Differential achievement- class

Question 1

Name external class factors

Answer 1

Material deprivation- Housing, Diet and health, finances

Cultural deprivation - Parental interest, attitudes and values, language, parents own education

Cultural capital

Question 2

What is material deprivation

Answer 2

Lacking the physical necessities of life such as housing, diet and income

Question 3

Name the material factors of class

Answer 3

Housing
diet
finances
fear of debt

Question 4

Ao1 housing

Answer 4

Poor housing can affects a childs educational achievement.
An example of this is if there is inadequate space in the house there may be nowhere for a child to go and complete homework.
Poor housing can also increase the likely hood of illnesses such as living in damp conditions where sleep is affected this means that the children from poor homes are more likely to have higher rate of absence from school.

Question 5

Ao3 housing

Answer 5

Schools can help overcome this problem through providing places to revise for example libraries

Question 6

Ao1 diet and health

Answer 6

Howard notes that young people from poorer homes have low intake of energy as they lack vitamins and minerals leading to poor nutrition causing a weaker immune system this leads to more absences in schools. Wilkinson found that children from poorer homes are more likely to face emotional or behavioral problems and they have a higher rate of hyperactivity, anxiety and conduct disorders.

Question 7

Ao3 diet and health

Answer 7

Schools can help overcome this problem through providing free school meals and breakfast clubs.

Question 8

Ao1 finances

Answer 8

Bernstein and Young found that middle class mothers are more likely to buy educational toys for their children to stimulate intellectual development.
Tanner argues that schooling is costly as parent need to pay for transport, uniform and equipment this causes a burden on working class families.

Question 9

Ao3 finances

Answer 9

Schools can help overcome this problem through giving bursaries and loans

Question 10

Ao1 fear of debt

Answer 10

Callendar and Jackson gave 2000 questionnaires out to students and found that working class children are 5 times less likely to apply to uni compared to middle class.

Question 11

Ao3 fear of debt

Answer 11

This can also be overcome by students being given finances and bursaries

Question 12

What is cultural deprivation

Answer 12

The lack of the right norms and values for educational success

Question 13

Ao1 parental interest

Answer 13

Douglas argues that the main reason for working class children underachieving is the lack of parental interest. Douglas conducted a study over 5000 british children and found that middle class parent expressed a greater interest and visited the school more often for childrens progress.
Douglas found that the parental interest and encouragement became increasingly important as the children grew older.

Question 14

Ao3 parental interest

Answer 14

Douglas bases his theory on attendance at parents evening that there could be a number of reason why working class parents are less likely to attend such as they may be working and not be available and some tend to feel uncomfortable in the middle class school environment and perhaps some show interest at home rather than at school.

Question 15

Ao1 parents own education

Answer 15

Fernstein says parents own education is the most important factor affecting a child eduaction as they can give their children an advantage by how they are socialised.
For example parenting style differs between the working class and middle class as the middle class are more educated and the parents emphasize consistent discipline and have high expectations for their children. Less educated parents are inconsistent with their childrens discipline

Question 16

Ao3 parents own education

Answer 16

Compensatory education programs such as sure start is aimed to those who may be culturally deprives by helping them improve their skills and this helps to transmit values and attitude for educational success.

Question 17

Ao1 attitudes and values

Answer 17

Sugarman argues that the attitudes of working class and middle class cultures are linked to the educational achievement and attitudes result from the different nature of manual and non manual jobs.
The 4 attitudes are:
Time orientation
attitude to gratification
Collectivism vs individualism
Attitudes to luck

Question 18

Ao3 attitudes and values

Answer 18

Sugarmans conclusions are from the questionnaires data but just because someone answers a certain way in a questionnaire it does not give accurate indication of how they behave and the sample is not representative.

Question 19

Ao1 Language

Answer 19

Bernstein distinguishes between elaborated and restricted speech codes. The working class use restricted speech codes this is unfinished sentences and slang. Middle class children use elaborated code these are grammatically correct sentences.
Bernstein gave the example of 2 boys one was middle class the other was working class, the had to describe the same picture, the middle class child used elaborated code the working class child used restricted code.

Question 20

Ao3 Language

Answer 20

Berstein studied only 2 boys this is small sample so we can not generalize all middle class and working class children. However he does recognise that the school also influences childrens achievement as schools fail to teach them elaborated code.

Question 21

Ao1 cultural capital

Answer 21

Bordieu uses the concept of cultural capital to explain why middle class children are more successful. He uses the term cultural capital to refer to the knowledge, attitudes, values and language.
Economic and cultural capital will lead to high educational success.

Question 22

Ao3 cultural capital

Answer 22

Keddie described his cultural deprivation as a myth and sees it as victim blaming. She argues that the working class children are culturally different not culturally deprived because they fail as they are disadvantaged by the education system that is dominated by the middle class value.

Question 23

Name the internal class factors

Answer 23

Labelling
setting and streaming
subcultures
marketisation policies

Question 24

Name 4 marketisation policies

Answer 24

A-C economy
Educational triage
Cream skimming
Silt shifting

Question 25

Ao1 labelling

Answer 25

Becker interviewed 60 teachers from chicago high school and found out that they tend to classify students in terms of ideal pupils. Teachers percieve students from middle class backgrounds as closest to idea pupils and those from working class background the furthest.
Rosenthal and Jacobson studied labelling in elementary schools in california and found that they tested all pupils for IQ and from the results they selected a random sample of 20% of students and labelled them as spurters, those labelled increased development and achieved the label compared to those who were not labelled.
This shows teachers expectations could significantly affect their pupils performance.

Question 26

Ao3 labelling

Answer 26

Rosenthal and Jacobsen observed classroom interactions so that they could view what caused self fulfilling prophecies this is flawed and their work presents ethical considerations. They manipulated the labelling process so some pupils achievement couldve been negatively affected.

Question 27

Ao1 setting and streaming

Answer 27

Stephen Ball examined a comprehensive school where people are placed into 3 bands from the information given about they from primary school. The first band was seen as hard working the second band was seen as least co operative and band three was seen as the most troublesome as a result these bands had been taught differently and the working class were put to a disadvantage by this.

Question 28

Ao3 setting and streaming

Answer 28

Douglas found that children placed in a low stream at age 8 and that they had suffered a decline in their IQ by the age of 11 but those in the high bands had increased their IQ by age 11. The middle class benefit from this as they are placed in high sets and they are seen as the ideal student this results in positive self concept which improves their achievement.

Question 28

Ao1 subcultures

Answer 28

Pupil subcultures are groups of people who share similar values and behaviour patterns. this is the response of them being labelled.
Willis did a study of 12 working class, boys in secondary school and they had formed a school subculture where they refused to show any interest in school. They constantly misbehaved and shows that working class from form an anti school subculture.

Question 28

Ao3 subculture

Answer 28

Fullers study of black girls rejecting their labels
And that they went off to learn by themselves and they got better grades that was expected from them

Question 29

Definition of marketisation policies

Answer 29

Marketisation policies help to create more competition between schools. The middle-class are seen as more desirable as they have better results and the working class are seen as a liability as they have many barriers.

Question 29

Ao1 A-C economy

Answer 29

Girlborn and Youdell link streaming to the policy of exam league tables published where school are ranked according to their performance.
Published league tables creates an A-C economy in schools where extra is given to those pupils achieving between a grade A* - C this helps to improve performance of schools in league tables and the pupils who are seen as bright are given help whilst those who are seen as failures are no helped. This is known as an educational triage.
Pupils are categorised in three types.
Those who fail are labelled as hopeless cases meaning they are doomed to fail and placed into low sets
Marketisation policies like league tables causes the education triage to disadvantage the working class