Class differences

• By the age of three, children from disadvantaged backgrounds are already up to one year behind those from more privileged homes
• The gap widens with age
• Cultural deprivation theory

  Claims that this is the result of cultural deprivation
• Primary socialisation in the family


  Where we begin to acquire the basic values/attitudes/skills needed for educational success
• Cultural deprivation theory


  Working-class families fail to socialise their children adequately, resulting in children growing up culturally deprived and lacking the cultural equipment needed to do well at school, so they underachieve
• Three main aspects of cultural deprivation

  • Language
  • Parent's education
  • Working-class subculture
• Language


  An essential part of the process of education, the way in which parents communicate with their children affects their cognitive development and their ability to benefit from the process of schooling
• When parents use language to challenge their children, cognitive performance improves
• Educated parents are more likely to use language to help children cognitively improve
• Less educated parents tend to use language that only require children to make simple descriptive statements, resulting in lower performance
• Educated parents are more likely to use praise, which encourages children to develop a sense of their own competence
• Language used in lower-class homes

  Deficient, involving gestures/disjointed phrases, resulting in children failing to develop the necessary language skills and becoming incapable of abstract thinking and unable to take advantage of opportunities that school offers
• Restricted Code


  Working-class language, limited vocabulary, short, simple sentences, may involve only a single word/gesture, descriptive, not analytic, context-bound
• Elaborated Code


  Middle-class language, wider vocabulary, long, complex sentences, communicates abstract ideas, analytical, not just descriptive, context-free
• Elaborated code gives middle-class advantage at school and puts the working-class at a disadvantage, as it is used by teachers, textbooks and exams, and is a more effective tool for analysing and reasoning
• Early socialisation into the elaborated code means middle-class children are already fluent users of the code when they start school, feeling at home and more likely to succeed, while working-class children lack the code and feel excluded and are less successful
• Parents' attitude to education

  A key factor affecting children's achievement, with working-class parents placing less value on education, being less ambitious for children and giving less encouragement, visiting schools less often, and being less likely to discuss child's progress with teachers
• The parents' own education is the most important factor affecting achievement, regardless of class/income, with middle-class parents tending to be better educated and giving children an advantage by socialising them correctly
• Educated parents' parenting style

  Emphasises consistent discipline, has high expectations of children, and encourages active learning
• Less educated parents' parenting style


  Marked by harsh and inconsistent discipline, emphasis on 'doing as you're told', preventing learning independence and self-control, resulting in less motivation at school and conflicts with teachers
• Educated parents' educational behaviours


  They are more aware of what is needed to assist their children's educational progress, engage in behaviours such as reading, teaching, helping with homework, and are actively involved in schooling, and they are also better able to get expert advice on childbearing and establish good relationships with teachers
• Educated parents


  Recognise the educational value of activities such as visits to museums and libraries, and spend their income in ways that promote their child's educational success
• Working-class subculture


  Group whose attitudes/values differ from those of the mainstream culture, with four key features that act as a barrier to educational achievement: fatalism, collectivism, immediate gratification, and lack of emphasis on long-term planning and ambition
• Working-class children internalise the beliefs of their subculture through the socialisation process, resulting in them underachieving at school
• Compensatory education


  Aims to tackle the problem of cultural deprivation by providing extra resources to schools and communities in deprived areas, intervening early in the socialisation process to compensate children for the deprivation they experience at home
• Compensatory education programmes


  • Operation Head Start, Sesame Street, Education Priority Areas, Education Action Zones
• Cultural deprivation is a victim-blaming explanation, and working-class children are simply culturally different, failing because they are put at a disadvantage by an education system dominated by middle-class values</b>
• Teachers have a speech hierarchy, labelling middle-class speech as the highest, and working-class parents attend fewer meetings because they work irregular hours and are put off by the school's middle-class atmosphere
• Material Deprivation


  Poverty and lack of material necessities such as adequate housing and income
• One-third of pupils eligible for free school meals achieve five or more A-C GCSEs, compared to two-thirds of non-eligible pupils
• Direct effects of overcrowding

  Hard for child to study, less room for education activities, disturbed sleep
• Indirect effects of overcrowding


  Greater risks of accidents, cold/damp housing can cause ill health, psychological distress
• Working-class children have lower intakes of energy, vitamins, and minerals, affecting their health and resulting in more absences from school
• Low social class is directly linked to hyperactivity and anxiety, and working-class children are more likely to engage in 'externalising' behaviour like fighting and tantrums
• Costs of education


  Lack of equipment like books and uniform, resulting in 'hand me downs' which can lead to bullying and isolation, and fear of stigmatisation preventing take-up of free school meal entitlement
• Children from low-income families often need to work, which interferes with their schoolwork, and the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance in 2011 has further impacted them
• Fear of Debt

  Going to university involves getting into debt, which deters working-class students, who are more debt-averse and see more debts than benefits at university
• The increase in tuition fees from 2012 has further increased the debt burden and deterred even more working-class debt-averse students from applying, with the number of applicants falling by 8.6% in 2012 compared to 2011
• Working-class students are more likely to apply to local universities so they can live at home and avoid travel costs, giving them less opportunity to go to the highest status universities, and they also have higher dropout rates
• Working-class students spent twice as much time in paid work to reduce debts