Topic 3 : Class And Educational Achievement Flashcards
What is cultural deprivation?
The idea that some young people underachieve in education because of cultural deficiencies in their family background. Such as inadequate socialisation, failings in pre school, language and values towards education
Causes of WC underachievement
Parental attitudes towards education
Amount of cultural capital
Restricted code of language
Subcultural attitudes and values
Parents level of education
What did Sugarman argue
WC subculture has 4 factors that cause a barrier for educational achievement
Immediate gratification
Fatalism
Collectivism
Present-time orientation
Feinstein
Main reason why wc underachieve was because of parents lack of interest in their children’s education
WC parents unlikely to give their children educational toys that will stimulate their thinking skills - this affects their intellectual development so that when they begin school they are disadvantaged compared to the MC kids
Goodman and Gregg
Quality of mother - child interactions and amount of time spent with children
Parents reading to young children
Parental involvement in school - helping with HW, parents evenings
Bourdieu’ a cultural capital
Each class has its own framework of ideas and values - habitus
MC habitus gives advantage to MC students
Accent / clothes / music etc. allow MC to fit in - this cultural capital helps students excel in school and makes them comfortable because school values are more in line with their own cultural values
How economic capital has a role in education
Tuition / private education
How cultural capital has a role in education
Parents create an environment at home where they can thrive, help with homework, take them to culturally enriching places and have an active interest
How social capital has a role in education
Know how to get in the best schools and build relationships with teachers
How symbolic capital has a role in education
Could help with admissions or private / selective schools
Sullivan
Students who achieved higher:
Read complex fiction
Watched documentaries and current affairs
Attended ‘high culture’ events
Ball et al. - how do parents use their capital in education
Economic capital - move homes, tuition, choose independent schools
Social capital - more contacts in education, headteachers etc.
Cultural capital - more knowledge of education system, league tables, admission procedures
Reay et al
Students with lower cultural capital less likely to attend Russell group universities
Evaluation of the role of cultural capital in educational achievement
Sullivan - cultural capital was not the biggest determinant of educational success
UCAS admissions - students from lower social classes more likely to attend post 1992 universities
Bernstein
Elaborate v restricted
Schools and teachers use elaborated code - schools are MC institutions
Elaborated:
Grammatically complex
Bored vocabulary
MC
Restricted:
Grammatically simple
Narrow selection of words
WC
How does speech codes impact education
Teachers speak in elaborated code
Education resources written in elaborated code
External examinations written in elaborated code
Evaluation of Bernstein
Students learn the elaborated code throughout their schooling
Restricted code and elaborated code can be interchangeable in social situations
Evaluation of the role of speech codes
Educational performance of Chinese and Indian students
Douglas’s study
Longitudinal study on children and the value parents place on education
WC parents placed less value on education so kids were less ambitious
MC parents showed more interest (visiting schools etc.)
Therefore, parental interest is the key factor in explaining the class differences in educational achievement
Evans’ study
She found that WC parents did encourage a good education bur she found it was differences in primary socialisation
MC mothers use formal style learning in their play early on so this builds up a learning platform
WC mothers do not have formal learning styles through primary socialisation
Therefore MC have a headstart
Evans rejects CDT - she sees it as different not worse
Criticisms of the cultural deprivation theory
Generally blames the WC for their own failure when in fact the system is up against them
Evans - WC do value education highly
Bernstein oversimplifies the differences between speech codes - differences have declined since his research
Connor et al
Group interviews with students from a range of class backgrounds
WC pupils are discouraged from going to university for 3 main reasons:
They want immediate gratification
Realise parents can’t afford to support them (tuition fees deterring WC students)
Less confidence in their ability to succeed in university
What is material deprivation
Inability to afford basic resources which can impact a pupil’s educational achievement
Sutton trust statistic on material deprivation
Private school students 55 times more likely to get into oxbridge
% of students in private schools
7%
Douglas about material deprivation
Material deprivation has a cumulative effect on achievement
Who suffers from material deprivation
34% children living in poverty in UK (social metrics commission) - only 13.6% claim free school meals
45% of children in minority ethnic families in poverty (child poverty action group)
How does material deprivation impact education
Lack of ability to afford resources and hidden costs (uniform, school trips)
Overcrowded accommodation
Part-time jobs - taking away from studies
Diet and nutrition - tiredness and absence
Caring responsibilities
What have governments done to tackle material deprivation
New labour:
Sure start
EMA
Excellence in cities
City centre academies
Coalition:
Universal free school meals
PP
Evaluation of material deprivation explanations
Deterministic - some WC students perform well
Not just material deprivation, cultural matters too
Strand - Chinese students on FSM - 77% achieve 5 GCSE, Chinese students non-FSM - 78% achieve 5 GCSE
Gibson and Asthana - 5 factors of material deprivation
Higher levels of illness in poorer homes -> more absence + falling behind
Less able to afford ‘hidden costs’ - books, toys, computers
Tuition fees are a great source of anxiety
Poorer parents are less likely to have access to nursery facilities
Young people from poorer families are more likely to have a part time job
Compensatory education
Extra educational help for disadvantaged groups to help balance inequalities
Positive discrimination - treating them more favourably to redress the balance
3 compensatory policies
Sure start
Pupil premium
EMA
What is PP and how do schools spend it
Extra funding of £1000 per student from deprived backgrounds
Aim is to close the gap and increase academic ability of underprivileged students
Hiring TAs to provide additional support
Investing in technology and resources such as computers
1:1 tutoring
Extra curricular
Benefits of EMA
Institute for fiscal studies (IFS) - staying on rates improved by 5.9% - most pronounced by boys whose parents were in low skilled jobs and facing most social pressure to earn money and peer pressure that education is unimportant
Becker
Labelling theory (in education) - teachers pass judgment on their students based on pre-existing stereotypes of what constitutes the ‘Ideal pupil’ - often linked to class backgrounds
Teachers saw MC children as closest to their stereotype of the ‘Ideal Pupil’ and WC children as the furthest away
Hargreaves
Labelling leads to certain students being given imaginary halos which stay with them throughout their educational careers - the halo effect
Ray rist’s study
Children labelled as “tigers” or “clowns” based on educational ability
Found that the MC were tigers and WC were clowns
Children’s educational success determined by these labels as the tigers deemed themselves smarter and the clowns experienced a SFP
Rosenthal and Jacobson
Randomly selected 20% of students and labelled them as spurters from a fake IQ test
Teacher expectations - conveyed spurters differently and had high expectations of them - in turn these pupils internalised these views and performed better than non-spurters
What does labelling look like in schools?
Setting and streaming
Gifted and Talented
PP
Internal processes and WC underachievement
Educational triage
Labelling / SFP
Setting and streaming
Knowledge and quality of teaching
Subcultures
Gilbourn and Youdell
Marketisation
Educational triage: (A-C economy)
Due to pressure from league tables, schools likely to ration their time and resources towards the most able students where pupils are split into 3 groups
A. Those who will pass either way (stereotypically MC) - less time and resources
B. Border line cases (stereotypically MC) - more time and resources
C. Hopeless cases (stereotypically WC) - less time and resources
Evaluation:
Now league tables are 9-1 and focus more on progress - moved away from this attainment score
Ball
WC students more likely to be in lower sets even if their results were the same as MC students - evidence for labelling
Behaviour and quality of work got worse
Leading to lower self esteem - SFP
Keddie
Teaching in lower sets was more simplified and less challenging as students were seen as less intelligent
Meaning students were put in lower tiered exams and were restricted in terms of their ability to progress
Lacey - subcultures
The pro school subculture:
Associated with MC
Positive stereotypes
Positive labels
High expectations
Positive SFP
The anti-school subculture:
Associated with WC
Negative stereotypes
Negative labels
Low expectations
Negative SFP
Emerged as a response to streaming
Internal V external factors for WC underachievement
Internal :
Labelled as less able, SFP
Setting and streaming
Bullying by peers
Teacher assumptions of WC backgrounds
School’s MC habitus
External:
WC habitus formed out of school
Poverty
Restricted speech code
WC home backgrounds
Government policies (A-C economy)
Archer - Nike identities
WC pupils - society looked down upon them
Constructed meaningful class identities through branding like Nike
Correct appearance earned symbolic capital and approval from peer groups
MC habitus stigmatises WC pupil identities
Criticisms of Sugarman
Plays on differences between classes and not similarities
Overgeneralised to suggest all WC hold these values
Bias towards MC as he sees these values as bad
Criticisms of cultural deprivation theory
Black stone and Mortimore:
WC parents do have an interest in their children’s education but do not feel comfortable visiting schools due to teacher attitudes.
What did Stephen Ball find
Introduction of marketisation means that MC have a greater choice of state schools due to selection by mortgage
Criticism of the labelling theory
Deterministic - assumes that being labelled will result in a SFP no matter what (fuller and the denying prophecy - black girls labelled as low achievers but did not have a SFP, they proved the teachers wrong)
Bartlett
Marketisation
Cream skimming and silt shifting - schools aim to select only the best students
Schools ignore ‘more costly’ students
