Differences in Education summary cards

Middle-class pupils tend to achieve more than working-class pupils.  

Some explanations focus on external factors outside school.  These include (1) cultural deprivation - working class pupils are seen as lacking the right attitudes, values language and knowledge for educational success (e.g. they lack deferred gratification.)  

(2) Material deprivation means working-class children are more likely to have poorer diets, housing and health and parents who are less likely to be able to meet the hidden costs of schooling.

The middle-class have more (3) cultural capital.  They are better placed to take advantage of the choices offered in a marketised education system.

1) - Bernstein. Restricted and elaborated speech code / Sugarman - Fatalism, collectiviism, immediate gratification, present-time orientation A02 - Keddie - and myth of cultural dep.

2) - Howard - low health and absenses / Bull - cost of free schooling A02 - cultural/religious values may sustain motivation despite poverty

3) - Bourdieu - cultural, ecnomic and educational capital / Gerwitz - Marketization and parental choice Priveliged-skilled, semi-skilled and disconnected local choosers.

some explanations of class differences in achievement focus on internal factors within the school and education system.  

Interactionists argue that schools actively create inequality through (1) labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy, (2) streaming and the polarisation and (3) pro-school and anti-school subcultures.

(4) Marketisation and selection policies increase streaming within schools and inequalities between schools through processes such as educational triage and cream-skimming, and this disadvantages working-class pupils.

(1) - Becker - ideal pupil / Rist - Tigers and clowns/ Rosenthal and Jacobson - Spurters + IQ test

(2) - Becker - streaming.  Locked into low expectations

(3) - Lacey - differentation and polarisation leading to the subcultures. / Woods - ingratiation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion.

(4) - Gillbourn and Yodell - A-C economy / Barlett - Cream-skimming and silt-sifting

A02 - Relative importance of external factors, material dep etc. / Determinism / why only certain groups get labelled / Marxist views on prejudice system

Some explations of ethnic differences in achievement are based on external factors.  For example Indian pupils tend to do better than average.

Factors include (1) cultural deprivation due to unstable family structures or inaqequate socialisation.  

Others argue that the lower class position of many minorities, along with (2) racism in wider society, leads to (3) material deprivation and lower achievement.

(1) Bereiter + Engelmann - lang. of low income black families. / Moynihan - Lone black mothers struggle

A02 Mirza - Indian pupils still do well w/ bad english / Driver + Ballard Asian families +ve attitude towards edu. / Driver - +ve role models of black indp. women

(2) Rex - racial discrimination leading to social exclusion. / Mason - discrimination and EM.

(3) Flaherty - Pakistanis and Bangladeshis / Swann report and social class (figure 3.5)

A02 - Gillbourn and Mirza - MC black students still do comparatively poorly.

Some explanations of ethnic differences in achievement focus on internal factors.  (1) Teachers' racist labelling may create a (2) self-fulfilling prophecy and (3) anti-school subcultures.  The (4) ethnocentric curriculum and (5) institutional racism disadvantage ethnic minorities as well as increased (6) selection in schools resulting for marketisation is producing racial segregation.

(1) Gillborn and Youdell - "Racialised expectations" (black) / Wright - pupils spoken to simply, childish lang (Asian) A02 - Mary Fuller's girls rejecting labels

(2) Mirza - Teachers attitudes; Colour-blind, liberal chauvinist and overt racist

A02 - ignores racism in wider society i.e. league tables + Gillborn and Youdell A-C economy

(3) Sewell - Boys' responses; Rebels, conformists, retreatists and innovators.

(4) Coard - Black cultures presented as "primitive" / Ball - nat. curriculum ignores ethnic diversity. A02 - Asian students above nat. average questions effect of curriculum.

(5) Troyna and Williams - Racial bias built into schools, i.e lack of asian lang. provisions.

(6) Gillborn - Greater scope to select pupils and negative ethnic stereotypes.

Girls do better than boys at all stages of education.  Some explanations focus on external factors outside the education system - (1) changes in the family, (2) more employment opportunities for women, (3) the impact of feminist ideas and changing girls' ambitions.

Other explanations point towards (4) Gender domains, (5) gendered subject images and (6) early socialisation.

(1) More divorce, cohabitation, lone-parent families, smaller families.

(2) 1970 equal pay act, pay gap reduction, 'glass-ceiling', Margaret Prosser 

(3) McRobbie - 70's/90's girls' magazines e.g. 'Jackie' / Sharpe - 70's/90's interviews and shift in girl's ideas of their future

(4) Browne and Ross - Early experiences of tasks and activites that are 'territory' of each gender.  Children more confident in engaging with tasks seen as in their domain

(5) Kelly  - Science is seen as boys: Teachers are often men, boys monopolise apparatus. A02 - DfES - students from single-sex schools held less stereotyped subject images.

(6) Elwood - Differences in socialisation leads to different reading tastes: Boys read info and hobby books whilst girls read about people. - Boys = Science / Girls = English

Changes within education impact on gender differences in achievement.  

Influence of (1) feminist ideas via equal opportunity policies and challenging stereotypes in the curriculum, (2) more female teachers, (3) coursework and exam league tables.  As well as this, education reinforces gender identities through (4)verbal abuse and male peer groups, (5)the male gaze, (6)school discipline and (7)double standards of sexual morality

(1) GIST / WISE / Nat. curriculum 1988 / Boaler - removal of barriers to achievement

(2) From 1992 to 2005 female teachers have increased: Secondary/Primary and Normal/Heads

(3) Gorard - increase in gender gap when GCSE's introduced / Mitsos and Browne - girls better organised etc..

(4) Epstein - Male fear of being labelled 'swots' and WC subcultures / Lees - boys vocab towards girls i.e. 'slags' and 'drags'

(5) Mac an Ghaill - Male pupils and teachers look girls up and down, reinforcing dominant masculine heterosexuality

(6) Haywood and Mac an Ghaill - Male teachers teased boys for acting like girls or gaining lower marks, or ignored boys' verbal abuse of girls

(7) Lees - Boys boast about sexual exploits / but call girls slags for the same

Boys and literacy - DCSF: Poor literacy main reason for gender gap.  Parents spending less time reading w/ sons - seen as feminine. / Boys' leisure pursuits don't aid lang + communication skills i.e. football, computer games whereas girls' 'bedroom culture' does - talking w/ friends

Globalisation + decline of traditional men's jobs - Since 1908's: decline in manafacturing indisutry to countries like China. Mitsos + Browne - led to 'identity crisis' for men.  Little prospect of a job.  A02 - decline has been in WC jobs, filled by those with little qualifications anyway

Feminisation of edu. - Sewell - Schools do not nurture masculine traits i.e. competitiveness/leadership. / Celebrate girls qualities i.e. attentiveness and methodical working.  Argues some coursework should be replaced by a final exam.

Shortage of male primary school teachers - DfES men only 16% of primary school teachers.  Lack of a strong +ve male role model.  42% of boys work harder w/ a male teacher  A02 - Myhill + Jones - 13-15 year olds felt male teachers treated boys more harshly

'Laddish' subcultures - Epstein - WC. harassed, labelled as sissies and subject to homophobia if they're seen to be 'swots': WC culture places high emphasis on manual work and toughness and so reject schoolwork.