education external and internal factors - sociology

• what is material deprivation?


  inability to afford basic resources, adequate housing, food and heating.
• what is cultural deprivation?


  deficiencies in home and family backgrounds, inadequate socialisation, inadequate language skills and inappropriate attitudes/values.
• what's a benefit of cultural capital?


  gives middle class an in built advantage in a middle class controlled education system.
• how did 'speech codes' (Bernstein) affect education?


  differences in speech codes put working class children at a disadvantage because the elaborated code is used by teachers, textbooks and exams. middle class children are already at an advantage.
• why would 'parents' education' (Douglas) affect education?


  w/c parents have less value on education; less ambitious for their children and give them less encouragement to participate in education activities. many w/c parents don't attend parents evening.
• what are Sugarmann's 4 working class subcultures that act as a barrier to educational achievement?

  • fatalism
  • collectivism
  • immediate gratification
  • present time orientation
• what is meant by fatalism?


  there's nothing you can do to change your status.
• what is meant by collectivism?


  valuing being part of a group more than being an individual.
• what is meant by immediate gratification?


  seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices in order to get rewards in the future.
• what is meant by present time orientation?


  seeing the present as more important than the future, no long term goals.
• how can poor housing (material deprivation) affect a pupils achievement?

  • overcrowding -no room for educational achievement and disturbed sleep from sharing rooms.
  • temp accommodation - families moving a lot
  • greater risk of getting ill and having accidents - absence from school
• how can diet and health (material deprivation) affect a pupils education?


  poorer homes have a lower intake of energy, vitamins and minerals. poor nutrition affects health, leading to more absences from school. (Howard)
• what does Bourdieu mean by cultural capital?


  middle class children are better equipped to meet the demands on the school curriculum. parents can convert the cultural capital into economic capital.

  i.e send children to private schools.
• what is meant by an external factor?


  an external factor is something outside of the school environment that affects working class underachievement.
• what is an internal factor?

  an internal factor is something inside the school environment that affects a pupils ability to achieve.
• what is Becker's theory on labelling?


  teachers judge and label pupils according to how closely they fit the 'ideal pupil'
• what are the 5 internal factors?

  • labelling
  • streaming
  • pupil subcultures
  • pupil identities
  • development of a self fulfilling prophecy
• what are the effects of Becker's theory?


  dampen the motivation of students who did not suit the ideal pupil, due to how teachers deferred their time away from them and were unwilling to help.
• what is meant by "self fulifilling prophecy"?


  this is when students are given a positive label, they react to it by creating a positive self-concept.
• how does self fulfilling prophecy effect pupils?


  they are motivated to work hard and improve their grades. this also works in reverse, with negative labels leading to negative self-concepts and less motivation.
• who studied 'self fulfilling prophecy'?

  Rosenthal and Jacobson
• how did Rosenthal and Jacobson study 'self fulfilling prophecy'?


  they informed teachers of students who scored highly on an IQ test and would be a quick learner. the catch was that these test results were fabricated. teachers treated those who were falsely identified as 'spurts' differently. 47% of those who were identified to 'spurt' had made a a significant improvement due to how teachers paid more attention to them by giving them more feedback.
• streaming


  Gillborn and Youdell found that teachers labelled working-class students as unintelligent, resulting in them being placed in lower streams and sets.
• what are the 2 ways Lacey found pupil subcultures developed?

  polarisation and differentiation
• what is polarisation?


  when pupils respond to streaming by either moving to a pro-school subculture or an anti-school subculture.
• what is differentiation?


  form of streaming, those who are placed in higher streams gain a higher status.
• what did Hargreaves find about boys in lower streams?


  they were triple failures: they failed their 11+ exam; had been placed in lower streams; and then labelled as "worthless louts" - their solution to this was to form a group which provided status to those who flouted the school rules and guaranteed their educational failure.
• what did Archer et al find about pupil identities?


  working-class pupils invest in 'nike' identities, leading to self-exclusion from education because it does not fit their identity and way of life; they see it as unrealistic (it is for richer and cleverer people) and they also see it as undesirable (it does not suit their habitus)