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.
Elaborate code is the speech typically of the middle class
Has limited vocabulafy and is based ons hort, unfinshed, grammatically simple sentences.
Wider vocabulary based on longer grammatically more complex sentencing. Speech is more varied and communicates more complex abstarct ideas.
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.
Douglas found that working class pupils scored lower on tests than middle class
Middle class mothers purposely find ways to encourage their children to read at an early age, preparing them for school
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
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.
Hyman argues the value& beliefs of working class subculture are a'self barrier' to educational and career sucess.
Sugarman agrues that working class subculture has 4 key roles that act as a barrier to educational achievement
A subculture is a group whose attitude and values differ from those of mainstream culture
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.
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
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
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
Housing
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 leave school with no qualification.
90% of 'failing' schools are located in deprived areas.
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 deal 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.
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.
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 to 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 converted into one another.
For e.g. middle class children with cultural capitalare 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:
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.
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 capital and found it diufficult to make sense of the educational market.
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.
They often rely on other people's opions about school
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.
SPEECH CODES