External factors influencing social class differences in achievement Flashcards
Material factors - including diet, housing, lack of resources, uniform, stress and caring responsibilities
a lack of financial and other necessary resources needed to succeed in education. This can a combination of any of the following:
Overcrowded homes, Poor nutrition, Caring for siblings, Poor housing, Moving home frequently, Psychological Distress, No internet access, Lack of additional educational resources, Lack of school uniform, Unable to go on trips
Cultural capital - including habitus, capital and field and in marketisation
Bourdieu suggested that one of the factors that influenced educational success was cultural capital. This refers to the value placed upon the culture (language, attitudes, tastes and beliefs) of a social group. Bourdieu also suggested two other forms of capital that are important in society: Economic Capital, or financial resources, and educational capital, achievements, such as grades and qualification.
Bourdieu suggested that the middle class are advantaged not only in economic capital, but also in cultural capital, as the education system is based upon the middle-class cultural framework, or habitus. This leads to them achieving better grades, qualifications and places in more prestigious universities – i.e. more educational capital. Furthermore, he suggested that the conflict between the working classes and the education system was a form of Symbolic Violence against the working classes as they were unable to
gain Status through their tastes and attitudes as they conflicted with those of the middle classes.
Feinstein
parent’s own education influences how children are socialised
Douglas
working class parents place less value on education and are therefore less ambitious for their children
Smith and Noble
add that poverty acts as a barrier to learning in other ways, such as inability to afford private schooling or tuition, and poorer quality local schools.
Bull
Lack of financial support means that children from poor families have to do without equipment and miss out
on experiences that would enhance their educational achievement. David Bull (1980) refers to this as ‘the costs of free schooling’.
Tanner
Cost of additional materials has a negative impact on the poorest families; e.g., internet access, scientific calculators, revision books etc.
Howard
Poorer homes have poorer nutrition which affects health and increases absence from school
Sugarman
working class families tend to be:
Fatalistic – don’t see the point in changing own position in life
Collectivist – focused on group achievement rather than individual Immediate
Gratification – seek rewards now rather than later
Present-time Orientated – focused on today, rather than planning for future
Bernstein
Elaborated Code Language code used by middle classes that has broad vocabulary, is grammatically
complex and abstract
Restricted Code Language code used by working-class, restricted vocabulary, context-bound and grammatically simple
Bourdieu
Bourdieu argues that educational success is largely based on possession of cultural capital, thus giving middle-class children an advantage.
Reay
found that working class students to local universities so they could live at home and save on travel costs, but that this gave them less opportunity to go to the highest status universities. They were also more likely to work part-time to fund their studies, making it more difficult for them to gain higher-class degrees.
Gewirtz et al
Sullivan’s research into cultural capital shows the middle class children are more likely to have higher cultural capital because of the books they read and the television programmes that they watch.
Evans
studied a group of 21 working-class girls from a south London comprehensive studying for their A-levels. Evans found that they were reluctant to apply to elite universities such as Oxbridge and that the few who did apply felt a sense of hidden barriers and of not fitting in.
