Cultural Deprivation

• Cultural deprivation


  A theory that working class families fail to socialise their children adequately, leading to them being culturally deprived and underachieving
• A longitudinal study from 2007 found that by the age of three, children from a disadvantaged background were already a year behind those from a privileged homes and the gap widens with age
• Main aspects of cultural deprivation


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


  Important as it can help children in schooling later
• Hubbs-Tait et al found that where parents use language that challenges their children to evaluate their own understanding, their cognitive performance improves
• Feinstein found that educated parents are more likely to use language in this way, while less educated parents are more likely to use simplistic language that does not challenge their child
• Educated parents are more likely to use praise, which encourages children to develop a sense of their own competence
• Language in working class homes is more deficient, they rather communicate using gestures, single words, and disjointed phrases
• Restricted code


  Used by the working class, it had limited vocabulary, and is based on the use of short, often unfinished, grammatically simple sentences. It is context bound, meaning the speaker assumes the listener shares the same set of experiences.
• Elaborated code


  Used by the middle class, it has wider vocabulary and is based on longer, grammatically complex sentences. Speech is more varied and communicates abstract ideas. It is context-free, the speaker does not assume the listener shares the same experiences, they use language to explain.
• Early socialisation into the elaborated code for middle-class children means they are fluent in it and can understand the speech used by teachers and textbooks better, allowing them to be more successful than working class pupils who lack this
• Critics have argued that Bernstein is a cultural deprivation theorist as he describes the working-class speech as inadequate, but he recognises that school and not just the home influence children's achievement
• Parent's education


  An important factor affecting children's achievement, as middle-class parents tend to be more educated and can give their children an advantage through how they socialise them
• Douglas found that working class parents place less value on education, they are less ambitious for their children, they give them less encouragement and take less interest in their education, leading to lower levels of motivation and achievement
• Feinstein argues that parents' own education is the most important factor affecting children's achievement
• Parenting style


  Educated parents' parenting style emphasises consistent discipline and high expectations, supporting their children's achievement by encouraging active learning and exploration, while less educated parents' style is marked by harsh or inconsistent discipline that emphasises doing as you're told, leading to poorer motivation at school and problems interacting with teachers
• Parents' educational behaviours


  Educated parents are more aware of what is needed to assist their children's educational progress, better able to get expert advice on childrearing, more successful in establishing good relationships with teachers, and better at guiding their children's interactions with school. They also understand the importance of visits such as museums and libraries.
• Use of income


  Better educated parents have higher incomes, which they can spend in various ways to help create educational capital for their kids, such as buying educational toys, books and activities, and having a better understanding of the importance of nutrition for child development.
• Feinstein found that parental education has an influence on children's achievement, with educated middle-class parents tending to have more successful children, and working-class children not doing as well.
• Working class subculture


  Cultural deprivation theorists argue that the lack of parental interest in their children's education reflects the subcultural values of the working-class, which include fatalism, collectivism, immediate gratification, and present-time orientation, in contrast to middle-class values.
• Compensatory education


  Programmes which aim to tackle the problem of cultural deprivation by providing extra resources to schools and communities in deprived areas, intervening in the early stage of socialisation to compensate for the deprivation children may experience at home.
• Compensatory education programmes


  • Operation Head Start
  • Educational Priority Areas
  • Education Action Zones
  • Sure Start
• Keddie describes cultural deprivation to be a victim-blaming explanation, arguing that a child cannot be deprived from their own culture and that working class children are simply culturally different, not deficient.
• Troyna and Williams argue that the problem is not the child's language but the school's attitude towards it, with middle-class speech being labelled as the highest and working-class speech as the lowest.
• Other critics reject the idea that working-class parents are not interested in the education of their children, arguing that they attend fewer parents' evenings due to working longer hours and being put off by the middle-class atmosphere of the school, but they want to help their child progress, just lack the knowledge to do so.