class differences in achievement Flashcards
Cultural deprivation
many working class families fail to socialise their children adequately and therefore their children grow up culturally deprived. They lack the cultural equipment to do well at school so they underachieve.
The theory emerged in the 1950s and has been strongly criticised for victim blaming.
Louise archer
policies wrongly assume that the problem of w/c underachievement is simply one of low aspirations and dysfunctional families.
Working class subculture
subculture - a group whose attitudes and values differ from those of mainstream culture.
Sugarman identifies four key features of working class subculture that act as barrier to educational achievement:
1. Fatalism - nothing you can do can change your fate
2. Collectivism - valuing being part of a group more than succeeding as an individual
3. Immediate gratification - seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices to obtain rewards in the future.
4. Present time orientation - seeing the present as more important than the future and therefore not having any longterm goals and plans.
Language - Feinstein
more highly qualified parents who are more likely to be middle class are more likely to use language in a way that challenges children to evaluate their own understanding causing cognitive performance to improve. They are also more likely to use praise which encourages their children to develop a sense of their own competencies. However, parents with fewer qualifications tend to use language in ways that only require children to make simple descriptive statements.
AO3 - Troyna and Wiliams - it is not the child’s languae but the teacher’s attitude towards it. Teachers have a speech heirarchy that labels middle class speech highest.
Language - bernstein
The restricted code - speech codes used by the working class. It has a limited vocabulary and is based on the use of short often unfinished, ungrammatically simple sentences.
The elaborated code - typically used by the middle class. Has a wider vocabulary and is based on longer, grammatically complex sentences. Communicates abstract ideas Early socialisation into the elaborated code means that children are fluent in it when they get to school and m/c feel at home in school and are more likely to achieve.
AO3 - Gaine and george - criticise bernstein for exaggerating and oversimplifying differences between working class and middle class speech patterns.
Parents education
Working class parents place less emphasis on education and as a result, children have lower levels of motivation and achievement.
Parents with higher qualifications emphasise consistent discipline and high expectations.
Parents with fewer qualifications are more likely to apply harsh and inconsistent that emphasises ‘doing as you are told’ and ‘behaving yourself’. Feinstein - prevents children from learning independence and self control .
Compensatory education
programmes aim to tackle deprivation by providing extra resources to schools and communities in deprived areas. They intervene early in the socialisation process to compensate children for the deprivation they experience at school.
Criticisms of cultural deprivation (4)
the idea of cultural deprivation itself contributes to underachievement by acting as a negative label that teachers apply to wroking class families which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy
Evans - most want their children to do well in education because they know that it will lead to a better job in the long run
Ignores the inequalities built into the education system and wider society which are to blame for underachievement.
Different but not deprived - keddie argues that they are culturally different.
