Social Class : Cultural Deprivation

• Cultural Deprivation

  Douglas & Feinstein wrote 'Levels of Parents Education & Parental Interest suggesting that working class parents are less likely to take an interest in their child's educational success. They are generally less supportive, lax in discipline and less motivating than middle class parents.
• Cultural Deprivation

  Hyman & Sugarman supported this in their article Working Class Sub-Cultural Values & Beliefs'. They state that amongst the working class there is a particular sub-culture that places no value on educational ideals and as such end up failing in education.
• Cultural Deprivation

   Hyman & Sugarman claim that the working class have a fatalist attitude which would stifle ambition; they also prefer a collective view than an individual view, which would mean that the children will follow the crowd rather than being an individual; finally, they say that the working class look for immediate gratification and live in the present rather than looking further into the future and seeing the long term benefits of their efforts (deferred gratification).
• Cultural Deprivation

  Bernstein suggests that the working class and the middle class use two different language codes. The working class use code which is deficient in terms of education and this contributes to their failure in education. Bernstein called this 'restricted code' - it is limited in vocabulary, grammatically simple, based on the context of the conversation and particularistic. The 'elaborate' code of language used by higher classes contains a larger vocabulary, is more grammatically complex, uses abstract terms and is universal, as in it can apply to any person or situation.