Cultural Deprivation

• Centre for Longitudinal Studies (2007) → By the age of three, children from disadvantaged backgrounds are already up to one year behind those from more privileged homes and the gap widens with age
• Some claim that this is due to cultural deprivation → Many working-class families fail to socialise their children adequately, which leads to children to grow up ‘culturally deprived’; lacking the cultural equipment to do well in school
• Cultural Equipment - Most of us begin to acquire the basic values, attitudes and skills that are needed for educational success through primary socialisation → Includes aspirations, motivation to succeed, self-discipline & language skills
• Basic Assumption: Cultural Deprivation theory first emerge in the USA in 1950s → Assumes that working-class children underachieve due to their own deficiencies and those of their parents rather than because of poor schools or poverty
• Influence on Policy


  Influence on government policies aimed at tackling underachievement e.g. Louise Archer et al (2010) → Such policies assume that the problem of working-class underachievement is simply one of low aspirations and dysfunctional families