External Factors Affecting Class Differences in Achievement - Cultural Deprivation

Centre for Longitudinal Studies (2007) - By the age of 3 - children from disadvantaged backgrounds - already up to a year behind those from more privileged backgrounds - gap widens with age

People acquire the basic values, attitudes and skills needed for educational success through primary socialisation in the family - basic 'cultural equipment' includes things such as: language, self-discipline and reasoning skills

W/C families fail to socialise their children adequately - children grow up culturally deprived - lack the cultural equipment needed to do well in school - leads to underachievement 

Essential part of the process of education

Parents communicate with their children - affects their cognitive development and their ability to benefit from the process of schooling

Hubbs-Tait et all (2002)
Where parents use language that challenges their children to evaluate their own understandings/abilities - cognitive performance improves 

Leon Feinstein (2008)
Educated parents - more likely to use language that challenges their child's ability - use praise - encourages children to develop a sense of their own competence
Less educated parents - tend to use language in ways that only require simple descriptive statements - results in lower performance

Carl Bereiter and Siegfried Engelmann (1966)
Language used in lower-class homes is deficient - communicate via gestures, single words or disjointed phrases - children fail to develop necessary language skills - grow up incapable of abstract thinking and unable to use language to explain, describe, enquire or compare - unable to take advantage of opportunities provided by schools

Basil Bernstein (1975) identified differences between the w/c and m/d language used to influence achievement

Restricted Code

• Used by the w/c
• Limited vocabulary - based on the short, often unfinished, grammatically simple sentences 
• Speech is predictable - may involve a single word or gesture instead
• Descriptive - not analytic
• Context bound - the speaker assumes the listener shares the same set of experiences 

Elaborated Code:

• Used by the m/c
• Wider vocabulary - based on longer, grammatically more complex sentences
• Speech is varied - communicates abstract ideas 
• Context-free - the speaker doesn't assume that the listener shares the same experiences - use language to spell out their meanings explicity for the listener 

M/C children are advantaged in school - early socialisation into elaborated code - fluent users when they start school - feel at 'home' in school - elaborated code is used by teachers, textbooks and exams - seen as the 'correct' way to speak and write - more likely to succeed

Bernstein - elaborated code - effective tool for analysing and reasoning - helps express throughts clearly and effectively 

W/C children are disadvantaged - lack the elaborated code - likely to feel excluded - affects their success negatively 

Douglas (1964)
W/C parents place less value on education - less ambitious for their children - give less encouragement - take less interest in their education - children have lower levels of motivation and success
Visit schools less often
Least likely to discuss their children's progress with teachers

Leon Feinstein (2008)
Parents' education - most important factor affecting children's achievement
E.g. M/C parents - tend to be better educated - able to socialise their children to give them an advanatge

Educated Parents

• Emphasises consistent discipline 
• High expectations 
• Support achievement 
• Encourage active learning and exploration

Less Educated Parents

Harsh or inconsistent discipline - 'doing as you're told'/'behaving yourself' - prevents the learning of independence and self-control - children have poor motivation at school and struggle to interact with teachers

Educated Parents

• More aware of what is needed to assist their children's educational success
• Engage in behaviour (e.g. reading to their children, engaging with homework, teaching them letters, numbers, songs etc.)
• Able to get expert advise on childrearing 
• Successful in establishing good relationships with teachers 
• Better at guiding their children's interactions with school
• Recognise the educational value of extra curricular activities 

Better educated parents - tend to have higher incomes 

Spend their incomes in ways that promote their childrens educational success

Educated parents have a better understanding of nutrition and its importance in child development

Bernstein and Young (1967) 
M/C mothers are more likely to buy educational toys, books and activities that encourage reasoning skills and stimulate intellectual development
W/C homes are likely to lack these resources - children start school without the intellectual skills needed to progress

Barry Sugarman (1970)
Argues that w/c subcultures have four key features that act as a barrier to educational achievement:

• Fatalism: a belief in fate - 'whatever will be, will be' and there is nothing you can do to change your status
• Collectivism: valuing being part of a group more than succeeding as an individual 
• Immediate Gratification: seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices in order to get rewards in the future
• Present-Time Oreintation: seeing the present as more important than the future so having no long-term goals or plans 

W/C children internalise the beliefs and values of their subculture - socialisation process - underachievement in school

W/C jobs are less secure - have no career structure that allows individuals to advance - few promotional opportunities - earnings peak at a young age

M/C jobs are secure - offer prospects of individual advancement - encourages ambition, long-term planning and willingness to invest time and effort into gaining qualifications