Class Differences In Achievement (1) External Factors Flashcards
What percentage of Britain’s children attend private schools?
7%
How many entrants to Oxford and Cambridge come from private schools?
Nearly half
Define and give an example of internal factors.
Factors within schools and the education system, such as interactions between pupils and teachers, and inequalities between schools.
Define and give an example of external factors.
Factors outside the education system, such as the influence of home and family background and wider society.
According to cultural deprivation theorists, why do many working-class children underachieve in education?
Many w/c families fail to socialise their children adequately. These children grow up culturally deprived.
Three main aspects of cultural deprivation:
- Language, parents’ education and w/c subculture.
How does language affect educational achievement?
Hubbs-Tait et al: Where parents use language that challenges their children to evaluate their own understanding or abilities (e.g what do you think?), cognitive performance improves.
Feinstein:
- Educated parents more likely to do this.
- Less educated: simple descriptive statements. Result: lower performance.
How does a parents education affect their child’s education achievement?
Douglas: W/c parents place less value on on education. Result: less ambitious for their children, gave less encouragement + took less interest etc.
Result: children had lower levels of motivation + achievement.
How does working-class subculture affect educational achievement?
- Cultural deprivation theorists: large sections of the w/c have different goals, beliefs, attitudes + values from the rest of society + this is why their children fail at school.
- Lack of parental interest in their children’s education.
State three criticisms of cultural deprivation theory.
,- Keddie: Sees cultural deprivation as victim blaming. Points out that a child cannot be deprived of its own culture and argues w/c children are culturally different not culturally deprived. Fail bc they’re at a disadvantage by an education which is dominated by m/c values.
- Troyna and Williams: The problem isn’t the child’s language but the schools attitude towards it. Teachers have a ‘speech hierarchy’: label m/c speech highest, followed by w/c and finally black speech.
- Blackstone and Mortimore: W/c parents attend fewer parents’ evenings, not bc of lack of interest, but bc they work longer/irregular hours or are put off by the school’s m/c atmosphere. They may want to help their child progress but lack the knowledge and education to do so.
Define material deprivation.
Material deprivation refers to poverty and a lack of material necessities such as adequate housing and income.
How may housing lead to underachievement?
- Overcrowding (direct): Less room for educational activities, nowhere to do homework, disturbed sleep from sharing beds/bedrooms etc.
- Child’s health and welfare (indirect): Children in crowded homes run a greater risk of accidents. Cold/damp housing can cause ill health. Families in temporary accommodation suffer more psychological distress, infections and accidents leading to absences from school.
How may diet and health lead to underachievement?
- Howard: Young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals affecting health. E.g by weakening the immune system and lowering energy levels. Result: more absences from school due to illness + difficulties concentrating in class
How may financial support and the cost of education lead to underachievement?
- Bull: Refers to a lack of equipment and missing out on educational experiences as the ‘cost of free schooling’.
- Tanner: Cost of items (e.g uniforms, stationary, books etc) places a heavy burden on poor families.
- Result: Hand-me-downs and cheaper unfashionable equipment leading to isolation, stigmatisation and bullying.
- Flaherty: Fear of stigmatisation may explain why 20% of those eligible for free school meals don’t take up their entitlement.
- Smith + Noble: Poverty acts as a barrier to learning in other ways e.g inability to afford private school or tuition and poorer quality local schools.
How may fear of debt lead to underachievement?
Callender + Jackson:
- W/c students were more debt averse (saw debt negatively and something to be avoided).
- They saw more costs than benefits in going to university.
- Most debt adverse students (w/c) were over 5x less likely to apply to uni than most debt tolerant (m/c)
Who views material deprivation as more important?
Mortimore + Whitty: Material inequalities have the greatest affect on achievement.
Result: Robinson argues tackling child poverty would be the most effective way to boost achievement.
