Theorists - Class and Educational Achievement

Question 1

Key Theorist - Adonis and Pollard (1998): Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT DOES THEIR THEORY DO?

Answer 1

• Explain the differences in educational outcome due to the middle being able to afford private education.

Question 2

Key Theorists - Adonis and Pollard (1998): Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT IS ONE OF THE POTENTIAL ISSUES WITH THIS THEORY?

Answer 2

• This doesn’t account for the class differences within state education.

Question 3

Key Theorist - Douglas (1964): Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT DID THIS THEORY FIND?

Answer 3

• Working class children had a lower result on the IQ test.
• Working class parents spent less time with their children doing educational activities.
• If parents cannot afford to send their child on education trips, then the child’s motivation will decrease.

Question 4

Key Theorists - Bereiter and Engleman (1966): Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?

Answer 4

• Language in a working class home is poor.

- Families communicate by gestures, single words or ungrammatical sentences.

Question 5

Key Theorist - Bernstein (1975): Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY IDENTIFY?

Answer 5

• Differences between the language that working class and middle class students use.

Question 6

Key Theorist - Bernstein (1975): Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?

Answer 6

There are the following two speech codes:

• The restricted code – typically used by the working class. It has limited vocabulary and is based on the use of short, often unfinished, grammatically simple sentences.
• The elaborate code – typically used by the middle class. It has a wider vocabulary and is based on longer, more grammatically correct sentences.

Question 7

Key Theorist - Bernstein (1975): Class and Educational Achievement

WHICH CLASS DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE ARE BENEFITTED, AND WHY?

Answer 7

• The middle class because classroom dialogue, exams and textbooks and written in an elaborate code.

Question 8

Key Theorist – Feinstein (1998): Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?

Answer 8

• Working class parents have a lack of interest in education was the main reason for their child’s education underachievement more than the material deprivation.
• Middle class are more successful because parents provide them with the necessary motivation, discipline and support.

Question 9

Key Theorists – Sugarman (1970) and Hyman (1967): Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT DO THEY BOTH BELIEVE?

Answer 9

• A pupil’s culture is a ‘self-imposed barrier’ to educational and career success.

Question 10

Key Theorists – Sugarman (1970) and Hyman (1967): Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT DOES SUGARMAN BELIEVE?

Answer 10

The working class has the following four features that act as a barrier to educational underachievement:

• Fatalism – a belief in fate and the attitude that ‘whatever will be will be’ and there is nothing a person can do to change their status.
• Collectivism – valuing being part of a group more than succeeding as an individual.
• Immediate gratification – seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices if it gives you rewards in the future.
• Present-time orientation – seeing the present as more important than the future and therefore not having long term goals.

Question 11

Key Theorist - Howard (2001): Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT DID THIS THEORY FIND?

Answer 11

• Among the working class, students had a lower intake of energy, minerals and vitamins and a weak immune system.

Question 12

Key Theorists - Tanner et al (2003): Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT DID THIS THEORY FIND?

Answer 12

• That there was a heavy burden on working class families, such as transport, uniform and books.

Question 13

Key Theorist - Flaherty: Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT DID THIS THEORY FIND?

Answer 13

• There is a stigma around free school meals – only 20% of those who can access it do access it.

Question 14

Key Theorist - Ridge: Class and Educational Achievement

WHAT DID THIS THEORY FIND?

Answer 14

Many parents of working class families only have part time employment.

Question 15

Key Theorist - Bourdieu (1984): Cultural Capital

WHAT DOES THIS THEORY BELIEVE?

Answer 15

• Both cultural and material factors affect educational attainment.
• The middle class possess both cultural and economic capital.
• Cultural capital supports the knowledge, attitudes, values, language and tastes of the middle class.
• The education system is ethnocentric.

Question 16

Key Theorist – Becker (1971): The Ideal Pupil

WHAT DID BECKER DO?

Answer 16

• Interviewed 60 high school teachers in Chicago

Question 17

Key Theorist – Becker (1971): The Ideal Pupil

WHAT DID BECKER FIND?

Answer 17

• Teachers hold stereotypes of what they consider to be an ‘ideal pupil’.
• Pupils are assessed in terms of how closely they fit the image of the ‘ideal pupil’.
• A teacher’s image of an ‘ideal pupil’ relates to non-academic factors e.g. appearance, language and behaviour.
• Teachers saw middle-class pupils as the closest to the ideal pupils and the working-class pupils as the furthest away from it. Working-class pupils were more likely to be labelled in a negative manner and develop low teacher expectations.

Question 18

Key Theorists - Cicourel and Kitsuse (1963): Influence of Teaching Labelling on Working Class Treatment

WHAT DID THESE THEORISTS DO?

Answer 18

• Created a study of educational councillors (career advisors) in American high school.

Question 19

Key Theorists - Cicourel and Kitsuse (1963): Influence of Teaching Labelling on Working Class Treatment

WHAT DID THEY FIND?

Answer 19

• Counsellors play an important role in terms of the pupil’s educational career.
• Counsellors are inconsistent in the way they assess a pupil’s suitability for courses.
• Counsellors claim they assess pupils by ability, however, in practice their judgement is based on social class. For example, when pupils from different social classes had similar grades, they were most likely to label the middle-class people as having college potential and put them on a higher level course.

Question 20

Key Theorist - Hempel-Jorgensen: Educational Achievement

WHAT DID THIS THEORIST FIND?

Answer 20

Ideas about school vary according to the social class make up of the school:

• In the largely working-class Aspen primary school, discipline was a major problem so the ideal pupil was quiet, passive and obedient. Children were defined in terms of their behaviour and not their ability.
• The mainly middle-class Rowan school had very few discipline problems and the ideal pupil was determined in terms of personality and academic ability.

Question 21

Key Theorist - Hempel-Jorgensen: Educational Achievement

WHAT DID THIS THEORY FIND IN TERMS OF INVESTIGATING TEACHER EXPECTATIONS OF PUPILS?

Answer 21

• Teachers have a professional duty to treat all pupils fairly and teachers who failed to do so receive punishment. This means that teachers may conceal the negative expectations from researcher.
• Expectations can be transmitted through factors such as setting and streaming, teachers to teacher interaction, written reports and exam grading.
• Some pupils may be unwilling to talk about their perceptions of teacher expectations.

Question 22

Key Theorists - Dunne and Gazeley (2008): Educational Achievement

WHAT DO THEY ARGUE?

Answer 22

• Schools persistently produce working-class underachievement due to the labels and assumptions made by teachers about pupils.

Question 23

Key Theorists - Dunne and Gazeley (2008): Educational Achievement

WHAT DID THEY FIND?

Answer 23

• Teachers normalised the educational underachievement of working-class pupils, seemed unconcerned by it and felt they could do little or nothing about it. However, teachers felt that they could help with educational underachievement of the middle class.
• One major reason for the differences in educational underachievement, was the teachers beliefs about the role of a child’s home background. They labelled working-class parents as an interested in their child’s education and middle-class parents as supportive of their child’s education. This was because middle-class parents were more likely to attend school events such as parents evening.

Question 24

Key Theorists - Dunne and Gazeley (2008): Educational Achievement

WHAT DO THEY CONCLUDE ABOUT THE WAY THAT TEACHERS EXPLAINED AND DEALT WITH UNDERACHIEVEMENT ITSELF?

Answer 24

• The way that teachers explained and dealt with underachievement itself, constructed class differences in levels of attainment.

Question 25

Key Theorists - Rosenthal and Jacobson: Self Fulfilling Prophecy WHAT DID THEY DO IN THEIR STUDY?

Answer 25

- Studied Oak community school (a primary school in California) in 1968 and showed the ideas of a self-fulfilling prophecy at work.

Question 26

Key Theorists - Rosenthal and Jacobson: Self Fulfilling Prophecy WHAT DID THEY DO IN ORDER TO DEMONSTRATE THE SELF FOR FILLING PROPHECY WITH IN THEIR EXPERIMENT?

Answer 26

- They told the school that they had a new test designed specifically to identify these people who would 'spurt' ahead. This was untrue as it was a standard IQ test, but the teachers still believed the test to be true. - The researchers tested all pupils. - They then Shows 20% of the pupils at random and told the school (falsely) that those students had been identified as 'spurters'. - On returning to the school year later, they found that almost half of the students identified as spurters had made significant progress.

Question 27

Key Theorists - Rosenthal and Jacobson: Self Fulfilling Prophecy WHAT DID THEY ARGUE AS A RESULT OF THE STUDY?

Answer 27

- Teachers' beliefs about the pupils had influenced the supposed test results. - Teachers conveyed their beliefs that students Had the potential to achieve highly, by spending a lot of time giving them support and encouragement.

Question 28

Key Theorist - Douglas: Streaming WHAT DID THEY FIND?

Answer 28

- Children placed in a lower stream at the age of eight had suffered a decline in their IQ score by the age of 11. - Children placed in a higher stream aged eight had improved their IQ score by the age of 11.

Question 29

Key Theorists - Gillborn and Youdell (2001): Streaming WHERE DID THEY CARRY OUT THEIR STUDY?

Answer 29

- In two London schools.

Question 30

Key Theorists - Gillborn and Youdell (2001): Streaming WHAT DID THE STUDY SHOW?

Answer 30

- How teachers use stereotypical notions of ability to stream pupils. - Teachers are less likely to see working-class and black pupils as having a high level of ability. As a result of these peoples are more likely to be placed into lower streams and entered for lower tier GCSEs which then denies them of the knowledge and opportunities needed to gain higher grades. This widens the class gap in achievement.

Question 31

Key Theorists - Gillborn and Youdell (2001): Streaming WHAT DO THEY ARGUE?

Answer 31

- Publishing league tables creates an A to C economy. This is a system where schools focus their time, effort and resources on students who Are seen as having The potential to achieve five grade C and therefore boost the league table position of the school.

Question 32

Key Theorist - Hargreaves: Streaming WHAT DID THEY ARGUE?

Answer 32

- Boys in lower streams were triple failures as they had failed the 11+ exam, had been placed in lower streams, and have been labelled as worthless louts. - One solution to this problem of status is to seek each other out and form a group within which high status was gained by those students against the school rules. This means that pupils formed a delinquent subculture that helps guarantee their educational failure.

Question 33

Key Theorist - Ball (1981): Streaming WHAT DID THEY STUDY?

Answer 33

- A comprehensive school which was in the process of abolishing streaming in the favour of teaching in mixed ability groups.

Question 34

Key Theorist - Ball (1981): Streaming WHAT DID THEY FIND?

Answer 34

- When the school abolished banding, the basis for pupils to polarise into subcultures was mostly removed and the influence of anti-school subculture is also declined. - Although polarisation disappeared, Differentiation continued as teachers continued to categorise pupils differently and were able to label the middle-class students as cooperative and able. - The positive labelling of the middle class reflected the better exam results, suggesting that a self for filling prophecy had happened.

Question 35

Key Theorist - Woods: (1979): Pupils Responses to Teacher Labelling WHAT DOES THIS THEORY ARGUE?

Answer 35

- There are other responses to labelling and streaming, and these are: 1) Ingratiation: being the teachers pet. 2) Ritualism: going through the motions and staying out of trouble. 3) Retreatism: daydreaming and mucking about. 4) Rebellion: outright rejection of everything that the school stands for.