Policies relating to social class + deprivation Flashcards
What are the five policies relating to social class
- Sure Start Centres (New Labour)
- Educational Maintenance Allowance (New Labour)
- Free School Meals (New Labour)
- Early Academies (New Labour)
- Pupil Premium (Coalition)
Policies Relating to Social Class
External Factors
What Statistical Analysis is in the course notes?
Five items
• Middle-class children, on average, perform better than working-class children throughout school.
• They do better at GCSE, stay longer in full-time education and take 80% of university places.
• The gap starts as early as three years old and gets wider as the children get older.
• John Jerrim (2013): Even the most talented children are being left behind in education if they were from a lower-class background.
• High achieving boys from the most advantaged family background are two and a half years ahead of their counterparts from the least advantageous households by the age of fifteen.
What are the three broad categories of external factors that affect differential achievement by social class
- Material Deprivation
- Cultural Deprivation
- Cultural Capital
Describe Material Deprivation
A lack of money and the material necessities that money can buy.
What did Douglas (1964) identify in his study The Home and School?
Five items
- Poor housing conditions e.g. overcrowding: can make study at home difficult
- Poor diet and ill health: may mean tiredness at school, making learning more difficult, more absence, falling behind with lessons
- Low income: may mean lack of educational books and toys at home, no computers available, no money for school trips, sports equipment, calculators
- Part-time jobs e.g. paper rounds or shop work, esp. after 16: may create conflict between competing demands of study and paid work.
- While Douglas conducted his analysis in the 1960s, recent sociological evidence suggests that there are around 4.2 million children living in poverty in the UK, who likely experience similar difficulties.
What did Gibson & Asthana (1999) identify in their study “Cycle of Deprivation”?
Six items
- Poverty affects the educational performance of children.
- Higher levels of sickness in poorer homes that may mean more absence from school and falling behind with lessons.
- Low income may mean that educational books and toys are not bought. There may be a lack of money for out-of-school trips, sports equipment, and other ‘hidden costs’ of free state education.
- Student loans and tuition fees for university is likely to be a source of anxiety to those from poorer backgrounds, deterring them from higher education.
- Schools themselves may suffer disadvantages compared to those in more affluent middle-class areas. E.g. 90% of ‘failing’ schools are located in deprived areas.
- Young people from poorer families are more likely to have part-time jobs, such as paper rounds, babysitting or shop work. This becomes more pronounced after the age of 16, when students may be combining part-time work with school work
Recent Evidence for Material Deprivation
The 2020 A Level exam results fiasco. Discuss.
The 2020 A Level exam results fiasco showed the gap between the materially deprived and materially advantaged still remains. Ofqual’s algorithm that was applied to the centre assessed grades saw students from richer areas predicted grades reduced by 7 percentage points, in the poorer areas this figure doubled to 15 percentage points. Students in the lowest performing schools (often in the most deprived areas) were much more likely to have their results reduced, in some cases by 2 or 3 grades in comparison to the grade awarded by their teacher. (NB – the algorithm was taken away after mass outcry and protests so students did receive their original centre assessed grades. There is a chance that materially deprived students still suffered due to teacher labelling – but this would be an internal factor).
Recent Evidence for Material Deprivation
Working Class children at university. Discuss
W/C children are more likely to drop out of university because of debt problems (16.1% drop out at London Metropolitan – a university with a large working-class intake – compared to 1.5% at Oxford which has a relatively middle class intake).
Recent Evidence for Material Deprivation
Flaherty (2002) Fear of Stigmatisation. What does this study show?
Flaherty (2002): Fear of Stigmatisation. Her study showed that although 20% of students were entitled to Free School Meals, many didn’t take them as they didn’t want to be stigmatised (negatively labelled) as being poor by their peers or teachers.
Recent Evidence for Material Deprivation
Sutton Trust (2010). What did this show about the admissions to university and Material Deprivation?
Sutton Trust (2010): Private school students (7% of school population) are 55 times more likely to get into Oxford or Cambridge and 22 times more likely to get into a high ranked university than state-school students entitled to free-school meals.
Arguments Supporting Material Deprivation
• Marxists would highlight the importance of this factor as evidence for the myth of meritocracy.
• Poverty is closely linked to educational under-achievement. E.g. 90% of ‘failing’ schools are located in deprived areas.
Arguments Against Material Deprivation
• The working class are much better off financially than they were 50 years ago, but the gap in achievement has not decreased. Some people argue that poverty today is not as ‘bad’ as it was 50 years ago (the growing use of food banks and rising numbers of homeless might suggest otherwise though).
• Could be viewed as too deterministic. Some children from poor families do succeed in education. For some children, experiencing material deprivation may be an incentive to work harder so they are not in the same position as their parents in the future.
• Cultural, religious or political values may create and sustain motivation, despite poverty. For example, poor Chinese students do nearly as well as rich Chinese students, showing that cultural factors such as positive attitudes have a greater impact than material factors.
• The quality of the school may play an important part. Poor children who go to grammar schools or are awarded scholarships and bursaries for private schools will obviously have a very different experience to those who attend state schools. This shows that school ethos (an internal factor), must also play a part.
• Cultural deprivation theorists argue that it is the cultural failings and disinterest of working-class parents that leads to class differences, rather than income alone.
What is Cultural Deprivation?
A lack of certain norms, values, attitudes and skills. In the context of education, those necessary for educational success.
Give three examples of cultural deprivation
- Lack of intellectual development
- Poor attitudes & values
- Linguistic deprivation
Arguments Supporting Cultural Deprivation
• We acquire basic values, attitudes and skills needed for educational success through primary socialisation.
• But middle class (m/c) children are socialised into this ‘cultural equipment’ more adequately than working class (w/c) children.
• So w/c children grow up culturally deprived
Describe how Working class children gain a Lack of Intellectual Development
Working class children are deprived of educational books, toys and activities at home that would develop their intellect.
What did Douglas write in 1964 on Lack of Intellectual Development within the Working Class?
Douglas (1964) - W/c parents are less likely to support their children’s intellectual development through educational activities at home (e.g. reading to them).
Melanie Philips wrote The NEETS in 1997. What did this cover on the topic of Lack of Intellectual Development?
• Melanie Philips is a New Right journalist who argues that working class and underclass children lack intellectual development due to ‘family disorder’ and a ‘flight from parenting’.
• She argues that modern Britain is characterised by a rapidly increasing number of broken families in which the effective socialisation of children has become disrupted. She suggests inadequate parenting is more likely to be found in one-parent families, reconstituted families, unmarried families, or where various partners come and go in the family’s lives. This means children lack effective development.
Lack of Intellectual Development.
Attitudes and Values
Barry Sugarman (1970) - Immediate Gratification
What did Sugarman write?
• Barry Sugarman notes that the different occupations of working class and middle class may account for the differing attitudes towards education amongst the children of the two classes.
• Middle class occupations emphasise room for continuous professional advancement, and planning for the future, which encouraged an attitude of deferred gratification, where the middle classes put off enjoyment in order to work hard so it will benefit them in the future.
• Sugarman argued that this is not the case for working class or occupations, as these tend to lack opportunities for career progression. He argued that this fosters an attitude of immediate gratification, where one seeks enjoyment of the moment than sacrificing for future reward.
• This is linked to the concept of fatalism – where the working class accept their situation rather than trying to change it.
• These values are passed onto children, disadvantaging the working-class children in school.
Basil Bernstein (1977) Elaborated vs Restricted Speech Codes
What did he write?
Bernstein argued that ability to use language is key to success at school:
• Reading and understanding books
• Writing clearly
• Ability to explain oneself clearly in speech and writing
If these skills are not developed fully in the family, then children will be at a disadvantage when they enter education.
Basil Bernstein (1977) Elaborated vs Restricted Speech Codes
Bernstein differentiated between two types of language. What are these called?
• Restricted Code
• Elaborated Code
Basil Bernstein (1977) Elaborated vs Restricted Speech Codes
Bernstein differentiated between two types of language.
Define Restricted Code.
• Closed communication that uses a limited vocabulary
• Informal, simple, everyday language, sometimes ungrammatical and with limited explanation and vocabulary
• Cannot be understood easily out of context
• Adequate for everyday use with family or friends because the context is understood by both speakers and so detailed explanation is not required
• Used by both m/c and w/c people, but lower w/c people are mainly limited to this form of language use
Basil Bernstein (1977) Elaborated vs Restricted Speech Codes
Bernstein differentiated between two types of language.
Define Elaborated Code.
• Open communication that uses a wide vocabulary
• Formal, complex language following formal grammar rules and using a wide vocabulary – descriptive and rich
• Can be easily understood out of context
• The sort of language used by strangers and individuals in a formal context, where explanation and detail are required – e.g. teachers in the classroom, writing a business letter, in a job interview
• Used mainly by m/c people
Basil Bernstein (1977) Elaborated vs Restricted Speech Codes
How does familiarity of Elaborated Code improve education?
Their use of elaborated code puts m/c children at an advantage in schools:
- It is the code that is used in schools, in textbooks, writing essays and examination questions and in class discussion
- Its usage develops analytical thinking in a way that the restricted code does not.
- This then means that the w/c are disadvantaged. They are more likely to come into conflict with teachers and not understand academic language.
Basil Bernstein (1977) Elaborated vs Restricted Speech Codes
Criticism about Generalisations.
There are wide differences in usage of language within the m/c and the w/c, so it is difficult to generalise to all m/c or w/c families
Basil Bernstein (1977) Elaborated vs Restricted Speech Codes
Criticism by Labov (1973)
Labov (1973): the language used by w/c children is simply different, not inferior, and is equally capable of dealing with abstract and complex ideas
Basil Bernstein (1977) Elaborated vs Restricted Speech Codes
Criticism by Troyna & Williams (1986)
Troyna & Williams (1986): The problem is not language but the school’s attitude towards it. Teachers have a speech hierarchy, and value w/c lower than m/c speech.
Influence of Cultural Deprivation Theories: Compensatory Education
What are the positives?
• It has been influential in shaping government policy, particularly through compensatory education.
• These policies aim to help support parents and students to help offset and reduce the influence of cultural deprivation.
E.g. in the UK:
• Sure Start Centres (2000)
• Education Action Zones: Resources for deprived areas to tackle cultural deprivation.
• Aim Higher: Raising aspirations of groups under-represented in higher education by visiting schools and encouraging applications.
• Education Maintenance Allowance: Encouraging low-income students to stay in education after 16.
• Literacy
Influence of Cultural Deprivation Theories: Compensatory Education
What are the negatives?
• These can be criticised for reflecting the ‘myth’ of cultural deprivation rather than the reality of cultural difference. Many Marxist sociologists argue that w/c students should be seen as culturally different, not culturally deprived.
• The policies can be seen as the state attempting to impose m/c values on the w/c.
• Many of these policies have been cancelled or reduced by the Coalition or Conservative government since 2010 such as EMA, so their effect is now limited.
Arguments Against Cultural Deprivation
Keddie’s views (1973)
• Cultural deprivation is a myth: a victim-blaming explanation.
• W/c children are culturally different, not culturally deprived.
• W/c children are at a disadvantage by an education system dominated by m/c values.
Arguments Against Cultural Deprivation
Troyna & Williams’ view (1986)
• The problem is not language but the school’s attitude towards it.
• Teachers have a speech hierarchy, and value w/c and black speech lower than m/c speech.
Arguments Against Cultural Deprivation
Marxism
Marxism: Cultural deprivation theorists blame educational failure on the inadequacy of w/c subculture. Marxists argue that this is a victim-blaming explanation; by doing so, it lets social inequality and the education system off the hook. Society as a whole is to blame, not the w/c. It is a smoke-screen that covers the true cause: material deprivation.
Define Cultural Capital.
Knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities passed on from m/c parents to their children, and giving them an advantage
What other forms of Capital are often interrelated with Cultural Capital?
Other Forms of Capital (these are often interrelated with cultural capital)
• Social Capital: Networks of influence and support (knowing the right people)
• Symbolic Capital: Possession of status
• Educational Capital: Qualifications
Cultural Capital: Bourdieu’s Key Arguments
Is it Cultural or Material factors that contribute most to educational underachievement
Both
It is pointless to argue whether it is cultural or material factors that contribute most to educational underachievement: They are not separate but interrelated.
Cultural Capital: Bourdieu’s Key Arguments
What is the correlation between Material Deprivation and Cultural Deprivation?
• The more material deprivation a family suffers from, the more likely they are to be culturally deprived.
• And the more economic capital a family has, the more likely it is to have cultural capital.
• E.g. wealthy parents can convert economic capital into educational capital by sending children to private schools and paying for extra tuition.
• M/c parents are more likely to be able to afford a house in the catchment area of a school that is highly placed in the exam league tables: ‘selection by mortgage’, driving up mortgages and excluding w/c families.
Cultural Capital: Bourdieu’s Key Arguments
How do Social Groups affect Cultural Capital?
Social groups with control over economic capital ensure their children also pick up cultural capital (through socialisation).
Cultural Capital: Bourdieu’s Key Arguments
What is the link between Educational Capital and Cultural Capital?
Cultural capital is essential for educational capital.
Cultural Capital: Bourdieu’s Key Arguments
Familiarity with routines provides who with what?
• Upper class (u/c) and m/c children are more successful at school because they are familiar with school requirements.
• W/c children underachieve because they do not have the same access to cultural capital.
Cultural Capital: Bourdieu’s Key Arguments
Schooling appears to be neutral and fair.
How does is this demonstrated and what demonstrates the opposite argument?
• Schooling appears to be neutral and fair, because it measures all pupils against the same cultural knowledge.
• In fact, w/c children remain in the w/c because they are handicapped in the acquisition of cultural capital – this reproduces class inequality.
• They are victims of symbolic violence.
• The middle class have a particular habitus, which is a certain culture that makes them more likely to do well in education.
Cultural Capital: Bourdieu’s Key Arguments
Bourdieu argues that the middle class have a particular habitus.
What is this?
A habitus is someone’s tastes, culture, values and norms. E.g. middle class children’s habitus is more likely to involve watching documentaries, playing an instrument, playing sport etc. These activities are all valued by teachers and are more likely to stimulate intellectual and cultural development than the w/c habitus.
NB – Bourdieu was a Marxist
Cultural Capital: Bourdieu’s Key Arguments
There are two studies in Support of Bourdieu’s Cultural Capital Theory
Name them.
Diane Reay (1988)
Stephen Ball (2003) - The Middle Class & Social Advantage
Cultural Capital: Bourdieu’s Key Arguments
There are two studies in Support of Bourdieu’s Cultural Capital Theory
List the four key points of Diana Reay (1988)’s study.
- Diane Reay (1988) argues that it’s middle class mothers that matter. Her research was based on the mothers of 33 children at two London primary schools.
- All the mothers are actively involved in their children’s education, the mothers of working class children worked just as hard as the middle class mothers. But the cultural capital of the middle class mothers gave their children an advantage.
- Middle class mothers had more educational capital and more information about how the education system operated. They used this capital to good effect – helping with homework, improving confidence and sorting out any issues with teachers.
- Where the middle class mothers had confidence and self-assurance to make demands on teachers, the working class mothers talked in terms of ‘plucking up the courage’ and ‘making myself go and see the teacher’. Thus they felt less able to support their child’s learning.
Cultural Capital: Bourdieu’s Key Arguments
There are two studies in Support of Bourdieu’s Cultural Capital Theory
What definitions did Stephen Ball (2003) provide in his study The Middle Class & Social Advantage?
What did he say about a School/Parent Alliance?
M/c parents = Skilled choosers
W/c parents = Disconnected choosers
A School/parent alliance exists between middle class schools and parents. Middle class parents want to send their children to schools with predominantly middle class students, and schools assume this will result in better exam results. Remember schools are under pressure to achieve the best results possible due to marketisation.
Evaluations of Cultural Capital
What are the positives?
• Recognises that w/c children are culturally different rather than deficient.
• Appreciates that education system is not responsive to a range of cultural backgrounds – it is too middle class.
• Marxists support this theory/explanation as it is evidence that the middle class are better off in education due to cultural as well as material factors. It is evidence of the middle class transmitting a dominant ideology.
Evaluations of Cultural Capital
What are the negatives?
• Lacks large amount of empirical support. It is difficult to actually operationalise (measure) the concept of cultural capital. How can we really tell how much influence playing a musical instrument or speaking in the elaborated speech code can have on GCSE results?
• Deterministic – some w/c students do break away from their culture and have a high level of cultural capital.
Evaluations of Cultural Capital
The interrelationship of external factors
What four points did Bourdieu have to make?
- It is pointless to argue whether cultural or material factors that contribute most to educational underachievement:
- They are not separate but interrelated.
- The more material deprivation a family suffers from, the more likely they are to be culturally deprived.
- And the more economic capital a family has, the more likely it is to have cultural capital.
Evaluations of Cultural Capital
The interrelationship of external and internal factors
What four points are there is the study notes?
- There is evidence that external factors are important in class and achievement: a gap exists before students even start school.
- However, focusing on external factors lets the education system off the hook.
- Interactionists argue that internal factors are more important, and point towards the increasing gap in achievement as children progress through the education system.
- In fact, it is most likely that the two work together: external factors place w/c children at a considerable disadvantage, which is then compounded by processes within schools.
Evaluations of Cultural Capital
The interrelationship of class, gender and ethnicity
External factors linked to class have been shown to what?
However, ethnicity and gender also influence outcomes within each social class. Thus, external theories of class alone cannot explain all aspects of differential educational achievement. See the Ethnicity (Ed 4) & Gender (Ed 5) topics sections for more detail.
Evaluations of Cultural Capital
The interrelationship of class, gender and ethnicity
Do Ethnicity and Gender influence outcomes within each Social Class?
However, ethnicity and gender also influence outcomes within each social class. Thus, external theories of class alone cannot explain all aspects of differential educational achievement. See the Ethnicity (Ed 4) & Gender (Ed 5) topics sections for more detail.
What is the Statistical Analysis for External Factors on Ethnicity
- White and Asian pupils do better than black pupils.
- Chinese and Indian students are the highest achieving groups, achieving significantly better results than other Asian groups such as Pakistani and Bangladeshi.
- Girls do better than boys in every ethnic group.
- M/c children do better than w/c children in every ethnic group.
- Many white w/c pupils perform at a lower level than other ethnic groups.
- White working class boys are now the worst-performing group in the country.
Ethnicity: External Factors.
There are four broad categories of external factors that affect differential achievement by ethnicity:
List them
- Material Deprivation
- Cultural Deprivation
- Cultural Capital
- Racism in Wider Society
