1.3 differential educational achievement: social class
The statistics
one way to compare achievement is comparing those who are eligible for free school meals
Found attainment for free school meal pupils was 34.8. Attainment of those without free school meals was 49.6
Also those with a higher household income are almost twice as likely to get 5 GCSE’s
The role of IQ
some believe that IQ is inherited so middle class pupils inherit intelligence from their parentds
Research by Jensen and Eyensick found that identical twins had similar IQ, even when living in different households/ environment (nature vs nurture debate)
Douglas also found that ‘average’ middle class pupils were more likely to pass the 11+ exam than ‘average’ working class pupils
External factors
Material factors
Material deprivation= the ability to afford basic resources. This means working class pupils are unable to afford sufficient food, heating, clothing and educational resources.
Poor diet may lead to poor health, which leads to poor attendance and this may negatively impact achievement.
Also pupils may undertake employment alongside their studies, this reduces their time spent on schoolwork and may make them too tired to concentrate at school
Cultural factors
Working class pupils are likely to be culturally deprived, often due to inadequate socialisation.
Sugarman also suggested that working class pupils expect immediate gratification rather than deferred gratification.
Douglas also argued that working class parents are more likely to value achievements outside of education.
Bourdieu suggested that habitus leads to middle class advantage. As their habitus is deemed as superior by other middle class people, including teachers, examiners and employers
Social capital may also play a role. This refers to the networks and relationships a person possesses. This can be useful for pupils if their parents know the teachers, as the teachers will have different expectations of this pupil
Evaluation - out of school factors
policies have been put in place to resolve out of school factors. E.g educational maintenance allowance, pupil premium and free school dinners (for material factors). And sure start (for cultural factors).
Rather than suffering from ‘cultural deprivation’ and not placing a ‘high priority’ on school, it may be that parents need their child’s income to live and cannot afford for them to stay in education (more material factors). So it’s hard to distinguish between material factors and cultural factors.
Internal factors
Labelling
interactionist (Becker)
Suggested that teachers subconsciously label their students and this leads to a self fulfilling prophecy where the pupils live up their labels
Working class pupils are more likely to be negatively labelled
Anti-school subcultures
Paul Willis ‘learning to labour’
Found a subculture of ‘the lads’ had different norms and values. They valued messing about, avoiding work and welcoming poor grades.
These antischool subcultures have little interest in achievement, therefore underperform
Elaborate vs restricted code
Bernstein argued that teachers, textbooks and external examiners use the elaborate code. So the working class pupils struggle and are at a disadvantage since they use the restricted code
Evaluation - in school factors
its hard to distinguish between in school and out of school factors as both impact each other. Diane Reay showed that what happens outside of school impacts what happens inside school, and what happens in school impacts what happens outside of school