Topic 2: Class - Cultural Deprivation and Cultural capital

Question 1

What is meant by cultural deprivation?

Answer 1

Working class culture fails to provide the necessary attributes needed to succeed at school.

Question 2

What does Barry Sugarman (1970) state about the differences between working class and middle class culture?

Answer 2

1. WC don’t defer gratification - will take an immediate income rather than go to uni and get a higher income job.
2. Fatalism: Don’t believe they can improve through hard work.
3. Collectivism: Less likely to seek individual success in education.

Question 3

What did Leon Fernstein (2003) find as the most important factor in shaping educational achievement?

Answer 3

Using data from the National Child Development Study:

- The extent to which parents supported and encouraged their children determined how well they did.

Question 4

What factors did Goodman and Gregg (2010) find that explained low educational achievement amongst the poor?

Answer 4

1. The quality of mother-child interactions.
2. How often parents read books to young children.
3. Parental attitudes to education.
4. Parental involvement in schooling (helping with hw).

Question 5

What are Bernstein’s (1972) language codes?

Answer 5

WC speak with restricted codes - shorthand speech.

MC use elaborate codes - more complex and precise.

Question 6

How do language codes affect educational achievement (Bernstein, 1972)?

Answer 6

Elaborate codes are necessary for success - many teachers use elaborate codes.
WC children may feel less confident.

Question 7

How do Blackstone and Mortimore (1994) criticise the research of parental interest?

Answer 7

Parental interest hasn’t been measured adequately.
Teacher assessments have been used, not giving the full picture.
Further, wc parents may not visit school events as they are uncomfortable around the mc teachers - inferiority.

Question 8

What did Gillian Evans’ (2007) qualitative research find?

Criticises cultural deprivation theories.

Answer 8

She interviewed those on a London council estate:

- Most wc parents encouraged their children and placed high value on education.

Question 9

What is important about Gillian Evans that helps refute cultural deprivation theories?

Answer 9

She is a middle class parent and found that there was no difference in positive attitudes to education amongst mothers of different social classes.

Question 10

How do Gaine and George (1999) criticise Bernstein?

Answer 10

He oversimplifies the difference between mc and wx speech patterns.
Class differences in speech patterns have decline and other factors affect educational achievement more than language codes.

Question 11

What is the main criticism of cultural deprivation theories?

Answer 11

It is seen as blaming the wc for their own failure.

Question 12

How do cultural capital theories see the difference in culture compared to cultural deprivation theories?

Answer 12

Cult Cap: The cultures are merely different but the system operates within the mc culture.
Cult Dep: WC culture is inferior so they miss out.

Question 13

What actually is cultural capital?

Answer 13

Possession of cultural assets that give you advantages.

Such as educational qualifications, your accent, or knowledge of the arts and literature.

Question 14

Why does Bourdieu see cultural capital as being the most important?

Answer 14

The education system is biased towards the culture of the upper classes (bourgeois), so those who have been socialised into this dominant culture are advantaged.
They possess more cultural capital needed to succeed at school.

Question 15

Why does Bourdieu argue that parents with higher cultural capital can advantage their kids?

Answer 15

Parents have the knowledge to help their children through academia.
They can provide an educationally stimulating home. Eg, talk about philosophy over the dinner table rather than watch tv.

Question 16

How did Alice Sullivan (2001) test Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital?

Answer 16

Surveyed 465 pupils of school-leaving age.
Their class was determined by the parent in the highest-status job.
Cultural capital was measured by the educational qualifications of the parents.

Question 17

What did Alice Sullivan question pupils on?

Answer 17

Asked about the books they read, the tv shows they watched, music they listen to as well as whether they played an instrument or went to galleries.
Also, they were tested on their knowledge of cultural figures and vocab.

Question 18

What did Sullivan find?

Answer 18

Students were more successful if they read complex fiction and watched documentaries as this helped develop wider vocabulary.
Importantly, the students whose parents had higher cultural capital, also had higher cultural capital and did better.

Question 19

What so cultural capital theories identify?

Answer 19

Ways in which the ed system is biased against the wc, thus link factors inside and outside educational institutions.
Also look at how schools value and devalue different cultures.

Question 20

What do cultural capital theories fail to recognise?

Answer 20

1. How different groups are treated within schools.

2. Underestimate the direct influence of material factors in education.

Question 21

Apart from Bourdieu, what don’t most cultural capital theorists acknowledge?

Answer 21

How material factors shape different cultures.

Eg, they may be unable to defer gratification due to the lack of well-paid secure employment.

Question 22

Cultural _________ and capital reflect the underlying _____ differences between classes.

Answer 22

Cultural differences and capital reflect the underlying material differences between classes.