Social Class and Education Flashcards
What are out of school social class factors affecting education?
Material deprivation
Cultural deprivation
Cultural capital
What are in school social class factors affecting education?
Labelling / self fulfilling prophecy
Setting / streaming / exam tiers
Pupil subcultures
What can material deprivation lead to?
Poor housing Poor diet Poor health Lack of educational resources May need to work while in school
What is cultural deprivation?
Refers to a lack of values, language, attitudes and skills necessary for educational success
Which social class is more likely to be affected by cultural capital?
Working class pupils
What is a subculture?
A group within society with its own values
What is fatalism?
A belief in fate that ‘whatever will be, will be’ and there is nothing you can do to change your status
How does fatalism affect WC pupils?
Causes WC pupils to underachieve as they believe they cannot change their failure in school and that’s what meant to happen
What is collectivism?
Valuing being part of a group more than succeeding as an individual
How does collectivism affect WC pupils?
Causes WC pupils to underachieve because they will care more about their friends than their own education and will be influenced by their friends decisions
What is immediate gratification?
Seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices in order to get rewards in the future
How does immediate gratification affect WC pupils?
Causes WC underachievement because they won’t see the importance of making sacrifices in order to benefit their future
e.g. will worry about exams the day of it
What is present time orientation?
Seeing the present as more important than the future and so not having long term goals
How does present time orientation affect WC pupils?
Causes WC pupils to underachieve because they won’t see the importance of working hard now to benefit the future as they won’t have long term goals like the MC might
What is non-fatalism?
A belief that they change their status through hard work and effort
How does non-fatalism affect MC pupils?
Causes MC pupils to achieve because they don’t accept that there is nothing they can do to change their status and they work hard to achieve
What is individualism?
Valuing succeeding as an individual more than being apart of a group
How does individualism affect MC pupils?
Causes MC pupils to achieve because they won’t be influenced by their friends and will work hard to achieve for themselves
What is deferred gratification?
Seeking pleasure later rather than now in order to recieve the rewards now
How does deferred gratification affect MC pupils?
Causes MC pupils to achieve because they see the importance of making sacrifices now in order to benefit their future
What is future time orientation?
Seeing their future as more important than the present and having long term goals
How does future time orientation affect MC pupils?
Causes MC pupils to achieve because they see the importance of working hard now to acheive their goals in the future
Which two speech codes did Bernstein identify?
Restricted code
Elaborated code
What is the restricted code?
Limited vocabulary, short simple sentences, context-bound (assumes knowledge of topic)
Typically used by WC
What is the elaborated code?
Wider vocabulary, grammatically complex sentences, context-free
Typically used by MC
Which speech code does education use?
Elaborated code
Why does education using elaborated code disadvantage WC?
They start school having only been socialised to use the restricted code and therefore have to learn the elaborated code
How does compensatory education aim to deal with the problem of cultural deprivation?
Aims to deal with cultural deprivation by providing extra resources to school and communties in deprived areas to compensation children for the deprivation they experience at home
How may sure start help children from deprived households succeed in education?
The centre provide intergrated education and works with the parents to promote physical, intellecutal and social development of babies and young children so that they can flourish when they go to school and at home thereby breaking the cycle of disadvantage
How does Keddie criticise cultural deprivation as a theory?
Argues its a myth which blames WC parents for their failure not the MC education system
Argues a child cannot be deprived of its own culture - WC culture is rich and varied but id different to the culture of education. Therefore WC children are culturally different not culturally deprived
How do Troyna and Williams criticise cultural deprivation as a theory?
Argue WC parents are interested in their childs education but may attend fewer parents evenings because they cannot take time off work or are put off by MC habitus of the school
What is cultural capital?
The knowledge, values, skills, language, lifestyles possessed by the MC to help them succeed in the MC habitus of education
What is economic capital?
More money due to higher salaries
What is social capital?
The friends/contacts who can help with their childs education
What is educational capital?
Knowledge of how the education system works
Why do the 4 types of capital support the Marxist view that parentocracy is a myth?
Unlike the MC the WC don’t have these types of capital and therefore don’t have the knowledge, money or friends/contacts that can help their child succeed in the education system and therefore only the MC have a choice
