Educational achievement

Question 1

what are the three main external reasons for the social class gap in education

Answer 1

Cultural deprivation- absence of certain cultural aspects in which results in the failure of the individual being able to communicate and respond in the most appropriate manner.
Material deprivation- lack material possessions to achieve well
Cultural capital- lack the knowledge of the educational and social systems needed for success.

Question 2

Give examples of who spoke about Cultural Deprivation

Answer 2

Sugarman (1970)
Douglas (1964)
Bernstein (1972)

Question 3

What did Sugarman talk about ?

Answer 3

The working class is present time orientated, fatalistic. He also spoke about immediate gratification.

Question 4

What did Douglas talk about ?

Answer 4

Parental interest and differences in primary socialisation.

Question 5

What did Bernstein talk about ?

Answer 5

Restricted and elaborated codes.

Question 6

Who spoke about cultural capital ?

Answer 6

Bourdieu (1984) and he was supported by Ball et al (2000)

Question 7

Who spoke about Material deprivation ?

Answer 7

Smith and Noble

Question 8

What are the 3 internal reasons for the class gap in education ?

Answer 8

Labelling
Banding, setting and streaming
Marketisation and selection policies

Question 9

Who spoke about Labelling ?

Answer 9

Mac an Ghail (1994)- Macho lads- academic failure
Academic Achievers- academic successes
New enterprisers- vocational success

Question 10

What is Marketisation ?

Answer 10

ways in which schools are marketed like a business

Question 11

How does it link to educational success and social class ?

Answer 11

the school will in effect focus more attention on the middle and upper class students as they are the stars of the school which make it seem good where as the lower class students are left to struggle because they are labelled as stupid.

Question 12

Ball, Lacey and Hargreaves all found what to do with banding, setting and streaming?

Answer 12

Middle class students are more likely to be placed in higher groups and for working class lower groups. they found that teachers have lower expectations of working class students so deny them access to higher level knowledge and tend to enter them into lower tier exams.

Question 13

What are the external reasons for the improvement in girls educational performance ?

Answer 13

feminism- raised girls expectations and ambitions.
legal and policy reforms- equal opportunities, equality act
changing expectations- Sue Sharpe 60’s-90’s

Question 14

What are the internal reasons for the improvement in girls educational performance ?

Answer 14

positive role models in schools- amount of female teachers and head teachers increased
Gcse’s and coursework- girls spend more time and effort on coursework etc all benefit towards a better grade.
Selection and league tables- girls are more desirable recruits, boys are seen as liabilities.

Question 15

What did Jackson find out about league tables ?

Answer 15

The introduction of them have improved girls educational performance and provides more opportunities for them- labelled positively and then leads to self fulfilling prophecy.

Question 16

What are the external reasons for boys underachievement in education ?

Answer 16

Boys poorer literacy skills- Mitsos and Browne emphasis the fact that females will spend their leisure time in ways that compliment their education such as reading.

decline of traditional male jobs-decline in manual work may lead to lack of motivation in working class males. Mitsos and Browne- crisis of masculinity- can’t get a proper job.

unrealistic expectations- Francis points out career aspirations are unrealistic and often require few formal qualifications. Girls often require academic effort and success.

Question 17

What are the internal reasons for the underachievement of boys in education.

Answer 17

feminisation of education- Sewell- schools are emphasising feminine traits. coursework is a major cause of gender differences.
teacher interaction- Barber noticed girls feedback on work is actually relevant and focused on the work where as boys feedback is more focused on behaviour not quality of work.
Laddish subcultures- Mac an Ghail - Mach lads etc
also Jackson found that the Lads found it uncool to work hard at school, it based on the dominant view of masculinity.

Question 18

How did Arnot evaluate these arguments ?

Answer 18

Media have created a misleading moral panic that exaggerates the extent of the problem.

Question 19

What did Cohen say about these arguments ?

Answer 19

Why has it all of a sudden become of concern ?

Question 20

Why is there a big difference is gender subject choice ?

Answer 20

Colley- Gender perception- what subjects are feminine and masculine
Skelton- Own choice- socialisation will lead to different interests.
Mitsos- Definitive answers- males like set answers as they fell they shouldn’t have to explain themselves.

Question 21

Identify 2 external reasons for ethnic differences in educational achievement ?

Answer 21

Language- PSI study found the lack of fluent English is a problem for some groups mainly Asian groups.
However Gillborn and Mirza found that Indians achieve very highly so the lack of English isn’t a barrier to
everyone.
Family Life is also a problem- Pilkington- cohesiveness of Asian families may assist in higher educational achievement. However Afro Caribbean’s may have cultures that aren’t as conductive to educational support.

Question 22

Identify 3 internal reasons for ethnic differences in educational achievement ?

Answer 22

Racism-Gill born and Youdell (2000) the expectations held of black students were low and were denied access to sets groups and exams that would allow higher success.
However Smith and Tomlinson found schools are tolerant of all ethnic groups with a lack of antagonism between students from different ethnic groups.

teacher perceptions- teachers have lower expectations of black boys then any other students- Gillborn said it will lead to self fulfilling prophecy.
However Mac an Ghail said there was no direct relationship between teacher expectations and achievement.

Curriculum bias and Ethnocentrism- English, History and Religious education accused of being ethnocentric. all centred around white European Christian people. curriculum doesn’t teach black history and foreign languages that aren’t European. If they do they are extra curricular.