SOCIAL CLASS & EDUCATION

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  • SOCIAL CLASS & EDUCATION
    • Cultural Deprivation
      • working class children fail because their values & culture are inferior to middle class children
      • Aldridge (2001)
        • children with the same measured intelligence, middle class children are more successful than working class children. 
        • This pattern has changed very little in the past 60 years.
      • Feinstein (1998)
        • working class parents lack of interest was the main reason children did not achieve
        • thought this was more important than financial problems
        • believes that in contrast to working class families, middle class parents provide motivation, discipline & support need to succeed
      • Sugarman (1970)
        • identifies 4 key values in the working class which differed to middle class
        • 1) Fatilism - accept situation
        • 2) Immediate gratification - focuses in enjoyment of pleasure of movement (middle class socialised into delayed gratification)
        • 3) Present time orientations -live for now rather than future (middle class plansfor the future)
        • 4) Collectivism - being part of a group more important than being an individual
    • Cultural Capital
      • can be used to explain why working class children do less well than middle class children
      • middle class children can afford more high culture e.g. classical music concerts, ballet, opera etc.
        • also have different people around them - more upper class social life to develop their lifestyle & classical knowledge e.g of education system from qualified parents
      • Bordieu & Passerson (1997)
        • cultural capital is valuable in educational terms as material wealth (economic capital)
        • schools are middle class institutions run by middle class for the middle class
          • therefore middle class pupils will dp well, gain more qualifications & are more likely to be seen as the 'ideal' pupil
      • Becker
        • therefore middle class pupils will dp well, gain more qualifications & are more likely to be seen as the 'ideal' pupil
      • Alice Sullivan (2000)
        • used books read, music listened to, TV watches, whether instrument played and attendance to galleries/concerts to measure cultural capital
        • used occupation of parent, parents educational qualifications as the concept of social class
        • pupils more likely to be successful if they read more complex fiction & watched TV programmes such as sophisticated drama rather than soaps.
        • attendance to galleries & involvement in music had no significant efefct
    • Material Deprivation
      • Smith & Noble (1995)
        • list a umber of barriers to learning resulting from material deprivation
          • including not having a computer/internet access, a desk, educational toys, books, a quiet space & a heated home
      • Ridge
        • said that older pupils in poverty take on jobs such as cleaning which negatively effects their school work, especially at A level
      • Diane Reay (2005)
        • showed how working class pupils are more likely to attend local universities to save money
      • Joan Payne (2001)
        • studied A-level students, found wealthy middle class parents pushed their children of moderate intelligence further than bright working class children
        • They paid for exam re-sits and hired tutors to help them
      • Tanner (2003)
        • pointed out that children may have to use hand-me-downs & cheaper but unfashionable equiptment so are therefore stigmatised and bullied
      • a barrier to learning may be due to poor housing, poor area, no resources, no desk, not being war, no quiet space, no computer/internet, lots of siblings
    • Outside School Factors
      • Cannot afford school uniform, school trips, transport to & from school, classroom materials & school textbooks. Leads to children being isolated, bullied and stigmatised
      • Older working-class students might need to work part-time to support studies
      • ?Transport costs mean most poorer pupils go to local schools which may not be high in League Tables.
      • ?Transport costs mean most poorer pupils go to local schools which may not be high in League Tables.
    • In School Factors
      • a subculture is a group within a wider society which creates some of its own norms, values & lifestyle
      • an anti-school subculture is where a small group of pupils develop norms and values which go against those of school
      • members of these subcultures expect loyalty, they socially control behaviour through peer pressure & within them pupils can gain status amongst their peers
      • Hargreaves (1975)
        • anti-school subcultures formed so those who cannot gain status at school can get it by joining one of these groups
      • Mac and Ghaill (1994)
        • studied boys in a secondary school in the West Midlands & identifies 5 distinct subcultures within the school
        • 1) Achademic achievers - bought into the idea of being upowardly mobile through working hard
        • 2) macho lads - opposed to values of the school & authority of teachers and saw the academic achievers as effeminate
        • 3) New enterprisers - pro-school but were keener on vocational education as a path to success
        • 4) Real Englishmen - a small group of mainly middle class pupils from highly educated backgrounds who valued education for its own sake
        • 5) Gay students - critical of the homophobia of the school
      • in 1985, Griffon thought girls were less likely to form subcultures, however
        • Carolyn Jackon (2006) found a growing culture of girls devloping subcubtures
      • GCSE and A level subjects studied by students from higher social classes include biology, English, maths, geography, history, music, physics
        • lower social classes were more likely to choose psychology, sociology, ICT, law, media, citizenship, film studies, health & social care

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