Class External Factors

• Douglas - Working class values

  • W/C parents value education less than M/C parents and has a negative affect on W/C pupils in terms of poor performance
  • Parents are less ambitious for their children, gave less encouragement and took little interest in school
  • These parents were less likely to visit schools and discuss progress with teachers
  • Hyman - self imposed barrier to an improved position
• Feinstein - Working class values

  • Parent's own education is the most important factor affecting achievement
  • M/C parents are better educated leading to higher expectations of children and give more advice and recognition of reading and visiting museums that will encourage learning and exploration
  • W/C parents are less educated and discipline is inconsistent in the home - children do not learn independently and leads to poor motivation.
  • They have no educational toys or activities, affecting intellectual development and are disadvantaged when beginning school
• Evaluation of Douglas and Feinstein

  • Class does not determine career and many W/C parents are educated
  • W/C parents may not attend parents evenings and school events due to awkward longer working hours
• Bernstein - speech codes

  • W/C have a restricted speech code and M/C have an elaborated speech code offering M/C pupils a cultural advantage in school
  • W/C pupils are context-bound, use single disjointed phrases and grow up incapable of abstract thinking
  • M/C pupils have a wide range of vocabulary and can communicate abstract ideas
  • M/C pupils gain a head start in schools as this is the language teachers, textbooks and exams use
• Evaluation of Bernstein

  • Acknowledges that both the family and school influence achievement
• Sugarman - subcultures

  • W/C subcultures emphasise fatalism, immediate gratification, present time orientation and collectivism
  • M/C subculture emphasises deferred gratification where pupils postpone immediate rewards or pleasures for long term goals
  • As W/C pupils are socialised into values of fatalism and immediate gratification, they are disadvantaged compared to M/C pupils as they cannot achieve academically
• Evaluation of Sugarman

  • Members of the W/C may be realistic rather than fatalistic. They may defer gratification if they had the resources to and may be future orientated if the opportunities were available
  • This research comes from questionnaires and interviews - is it accurate? May not be relevant to all contexts
• Evaluation of cultural deprivation theories

  • Keddie describes cultural deprivation as a myth and sees it as a victim-blaming situation
  • W/C kids are culturally different not deprived and fail due to being disadvantaged by the education system that is dominated by middle class values
• Gerwitz - material deprivation

  • Lack of physical resources such as money, room and equipment that may have an adverse affect on the educational achievement of W/C children
  • Research by Warwick University found that many students face selection or admission by mortgage whereby M/C parents can move into the catchment area of good schools, leaving less successful ones full of working class students
  • Gerwitz found that professional M/C parents tend to be privileged skilled choosers who understand how the school's admission procedures work and can use this knowledge to access the best schools
• Housing - material deprivation

  • Overcrowding makes it hard to study and means less room for educational activities/homework and disturbed sleep
  • May indicate temporary accommodation - moving frequently would link to a lack of consistency and changes to school
  • Health and welfare of children can be affected. Greater risk of accidents, ill health due to housing conditions, absence from school
• Diet and health - material deprivation

  • Howard - children from poor families have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals. Poor nutrition then affects health, weakens immune system and causes illness. Absence from school affects achievement
  • Difficulties concentrating in class due to hunger/lack of energy
  • Wilkinson - the lower social classes are more likely to have a higher rate of hyperactivity, anxiety and conduct disorders
  • Blanden and Machin - behaviour is externalised as W/C are more likely to engage in fighting which will disrupt schooling
• Bourdieu - cultural capital

  • Each social class has it's own cultural framework known as habitus and through socialisation the M/C children acquire the ability to express and analyse abstract ideas. They are more likely to develop intellectual interests and an understanding of achieving successfully in school
  • Cultural capital - knowledge, attitudes, values and language of the middle class and can be translated into wealth and power
  • Culture, knowledge and language of the school fits more closely to M/C culture giving pupils an advantage
  • W/C children experience a cultural deficit
• Link between educational, economic and cultural capital

  • M/C wealthy parents can convert economic capital (wealth) into educational capital by sending their children to private schools and buying a house in the catchment area of good schools
  • M/C children with cultural capital are better equipped for school and will gain qualifications which will lead them to access more professional and well paid jobs
• Evaluation of cultural capital

  • Alice Sullivan used questionnaires with 465 pupils in 4 schools to ask them about a range of activities including reading and museums. She also tested vocab
  • Those who read complex fiction and watched serious TV documentaries developed a wider vocab and greater cultural knowledge - children of graduates who are more likely to be M/C
  • HOWEVER cultural capital only accounted for part of the class differences. M/C pupils were still outperforming W/C with the same level of cultural capital.
  • Greater aspirations and resources of the M/C are more significant