Still important

Raey (1) working and middle class mothers

• made a study of 33 mother in London, found that middle-class mothers had time and energy to spend reading to their children and these children where confident taking to teachers in class

• The working class mothers had more of a struggle to make ends meet and so had less time and energy

• Working class mothers also had fewer cultural resources such as verbal confidence and knowledge of how the education system works

Raey (2) working and middle class mothers

• children learn about social norms by imitating their parents

• They may copy the ways adults talk or the table manners for example.

• Lower social families have lower income

Raey (3) working and middle class mothers

• income affects not only what activities individuals can take part in but can also decide the education a child receives, where their live and the peer group they associate with.

• These all have an impact on an individuals identity

Sociologist supporting Raey (4)

Skelton found that schools tend to reflect the values of the surrounding neighbourhood

• Also arguing that what is taught in school actually disadvantages the working class, thus reinforcing their working-class identity.

• Children from middle class backgrounds tend to achieve higher than working class backgrounds

Peer Groups Adler and Adler (1)

• In play situations children learn about social norms and they develop social skills.

• when they become teenagers, they spend more time in the presence of their friends than their parents

• Studied a group of middle class children in America, children tended to mix with children of similar class and therefore shared the norms and values of this class.

• This reinforces their class identity

Bourdieu, Golding and Middleton (1) education is middle class

Bourdieu suggests that schools are middle class institutions run by the middle class.

• the forms of knowledge, values ways of interacting and communicating ideas that middle class children possess are developed further and rewarded by the education system

• Working class children may lack these qualities and so do not have the same chances to succeed.

Bourdieu, Golding and Middleton (2) education is middle class

Golding and Middleton suggest

• The new media depicts the working class as troublesome, dependent and deviant.

• Middle class people appear as rational, articulate and authoritative

• Audiences internalise these narratives and adopt classed understandings of their own positions