Cultural Deprivation Flashcards
(25 cards)
Language
(Hubbs-Tait et al)
Hubbs-Tait et al (2002): where parents use language that challenges their children to evaluate their own understanding or abilities - e.g. what do you think? - cognative performance improves.
Language
(Leon Feinstein)
Leon Feinstein (2008): educated parents are more likely to use language in this way. By contrast, less educated parents tend to use language in ways that require children to make simple descriptive statements - e.g. what’s this animal called? - this resultys in lower performance.
Feinstein also found that educated parents are more likely to use praise - this encourages children to develop a sense of their own competence.
Language
(linked to social class)
Cultural deprivation theorists:
Carl Bereiter and Siegfried Engelmann (1966) claim that the language used in lower-class homes is deficient. They describe lower-class families as communicating by gestures, single words or disjointed phrases.
As a result, their children fail to develop the necessary language skills - they grow up incapable of abstract thinking and unable to use language to explain, describe, enquire or compare. They are unable to take advantage of opportunities that school offers.
Who argues about different language between classes?
Basil Bernstein (1975): recognises differences between middle-class and working-class language that influences achievement.
The restricted code
The restricted code: typically used by the working-class. It has limited vocab and is based on the use of short, often unfinished, grammatically simple sentences. The restricted code is context-bound: the speaker assumes that the listener shares the same set of experiences.
The elaborated code
The elaborated code: typically used by the middle-class. It has a wider vocab and is based on longer, grammatically more complex sentences. The elaborated code is context-free: the speaker does not assume that the listener shares the same experiences.
Speech codes
(examples in school)
The differences in speech codes gives middle-class children an advantage in schools and puts working-class children at a disadvantage.
This is because the elaborated code is the language used by teachers, in textbooks and exams.
Middle-class children are already fluent in the elaborated code due to early socialisation in it - therefore they feel ‘at home’ in school and are more likely to succeed.
Working-class children lack the elaborated speech code and are likely to feel excluded and to be less successful
Parents’ education
(cultural deprivation theorists)
Douglas (1964)
Leon Feinstein (2008)
Leon Feinstein - parents education
Leon Feinstein (2008): parents’ own education is the most important factor affecting children’s achievement - since middle-class parents tend to be better educated, they are able to give their children an advantage by how they socialise them.
Douglas - parents education
Douglas (1964): working-class aprents placed less value on education. As a result, they were less ambitious for their children, gave them less encouragement and took less intrest in their educatiion - they visited schools less often and less likely to discuss their children’s progress with teachers. Their children had lower levels of motivation and achievement.
Parenting style
Educated parents’ parenting style emphasises consistant discipline and high expectations of their children, this supports achievement by active learning and exploration.
Less educated parents’ parenting style is marked by harsh or inconsistent discipline that emphasises ‘doing as your told’ and ‘behaving yourself’. This prevents the child from learning independence and self-control, leading to poorer motivation at school and problems interacting with teachers.
Parents’ educational behaviours
Educated parents are more aware of what is needed to assist their children’s educational progress.
- As a result, they engage in behaviour such as:
reading to their children, teavhing them letters, numbers, songs, poems etc.
Educated parents can also get expert advice on childrearing, establishing good teacher relationships, guiding their childrens interactions with the school.
These parents also recognise the educational value of activities such as visits to museums and libraries.
Use of income
Better educated parents spend their income in ways that promote their children’s educational success.
Bernstein and Young (1967) found that middle-class mothers are more likely to buy educational toys, books and activities that encourage reasoning skills and stimulate intellectual development. Educated parents also have a better understanding of nutrition and its importance in child development, and have a higher income to buy more nutricious food.
Whilst working-class homes are more likely to lack these resources and this means children from such homes start school without the intellectual skills needed to progress.
Class, income and parental education
Feinstein finds that parental education has an influence on children’s achievement in its own right regardless of class and income.
Therefore, even within a given social class, better educated parents tend to have children who are more successful at school.
This may help to explain why not all children of working-class parents do equally badly, and why not all children from middle-class families are equally successful.
Working-class subculture
A subculture is a group whose attitudes and values differ from those of the mainstream culture.
Barry Sugarman (1970) takes this view.
What does Barry Sugarman argue?
He argues that working-class subculture has four key features that act as a barrier to educational achievement
Fatalism
A belief in fate - that ‘whatever will be, will be’ and there is nothing you can do to change your status.
This contrasts with middle-class values which emphasise that you can change your position through your own efforts.
Collectivism
Value being part of a group more than succeeding as an individual.
This contrasts with the middle-class view that an individual should not be held back by group loyalties.
Immediate gratification
Seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices in order to get rewards in the future.
By contrast, middle-class values emphasise deferred gratification, making sacrifices now for the greater rewards later.
Present-time orientation
Seeing the present as more important than the future and so not having long-term goals or plans.
By contrast, middle-class culture has a future-time orientation that sees planning for the future as important.
Compensatory education
Compensatory education programmes aim to tackle the problem of cultural 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 exprience at home.
Example of compensatory education
Operation Head Start in the United States - a multi-billion dollar scheme of pre-school education in poorer areas introduced in the 1960’s.
Its aim was ‘planned enrichment’ of the deprived child’s environment to develop skils and instil achievement motivation.
Sesame Street was initially part of Head Start, providing a means of transmitting values, attitudes and skills needed for educational success.
In Britain, there have been several compensatory education programmes, such as Educational Priority Areas, Education Action Zones and Sure Start - a nationwide programme aimed at pre-school children and their parents.
The myth of cultural deprivation
(Nell Keddie)
Nell Keddie (1973) - describes cultural deprivation as a ‘myth’ and sees it as a victim blaming explanation.
She points out that a child cannot be deprived of its own culture and argues that working-class children are simply culturally different, not culturally deprived.
She argues that rather than seeing working-class culture as deficient, schools should recognise and build on its strengths and should challenge teachers’ anti-working class prejudices.
The myth of cultural deprivation
(Barry Troyna and Jenny Williams)
The problem is not the child’s language but the school’s attitude towards it.
Teacher’s have a ‘speech hierarchy’: they label middle-class speech highest, followed by working-class speech and black speech.
