A Level Sociology

Education

Topic 2

Class differences – external

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Objectives:

Describe the pattern of class differences in educational achievement Understand the difference between cultural and material deprivation in causing

educational underachievement Understand what is meant by cultural capital

Patterns of achievement:

Draw the graph on page 16 of the textbook to show the percentage of pupils gaining five or more A*-C grades at GCSE, by parents’ social class:

What does this graph show? Summarise the main trends below:

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Sociologists find class differences in educational achievement very significant because of the strong trend of working class underachievement. Social class appears to be the most important feature that accounts for differences in students’ educational achievement. The difference is usually noticed between middle class and working class students, who can be defined by the occupation (or job) of their parents. Label the definitions below:

Usually higher paid, non-manual jobs. Traditionally professionals such as doctors or teachers. Also managers and other ‘white collar’ office workers and owners of businesses.

The ……………………..class

Jobs which don’t pay as well. Traditionally this included skilled workers such as plumbers and electricians. Semi-skilled workers like truck drivers or waitresses, and unskilled or routine workers like cleaners and labourers.

The ……………………..class

Different groups of sociologists are interested in different explanations for the strong trend. Some look to reasons to do with the influence that home life has on education (external factors).

Other sociologists, like the micro-perspective symbolic interactionalism, look to factors within the school system, like student and teacher interactions (internal factors).

Place the correct factors beside their definitions below. Is it internal factors or external factors being described below?

The factors within schools and the education system, such as the interactions between teachers and pupils, and inequalities between different schools.These factors are from outside schools and the education system itself. These factors include the influences on students from their home and family background, and from communities.

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This booklet focuses on the external factors which can be used to explain class differences in educational achievement. These can be further split into the cultural reasons, and the material reasons; with the factors effecting working class underachievement being known as cultural deprivation and material deprivation. Again, place the correct factor in the table below.

This refers to the difference in attitudes, values and beliefs between working and middle class students and their families. It is affected by socialisation and includes language and self-discipline stuff like whether a child is ‘pushed’ by his/her parents.This refers to the more practical educational disadvantages working class student’s experience. Stuff like a lack of equipment or a quiet place to do homework. This is concerned not with what the cultural theorists point out to be cultural differences (in values and beliefs etc), but in the actual factors of poverty, like the availability of necessities like good housing and income.

Label the following examples, either material deprivation, or cultural deprivation:

Cultural deprivation:

Cultural deprivation theorists argue that most of us begin to acquire the basic attitudes, values and skills that are needed for educational success in primary socialisation within the family. This basic ‘cultural equipment’ includes things such as language, self-discipline and reasoning skills.

However, according to cultural deprivation theorists, many working-class families fail to socialise their children adequately. These children grow up ‘culturally deprived’. That is they lack the cultural equipment needed to do well at school and so they under-achieve. There are three main aspects of cultural deprivation:

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1. Intellectual development

2. Language

3. Attitudes and values

1. Intellectual development

Intellectual development is believed by cultural deprivation theorists to be lacking for working class children because they do not have the books and educational toys to stretch their intellectual skills.

Douglas Young and Basil Bernstein (1967) found mother’s choice of toys affects their child’s intellectual development. Middle-class mothers tend to choose toys which encourage thinking and reasoning skills and prepare children for school.

2. Language

Language development and use is also thought of by cultural theorists to have an impact on student’s academic achievement. Working class children are thought to be socialised into using less advanced, academic language and so are less likely to achieve later in school.

Basil Bernstein (the same guy who looked at toy choice) points out different ways of speaking between working and middle class families. He described these in two different speech codes:

Restricted code tends to be used by the working class. Limited vocabulary (so fewer words being known and used) and based on short, unfinished sentences. Gestures are often used, sometimes only one word and it is context-bound, which means the listener is assumed to share the same experiences. It is also more descriptive than analytical (questioning and critical).

Elaborated code usually used by middle class people. Wider vocabulary with longer more complex sentences. Speech is more varied and communicates abstract ideas, so goes beyond the descriptive. Elaborated code is context-free, which means that the listener does not need to share the same experiences and background to understand what’s being said. The meaning of what’s being said is spelt out so anyone can understand.

3. Attitudes and values

Attitudes and values of a child’s parents are thought to be a key factor in how well that child will do in school. Douglas found that working class parents have do not place a high value on education compared to middle class parents, they are also less ambitious for their child’s career, show less encouragement for educational achievements and take less of an interest in their child’s education.

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They paid schools and teachers less visits and their child’s motivation for education was less, and so was their achievement.

Cultural theorists believe that lack of parental interest is part of a working class sub-culture of disregard for education which goes a long way to explain working class underachievement. A sub-culture is group whose values and attitudes are different to society’s mainstream culture’s way of thinking.

Barry Sugarman (1970) argues working class subculture has four main elements:

Fatalism: a belief in fate, ‘whatever will be will be’ and there’s nothing you can do about it Collectivism: the belief that being part of a group is more important than individual success.

This is a contrast to the middle class thinking that group loyalty shouldn’t hold you back. Immediate gratification: seeking pleasure now, rather than making sacrifices for future

gains. So going straight into a low wage, rather than going on no wage to get a higher wage later on.

Present-time orientation: seeing the present as more important than the future and so having no long-term plans

The idea is that children take on these values and beliefs of the working class sub-culture and this explains their lower levels of educational achievement. Working class jobs reflect these elements and so this subculture continues through generations. Whereas middleclass jobs encourage working towards career progression, promotions and goals, working class jobs are more about the immediate gratification of the pay packet at the end of the month. There are less promotional opportunities in working class jobs.

To summarise this theory, what might be lacking in a working class home during this socialisation period?

Compensatory education (policy link)

Compensatory education is policy which is designed to tackle the problem of cultural deprivation, by pumping in extra resources to make up for the educational disadvantage that working class students are at. New Labours Education Action Zones are a good example of this.

A significant example of this was in the United States of America, where billions of pounds were used in deprived areas for pre-school education. This was called Operation Head Start. The idea was to enrich deprived areas with motivating education and developing learning skills. It included Sesame Street as a way to reach the masses with learning techniques from an early age.

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How does Sesame Street do this?

Evaluation - the myth of cultural deprivation

Cultural theorists are criticised for placing the blame for working class underachievement with the working class themselves. Therefore Nell Keddie (1973) calls the approach victim-blaming. She points out that a child cannot be deprived of their own culture and says it cultural difference, not cultural deprivation. According to Keddie, working class kids fail educationally because they are put at a disadvantage by a middle class dominated unfair education system. So it is not the working class culture that is at fault, but the middle class attitude towards it.

This is expanded and applied to the issue of language by Barry Troyna and Jenny Williams (1986). They argue that working class language is not the problem, but it’s the middle class teacher’s attitude towards it.

Finally, parents ‘lack of interest’ in their child’s education may in fact be a lack of understanding and opportunity to get to parents evenings due to longer shift work.

Quick check questions:

1. What is cultural deprivation?

2. What impact do children’s toys have on educational success?

3. What did Bernstein look at?

4. What were Sugarman’s four main elements?

5. What is compensatory education?

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Material deprivation:

Rather than blaming working class sub-culture for working class underachievement, material deprivation places the reason with a lack of material necessities like adequate housing and income. Poverty is linked to educational underachievement in the following ways:

In 2006, only 33% of children on FSM (free school meals) gained 5 or more GCSE’s at A*-C. Yet 61% of students not on FSM got this.

Jan Flachety (2004) claims money problems in the family are a significant factor in children’s non-attendance to school.

Nearly 90% of ‘failing schools’ are in deprived areas

Working class students are usually the ones who are faced with the problems of poverty, like inadequate housing, food and financial support that can affect their chances of educational success.

There are three main areas that material deprivation theorists look at:

1. Housing

2. Diet and nutrition

3. Finance/costs of education

1. Housing

Bad housing can be cramped and mean that pupils don’t have their own space to study. Temporary housing can mean pupils moving more and spending time getting resettled into different schools. Finally there are indirect health problems like illness from the cold that can affect children’s attendance and education.

2. Diet and nutrition

Diet and nutrition can be linked to underachievement. Marilyn Howard (2001) points out that lower income families have a lower intake of energy, vitamins and minerals. This can affect children’s health and therefore attendance and success at school.

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Watch the clip ‘Poor kids’ and identify how material deprivation could affect a child’s experience at school:

3. Finance/costs of education

Financial support for the costs of education can affect how far a person can go in the education system, and their experiences of school. The costs of sending a child to school can be a burden on poor families, as Emily Tanner found in a study in the Oxford area (2003).

School is free to all in the UK up to the age of 19. However, there are still many hidden costs of sending a child to school and poorer working class families may struggle to meet these costs.

These hidden costs amount to £1614 a year.

What are parents expected to pay for?

Also, a child’s experience of school can be negative if his/ her family cannot afford the latest trends. Tess Ridge (2002) found that stigmatisation can happen to children in poverty and it can affect them negatively when she examined poverty from the child’s perspective.

Make a note of how the examples in the table could lead to lower performance at school:

Examples of material deprivation

Poor school performance

Low levels of ‘disposable income’ can’t afford to buy things for school

Bad diet and poor health

Poor housing and overcrowding

Pressure on students to work and provide for themselves and their family

Stretch yourself: How may material deprivation impact on university students?

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Reay (2005) found that working class students are more likely to apply to the nearest university for financial reasons (cheaper to live at home)

Once at university, working class students are more likely to have to find part-time employment and as a result this can impact on their performance.

At Oxford and Cambridge, students are not allowed paid employment during term time. This may in itself put off many working class students from even applying.

Cultural capital:

The term ‘cultural capital’ was developed by Bourdieu. It refers to the knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities of the middle classes. These qualities of the middle classes can help them gain things in society and education and get to higher status and better paid positions.

Pierre Bourdieu (1984) argues that both cultural and material factors contribute to a child’s educational achievement and they are in fact interrelated rather than being separate issues. As well as ‘educational capital’, which refers to a person’s qualifications that can aid them through life, Bourdieu feels that the middle class also have ‘cultural capital’.

Cultural capital involves interests in intellectual things and an understanding of how the education system works. Therefore children with cultural capital achieve better in education. In contrast, working class students find that school devalues their culture and it is thought of as ‘rough’ and ‘inferior’ so they ‘get the message’ that education is not for them and give up by truanting (skiving) and stopping trying.

Cultural capital can be used to help parents choose and get their child a place at school, since marketisation has increased parental choice (eg through the 1988 Education Reform Act) and so their opportunity to do so. This is pointed out by Ball, he argues more literate, middle class parents have a better understanding of league tables and are better equipped to choose and apply for the better schools. This is an important point as it illustrates that marketisation may not drive up standards for all and instead benefit only the middle classes.

Draw a picture to summarise cultural capital:

Summarise cultural capital in three words:

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Testing Bourdieu’s ideas

Sullivan used questionnaires to conduct a survey of 465 pupils in four schools. To assess their cultural capital she asked them about a range of activities, such as reading and TV habits and whether they visited art galleries, museums and theatres. She also tested their vocabulary and knowledge of cultural figures.

She found that those who read complex fiction and watched serious TV documentaries developed a wider vocabulary and greater cultural knowledge, indicating greater cultural capital. The pupils with the greatest cultural capital were the children of graduates. These pupils were more likely to be successful at GCSE.

However, although successful pupils with greater cultural capital were more likely to be middle class, Sullivan found that cultural capital only accounted for part of the class difference in achievement. Where pupils of different classes had the same level of cultural capital, middle class pupils still did better. Sullivan concludes that the greater resources and aspirations of middle class families explain the remainder of the class gap in achievement.

Activity – Write down five questions you would ask to decide whether a pupil had ‘cultural capital’:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Gewirtz – marketisation and parental choice

Found that differences in economic and cultural capital lead to class differences in how far parents can exercise choice of secondary schools.

Privileged-skilled choosers – mainly professional middle-class parents who use their capital to gain educational capital for their children. They take full advantage of the choices open to them, they know how the schools admission system works and had time to visit schools and research the best ones

Disconnected-local choosers – working class parents whose choices were restricted by their lack of capital. They were less confidents in their dealings with schools. Distance and cost were major restrictions on their choice of school, children most likely to attend the local school

Semi-skilled choosers – working class but slightly more ambitious. However, they lacked cultural capital to make fully informed decision.

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Key Concepts:

KEY CONCEPT DEFINITIONCultural deprivation

Restricted code

Elaborated code

Fatalism

Collectivism

Immediate gratification

Present-time orientation

Material deprivation

Compensatory education

Cultural capital

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Topic summary:

____________-class pupils tend to achieve more than ______________-class pupils. Some explanations focus on factors outside schools, these are called ________________ factors.

These include _____________________ deprivation – working-class pupils are seen as lacking the right attitudes, values, _____________ and knowledge for success.

______________ deprivation means working-class children are more likely to have poorer diets, health and housing , and parents who are less able to meet the hidden costs of schooling.

The middle class have more ______________ capital. They are better placed to take advantage of the choices offered in the education system.

Cultural Middle Material external

Cultural language working

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Exam technique:

Outline two material factors that may affect social class differences in educational achievement (4 marks)

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Outline three policies that have sought to reduce social class differences in education (6 marks)

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Item A

In general, middle class pupils achieve better examination results than working class pupils. Many of those working class pupils are on free school meals. Many working class parents may also have failed in education and so may not be involved in school life.

Applying material from Item A, analyse two factors outside schools that contribute to working class underachievement (10 marks)

POINT ONE

POINT TWO

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Item B

There are clear social class differences in educational achievement. Some sociologists argue that these are the result of factors outside schools. Some claim that working class parents place less value on education and so their children see it as less important than do middle class pupils. Differences in speech codes and in the level of the family’s material resources may also have an important impact.

However, others suggest that what happens in school has a greater effect on social class differences in achievement.

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate the view that middle class pupils’ higher level of achievement are the product of factors outside schools (30 marks)

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Independent Study Checklist:

Activity Tick when doneComplete an A3 revision sheet for this topic

Create revision cards/key cards for the concepts in this topic

What has a bigger impact; material deprivation or cultural deprivation? Write a speech or create a poster to identify which one is more important, detailing why

Create a one-page fact sheet on each of the following: material deprivation, cultural deprivation and cultural capital

Research compensatory education in the UK and the USA –make detailed notes on Sure start centres, Education Action Zones and Operation Headstart

Look at the past papers on Weebly and make notes on the 30 mark question that came up in June 2018 on social class. Read the examiner report for this question and summarise on a post it note

For more resources and articles see: www.aqusociology.weebly.com

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