

Question 72

How did peer groups influence pupil’s identities in Archer’s study (Nike identities)

Answer 72

-Pupil’s identities were influenced by their peer groups. For example, girls adopted hyper-heterosexual feminine styles, consisting of revealing clothing and heavy makeup. These styles were a way to gain symbolic capital within their peer group so they could avoid social exclusion and bullying

Question 73

How did the ‘Nike identities’ contribute to working class pupils rejection of higher education? (Archer)

Answer 73

-The cost, both financial and cultural were percieved as too high, leading to pupils self excluding themselves from these opportunities.

WC pupils continued to reject education as it was incompatible with their identities and way of life

Question 74

How does Evan’s study support Archer’s on Identities (2009)

Answer 74

-Studied a group of WC girls who were reluctant to apply to elite universities like Oxford. Even those who did apply felt that they didn’t fit in or belong due to hidden barriers

-The girls had a strong attachment to their local community, with only a few willing to move away for university . This self exclusion from these opportunities limits their academic and social mobility

Question 75

Examples of internal and external factors working together to decrease attainment

Answer 75

-Restricted speech code ( external) may lead to labelling by teachers, which in turn leads to the self fulfilling prophecy (internal)

-Poverty can contribute to symbolic violence. E.G students may be stigmatised by peers for not having the latest branded clothing, which could lead to bullying or self exclusion, affecting school engagement

Question 76

Evaluation of the interaction between class identities and educational success

Answer 76

-Archers research, along with others demonstrates how the clash between WC identities and MC habitus of schools leads to underachievement.

-Highlights the psychological and social barriers WC students face , which are often overlooked by more traditional analyses

-Provide support for Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, demonstrating how deeply ingrained class based identities influence perceptions and shows how habitus operates in specific educational concepts

Question 77

How is the habitus learnt (Bourdieu)

Answer 77

-The habitus is learnt through socialisation in the family