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 pupil’s 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 the working class from fulfilling their potential, therefore they face immense “barriers to learning”
EVALUATION - they overgeneralise, a lot of working-class pupils achieve well despite their living conditions.
EVALUATION - a lot 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 pupils are more likely to study at local universities.
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 don’t have to pay upfront and if their income is low, they don’t have to pay it at all.

Question 3

Cultural deprivation

Answer 3

The attitude and values of parents are significant in a child’s school achievement.
> The parents/children that don’t agree with the school are considered culturally deprived, culturally deprived parents are:
> lack ambition for their children’s future
> provide little encouragement for the child’s education
> lack interest in child’s education

Question 4

Barry Sugarman (1970)

Answer 4

He believes there is a distinct lower-class subculture in society that working-class pupils are born into.
Key values working class believe are important are:
> Fatalistic views - they believe that they lack control over their future, and this prevents them from being ambitious.
> Immediate gratification - they seek immediate pleasure and don’t want to delay success as the 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 don’t, and even if they don’t achieve good grades they still have hope they can be successful.

Question 5

Basil Bernstein (1975) Speech Code

Answer 5

One specific component of cultural deprivation - is 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 the middle class don’t always use elaborated code.