int & ext factors on education

• external factors

  Things that happen outside of schools that the schools have little control over.

  -material explanations (social + economic)

  -cultural explanations (values, attitudes + life style)
• internal factors

  Things that happen inside the school.
• material explanations (external) relating to poor education

  -poor diet (lack of focus, tired, sick)

  -poor housing (limited space to revise, can be loud)

  -sickness (time off school)

  -lack of money for resources (disadvantaged compared to others who can get resources)

  -lack of money for transport (cannot get to school)

  -low income
• free school meals (FSM)

  Given to pupils from low income families. Do not have to give to sixth formers.
• pupil premium

  Given to pupils for different reasons. The money they get can buy them uniforms, trips, books etc. Do not have to give to sixth formers.
• catchment areas

  -the likelihood of getting into a school based on where you live.

  -houses near good schools get priced up, houses near bad schools get marked down.

  -children from deprived backgrounds cannot go to good schools if they do not meet the catchment area.

  -in deprived areas + deprived schools there is worse behaviour that teachers focus on instead of giving good education.
• cultural deprivation

  Cultural deficiencies present in a pupil's home and family background e.g., inadequate language skills.
• Douglas (1964)

  Found that working class parents placed less value on education, less ambitious, less likely to go to parents evening.
• Feinstein (2008)

  The parents own education is a big external factor that affects a child's education.

  Middle-class parent socialisation has 4 advantages:

  -parenting style (more discipline + expectations on children)

  -parents educational behaviour (more likely to help if theres a good outlook on education)

  -use of income (extracurriculars etc)

  -class, income, parental education (more parent qualifications, more child does)
• language

  -language is essential in education (the way things are worded).

  -Hubbs-Tait said that language promotes development - the less educated a person the more likely they are to simplify things.
• Bereiter & Englemann

  -language used in lower class homes are deficient and simplistic.

  -lower-classes are more likely to use gestures, discontinued phrases and single words.
• Berstein - language

  -2 types of speech codes.

  -restricted speech code.

  -elaborated speech code.
• restricted & elaborated speech codes

  -restricted speech codes - informal

  -elaborated speech codes - formal
• Bourdieu

  -cultural capital (knowledge, values & attitudes we have).

  -middle-class cultural capital is seen most often in schools which is why middle-class pupils benefit from the education system most. These students can understand and analyse abstract ideas which is needed in schools.

  -the better your cultural capital, the better eduction you will have.

  -lower-class pupils are more likely to be put in lower classes or drop out.
• cultural clash

  Differences/conflict of the cultural values at home and the cultural values at school.
• school vs working class home vs middle class home

  -elaborated speech code: used in school, in middle class homes but not working class homes.

  -swearing: not accepted at school or in middle class homes, mostly accepted in working class homes.

  -adult authority: middle class children are more likely to obey, working class children are less likely to obey.

  -smartly dressing (adults): middle class adults dress smart, teachers dress smart, working class adults do not.
• Sugarman (1970)

  -looks at the working class as a subculture.

  -there are 4 key features that act as a barrier to education for the working class:

  -fatalism: whatever happens will happen.

  -collectivism: value being a group, not succeeding as an individual.

  -immediate gratification: want pleasure now, do not want to make sacrifices that might help in the future.

  -present-time orientation: the present has more value than the future.
• sure start centres

  -approx 3000 put in the poorest parts of the country.

  -done to help socialise and care for children under 5, to prepare them for school.
• AO3 - cultural deprivation

  -deterministic.

  -cultural deprivation does not exist, they are just culturally different.
• Keddie

  -cultural deprivation is a myth.

  -failure is blamed on the victim not the school.

  -working class children are culturally different, not deprived. Cannot be deprived of your own culture.

  -working class children do worse at school as the system favours the middle class.

  -teachers should not be anti-working class and should not label pupils.
• Blackstone & Mortimore (1994)

  Working class parents do not care less, they are just busy working. This is an explanation for why they do not go to parents evening.
• labelling theory (interactionalists)

  -when a definition/meaning (label) is attached to an individual e.g., 'dumb'.

  -labels impact how people perform in the education system.
• self-fulfilling prophecy

  When someone fulfils the label given to them e.g., failing in school.
• Dunne & Gazeley (2008)

  -conducted interviews in schools to see if schools produce working class underachievement.

  -found that teachers normalised the underachievement of working class pupils, they felt that they could do little about it (cannot stop them from failing).

  -the main reason for these feelings were the pupils home background, teachers underestimate the working class.
• Rist (2007)

  -wanted to see how a pupils socioeconomic background related to their education evaluation (how they are views by teachers).

  -did observations on how teachers grouped students together.

  -found that students were grouped together based on their social class.

  -students socioeconomic background/status affects how they are viewed by teachers.

  -they continued these observations and found that the labels given to the pupils stayed with them throughout their time in education.
• Becker

  -they interviewed teachers to see how they judge students.

  -they mainly judged students based on how they were dressed.

  -middle class students = ideal; working class students = badly behaved.

  -labels negatively affect the working class.
• Rosenthal & Jacobsons (1968)

  -wanted to look at the self-fulfilling prophecy.

  -got all students to do a normal IQ test but told the teachers it was a special test to see which students were 'spurters' (would do the best).

  -picked 20% of the children at random to be the 'spurters'.

  -when researchers went back to the school they found that those allocated to be 'spurters' progressed in education. They became self-fulfilling prophecies.

  -teachers beliefs influenced how well the children would do.
• streaming

  When pupils are split into different groups based on their ability, they stay in these streams across all of their subject.
• Ball - beachside comprehensive (1981)

  -participant observations.

  -Ball was focused on one group streamed by ability and one group of mixed ability.

  -teachers were concerned with the mix ability groups as they said the bright children would be held back and the weaker students would be left behind.

  -Ball suggested that the process of streaming negatively impacts the working class.

  -found that pupils started school with the same attitudes but when they were streamed their attitudes change, working class pupils get put in lower streams and become anti-school.

  -said that education is not meritocratic, it is a downward mobility.
• Gillborn & Youdell: A-C economy

  -because of league tables, teachers focus on students who can get grades A*-C. Other students were ignored, most of these were working class pupils.

  
  

  -A-C economy was replaced by progress 8 so there is now a focus on helping children progress as much as they can. Middle classes/sets are now focused on.
• anti & pro school subcultures

  -anti-school subcultures: pupils that are in low streams, are undermined by the school and have low self-esteem. Anti-school subcultures effect achievement as the pupils do not care and will not focus.

  
  

  -pro-school subcultures: pupils that are in higher streams, they stay committed to the values of the school.
• differentiation

  -teachers categories pupils based on how they perceive their ability.
• pupils responses to streaming

  -ingratiation: teachers pet

  -ritualism: staying out of trouble

  -retreatism: lack of attention, daydreaming

  -rebellion: rejection of everything in school
• pupil subcultures

  Woods (1979) - pupils respond in multiple ways and create different subcultures.

  These are:

  -integration

  -ritualism

  -retreatism

  -rebellion

  Furlong added to this and said that pupils have different responses for different reasons e.g., the teacher.
• nike identities

  -when the working class create their own meaningful identities by investing in different 'styles' - they wear certain brands e.g., Nike.

  -girls wore more hyper-heterosexual styles e.g., more pink things.

  -they gain symbolic capital in school if they wear the right style and are subject to symbolic violence if not.

  -Archer said that middle-class habitus stigmatises the working class (their identity).

  -nike identity makes pupils more likely to underachieve and reject education.
• nike identities - AO3

  -deterministic: states that all working-class desire the same clothes.

  -explains why the working class do not always go to higher education.

  -shows that education is not meritocratic.

  -ignores power structures.

  -shows that internal factors are significant in causing underachievement.
• ethnic groups that tend to underachieve in education

  -Black Caribbean

  -Gypsy/roma travellers (white people)

  -Asian Pakistani
• ethnic groups that tend to do well in education

  Mostly Chinese pupils (pupils from some parts of Asia).
• cultural deprivation - ethnicity

  -language

  -family and support

  -values and beliefs
• language

  -pupils from ethnic minorities lack linguistic and intellectual skills pupils from the majority group have.

  -minorities are poorly equipped for education.

  -Bereiter & Engelmann looked at how people speak in low-income black American families. Found the language used was disjointed and lacks abstract ideas.

  -English not being a first language could put children at a disadvantage as they might not understand. Despite this, pupils who had English as a first language were only approx. 3 points ahead of those who it is not their first language.