social class & educational achievement

External factors

  • Sugarman

Cultural deprivation - working class subcultures contain 4 barriers to success:

  1. Fatalism - the belief that success is pre-determined & cannot be changed → low aspirations and lack of motivation

  2. Immediate gratification - prioritising short-term rewards over long-term success which can result in low commitment to education & choosing a job over further study

  3. Present-time observation - a focus on the present moment rather than planning for the future, making higher education seem irrelevant

  4. Collectivism - a strong sense of belonging to a social group, working class students may prioritise group loyalty over personal academic success, and fear that ambition will make them stand out or be seen as disloyal to their peers

  • Douglas

Parenting attitudes - middle class parents place greater emphasis on education by engaging more in their children’s learning & providing higher levels of encouragement

Working class parents are less likely to attend parents evenings or be involved in their child’s school life, this negatively affects educational achievement

  • Bernstein

Language code - 2 types:

  1. Restricted - working class

~ Limited vocabulary

~ Short, simple, & unfinished sentences

~ Predictable speech - using familiar phrases, single words, or gestures instead of full explanations

~ Focus on what’s happening rather than why

  1. Elaborated - ruling/middle class

~ Wider vocabulary

~ Longer & grammatically complex sentences that are more structured & detailed

~ Speech is more varied & includes abstract ideas which allows for deeper thinking & discussion

How language code affects achievement:

  1. Lessons and exams are in elaborated code which makes it harder for students who mainly use restricted code to understand instructions and questions

  2. Teachers may misinterpret restricted code as a lack of intelligence → negative labels & lower expectations

  3. Working class students may lack the ability to express complex ideas, like structuring arguments in essays or fully explaining their reasoning

  4. If students feel that school doesnt reflect the way they communicate they may become frustrated, demotivated, or adopt anti-school attitudes

  • Evaluation

~ His work encouraged schools to develop language support programmes for disadvantaged students that helps them adapt to the elaborated code → greater focus on teacher awareness of language barriers

~ Keddie - working class culture is not deprived, but different and schools are biased against it. Bernsteins approach blames the working class and ignores the role of structural inequalities & school attitudes in shaping working class experiences

~ Many working class students learn to switch between restricted & elaborated code depending on the situation

  • Gibson & Asthana

Material deprivation - poverty creates multiple barriers to success:

~ Higher levels of illness due to poor housing conditions & overcrowding → more absences from school which causes students to fall behind

~ Limited access to essential resources such as books, equipment, computers makes it harder for students to complete homework & develop key skills

~ Restricted access to early education as poorer parents are less likely to be able to afford pre-school or nursery which impacts early cognitive development

~ Young people from low income backgrounds are more likely to take on part-time jobs which reduces study time and increases stress

Feinstein - found a strong correlation between low household income and lower cognitive reasoning skills in children from 2 years old

More likely to experience food insecurity or rely on cheaper, low-nutrition diets, a lack of essential nutrients can negatively impact brain development, memory, energy levels, & concentration which makes it harder for children to engage in learning and affect their academic performance

Tanner - the hidden expenses of education (transport, uniforms, books, equipment) place a significant strain on low-income families which impacts students educational experiences

20% of students eligible for FSM choose not to claim them due to fear of stigma & bullying which can lead to poorer nutrition

  • Evaluation

~ Recognition of material deprivation has led to gov intervention such as FSM, pupil premium, & bursaries

~ Some low-income students still achieve highly which suggests factors beyond money influence success

~ Ignores school-based factors such as teacher labelling, setting & streaming

Internal factors

  • Becker

Labelling theory

Interviewed 60 high school teachers to understand how they judge pupils

Found that teachers assess students based on their perception of what the ideal pupil is considering work ethic, performance, behaviour, appearance - they saw middle class students as the closest to ideal and working class students as furthest away from it because they are regarded as badly behaved

  • Dunne & Gazeley’s study - argue that schools produce working class underachievement because of the labels & assumptions of teachers

Middle class students - teachers believed their parents were more supportive of education. If they underachieved teachers saw it as a temporary issue that could be fixed if given extra help & encouragement to improve

Working class students - teachers saw underachievement as inevitable due to their home background where they are less likely to receive help & support → give them less challenging work and enter them for lower-tier exams which limits opportunities

  • Rosenthal & Jacobson’s study

self-fulfilling prophecy - conducted an experiment in a primary school where they told teachers & students they had a test to identify ‘spurters’ , in reality the test was a standard IQ test & they randomly selected 20% of students as ‘spurters’

One year later 47% of the ‘spurters’ made significant progress

Shows that teachers expectations influenced students performances as they would’ve treated the 20% differently → higher achievement

  • Ball

Streaming - reinforces class inequalities & suggested that its abolition could lead to a fairer education system

His research showed that when the school moved to mixed ability classes:

~ The difference between pro & anti-school subcultures reduced

~ Negative labelling became less significant

~ Working class students were given more equal leaning opportunities

~ Teacher expectations still however differed based on social class - even without streaming some inequalities remained

  • Evaluation

~ provides a detailed understanding of how inequalities are reinforced within the system, rather than assuming they are purely the result of home life / family background

~ Ignores the role of external factors - Marxists argue economic factors are more fundemental causes of working-class underachievement

~ Fuller - found some black working class girls rejected negative labels & still achieved academic success, this shows students are active agents who can resist school-based inequalities

~ Fails to explain why teachers hold these biases

Pupils class identities

Class identities are formed outside of school but interact with the school & its vales produce educational success or failure

  • Bourdieu

Habitus - the deeply ingrained habits, language, & skills that individuals acquire through their life experiences & social class background

Schools often hold a middle-class habitus which values their cultural norms & behaviours - this can disadvantage working class students whose own habitus may clash with the schools expectations → feelings of alienation and inferiority → disinterest in school & learning

  • Archer

Nike identities - working class students express self-worth through branded clothing which symbolises group belonging & street credibility rather than seeking validation through academic success

Schools often ban these branded clothes which reinforce feelings of alienation

found: success is seen as requiring abandonment of working class identity → embrace nike identities to maintain pride & self worth

  • Evaluation

~ Highlights how students construct alternative status systems when they feel alienated from middle class school culture

~ Fails to acknowledge policy changes - with stricter uniform policies & anti-bullying initiatives,‘Nike identities’ may be less relevant today

  • Evans

Self-exclusion - the working class limit their own educational opportunities because they feel out of place, not because they lacks the ability

Instead of applying to prestigious universities they may feel a sense of obligation towards their families to stay home, fear they wont fit in, and believe moving away is too expensive

→ elite universities remain dominated by the middle class and working class students may miss out on career advantages that come with attending more prestigious universities → reinforces social class divisions

  • Evaluation

~ Provides insight into uni choices among working class students

~ Fails to consider policy changes - with increased participation schemes & financial support some barriers to elite universities may have weakened over time