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CLASS AND EDUCATION - Coggle Diagram
CLASS AND EDUCATION
cultural deprivation
home background
had an enormous effect on the success of children from working class and underclass backgrounds as they were more likely to suffer from cultural deprivation where they lack the knowledge and skills to succeed
subcultures
Hyman 1967 - in the 'value systems of different classes' argued that the system of the lower class creates a 'self imposed barrier to an improved position'. he saw the following as differences between wc and mc value systems
- members of the wc place lower value on education
- they place lower values on achieving high occupations
- they believe there is less opportunity for personal advancements
he concluded that motivation to achieve was low for the wc
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parents education
- parents attittides to education are a key factor to affecting achievement
- parenting style - educated parents use more discipline and have high expectations - supports achievement
- educated parenetsd are also more aware of what is needed to assist their children
- Douglas 1964 - wc parents place less value on education= less ambitious for their children, participated less in their education, the result was that their children had lower levels of motivation and achievement
- Feinstein 2008 - parents own education is the most important factor affecting achievement, as mc parents are educated they give their children better chances through socialisation.
parents
Douglas argued that the most important factor in attainment is parent's interest in their child's education
- mc parents expressed a greater intetest with more frequent vists to the school to discuss progress - this is even more important when discussing higher education
- he also suggested that early yeas play a role in this as mc children receive greater attention and stimulus from their parents - this formed a basis for high achievement
Feinstein 2003 - like Douglas, he claimed that the main factor affecting education was the degree of parental interest and support. he saw class differences in parental support accounting for class differences in attainment
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language
language is an essential part of the process of education and the way in which parents communicate with children affects their development.
Hubbs- Tait 2002 - where parents use language to challenge their childrens cognitive performance
speech codes
Bernstein argued that laguage codes are responsible for their differential achievement
restricted codes
- language used by friends and family (slang)
- used by both mc and wc students, but wc students are limited to this form of language
elaborated codes
- used in a formal context with explanation and detail. has a wider vocabulary
- elaborated code is the language used by teachers in school and is mainly used by mc students, therefore they have an advantage
evaluation of Bernstein
- he lumps together all manual workers
- he provides little evidence of existence and use of the redistricted and elaborated code
- much of his evidence is drawn from interviews with children - interview bias
- he implies that wc speech patterns are substandard - creating a myth that mc speech patterns are superior
set up of schools
- schools are mainly run by white middle class people - those who share these qualities succeed
- 11+ test - favoured to middle class students
- middle class succeed not due to intelligence but by using the preferred way of communicating
positive discrimination
compensatory education - making more resources available in schools in poorer areas in order to compensate for deprivation
- 1990s - conservatives - 25% more funding for LA's in disadvantaged areas
- late 1990s - labour - Education Action Zones to raise standards
- 'Excellence in Cities' imitative, improving education by: better resources enabling specialities, learning mentors to reduce exclusions, special provision for high risk exclusion
material deprivation
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material deprivation is the lack of money leading to disadvantages. certain groups in society have less money and therefore and not able to make the most of their educational opportunities
how?
- extra tuition
- revision books
- stationary
- school trips
cognitive development
Waldfogal and Washbrook 2010 - looked at the relationship between low income and cognitive development - assessed the cognitive ability of 5 year olds - using three tests - divided children into three groups based on parental income. there was a significant gap between the lowest income group and the middle income group (11.1 month gap on vocabulary)
this test indicated that cognitive development of children in poverty when they start school is nearly a year behind the middle income children (likely to be reflected in the attainment gap throughout education)
lack of a home computer, a car and annual holiday and health were seen as significant factors to this gap
private tuition
Sutton Trust estimates that 23% of young people receive private tuition
- 35% of households in the top income group
- 9% of households in the lowest income group
therefore suggesting that those in higher income groups have greater access to private tuition - which translates into education success
Smith and Nobel (1995)
identify 'barriers to learning' resulting from low income families:
1) children isolated, bullied and stigmatised - less likely to be able to afford 'cool' clothes, school trips, textbooks, school uniform and fall behind in school
2) less likely to have computer and internet access - a comfortable place to complete homework
3) catchment areas - more likely to live in deprived areas with unpopular schools
4) more likely to suffer ill health - poor attendance
catchment areas
middle class - can afford to move into catchment areas of 'good schools', pay for their children to have private tuition, go on school trips, buy equipment, books etc...
working class - kids are more likely to live in socially deprived areas with social problems, no facilities and over-crowded housing that gives them no space
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cultural capital
- 'cultural skills, such as knowing how to behave, speak and learn, passed on by middle class parents to their children'
- marxists use this to explain educational success
- Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) - middle class culture is as valuable in education as material wealth (trips, computer, internet, desk)
- middle class children are more likely to achieve as they have more cultural capital (economic, cultural and educational)
- the knowledge and skills that are valued in education
more likely to be raised by professional parents, who will pass this knowledge onto them
- leisure time is more likely to be spent on educational pursuits like visiting museums as they have both the money and the attitude/appreciation.
Ball et al (1994)
- middle class parents can 'play the system' with their cultural capital to ensure good schools
- making an impression with the headteacher
- knowing how to mount an appeal
West and Hind (2003)
- school interviews
- middle class often had cultural capital to negotiate
Bourdieu
- he argues that the culture of the education system is based on the culture of the dominant class - they have the power to impose meaning and to impose them as legitimate
- however - there is no way of showing that their culture is any better or worse that other subcultures in society - this is very different to cultural deprivation theory which suggests that the subculture of those in the lower class systems in substandard and deficient compared to those above them
- Bourdieu argues that in the education system the possession of the dominant culture (cultural capital) can be translated into power, wealth and status
- cultural capital is not evenly distributed - accounts for class differences in achievement. students from upper and middle classes have a built in advantage as they have been socialised to the dominant culture
- Bourdieu claims the success of all education depends fundamentally on the education accomplished in the early years of life - socialisation. children from the upper classes have internalised these skills and knowledge - they possess the key to unlock the messages transmitted in the classroom.
habitus, class and education
habitus = the values, attitudes, dispositions and expectations held by particular groups
- it defines everyday ways of doing things - it constructs ways of seeing the world and what is reasonable, appropriate and expected. learned from an early age - socialisation
- Bourdieu argues that habitus of the dominant classes provide them with an advantage in the education system - parents and children are likely to have a positive attitude towards education
- dispositions of the MC mean they have an inclination to do what is required to succeed in education - this is recognised by teachers and they in turn favour the dominant class.
- in comparison, the habitus of the WC tends to have a more negative attitude to education - lower expectations of success and sometimes reject the value of school. this may encourage resistance and negative withdrawal from teachers leading to low attainment by some WC
Alice Sullivan (2001)
results:
performance at GCSE
- more successful is - complex fiction, TV (documentaries, news, current affairs, sophisticated dramas)
- soap operas/game shows did not improve performance
- cultural events/music - no significant difference in performance
suggestions:
- cultural events and music are not considered important aspects of cultural capital
- pupils who read widely and watch sophisticated TV = greater vocab and knowledge = better exam performance
- cultural capital strongly correlated with parents (also class and educational qualifications)
- graduate parents = children with most cultural capital = most successful in exams
evaluation of Bourdieu
- marxists critise for the downplaying of material factors - economic exploitation and oppression
- too much emphasis placed on the structure of society shaping people's behvaiour - habitus is presented as determining behaviour
- vague, lacking in precision and detail and difficult to operationalise
- Sullivan's test suggests that cultural capital explains only part of educational attainment
- however despite these criticisms, Bourdieu's work has been extremely influential - it has informed many studies and research projects and continues to do so
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