Social Class Studies

Question 1

Perry and Francis

Answer 1

Social class is the strongest predictor of educational achievement in the UK + key factor influencing whether a child does well or badly in school.

Question 2

Douglas

Answer 2

Found, 50 years ago, that the single more important factor explaining educational success and failure was the degree of parental encouragement, expectation and involvement in their child’s education

Question 3

Bernstein

Answer 3

Argued that there are two types of language use, whcih he calls elaborated code and the restricted code.
It is the middle-class young people’s familiarity with the elaborated code that gives them a better chance of success in education.

Question 4

Bourdieu

Answer 4

Marxist
He saw culture of school as giving an inbuilt advantage to middle class children.
Believes each social class possess its own cultural framework or set of ideas (called a ‘Habitus’
This cultural framwork includes:
- ideas of what counts as good or bad taste (books, newspapers, TV)
It is picked up through socialisation in the family.
The dominent class are able to impose its own habitus onto education systems so it isn’t culute of society as a whole but of the dominant class. (so dominant class students will do better in it as it is already known)

Question 5

Sullivan

Answer 5

Studied 465 pupils in their last year of secondary and found that middle class students are more likely to;
- read complex books
- visit cultural institutions (museums, art galleries)
- watch informative TV
- have a wide range of vocabulary
these made them to gain academic success more easily

Question 6

Cooper and Stewart

Answer 6

Found poorer children have worse cognitive, social behavoural and health outcomes as they are poor and not just as they are living in poor living conditions (cramed households), which could lead to possible illness and therefore miss school. Poor parents are less likely to send their child to pre-school or nursing facilities which may affect childs development