Class Differences in Achievement - External
- Created by: SWhiteley36
- Created on: 08-05-17 20:04
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- Class Differences in Achievement - EXTERNAL
- Cultural Capital
- Bourdieu - Three types of Capital
- Educational and Economic Capital
- Middle-class children are better equipped to meet the demands of the school curriculum
- Wealthier parents can convert their economic capital into educational capital by sending their children to private schools.
- Cultural Capital
- Middle-class culture gives an advantage to those who possess it.
- Argues through their socialisation, middle-class children acquire the ability to grasp abstract ideas
- MC more likely to understand what the education system wants for success
- Gives MC children an advantage in school where these interests are highly valued
- Shows the education system is not neutral, but favours the dominant MC culture.
- A test of Bourdieu's ideas
- Sullivan uses a questionnaire to conduct a survey of 465 pupils in 4 schools to assess their cultural capital
- She asked them a range of questions such as TV habits and reading
- She found that those who read complex fiction developed a wider vocabulary, indicating a greater cultural capital.
- Argues that both cultural and material factors contribute to educational achievement
- Educational and Economic Capital
- Bourdieu - Three types of Capital
- Cultural Deprivation
- Language
- WC
- Communicate with gestures, single-words and disjointed phrases
- Deficient
- Grow up incapable of abstract thinking
- Simple, descriptive senteces
- Restricted Code - context-bound
- Feel excluded and become less successful
- MC
- Elaborated Code - context-free
- Wider vocabulary
- Grammatically complex sentences
- Advantage in school - used by teachers and books
- BERSTEIN
- WC
- Parent's Education
- Parenting style
- Educated parents emphasise on discipline and high expectations of their children
- Less educated parents are harsh or have inconsistent discipline
- Prevents the child from learning independence and self-control
- Use of Income
- Better educated parents tend to have higher incomes
- better understanding of nutrition and with their income they can buy more nutritious foods
- Bernstein and Young found that MC mothers are more likely to buy educational toys, books and activities for their children
- WC homes lack these resources which means these children lack intellectual skills when they start school
- Better educated parents tend to have higher incomes
- Parent's Educational Behaviour
- MC
- Engage by reading to their children, teaching them letters and numbers.
- More successful in establishing good relationships with teachers
- Recognise the educational value of activities such as visiting libraries and museums
- WC
- Don't encourage their children
- Visit school less
- MC
- Parenting style
- WC Sub-culture
- Sugarman
- Fatalism
- Collectivism
- Immediate Gratification
- Present-time Orientation
- Sections of the WC have different goals, beliefs, attitudes and values from the rest of society
- Compensatoy Education
- Extra resources for deprived areas
- Operation Head Start -1960s
- Improve parenting skills, setting up nurseries and home visits
- Sesame Street - numeracy and literacy skills
- Myth?
- Keddie sees it as victim-blaming
- Blackstone
and Mortimore reject that working-class parents are not interested in their
child’s educationtled
- Attend fewer parents evenings as they work longer, or unusual hours
- May want to help their child but lack the knowledge and education to do so
- Cultural deprivationists argue that parents pass on their values of their class to their children through primary socialisation.
- Sugarman
- Language
- Material Deprivation
- Housing
- Direct effects such as overcrowding can make it harder for a child to study
- Overcrowding means less room for educational activities, to do homework and disturbed sleep
- Families living in temporary accommodation may find themselves frequently moving schools, disrupting their child's education
- Cold or damp housing can cause ill health
- Children in overcrowded homes run a greater risk of accidents
- Diet and Health
- Poor nutrition weakens the immune system and lowers children's energy levels. this may result in absence from school due to illness
- Children from poorer houses are more likely to have emotional or behavioural problems.
- Howard notes that young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals.
- Wilkinson found that in ten-year-olds the lower the social class, the higher the rate of hyperactivity, anxiety and conduct disorders
- Financial Support and the Costs of Education
- Tanner et al found that uniforms, books and computers placed a heavy burden on poor families.
- Lack of financial support means that children from poorer families have to do without equipment and miss out on experiences that would enhance their achievement.
- As a result, poor children may have to do with hand-me downs and become stigmatised and bullied
- Children in poverty take on jobs such as paper rounds which often has a negative impact on their work.
- Fear of debt
- Attitudes towards debt may deter WC students from going to university
- Callender and Jackson found that WC students are more debt averse, and saw more costs than benefits in going to university
- Found that attitude to debt was important in deciding whether to go to university
- Reay found that WC students were more likely to apply to local universities so they could live at home
- Poverty is closely linked to educational underachievement as evidence shows that exclusion and truancy are more likely to come from poorer families
- Housing
- Summary
- MC pupils tend to achieve more than WC pupils.
- MC have more cultural capital - better placed to take advantage of the choices offered in the education system
- Material deprivation means WC children are more likely to have poorer diets, health and housing.
- Cultural Capital
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