Social Class Flashcards
External factors affecting educational outcome…
> Cultural deprivation
> Material deprivation
> Compensatory education
Cultural deprivation…
Theorists argue that we acquire basic values and attitudes needed for educational success through primary socialisation in the family. However many working class families fail to socialise their children adequately, as a result they develop culturally deprived. There are three main aspects of cultural deprivation:
> Intellectual development
Attitudes
Language
Marxists…
Marxist idea is that schools reproduce class inequality. In school, the middle classes use their material and cultural capital to ensure that their children get into the best schools and the top sets.
This means that the wealthier pupils tend to get the best education and then go onto to get middle class jobs. Meanwhile working class children are more likely to get a poorer standard of education and end up in working class jobs. In this way class inequality is reproduced.
Intellectual development…
This refers to the development of thinking and reasoning skills such as problem solving. Working class families are said to lack books and toys that would stimulate a child’s intellectual development, thus children begin schools without the skills needed to progress. Douglas found that working class students scored lower on intellectual tests than middle class children. Bernstein and Douglas found that middle class mothers are more likely to choose toys that encourage thinking and reasoning and this prepares them better for educational success.
Language…
Engelmann and Bereiter claim that the language used by working class families is deficient, as a result they fail to develop the necessary language skills and grow up incapable of abstract thinking.
Bernstein identified two type of languages used by working and middle class, restricted and elaborated code, which he claims is responsible for underachievement among working class. The restricted code is a speech code used by the working class. It has limited vocabulary and is based on short, unfinished and grammatically incorrect sentences.
Bourdieu’s cultural capital…
Includes symbolic elements such as skills, tastes, posture, clothing, mannerisms, material belongings, credentials, etc. that is acquired through being part of a particular social class.
Sharing similar forms of cultural capital with others—the same taste in movies, for example, or a degree from an Ivy League School—creates a sense of collective identity and group position (“people like us”). But Bourdieu also points out that cultural capital is a major source of social inequality. Certain forms of cultural capital are valued over others, and can help or hinder one’s social mobility just as much as income or wealth.
Paul Willis…
Learning to Labour by Paul Willis (1977) is an ethnographic study of twelve working class ‘lads’ from a school in Birmingham conducted between 1972 and 1975. He spent a total of 18 months observing the lads in school and then a further 6 months following them into work.
Willis concentrated on a particular boy’s group in a non-selective secondary school in the Midlands, who called themselves ‘lads’. They were all white, although the school also contained many pupils from West Indian and Asian backgrounds.
Participant observation allowed Willis to immerse himself into the social settings of the lads and gave him the opportunity to ask the lads (typically open) questions about their behaviour that day or the night before, encouraging them to explain themselves in their own words…which included detailed accounts of the lads fighting, getting into trouble with teachers, bunking lessons, setting off fire extinguishers for fun and vandalising a coach on a school trip. predominantly working class in intake.
Findings from Paul Willis’ study…
One of Willis’ most important findings was that the lads were completely uninterested in school – they saw the whole point of school as ‘having a laff’ rather than trying to get qualifications. Their approach to school was to survive it, to do as little work as possible, and to have as much fun as possible by pushing the boundaries of authority and bunking as much as they could. The reason they didn’t value education is because they anticipated getting factory jobs which didn’t require any formal qualifications. They saw school as a ‘bit cissy’ and for middle class kids.
Willis does not include an account of how he approached the ‘lads’ and built rapport with them. However considering the responses of the ‘lads’ during discussions and interviews, seeing that the ‘lads’ openly talk about their views and experiences and allow access to work at a later stage of the research, Willis seems to have built rapport effectively.
Parental attitudes…
Attitudes and values are a key factor in education achievement. Douglas found that working class parents were less ambitious for their children and took less interest in their education. As a result children had less motivation towards school.
Hyman argues that the values of lower class reflect a self imposed barrier to educational success, they believe they have less chance of achieving individual success and so see no point of education.
Right realists…
Rights realists believe one reason for the social class difference is the “underclass”.
Murray is a right realists who believe a class of people exist who do not want to work, they have a culture of laziness and reliance on the benefits. This idea developed in the 70s where labours drive to increase benefits caused this to boom.
They argue the culture reinforced where learners don’t partake effectively in education and instead place an emphasis on surviving.
They place a large emphasis on having a nuclear family at is in fact a “dysfunctional” family consisting of any variation of the nuclear family is the reason for academic failure.
Sugarman’s 4 key features of working-class subculture that acts as a barrier to educational achievement…
Fatalism - a belief in fate and there is 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 and so not having long term goals.
Critiques…
Although cultural deprivation theorists have provided some evidence for the effects on educational achievement there are still some criticisms of this approach.
Keddie describes cultural deprivation as a myth and a victim blaming explanation. She argues working class families are different not deprived and fail because of biases in education system which put working class families at a disadvantage.
Troyna and Williams argue that teachers have a speech hierarchy and label middle class speech as the highest and working class speech as uneducated, this bias leads to under performance of working class students.
Blackstone and Mortimore argue that working class parents are not necessarily less involved in child’s education. Instead their long working hours makes attending parents evening more difficult. In addition helping with homework may be inhibited by the fact they may not be well educated. As a result cultural deprivation theorists are exaggerating in their claims.
Material deprivation…
Refers to poverty and lack of material necessities such as home and income, Poverty is linked to under achievement as only 33% of children receiving free school meals gain 5 A-C’s compared to 61% of children not receiving free school meals. Exclusion and truancy is more common in poorer families, and 90% of failing schools are located in deprived areas.
Housing and diet…
Poor housing can affect pupil’s underachievement both directly and indirectly. Overcrowding can have a direct effect by making is harder for a child to study. Families living in temporary accommodation may find themselves moving more frequently resulting in changing schools and disrupting their education. Poor housing can also have indirect effects on their health and welfare, as they may be more likely to get ill or psychological distress leading to more absences in school.
Diet and health specialist Marilyn Howard notes that young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals. Poor nutrition weakens the immune system and again leading to more absences from school due to illness.
Financial support…
Finally financial support and cost of education can affect educational achievement. Materially deprived children have to do without equipment, experiences (Such as school trips).
Tanner et al. found that costs of items such as transport, uniforms, books, computers etc place heavy burdens on poor families . As a result poor children have to make do with hand me downs and cheaper less fashionable equipment.
Stigmatisation and bullying = poorer educational achievement.
Lack of funds also means that children from low incomes families often need to work. Ridge found that children in poverty take on jobs such as baby sitting and paper rounds which have negative impact on their schoolwork.
Ridge also explains why many working class pupils leave the education system at 16 to go and start employment.
