Social Class - External Factors

Question 1

What social class backgrounds achieve more?

Answer 1

Middle class children generally achieve more in education rather than working class children

• middle class parents can afford private education
• 7% UK schools are private
• majority who are privately schooled go to university (90%)
• privately educated make up more than half of oxford entrants

Question 2

What are the 3 external factors of social class differences?

Answer 2

Material deprivation
Cultural deprivation
Cultural capital

Question 3

What do cultural deprivation theorists argue?

Answer 3

-most of us acquire out values and attitudes from primary socialisation
-this is the basic ‘cultural equipment’ of language, self discipline and reasoning
-the w/c do not socialise the children adequately = cultural deprivation
W/c homes lack books, educational toys and activities

Question 4

Who distinguishes 2 types of speech codes? And what are they?

Answer 4

Bernstein (1975)

• restricted speech code (used by w/c)
• elaborated speech code (used by m/c)

Teachers, textbooks and tests use the elaborated code

Question 5

What did Sugarman (1970) argue?

Answer 5

The working class subculture has 4 key features that act as a barrier of underachievement

• Fatalism
• collectivism
• Immediate gratification
• present time orientation

Question 6

What is fatalism?

Answer 6

A belief in fate- that ‘whatever will be will be’ and there is nothing that can be done to change your status

Question 7

What is collectivism?

Answer 7

Valuing being part of a group more than succeeding as an individual

Question 8

What is immediate gratification?

Answer 8

Seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices in order to get rewards in the future

Question 9

What is present time orientation?

Answer 9

Seeing the present as more important than the future and so not having long term goals

Question 10

Who believes w/c children score lower on tests than m/c kids because w/c parents don’t read to their children?

Answer 10

Douglas (1964)

Question 11

Who claims language used in w/c homes are deficient?

Answer 11

Bereiter and Engelmann (1966)
He argues this is because they use gestures, single words and disjointed phrases and w/c kids struggle to explain, describe, enquiry or compare in lessons

Question 12

Who argues w/c have a negative attitude towards education and why?

Answer 12

Feinstein (1998)

-m/c parents are more likely to provide their children with the necessary motivation, support and discipline

Question 13

Who criticised cultural deprivation theory by claiming it is a myth?

Answer 13

Keddie (1973)

Argues w/c children are not culturally deprived however just culturally different

Question 14

Why is there a risk of letting schools ‘off the hook’? What could this lead to?

Answer 14

If we completely blame parents and home situations then it does not pressure schools into changing and improving even though it may not be their fault completely. This could lead to underachieving

Question 15

What needs to be challenged in cultural deprivation and who argues this?

Answer 15

Troyna & Williams (1985)

A speech hierarchy exists and this needs to be challenged or else more w/c children will underachieve

Question 16

Who is ‘frozen out of the education system’? Who argues this and why is this an issue?

Answer 16

Working class parents

• blackstone & mortimer (1994)
• education system is not designed to fit their needs meaning w/c parents do not have the relevant information about education and therefore frozen out of the system

Question 17

What is material deprivation?

Answer 17

Refers to poverty and a lack of material necessities

Question 18

What are the 4 factors involved in material deprivation?

Answer 18

• poor housing
• poor diet and health
• the hidden costs of education
• fear of debt

Question 19

What is the percentage of children who claim FMS achieve 5 A*-C GCSE’s?

Answer 19

33%

Question 20

What is the percentage of failing schools in deprived areas?

Answer 20

Nearly 90%

Question 21

Name 2 things that children are more likely to receive when living in poorer areas

Answer 21

• exclusion

- truancy

Question 22

How can material deprivation be criticised and contradicted?

Answer 22

Many w/c children do academically succeed regardless of coming from poorer backgrounds

Question 23

How do schools reduce the impacts of material deprivation and therefore means MD isn’t as big a problem?

Answer 23

Many schools now offer facilities such as computers outside of normal school times so that children (especially w/c) can catch up with work so they don’t fall behind academically

Question 24

What is the word that describes the extreme arguments about MD and why is it?

Answer 24

DETERMINISTIC
-to say that poverty causes poor educational performance is too deterministic as some students from poor backgrounds do academically succeed. Therefore instead of saying there is a relationship between the 2 variables, say that poverty disadvantages w/c students and makes it harder to succeed

Question 25

What government initiatives help reduce material deprivation and therefore means MD is criticised?

Answer 25

EMA - sought to compensate for material deprivation as well as
-SureSmart programmes to provide pre-schools and nursery places in poorer districts, therefore MD may not occur or it gives them a head start

Question 26

Who identifies 3 types of capital and what are they?

Answer 26

Bourdieu (1984)

• economic capital
• educational capital
• cultural capital

Question 27

Who does bourdieu claim has more capital?

Answer 27

Middle class

Question 28

How does bourdieu define cultural capital?

Answer 28

Refers to the knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities of the middle class

Question 29

Similarly to Bernstein, how does bourdieu argue socialisation is a key factor that affects cultural capital?

Answer 29

Middle class children acquire the ability to grasp, analyse and express abstract ideas- more likely to develop intellectual interests and an understanding of what the education system requires for success

Question 30

How does cultural capital affect m/c and w/c?

Answer 30

M/C- give an advantage in schools, where such abilities and interests are highly valued and rewarded with qualifications- this is because the education system is not neutral, but favours and transmits the dominant m/c culture

W/C- education devalues their culture as ‘rough’ and inferior- this leads to exam failure. Many w/c pupils ‘get the message’ that education is not for them and reaping by truanting, early leaving or not trying

Question 31

Who examined the question of whether parental choice in school has benefited one class more than the other?

Answer 31

Sharon Gewirtz (1995)

Question 32

What did Gewirtz discover about parents?

Answer 32

3 types of parents

• PRIVILEGED SKILL CHOOSER- m/c parents who use their cultural and economic capital (shop around)
• DISCONNECTED LOCAL CHOOSERS- w/c parents who lack cultural and economic capital (closest and safest)
• SEMI SKILLED CHOOSERS- ambitious w/c parents who rely on other people’s opinions

Question 33

Give 3 criticisms of cultural capital theory

Answer 33

• ignores or underestimates the direct influence of material factors in education
• fails to acknowledge the importance of factors inside school and the way that different groups are treated once they enter the schooling system
• with the exception of bourdieu, they fail to acknowledge the way that material factors shape different cultures, material inequalities are perhaps the main reason that different class-based cultures develop