Cultural deprivation

• What are three causes of cultural underachievement

  • They do not teach their children to speak or think in a way that suits the classroom
  • They subscribe to values that impede educational success
  • They lack interest in their children’s education
• What does Bernstein (1975) say about language

  Middle class, parents socialise their children into an elaborated speech code. This means they can confidently use language that is abstract and complex. In contrast working class parents socialise their children into a simplistic and inferior restricted speech code that fails to fully convey meaning consequently they fail to understand the teacher or textbook explanations as quickly as their middle class
• What does Sugarman (1970) say about working class culture 


  Working class culture sees the world as an insecure place. As a result working class children are encouraged to seek only short-term goals and immediate pleasure. Therefore, they are more likely to enter paid work rather than higher education.
• Parental attitudes

  Douglas (1964)- working class parents are less interested in their children’s education meaning their children are poorly motivated and less ambitious.

  Fernstein (2008)- middle class parents are more child centered than working class parents meaning they make more of a personal investment in their children