cultural deprivation

• Herbert H. Hyman (1967) argues that the value system of the lower classes creates 'a self-imposed barrier to an improved position'
• Working class members place a lower value on education and achieving high occupation status compared to their middle-class counterparts
• Members of the working class believe there is less opportunity for personal advancements compared to the middle class
• Barry Sugarman (1970) argues that middle and working-class subcultures contain different attitudes and orientations, including fatalism, immediate gratification, present time orientation, and collectivism
• JWB Douglas (1964, 1970) conducted a longitudinal study on 5362 British children, finding that length in education was related to class, with parental interest in a child's schooling being an important factor
• Leon Feinstein (2003) found that parental interest and support significantly influence educational attainment
• Tessa Blackstone and Jo Mortimore (1994) suggest that working-class parents may have less time to attend school due to their jobs and the way teachers treat them
• Gillian Evans (2007) notes that working-class parents aspire for their children to do well in school for a better future, rejecting the cultural deprivation theory
• Basil Bernstein identified two types of codes: restricted code used by the working class and elaborated code used by the middle and upper classes
• Working-class pupils tend to use the restricted code, which is informal spoken English with colloquialisms, idiomatic phrases, non-standard grammar, and simplistic sentence structure
• Middle-class individuals can switch between both restricted and elaborated codes
• Keddie (1973) suggests that there is no cultural deprivation, only a cultural difference, and emphasizes the need for schools to recognize and cater to both types
• Labov (1973) argues that working-class children's language isn't inferior, just different
• Complementary education aims to replace the culture that the working class may lack, with programs like Sesame Street and Sure Start providing ways to transmit attitudes, skills, and values
• Some research validity is questionable, like Blackstone and Mortimore (1994) where data may reflect teachers' perceptions rather than actual parental interests
• Bernstein's distinction between working and middle-class language has been criticized for oversimplifying the differences and implying one culture is superior to another