Social Class and Achievement - External Factors - Criticisms

Question 1

Material Deprivation

Answer 1

• The Government introduced compensatory education which is an extra service and programmes to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve at school.
  e. g. breakfast club and free school meals.
• Tuition fee loans have been introduced to help w/c students with the costs of higher education.
  - many students still refrain and a loan doesn’t encourage them.

Question 2

Parents’ Attitudes

Answer 2

• Many w/c parents do care about their children’s education, but are unable to attend parents’ evening and other school events because of material deprivation. they cannot afford the time off work or the transport costs.`

Question 3

Subculture

Answer 3

• Not all w/c students underachieve, so the theory fails to explain why some w/c children manage to succeed despite their cultural deprivation.
• Assumes w/c culture is inferior when it might just be different.

Question 4

Language Use

Answer 4

• Too Simplistic; in each social class there are variations in the way people speak.
• Labov studied Afro-Caribbean students in New York who used ‘street language’. He found that if the teachers’ used the same language code, they did well.

Question 5

Cultural Capital

- AO3

Answer 5

→GERWITZ: discovered a social class difference when parents choose a secondary school for their children.

1. Skilled Choosers - e.g. can afford to move into a good catchment area.
2. Semi-skilled Choosers- want their children to do well
3. Disconnected Local Choosers - send their child to the closest school, no matter how poor it may be.