class effects on educational achievement Flashcards
material factors
the availability of resources such as adequate income and housing.
cultural deprivation
values, attitudes and language of some social groups are deficient in relation to the middle class culture of the education system.
cultural capital
• both cultural and material factors contribute to educational achievement, they are interrelated
• middle class children are socialised into a habitus, giving them an advantage in education. school values these abilities and intellectual interests
•working class culture is not valued and children feel alienated at school
waldfogel and washbrook - housing
•overcrowding makes it difficult to do educational activities, play do homework.
• cold/damp causes ill health and absenteeism.
•families in temporary accommodation suffer more changes of school, disrupting education.
JWB douglas - parental attitudes
middle class children received more attention and encouragement from their parents during their early years. this provides a foundation for high attainment in their later years.
sullivan - cultural capital
used questionnaires to asses the cultural capital of 465 students from 4 comprehensives. she asked them about their tv viewing, reading and whether they visit museums and theatres. the pupils with greater cultural capital were the children of graduates
dunne and Grazeley - teacher student relationships
•teachers ‘normalised’ the underachievement of working-class pupils, and they felt like they could do nothing about it, however they would overcome the underachievement of middle-class pupils,
• this is because they labelled working-class parents as uninterested in their children’s education, but labelled middle-class parents as supportive.
•This led to the teachers setting extension tasks for underachieving middle-class pupils but entering working-class pupils for easier exams.
bernstein - hidden curriculum
argued one way the hidden curriculum comes into play is through the language codes that a child uses. Elaborated language code is the norm for middle class adults and children whereas restricted is the norm for working class adults and children.
gillborn and youdell - organisation of teaching and learning
•use stereotypical notions of ‘ability’ to stream pupils, and they found that teachers were less likely to see the working-class and black children as having ability. As a result, these students were more likely to be placed into lower streams and entered for lower tier GCSEs.
•This streaming was linked to exam league tables. To be in a good position, it’s all about the percentage of pupils who achieve A* to C. This publishing of league tables has led to the ‘A-to-C economy’.
•whereby schools focus their time, effort and resources on those pupils that have the potential to get 5 grade Cs.
Lacey - student identity & peer group
Pupil subcultures often emerge as a response to the way pupils have been labelled. Lacey (1970) identified the concepts of differentiation and polarisation to explain how pupil subcultures develop:
•Differentiation: categorising pupils on ability and attitude/behaviour. ‘More able’ pupils are given high status by being placed in a high stream, whereas those deemed as ‘less able’ are placed in a low stream.
•Polarisation: Pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite ‘poles’ or extremes’ i.e. pro-school vs. anti-school subculture.
Becker - ideal pupil
Found that teachers labelled and judged students depending on whether they met the ideal pupil, this meant they were less likely to see working class pupils as ideal pupils resulting in them being given less access to certain resources that would help them to succeed more academically overall creating a self fulfilling prophecy and widening the gap in achievement between class.
