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CLASS DIFFERENCE IN ACHIEVEMENT EXTERNAL FACTORS, Gewirtz: marketisation…
CLASS DIFFERENCE IN ACHIEVEMENT
EXTERNAL FACTORS
CULTURAL DEPRIVATION
Language
Language is a n esstential part of the process of education and the way parents communicate with their children affects their
cognitive (intellectual) development.
Bereiter and Engelman(1966)
claims language in lower class homes is deficient, the describe lower class families as communicating by gestures, single words and disjointes words.
Bernstein (1975)
developed 2 types of speech found in classes.
Restricted code
is the speech typically of working class.
Has limited vocabulafy and is based ons hort, unfinshed, grammatically simple sentences.
Elaborate code
is the speech typically of the middle class
Wider vocabulary based on longer grammatically more complex sentencing. Speech is more varied and communicates more complex abstarct ideas.
SPEECH CODES
Intellectual develpoment
This refers to the development and reasoning skills,e.g. able to solve problems & use ideas and concepts.
Theorist argues that working class lack books, educational toys and activities to stimulate their intellectual skills.
Middle class mothers purposely find ways to encourage their children to read at an early age, preparing them for school
Douglas
found that working class pupils scored lower on tests than middle class
Bernstein and Young (1967)
found that middle class mothers are more likely to buy educational toys,books and acitivities that encorages reasoning skills and stimulate thie intellectual skills. (
USE OF INCOME)
Working class parents were more liekly to lack these resoucres which meant that their child lack intellectual development.
Attitudes and value
Most working class children create a
anti-school sub-culture
Hyman
argues the value& beliefs of working class subculture are a
'self barrier'
to educational and career sucess.
A
subculture
is a group whose
attitude and values
differ from those of
mainstream culture
Douglas
found that working class familise put less value on education and more no working.
They have less motivation because their parents gave them no ambition of achievement to strive for so it replicates onto their own child.
Sugarman
agrues that working class subculture has 4 key roles that act as a barrier to educational achievement
FATALSIM
"whatever will be, will be" and there is nothing you can do to change your status.
This contrast with middle class value, which emphasies you can change your status through your own effort.
COLLECTIVSIM
valuing being part of a group more than succeeding as an individual.
This contrast with middle class views that an individual shouldnt be held back by group loyalty.
IMMEDIATE GRATIFICATION
seeking pleasure now rather than making scarifies in order to get the future.
This contrast middle class values emphasise deferred gratification, making sacrifices now for greater rewards later.
PRESENT-TIME ORIENTATION
Seeing the present as more important that the future and so not having long-term goals.
Compensatory Education
Is a policy designed to tackle the problems of cultural deprivation providing extra resources to schols and communities in deprived areas.
Programmes attempt to compensate for the depriviation they expierence at home.
Best known example of this is
Operation Head Start in the United States
- its aims was 'planned enrichment' of the deprived children environment.
Myth of Cultural Deprivation
Although it draws attention to the childrens background the theory has been widely criticised as an explanatation of class differences.
Keddie
describes cultural deprivation as a '
myth
' and sees it as
victim blaming explanation.
And argues that working class are simply cultural different not cultural deprived.
Critics rejects the view that working class parents are not intrested in their childrens education.
MATERIAL DEPRIVATION
Material deprivation
refers to
poverty
and lack of
material necessities
such as
adequate housing
and
icome
.
Poverty is closely linked to educational underachievement , as there is a close link between poverty and social class
Working class familes are more likely to have low income or inadequate housing.
Diet and health
Children from poorer households are more likely to have emotional or behavioral problem
Howard(2001)
notes that young people in poorer houses have lower intakes of vitamins and minerals
Due to this their immune system weakens and lowers the children energy which may result to absences from school, and may find it hard to concentrate
Wilkinson(1996)
states amoung 10 year old, the lower social class has a higher rate of
hyperactivity, anxiety and conduct disorder
, which has a negative affect on a child education
Housing
Indirectly
: Children in overcrowding house has a greater risk of accidents.
Indirectly
:lack of space and exploring can impair children mentally
Indirectly:
Poor housing can effect chidlrens health, with damp and the cold
Poor housing
can affect pupils achievement both
indirectly
and
directly
e.g overcrowding can have a direct effect by making it hard to study
Directly:
Overcrowding can mean less room for educational activities.
No where to do homework, distrubed sleep for sharing beds or bedroom.
Financial Support and Cost of Education.
Lack of financial suuport
means that children from poor families have to d
eal without equipments
and
miss out on expierences
that would enhance their achievements.
A study in the
Oxford area
by
Emily Tanner et al (2003)
found that the cost of items such as
transport, uniform, books,equipments, computer
place a
heavy burden on poor families.
Lack of funds also mean children from low-icome families have to work.
Ridge
found that
children in poverty takes job
such as
babysitting,cleaning and paper rounds
, which
could have a negative impact on schoolwork
.
Statictics
Acoording to the
Department for Education(2012)
barely a
1/3
of pupils eligable to
FSM
- a widely used measure of childs poverty - achievie
5 or more GCSEs at A*-C
including english and maths
Children excluded from school are
unlikely
to
return mainstream education,
while a
1/3 of all persistant truants
l
eave school with no qualification
.
90%
of 'failing' schools are located in
deprived areas
.
CULTURAL CAPITAL
Bourdieu(1984)
argues that both cultural and material factors contribute to educational achievement.
Cultural capital
refers to the
knowledge, attitudes, values, language and tastes and abilities
Middle class families
can afford houses in the catchment areas of schools high up in the
league tables
Richer families
are able t
o send their children to private school
, who will get better qualifications.
School system favors middle class
because they are more likely to
pass and achieve higher grades
.
Leading to
working class
"
getting the message
" that they are
unwanted
Bourdieu: Three types of Capital
A test of bourdieus ideas
Sullivan(2001)
used a
questionnaire
to
conduct a survey
of
465 pupils in four schools
, to assess their
cultural capital
.
Sullivan
found that those who
read complex fiction
and
watched serious TVdocummentaries
developed a
wider vocalbulary and greater cultural knowledge
.
Although successful pupils with
greater cultural capital
were more likely to be middle class.
Bourdieu argues that
both cultural and material factors
contribute to
educational achievement
and are not
seperate but interrelated.
Educational and Economic Capital
Bourdieu argues that
educational, economic and cultural capital
can be c
onverted into one another.
For e.g.
middle class children
with
cultural capital
are
better equiped
to
meet the demands
of the
schools cirriculum and gain qualifications
.
Wealthier parents can
covert their economic capital into educational capital
by
sending their child to private school and pay for extra tuition
.
Gewirtz: marketisation and parental choice
Gewirtz: Identifies three types of parents:
Privelged skilled-choosers
These are mainly middle class parents who use their
economic and cultural capital
to gain
educational capital
for their children.
They understand the importance of putting a particular school as first choice,meeting deadlines and using appeals procedures and waiting lists to get
WHAT they WANT
Semi-skilled choosers
These are
mainly working class parents
but unlike
disconneted- local choosers
they had
ambitions for their childs education.
However,
they lack cultural capita
l and found it diufficult to make sense of the educational market.
They often rely on other people's opions about school
Qewirtz concludes that
middle class parents with cultural capital and economic capital
are better placed to take advantage of the available opportunities for good education.
Disconnected-local choosers
They were
mainly working class parents
whose choice were
restricted by their lack of economic and cultural capital.
They
found it difficult to understand schools admissions and procedures.
They were less confident intheir dealing schools, less aware of he choice open to them, and were less able to manipulate the system to their own advantages.
Since the creation of an
Education Market
by the
1988 Education reform Act,
sociologist have been intrested in the
effects of the increased parental choice
that the Act introduced.