Social class in Education

Sugarman theories

Fatalism, Collectivism, Immediate Gratification valued by WC

Bourdieu theories

Schools transfer social and cultural inequalities onto next generation. WC students see Oxbridge as unachievable

Douglas theories

Study of MC childrens progress, more frequent school visits from parents, more attention and encouragement

Gerwitz theory

3 parent types, Privaleged skilled choosers, Semi skilled choosers, Disconnected skilled choosers

Bernstein theory

Differences in language use. WC use restricted code and MC use elaborated code.

Boudon theory

Cost of persistance, WC can’t afford Universities, so find jobs

External Factors

Factors outside the school

Howard theory

Poor diet leads to illness, leading to absence and so underachieving.

Reay theory

Working class students apply for local universities to live at home and work at same time, so can’t gain high class degree

Internal factors

Factors in school

Becker

Labelling, teachers give labels based on ability and class

Rist study

Labelling, study of classroom. MC sat at front given more attention, called tigers. WC sat at back, ignored, called clowns.

Hargreaves

3 step process of labelling, Speculation, Elaboration, Stabilisation

Rosenthal and Jacobson

Self Fulfilling Prophecy, called 20% of class spurters, so they achieved highly

Ball

Banding, putting students into sets based on ability per subject

Streaming

Putting students into sets based on ability across all subjects

Lacey

Polarisation, students move to different poles, based on banding and streaming. Are anti school and pro school.

Gillborn and Youdell

Educational triage, A students given little/no help, C/D students given lots of help, U students seen as hopeless

Bourdieu

Habitus, way of thinking/acting of a social class. Symbolic capital, status of a person in society

Archer

Nike Identity, a result of a lack of symbolic capital of WC

Critism of cultural deprivation

Pupils of WC have own culture, but MC culture is seen as less important

Criticism of Labelling

Students can disprove label, Fuller study of black girls in London