factors within schools and the education system e.g. student and teacher interaction
internal actors include- labelling in secondary and primary schools, the self fulfilling prophecy and teachers expectations, streaming with the a-c economy and the educational triage, pupil subcultures including pro and anti school subculture, pupilsclass identities and the school including habitus and symbolic capital and violence, workingclass identity and educationalsuccess, class identity and self exclusion
Bereiter and Engelmann (1966) claim language in lower class homes is deficient. They communicate by gestures, single works or disjointed phrases...therefore incapable of abstract thinking and unable to use language to explain, describe, enquire or compare.
restricted code (w/c)- limited vocab and is based on short, unfinished, grammatically simple sentences. May involve single words or just gestures instead. Context based.
educated parents get better incomes and spend it on things that promote childs academic success. Bernstein and Young (1967) m/c mothers buy educational toys, books and activities.
Educational Priority Areas, Education Action Zones, and Sure Start are nationwide programmes aimed at pre-school children and their parents to tackle cultural deprivation.
It is a 'myth' and is a victim-blaming explanation. A child cannot be deprived of their own culture, w/c children simply are culturally different not deprived.
transport, uniforms, equipment, and computers are a burden on poor families- resulting in hand-me-downs and cheaper, unfashionable equipment that may result in stigmitisation and being bullied.
w/c more debt adverse (see it negatively and should avoid it) and see uni as more costs than benefits. Those who were debt adverse were 5x less likely to apply to uni than debt tolerant students.
w/c students local universities so live at home but restricts going to high status universities. Also more likely to work part time making it more difficult to gain higher-class degrees.
knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities of the middle class. This gives m/c children an advantage, where such abilities and interests are highly valued and rewarded with qualifications. This is because the education system is bias to m/c culture.
Cultural, Educational and Economic capital can all be converted into each other. E.g. if you have economic capital then you can use your wealth to pay for your child to go to a private school (educational capital).
questionnaires to test children's cultural capital: she asked them about a range of activities, and whether they visited art galleries, museums and theatres.
found= read more complex fiction and watched serious TV documentaries developed wider vocab and greater cultural knowledge. Those with greatest cultural capital were children of graduates.
BUT- where pupils of different classes had same cultural capital, m/c still did better. So, greater resources and aspirations of m/c parents explains the rest of the class gap.
Dunne and Gazeley (2008): labelling in secondary schools
persistently produce w/c underachievement because of labels and assumptions that teachers make. They 'normalised' w/c underachievement so did little about it but believed m/c could overcome it. Set extension work for m/c pupils but entered w/c pupils into easier exams.
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968): teachers' expectations
told school had a test that shows the 'spurters'- but the test was actually simply an IQ test. Picked 20% of students purely at random and told them that those were the 'spurters'.
found= when came back a year later, almost half identified as spurters made significant progress. The effects were greater on younger children.
Therefore, teachers influenced by thinking that they were a certain type and treated them as so by giving them attention and encouragement.
children placed in lower stream at age 8 had a decline in IQ by 11.
streaming helps m/c as most likely to be placed in high streams, reflecting their view that they are 'ideal'. Children placed in higher stream at age 8 had an improved IQ by 11
league tables have created this economy as teachers focus all time, effort and resources on those pupils who will get the grades to boost position.
teachers use typical notions of ability to stream pupils. Teachers less likely to see w/c (and black) pupils as having ability so more likely to be in low streams in lower-tier exams.
differentiation= process of teachers categorising pupils on how they perceive their ability- 'more able' gets higher status and higher stream- 'less able' gets inferior status and lower stream
polarisation= process which pupils respond to streaming by moving into one of two extremes- pro-school or anti-school subcultures.
Those in lower streams- mainly w/c- suffer loss of self-esteem as they are deemed as inferior. Pushes them into alternative way to gain status which involves inverting the school values of hard work, obedience and punctuality.