Social class differences in achievement (external)

Question 1

Smith and Noble (1995) Material Deprivation

Answer 1

Believe that material factors, such as family income have a huge impact on working class pupils achievement.
Working class pupils often have:
> damp living conditions
> lack of space to revise
> inability to afford school trips
> greater risk of poor health = miss school days.
A “poverty-penalty” exists to prevent working class from fulfilling potential, therefore they face immense “barriers to learning”
EVALUATION - they overgeneralise, alot of working class pupils achieve well despite their living conditions.
EVALUATION - alot of measures now to tackle material deprivation, for example free school meals etc.

Question 2

Callender and Jackson (2005)

Answer 2

Their research found that:
> Working class students 5x less likely to apply for university - due to fear of debt
> only 30% of university students are working class.
> working class pupil more likely to study at local university.
DAILY TELEGRAPH - number of poorer students dropping out at its highest rate (2017)
EVALUATION - ignore the financial assistance the government gives, student loans means they dont have to pay upfront and if their income is low, they dont have to pay it at all.

Question 3

Cultural deprivation

Answer 3

the attitude and values of parents are significant in child school achievement.
> The parents/children that dont agree with school are considered culturally deprived, culturally deprived parents are:
> lack ambition for their childrens future
> provide little encouragement for child’s education
> lack interest in child’s education

Question 4

Barry Sugarman (1970)

Answer 4

There is a distinct lower class subculture in society that working class pupils are born into.
Key values working class believe are important is:
> Fatalistic views - they believe that they lack control over their future, this prevents them from being ambitious.
> Immediate gratification - they seek immediate pleasure and dont want to delay success like middle class does. This means they will get jobs earlier and focus on that instead of education etc.
Sugarman believes these values are a “self imposed barrier to success” for working class pupils.
EVALUATION - makes generalisations about working class values, some achieve and some dont, and even if they dont achieve good grades they still have hope they can be successfull.

Question 5

Basil Bernstein (1975) Speech Code

Answer 5

One specific component of cultural deprivation - speech and language use. There are two main types of “speech code”:
Elaborated code - Formal, detailed speech. Good knowledge, longer sentences - Middle class code.
Restricted Code - Informal speech, short simple sentences used. Lack of detail - Working class code.
As a consequence of this, working class pupils are likely to find it harder to express themselves in written work as they find it hard to unpack ideas, therefore lower marks are awarded to restricted code.
EVALUATION - it is unlikely students use one “speech code” all the time, not all working class use restricted and middle class dont always use elaborated code.

Question 6

Bathmaker et al (2013)

Answer 6

Study involving 41 middle class students and 40 working class students at Bristol university.
> looked at relationship between cultural capital, social capital, economic capital.
> found middle class students go to university “better equipped” and built upon advantages while studying.
> middle class students recognised how to add value to their degree by using their social capital to organise and arrange work experience etc.
> middle class know how to “play the game” to put themselves at an advantage.
EVALUATION - Bristol university may not be entirely representative for the rest of the country, there is a “north-south” divide in many aspects of education.