material + cultural factors in under attainments

• Leonard feinstein, material poverty and deprivation 


  2003- analysed data from 1970 birth cohort study

  found test scores at 22 months predicted educational attainment at 26 years and were related to family backgrounds

  children from poor backgrounds who achieved well at 22 months were often overtaken by the poor atttainers from the wealthy backgrounds
• which children experience material deprivation

  • family debt
  • some ethnic minorities
  • benefit dependent
  • lone parent families
  • workless households
  • living in London and south of england
  • large families
  • family breakdown
  • poor parental education
  • formal industrial areas
• poverty and policy- material deprivation


  government data shows link between childhood poverty and adult poverty

  link between educational qualifications and high earning potential

  rare to do well despite lack of formal education

  education of the father is largest predictor of adult poverty

  best route out of poverty is through education and so improving education is prioritised by governments
• environmental factors contributing to low attainment

  new right argue key issue is lone parenting

  other perspectives:

  • parental qualifications- limit children's ambitions, encouraging early school leaving
  • poor housing, poor health, overcrowding and homelessness
  • poor nutrition, Avon longitudinal study 2011 found link between high fat diet and reduced intelligence
  • parents economic position, lone parents may be more strained as only one income
  • poorer families have weak learning environments, little reading matter, limited internet access
  • poor are vulnerable to bullying from peers
• policy and material deprivation 


  governments have tried to tackle issues of material deprivation and its impact on the educational attainment of the poor

  • sure start
  • learning mentor schemes
  • specialist schools
  • operation headstart
  • raising of school leaving age
  • education maintenance allowances
  • maintenance/ fees/ loans and grants for higher education
  • lotteries to allocate pupils to secondary schools
  • vocational education
• cultural deprivation- tiers


  social grade A

  • upper middle class. e.g higher managerial, administrative or professional

  social grade B

  • middle class. e.g immediate managerial, administrative or professional

  social grade C1

  • lower middle class. e.g supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional

  social grade C2

  • skilled working class. e.g skilled manual workers

  social grade D

  • working class. e.g semi and unskilled manual workers

  social grade E

  • those at lowest level of subsistence. e.g state pensioners or widows
• working class underachievement and aspirations

  2014- evidence suggested young people spend more time out of school than in school so social factors outside can influence attainment, factors include

  • aspirations
  • cultural knowledge
  • quality of parenting
  • time doing homework