SOCIAL CLASS DIFFERENCES IN EDUCATION

Pupil premium (free school meals)
Non-pupil premium

EXTERNAL

Cultural deprivation

LANGUAGE (BERNSTEIN & FEINSTEIN)

PARENTS EDUCATION (DOUGLAS)

WORKING-CLASS SUBCULTURE (SUGARMAN)

Material deprivation

HOUSING

DIET & HEALTH (HOWARD)

FEAR OF DEBT (CALLENDER AND JACKSON)

FINANCIAL SUPPORT & COST OF EDUCATION (FLAHERTY & TANNER ET AL)

Cultural Capital (PIERRE BOURDIEU MARXIST)

  • A criticism of CULTURAL DEPRIVATION
  • The W/C not to blame but the education system
  • Socialisation = M/C acquire ability to express abstract ideas
  • Education system favours M/C. It transmits the dominant M/C culture
  • Schools devalue W/C culture so they believe education isn't for them

EDUCATIONAL & ECONOMIC CAPITAL (LEECH AND CAMPOS)

  • Wealthy parents -> private schools and paying for extra tuition
  • M/C able to afford house in catchment area of a school high in league tables (SELECTION BY MORTGAGE)

GEWIRTZ #

INTERNAL

LABELLING (Interactionist approach - Micro level - one person can affect your behaviour)

FEINSTEIN

  • M/c parents = educated = use challenging language
  • W/c parents = simple, descriptive statements

BEREITER AND ENGELMANN

  • W/c language = deficient

BERNSTEIN

  • RESTRICTED CODE = context-bound

  • ELABORATED CODE = context-free


  • Early socialisation

  • M/C = advantaged
  • Elaborated code = textbooks, teachers, exams
  • W/C language -> inadequate
  • HOWEVER, recognises internal AND external factors effects achievement

Labelling and setting due to how teachers view you

  • W/C fail because schools fail to teach elaborated code
  • W/C parents = less value on educatio, their children = lower levels motivation

FEINSTEIN

  • M/C parents more educated to give good socialisation skills:
  • Parenting style, parents' educational behaviours
  • Influence of parental education of achievement is in its own right. Not all children of w/c parents do badly.

BERNSTEIN & YOUNG

  • Income (m/c buy educational toys)
  • Fatalism
  • Collectivism
  • Immediate gratification
  • Deferred gratification
  • Present-time orientation (present more important than future)
  • Future-time orientation

W/C internalise these beliefs and values of subculture through primary socialisation

These differences in values exist because:

  • M/C jobs = secure = continuous advancement
  • W/C jobs = less secure = no structure for advancement
  • Compensatory education
  • USA: Operation Head Start (Sesame Street)
  • UK: Sure Start

MYTH OF CULTURAL DEPRIVATION (KEDDIE)

  • KEDDIE: Victim blaming
  • A child cannot be deprived of their culture
  • W/C children = culturally different
  • W/C = disadvantaged by an education system dominated by M/C values
  • Schools must recognise teacher's anti-w/c prejudices

TROYNA AND WILLIAMS CRITICISE BERNSTEIN

  • Speech hierarchy -> labelling, setting
  • You don't write how you speak

BLACKSTONE AND MORTIMORE

  • W/C parents attend fewer parents evenings because they work longer hours .
  • They lack KNOWLEDGE to help their children (CRITICISE DOUGLAS)
  • Overcrowding = educational activities lacked, disturbed sleep, lack of space for exploration
  • Moving frequently = disrupted education
  • Poor housing = illness = more absences
  • W/C homes -> low energy -> poor nutrition -> poor health -> absences -> difficulty concentrating
  • University = more costs than benefits
  • W/C see debt negatively
  • W/C = less financial support from families

REAY

  • W/C = local universities = no top unis
  • Working part-time
  • Dropout rates higher for unis with large amount of poor students
  • Lack of equipment & experiences
  • SMITH AND NOBLE Poverty = barrier to afford private tuition

TANNER ET AL Places a burden on poor families

FLAHERTY

  • People eligible for free school meals don't take it = stigmatised and bullied

EMA's abolished by Coalition Government 2011

Privileged-skilled choosers

  • M/C parents used economic and cultural capital for educational capital

Disconnected-local choosers

  • W/C parents whose choices were restricted by lack of economic and cultural capital

Semi-skilled choosers

  • Mainly W/C parents who were ambitious but lacked cultural capital

Labelling in primary schools

JORGENSEN
W/C primary school, ideal pupil - > defined by behaviour, not ability

  • M/C primary school, ideal pupil -> defined by personality and academic ability, rather than as a 'non-misbehaving'

RAY RIST

  • Teacher labelled M/C and gave them encouragement
  • Labelled W/C with low level books and so couldn't enhance abilities

Halo-effect & Folk-devil

Labelling in secondary schools

BECKER

  • Saw white, M/C, girls = ideal
  • Saw W/C = badly behaved

DUNNE AND GAZELEY

  • Schools reproduce w/c underachievement = labels
  • Normalised underachievement of W/C
  • Believed they could overcome M/C achievement
  • Labelled M/C parents = uninterested
  • W/C parents = supportive
  • Entering W/C = easier exams
  • Underestimated W/C potential -> those who did well = underachieving

SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY (ROSENTHAL & JACOBSON)

Pygmalion in the classroom

  • Field experiment
  • Pupils selected at random as 'spurters'
  • They made greater progress than others
  • The teachers expected more from them = SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY

Criticisms

  • Field experiment = valid
  • Only checked back on them after one year = unrepresentative
  • Selected pupils at random = no consent from students

CRITICISMS
MARY FULLER -> SELF-DENYING PROPHECY

  • Afro-Carribean girls resented negative stereotypes and proved teachers wrong
  • Too DETERMINISTIC. Not all pupils do badly due to labelling

Pupil subculture as a result

  • Streaming
  • BECKER -> teachers view w/c students as lacking in ability -> placed W/C children in low stream -> locked in -> self-fulfilling prophecy
  • DOUGLAS children placed in lower streams = decline in IQ score by age 11 and vice versa

LACEY

  • Pro-school subculture
  • Anti-school subculture

MARKETISATION AND SELECTION POLICIES

Parentocracy

A-C economy and educational triage (GILBORN AND YOUDELL)

Marketisation -> league tables -> attract pupils and funding -> only helping middle class

Competition and selection

WILLIAM BARTLETT

  • Schools select high achieving, M/C pupils


    (CREAM-SKIMMING)


  • Good schools avoid taking less able pupils likely to get poor results and damage the school's league table position


    (SILT-SHIFTING)

Pupil class identities and the school

  • Schools place higher value on M/C Habitus (BOURDIEU)


  • Symbolic capital & symbolic violence

  • Symbolic capital -> M/C habitus pupils socialised into M/C tastes and preferences
  • Symbolic violence -> By defining the W/C and their lifestyles as inferior, keeping the W/C in their place

  • Results in W/C experiencing education as alien due to a clash between the two habitus


  • ARCHER: W/C felt they had to 'lose their identity' to be educationally successful

NIKE IDENTITIES

  • Pupils conscious that society/school looked down on them -> seeking alternative ways for self-worth -> females = hyper-heterosexual feminine style -> this appearance earned symbolic capital and approval from peer groups -> also led to conflict with dress code -> labelled as rebels


  • Nike styles = W/C pupils rejection of higher education -> unrealistic and undesirable


  • Caused by educational marginalisation by school

  • Self-elimination from education
  • Doesn't fit in with their habitus

INGRAM: - Found that W/C identity = inseperable from belonging to a W/C area

  • Gave them a sense of belonging
  • W/C communities = conformity
  • Grammar school boys experienced tension between W/C neighbourhood and M/C school habitus

Class identity and self-exclusion
SARAH EVANS ->

  • W/C girls reluctant to apply to elite universities due to hidden barriers/not fitting in
  • Strong attachment to locality -> REAY -> narrowing options

BOURDIEU -> W/C people think they wont fit in due to habitus -> leading to excluding themselves from elite universities

CRITICISM
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS

They are interrelated

  • W/C habitus (external) conflicts with school's M/C habitus = symbolic violence (internal)


  • W/C restricted code (external) = labelling = self-fulfulling prophecy (internal)


  • DUNNE AND GAZELEY: - Labelling (internal) due to beliefs about a W/C pupil's home (external) = underachievement

  • Poverty (external) = bullying by peer groups (internal) = truanting
  • League tables (external) -> streaming -> GILLBORN & YOUDELL: this external factor drived the A-C economy = labelling and streaming

CRITICISM/CONCLUSION
We cannot see one identity as a HOMOGENOUS group, as all identities are interrelated (W/C, white, British, boys)