EDUCATION social class interactionism

three factors that that explain low working class achievement

• external factors- material + cultural deprivation

• internal factors

material factors

working class poor achievement is linked to inequality eg poor housing + health

they are unable to provide children with same opportunities

howard

material factor

• poor diet in working class led to higher levels of illness and therefore absence from school

reay

material factors

• wc students are more likely to apply to local universities so they could live at home and save

• also more likely to work a part time job making it harder to gain higher class degree

cultural deprivation

working class culture is somehow inferior to middle class culture

socialisation children receive from wc families is inadequate and lead to underachievement

sugarman

• used questionnaire

• working class and middle class perform differently in education due to attitude linked to parents occupation

• four key features in working class subculture that are a barrier to educational achievement

what are the four key features sugarman believes in

• fatalism

• collectivism

• immediate gratification

• present time orientation

fatalism

a belief that whatever will be, will be

collectivism

value in being in a group more then succeeding as an individual

immediate gratification

seeking pleasure now rather than later

• mc parents encourage deferred gratification which makes mc children more academically motivated

present time orientation

see the present as more important than the future

criticism of sugarman

• emphasises differences as opposed to similarities

• some parents have both mc and wc parent

• overgeneralised

douglas

• wc parents should lave less value on education

• greater levels of mc parental interest

how was greater levels of mc parental interest shown

• more frequent visits to school to discuss progress

• encouraging children to stay in school

• greater attention during socialisation

parenting style

• educated parents emphasise consistent discipline and high expectation

• less educated parents stile is marked as harsh discipline “doing as your told” which prevents learning discipline

bernstein

• differences in use of language

• middle class use “ elaborated code”

• wc uses “ restricted code”

• education is conducted in terms of elaborate code which puts working class children at a disadvantage

bernstein criticism

it’s over simplistic as wc students can use middle class language

bourdieu

• schools transfer social and cultural inequalities from one generation to the next

• the middle class have an advantage due to a higher cultural capital

• many do not apply to russel group as they’re lack of cultural capital gives them a disadvantage

gerwitz

• how policy impacts achievement

• identified 3 times of parents

what are the three types of parents when deciding schools

• privileges skilled choosers

• disconnected local choosers

• semi skilled choosers

what’s a possible solution to cultural deprivation

compensatory education- extra resources to deprived areas

criticism of cultural deprivation

Keddie- the myth of cultural deprivation, believe this victim blames and wc culture is sinfully different not deprived

what are internal factors

factors inside the school

becker

labelling theory

• teachers had an ‘ideal’ pupil and these were mostly upper class students

labelling theory

• person acts and sees themselves as how others see them

rosenthal and jacobson

• teacher expectations : class identified as sputters and these students made progress showing that teachers expectations have an affect on pupils performance

• this leads to self fulfilling prophecy

ball

• impact of banding - factors other than ability influenced bands , mc more likely to be in top band

• behaviour deteriorates as a result of stereotyping of bands

• lower band students developed an anti school subculture ( self fulfilling prophecy)

Gilborn and Youdell

• A* - C economy

• marketisation explains why schools are under pressure to stream and select pupils

• ‘Educational Triage’ - those who will pass those who have potential and those who are hopeless

• lower class and black pupils are labelled as lacking ability - produces self fulfilling prophecy

Lacey

• pupil subcultures emerge as a response to streaming

• these form due to differentiation and polarisation

• students either form pro school subculture or anti school subculture

differentiation

how teachers perceive ability and attitude of behaviour

polarisation

pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite poles

Rist

• children are seated permanently at ability tables

• these are more based on how far the student conformed to teachers middle class standards

• clowns vs tigers

• students labelled based on social class

hargreaves et al

• deviance in classrooms

hargreaves three stages of classifying students

• speculation

• elaboration

• stabilisation

woods

• pupil adaptations

• pupils can accept or rejects goals which changes their enthusiasm

criticisms

• not labelling but a consideration of different needs that need to be met

• labelling is deterministic as it assumes everyone accepts their labels

• labelling cannot explain working class underachievement as how did teachers get their labels

pupil identities

• bourdieu claims that middle class have power to define their habitats as superior and so school puts higher value on their cultural capital

• they therefore gain ‘ symbolic capital’ whereas as the wc is deemed worthless ‘ symbolic violence’ so wc feel like they need to change

• nike identities -students look for different ways to gain self worth, they achieve this through consumption of brands eg Nike.

• archer- this happens as wc choose to reject education as it doesn’t fit with their identity