Class differences in achievement

• Working-class pupils

  Achieve less than middle-class pupils in education
• Children of higher professionals

  • 2-3 times more likely than children of manual workers to get five or more A*-C grades at GCSE
  • About five times more likely to go to university
• Explanations for class differences in achievement

  • External or home background factors that lie outside the school
  • Internal factors within the school and the education system
• Home background

  Includes many things, but can be grouped into two different types of factor: cultural factors and material factors
• Cultural factors

  Class differences in norms and values acquired through socialisation, attitudes to education, speech codes etc.
• Material factors


  The physical necessities of life, such as adequate housing, diet and income
• Cultural deprivation theory


  The main cultural explanation for class differences in achievement
• Culture refers to all the norms, values, beliefs, skills and knowledge that a society or a group regards as important, and is transmitted to the next generation through socialisation
• According to cultural deprivation theory

  Some working-class parents fail to transmit the appropriate norms, values, attitudes, knowledge, skills etc. - that is, the 'right' culture - needed for educational success
• Cultural deprivation theorists

  See three factors as responsible for working-class under-achievement: language, parents' education and working-class subculture
• Intellectual stimulation

  • Working-class parents are less likely to give their children educational toys and activities that will stimulate their thinking and reasoning skills, and less likely to read to them
  • This affects their intellectual development so that when they begin school they are at a disadvantage compared with middle-class children
• Bernstein

  Distinguishes between elaborated and restricted speech codes
• Restricted speech code

  • Used by the working class
  • Less analytic and more descriptive
  • Has a limited vocabulary
  • Formed of simple sentences or even just gestures
  • Particularistic - assumes the listener shares the particular meanings that the speaker holds, so the speaker doesn't spell them out
• Elaborated speech code

  • Used by the middle class
  • More analytic
  • Wide vocabulary
  • Complex sentences
  • Universalistic - speakers spell out their meanings explicitly and don't just assume the listener shares them
• Criticisms of cultural deprivation theory it ignores the importance of material factors such as poverty.

  It ignores the impact of school factors, e.g. negative labelling by teachers.

  It blames the victim for their failure. Critics argue that the working class are not culturally deprived - they simply have a different culture from the school and this puts them at a disadvantage.
• The elaborated code is the one used in education, by teachers, exams, textbooks, university interviewers etc.
• Factors causing working-class under-achievement

  • Poor housing
  • Poor diet
  • Low income
• Poor housing

  1. Overcrowding or cold and damp rooms

  2. Nowhere quiet to do homework

  3. Frequent moves and changes of school due to homelessness or temporary accommodation
• School tactors and achievement

  Factors and processes within schools and the education system also influence class differences in achievement. Most sociologists who have studied the role of school factors are interactionists who focus on small-scale interactions between teachers and pupils. They identify a number of related causes of under-achievement: labelling; the self-fulfilling prophecy; streaming and pupil subcultures.
• Poor diet

  1. Illness

  2. Absences from school

  3. Lack of concentration in class due to hunger
• Low income


  Can affect educational achievement in several ways This gives the middle class an educational advantage
• Financial costs of education

  • Poorer families can afford fewer educational opportunities (e.g. trips, computers, private tuition)
  • Children may be stigmatised or bullied for lacking the right uniform or latest fashion items
• Higher education

  • Working-class students more debt averse
  • See more costs than benefits in going to university (e.g. tuition fees)
  • Receive less financial support from their families
• Cultural capital theory

  Combines aspects of both cultural and material explanations
• Cultural capital theory (Bourdieu)


  • Middle-class pupils more successful than working-class pupils
  • Middle-class families possess more capital or assets
  • Capital comes in two forms: economic capital (wealth) and cultural capital (attitudes, values, skills, knowledge)
• Educational capital

  1. Middle class use their greater economic and cultural capital to give their children an advantage

  2. Obtain educational capital (qualifications)

  3. Allows their children to get middle-class jobs and more economic capital

  4. Reproduces the advantages of the middle class from generation to generation
• Feinstein (2008)


  Parents' own education is the most important factor affecting children's achievement
• Evaluation of material deprivation:

  Not all poor children fail

  • those with supportive parents may have high levels of motivation.

  Material deprivation theory also ignores factors in school such as teacher labelling and streaming, which may cause under-achievement.
• Parenting style of educated parents

  • Emphasise consistent discipline, high expectations, active learning and exploration
• Labelling

  Meanings or definitions we attach to someone or something to make sense of them
• Parenting style of less educated parents

  • Inconsistent discipline means children have poorer motivation and problems interacting with teachers
• Labelling of middle-class pupils

  • Bright
  • Motivated
  • Cooperative
• Becker (1961) argues that teachers label middle-class children as 'ideal pupils' and prefer to teach them rather than working-class children
• The key idea of labelling underlies many of the other processes within schools that cause under-achievement
• Self-fulfilling prophecy

  A prediction made about something or someone that comes true simply because it has been made
• Educational behaviours of educated parents

  • More aware of what helps children progress, e.g. they form good relationships with teachers and see the value of educational visits
• Teachers can create self-fulfilling prophecies through the labels they attach to pupils
• Studies of labelling show that 'what teachers believe, pupils achieve'
• Streaming

  An extreme and institutionalised form of labelling where pupils of similar ability are put together into the same class or 'stream' for all subjects
• Lacey (1970) describes streaming as 'differentiation' - a way of separating the sheep from the goats and then educating them differently