Paper 1 - Social Class Differences in Achievement Flashcards
Define the working class
the social group consisting primarily of people who are employed in unskilled or semi-skilled manual or industrial work.
Define the middle class
the social group between the upper and working classes, including professional and business people and their families.
How is a child’s social class measured in education?
By their parents occupation or by extra help like FSM, pupil premium or bursary
What do statistics tell us about WC and MC achievement?
Social class has powerful influence on a child’s chance of success in the education system. Children from m/c families on average perform better than w/c children.
Define External Factors
Outside of schooling ie home, family and wider society
Define Internal Factors
Inside of schooling ie pupil peers, teachers
Name three external factors that can influences educational achievement
Cultural deprivation, material deprivation and cultural capital
What does Cultural Deprivation argue?
- wc are inadequately socialized for educational success and lack the right culture
ie language, parents influence and peers
What does Material Deprivation refer to ?
- lack of physical or material necessities
ie poverty, resources available and housing
(Douglas 1964) ‘there is a close link between poverty and social class’
What did Hubbs-Tait et al 2002 find about cultural deprivation and language?
- mc parents use language that challenges their child to evaluate which improves cognitive and educational performance whereas less educated parents use only descriptive statements and gesture
What did Bereiter and Engelmann (1966) find about cultural deprivation and language?
- language spoken by low-income American families is inadequate for educational success and children suffer from verbal deprivation and fail to develop language skills therefore more likely to underachieve
What two codes did Bernstein distinguish?
Restricted and Elaborated Code
What does Restricted Code mean?
limited vocab
simple grammar
use of gesture
context bound
What does Elaborated Code mean?
Large vocab base
Grammatically complex
Fully elaborative
Abstract
Summarize what Basil Bernstein said about Language Speech Codes
- m/c have an advantage as elaborated code is used by teachers, text books and exams
- wc pupils lack the code therefore feel excluded
Evaluate Basil Bernstein’s theory
He recognizes school and home influence children’s achievement
Other theorist victim blame w/c for there underachievement
What did Douglas (1994) find about Parent’s influence and their Childs achievement?
wc parents placed less value on education and did not offer much encouragement or interest therefore wc were less ambitious than mc children who did show interest
How does Parenting Style help children’s educational achievement?
Educated parents encourage their children and have high expectations which supports achievement, less educated parents emphasis ‘do as you’re told’ preventing the child from learning independence
How does parents educational behavior influence Childs achievement?
educated parents are more aware of what is needed to assist their child’s progress
they’re successful in having good relationships with teachers
How does use of income help children’s educational achievement?
Better educated parents tend to have higher income to promote child’s learning
WC are less likely to have the income for resources
What is a sub-culture?
a group of individuals with distinctive norms and values
Barry Sugarman (1970) argues working class subculture has four key features that act as a barrier to educational achievement…..
- Fatalism (whatever will be will be/status cannot be changed)
- Collectivism (wc value being part of a group)
- Immediate Gratification (wc will seek pleasure now than making sacrifices)
- Present time gratification (wc see present as more important than future)
How does Keddie (1973) criticize cultural deprivation?
they describe it as a myth and victim blaming. WCC are culturally different not deprived. WCC fail as education system is dominated by MC values
How does Troyna and Williams (1986) criticize cultural deprivation?
the problem is not the child’s language but the school and teachers attitude towards the child
What is the aim of compensatory education?
to tackle cultural deprivation by providing extra resources to schools and communities in deprived areas
Pros and Cons of Education Zones
Pro - raise standards by bringing business and schools together to raise the bar with more achievement and money
Con- Problem lays deeper within the child’s upbringing and family
Pros and Cons of Sure Start
Pro- improve outcome for young children and reduce inequality in children’s development. Childcare for 10/week
Con - Reduced funding lowers amount of centers worldwide
How can housing affect educational achievement?
- overcrowding (no study/disturbed sleep)
- no safe place to splay nor explore
- temporary accommodation (moving disrupts education)
- Health n Absences (cold/damp housing, risk of injury and psychological distress)
How can diet and health affect educational achievement?
- struggle to concentrate and a synoptic link, with poorer mothers having low weight babies which is linked to delayed physical and cognitive development
What did Howard and Wilkinson say about diet and health and wc households?
Howard (2001) lower intake of vitamins and minerals leads to illness then absence
Wilkinson (1996) more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems
What did Tanner (2003) and Noble (1995) say about financial support and low income families ?
- There is a financial burden for transport, uniforms, books, computers and calculators, they have to rely on hand me downs that could be stigmatized
- poverty acts a barrier from accessing tutors or private schools
According to Flaterty………….
fear of stigmatization may explain why 20% of eligible free school mealers don’t take them
Does Debt deter many working class students from going to university and how do you know?
Yes, only 30% of university students are from working class backgrounds
What did Diane Reay (2005) find about university and w/c students?
That w/c students are more likely to apply locally to save money rather for ‘better’ university
Evaluate Material Deprivation
- To say that poverty causes poor educational performance is too deterministic as some students from poor backgrounds do well
- other differences between classes that may lead to working class underachievement
What did Pierre Bourdieu (1984) argue about Cultural Capital?
- both cultural deprivation and material deprivation contribute to achievement, both are interrelated and he refers as ‘capital’
- there are three types of capital : cultural, economic and education which m/c tend to have
What is cultural capital?
-tastes and values of the mc which advantage m/c as the capitalist education system favors m/c culture and therefore w/c feel like education isn’t for them as they don’t have cc
What is educational and economic capital?
- all three overlap as m/c are better equipped with cc than w/c
- more likely to attended better schools, have tutors as of economic capital which links tp educational capital
Refer to evidence of cultural capital
Alice Sullivan (2001)
- used questionnaires to assess students level of CC
- she found cultural capital generally correlated with educational success
- mc students tended to have more CC and kids of university grads had the greatest CC and GCSEs
What does Bourdieu argue about Cultural Capital?
students have little control over their education and passively accept failure, but many w/c pupils with low CC do achieve
