External factors: social class and education

Question 1

What are the 3 external factors?

Answer 1

Cultural deprivation, material deprivation and compensatory education

Question 2

What is cultural deprivation?

Answer 2

To be deprived of primary socialization which affects basic values and attitudes needed for educational success

Question 3

How does it relate to the working class?

Answer 3

Many working class families fail to socialize their children adequately which makes them develop culturally deprived

Question 4

What are the main aspects of cultural deprivation?

Answer 4

• Intellectual development
• Attitudes
• Languages

Question 5

What is intellectual development in the context of social class and education?

Answer 5

Development of thinking and reasoning skills such as problem solving, working class families lack books and toys that would stimulate a childs intellectual development

Question 6

Who speaks about intellectual development?

Answer 6

Douglas and Bernstein

Question 7

What did Douglas find?

Answer 7

Working class students scored lower on intellectual tests than middle class

Question 8

What did Bernstein and Douglas find?

Answer 8

Middle class mothers are more likely to choose toys that encourage thinking and reasonings and this prepared them for educational success

Question 9

Who spoke about language?

Answer 9

Engelmann and Bereiter
Bernstein

Question 10

What did Engelmann and Bereiter say?

Answer 10

Language used by working class families is deficient = failure to develop the necessary language skills and grow up incapable of abstract thinking

Question 11

What did Bernstein talk about?

Answer 11

Identified 2 types of language used by the working and middle class which is responsible for the underachievement among the working class.

Elaborate code: proper English with grammar

Restricted code: used by the working class, limited vocabulary and based on short, unfinished and grammatically incorrect sentences

• argues the working class cannot code switch

Question 12

What is cultural capital?

Answer 12

What forms someones identity, every person has one but its different

Question 13

Who came up with the term “cultural capital”?

Answer 13

Bourdieu

Question 14

What are symbolic elements of cultural capital?

Answer 14

Skills, tastes, posture, clothing, mannerisms, material belongs, credentials etc that is acquired through being part of a social class

Question 15

What did Bourdieu call this?

Answer 15

Habitus

Question 16

What does having similar forms of cultural capital do?

Answer 16

Creates a sense of collective identity and group position
- Divide between the rich and the poor as they can neither relate nor like the same things

Question 17

What did Bourdieu point out?

Answer 17

Cultural capital is a major source of social inequality, certain forms of cultural capital are valued over others and can help or hinder ones social mobility just as much as income or wealth

Question 18

How does cultural capital relate to education?

Answer 18

The education system is built off the middle class. teachers and headteachers are typically middle class, middle class people also write the curriculum and policies which are based off of middle class knowledge

Question 19

What do Marxists say about social class and education?

Answer 19

• Schools reproduce class inequality
• Middle classes use their material and cultural capital to ensure that their children get into the best schools and top sets
• Wealthier pupils tend to get the best education and go into to get middle class jobs
• Working class children get a poorer standard of education and end up in working class jobs

Question 20

What was the study Willis conducted?

Answer 20

• An ethnographic study of 12 working class ‘lads’ from a school
• All white in a school containing many pupils of multiple ethnicities
• Participant observation and interviews
• Lads prioritized having a ‘laff’ over their education

Question 21

Who spoke about parental attitudes?

Answer 21

Douglas and Hyman

Question 22

What did Douglas say about parental attitudes?

Answer 22

Found that working class parents were less ambitious for their children and took less interest in their education meaning children had less motivation towards schools

Question 23

What did Hyman say about parental attitudes?

Answer 23

Argued that the values of lower class reflect a self imposed barrier to education success, believe they have less chance of achieving individual success = no point of education

Question 24

What do right realists think about social class and education?

Answer 24

They believe that the reason for the social class difference in academic achievement is the ‘underclass’ and dysfunctional families (any variation of the nuclear families)

Question 25

What is the underclass?

Answer 25

Class of people who don’t want to work, a culture of laziness and reliance on the benefits, thus they don’t partake effectively on education and instead place an emphasis on surviving

Question 26

What does Sugarmann say?

Answer 26

That working class subculture has 4 key features that act as a barrier to educational achievement

Question 27

What are the 4 features?

Answer 27

Fatalism: a belief in fate and theres nothing you can do to change your status

Collectivism: valuing being part of a group more than succeeding as an individual

Immediate gratification: seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices in order to get rewards in the future

Present time orientation: seeing the present as more important than the future, no long term goals

Question 28

Who critiques external factors?

Answer 28

Keddie, Troyna and Williams, Blackstone and Mortimore

Question 29

What does Keddie say?

Answer 29

Cultural deprivation is a myth and a victim blaming explanation, working class families are different, not deprived and fail because of biases in education system (disadvantaged)

Question 30

What did Troyna and Williams say?

Answer 30

Teachers have a speech hierarchy and label middle class speech as the highest and working class speech as uneducated
- Bias leads to under performance of working class students

Question 31

What did Blackstone and Mortimore say?

Answer 31

Working class parents aren’t necessarily less involved in child’s education
- long working hours makes attending parents evening more difficult
- may not be able to help with homework due to lack of education

Question 32

What is material deprivation?

Answer 32

Inability to afford basic resources that impacts on a childs educational achievement

Question 33

Who speaks about material deprivation?

Answer 33

Douglas

Question 34

What does Douglas say about material deprivation?

Answer 34

Material deprivation has a cumulative effect on achievement meaning many other material factors that had an affect other than basic resources

Question 35

What is the impact of material deprivation?

Answer 35

• Lack of ability to afford resources and hidden costs
  > Costs of uniforms equipment, pe kit, school trips, travel and lunch = financial and psychological stress
  > £1500 on average per student
• Overcrowded accommodation
  > No space to study, sleep distance and prone to communicable illnesses
• Part time work
  > distraction from studies > instill values of instant gratification in students

Question 36

How is funding into education relevant to material deprivation?

Answer 36

• 90% of schools rated inadequate by OFSTED are in deprived areas (inability to raise additional funds from pupils/sponsors)
• students attending poor schools (lack of funding and appearance) internalized low self esteem impacting aspirations

Question 37

What was put in place to combat funding problems?

Answer 37

New labour
- Sure start
- EMA
- Excellence city
- City academies

Coalition
- Universal school meals till yr 2
- Pupil premium

Question 38

What statistics support poverty and underachievement?

Answer 38

33% of children receiving free school meals gains 5 A-C’s compared to 61% of children not receiving free school meals

Question 39

What’s a limitation of statistics based on FSM?

Answer 39

Only 13.6% claim FSM out of 34% of children in poverty which reduces the validity of the statistics

Question 40

How is housing and diet a factor?

Answer 40

• Poor housing can affect pupil’s performance
  > overcrowding = difficulty to study
  > temporary housing = changing schools and disrupting education
• Diet and nutrition: lack of concentration, tiredness and illness
  > limited choice = processed food
  > Dependency on FSM for nutrition = hunger over the holidays
  > food bank usage rise = impacts availability of food for students

Question 41

Who speaks about housing?

Answer 41

Howard

Question 42

What did Howard talk about?

Answer 42

Young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals which weakens the immune system = absences

Question 43

Who spoke about financial support?

Answer 43

Tanner et al
Ridge

Question 44

How is financial support relevant?

Answer 44

• Financial support and cost of education can affect educational achievement, materially deprived children have to do without equipment and experiences

Question 45

What did Tanner et al find?

Answer 45

Costs of items such as transport etc. place heavy burdens on poor families, have to make do with hand me downs and cheap less fashionable equipment

Question 46

What did Ridge say?

Answer 46

Lack of funds means that children from low incomes families often need to work, Ridge found that children in poverty take on part time jobs, many working class pupils leave education at 16 for employment

Question 47

What’s are some critiques for material deprivation?

Answer 47

• Some children from poor families excel in education suggesting that material deprivation is only part of the explanation
• Cultural and religious values of family may play a part in creating child’s motivation even despite poverty
• Quality of school may play an important role in enabling some poor children to achieve

Question 48

What are sure start centers?

Answer 48

Facilities that provide education, care, family support and health services. Helped to maintain physical, social and intellectual development of deprived children

Question 49

What were the findings of Willis’ study?

Answer 49

Shop floor culture
- completely uninterested in school, do as little work as possible and have as much fun as possible
- didn’t value education due to anticipation for a factory job (needs no formal qualifications)
- School is for middle class kids
- Willis doesn’t disclose how he built rapport but safe to assume it was built effectively through their openness and consent