Paper 1 - Social Class Differences in Achievement

Question 1

Define the working class

Answer 1

the social group consisting primarily of people who are employed in unskilled or semi-skilled manual or industrial work.

Question 2

Define the middle class

Answer 2

the social group between the upper and working classes, including professional and business people and their families.

Question 3

How is a child’s social class measured in education?

Answer 3

By their parents occupation or by extra help like FSM, pupil premium or bursary

Question 4

What do statistics tell us about WC and MC achievement?

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Define External Factors

Answer 5

Outside of schooling ie home, family and wider society

Question 6

Define Internal Factors

Answer 6

Inside of schooling ie pupil peers, teachers

Question 7

Name three external factors that can influences educational achievement

Answer 7

Cultural deprivation, material deprivation and cultural capital

Question 8

What does Cultural Deprivation argue?

Answer 8

• wc are inadequately socialized for educational success and lack the right culture
  ie language, parents influence and peers

Question 9

What does Material Deprivation refer to ?

Answer 9

• lack of physical or material necessities
  ie poverty, resources available and housing

(Douglas 1964) ‘there is a close link between poverty and social class’

Question 10

What did Hubbs-Tait et al 2002 find about cultural deprivation and language?

Answer 10

• 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

Question 11

What did Bereiter and Engelmann (1966) find about cultural deprivation and language?

Answer 11

• 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

Question 12

What two codes did Bernstein distinguish?

Answer 12

Restricted and Elaborated Code

Question 13

What does Restricted Code mean?

Answer 13

limited vocab
simple grammar
use of gesture
context bound

Question 14

What does Elaborated Code mean?

Answer 14

Large vocab base
Grammatically complex
Fully elaborative
Abstract

Question 15

Summarize what Basil Bernstein said about Language Speech Codes

Answer 15

• m/c have an advantage as elaborated code is used by teachers, text books and exams
• wc pupils lack the code therefore feel excluded

Question 16

Evaluate Basil Bernstein’s theory

Answer 16

He recognizes school and home influence children’s achievement
Other theorist victim blame w/c for there underachievement

Question 17

What did Douglas (1994) find about Parent’s influence and their Childs achievement?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

How does Parenting Style help children’s educational achievement?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

How does parents educational behavior influence Childs achievement?

Answer 19

educated parents are more aware of what is needed to assist their child’s progress
they’re successful in having good relationships with teachers

Question 20

How does use of income help children’s educational achievement?

Answer 20

Better educated parents tend to have higher income to promote child’s learning
WC are less likely to have the income for resources

Question 21

What is a sub-culture?

Answer 21

a group of individuals with distinctive norms and values

Question 22

Barry Sugarman (1970) argues working class subculture has four key features that act as a barrier to educational achievement…..

Answer 22

1. Fatalism (whatever will be will be/status cannot be changed)
2. Collectivism (wc value being part of a group)
3. Immediate Gratification (wc will seek pleasure now than making sacrifices)
4. Present time gratification (wc see present as more important than future)

Question 23

How does Keddie (1973) criticize cultural deprivation?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

How does Troyna and Williams (1986) criticize cultural deprivation?

Answer 24

the problem is not the child’s language but the school and teachers attitude towards the child

Question 25

What is the aim of compensatory education?

Answer 25

to tackle cultural deprivation by providing extra resources to schools and communities in deprived areas

Question 26

Pros and Cons of Education Zones

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Pros and Cons of Sure Start

Answer 27

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

Question 28

How can housing affect educational achievement?

Answer 28

• 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)

Question 29

How can diet and health affect educational achievement?

Answer 29

• struggle to concentrate and a synoptic link, with poorer mothers having low weight babies which is linked to delayed physical and cognitive development

Question 30

What did Howard and Wilkinson say about diet and health and wc households?

Answer 30

Howard (2001) lower intake of vitamins and minerals leads to illness then absence
Wilkinson (1996) more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems

Question 31

What did Tanner (2003) and Noble (1995) say about financial support and low income families ?

Answer 31

• 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

Question 32

According to Flaterty………….

Answer 32

fear of stigmatization may explain why 20% of eligible free school mealers don’t take them

Question 33

Does Debt deter many working class students from going to university and how do you know?

Answer 33

Yes, only 30% of university students are from working class backgrounds

Question 34

What did Diane Reay (2005) find about university and w/c students?

Answer 34

That w/c students are more likely to apply locally to save money rather for ‘better’ university

Question 35

Evaluate Material Deprivation

Answer 35

• 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

Question 36

What did Pierre Bourdieu (1984) argue about Cultural Capital?

Answer 36

• 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

Question 37

What is cultural capital?

Answer 37

-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

Question 38

What is educational and economic capital?

Answer 38

• 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

Question 39

Refer to evidence of cultural capital

Answer 39

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

Question 40

What does Bourdieu argue about Cultural Capital?

Answer 40

students have little control over their education and passively accept failure, but many w/c pupils with low CC do achieve