Social class and achievement

Question 1

External factors

Answer 1

Material deprivation

Poor housing-> overcrowding-> disturbed sleep-> lack of concentration in school-> underachievement

Howard-> poor diet w/c-> lack of vitamins and minerals, no nutrition-> reduces energy levels-> absent from school-> underachievement

Question 2

Internal factors

Answer 2

Labelling and self fulfilling prophecy-> attach a stereotype or label to a student-> eg thick troublemaker-> student lives up to the label-> consistent bad behaviour-> underachievement
Students from w/c backgrounds labelled more often as they stereotypically aren’t the ‘ideal student’

Streaming and setting-> separating students based on their ability-> underachievement of the w/c pupils as m/c tend to be placed in higher sets-> due to teacher labelling and comparisons to ‘ideal pupil’-> widens achievement gap