AS SOCIOLOGY - Social class and Educational Achievement

DIFFERENCES IN ACHIEVEMENT

SOCIAL CLASS

INTERNAL FACTORS

1) Cultural Deprivation Theory:

- Bernstein: Speech codes.
Elaborated speech codes, associated with the middle class. More elaborated vocabulary, more meaning attached.
Restricted speech codes, associated with the working class. More limited vocabulary, simple sentence structures.

The middle class are said to have the correct culture. So the correct norms and values taught through Primary and Secondary Socialisation.
The working class are said to be culturally deprived, as their culture is not seen as the norm.

- Sugarman: Working class culture

• Immediate gratification - want rewards straight away, rather than working hard and waiting for a reward later.

• Fatalism - The belief that, what will be will be, so don't have the motivation to change the current situation.
• Present time orientation - Only focusing on the present, not on their future in education.
• Collectivism - Value being part of a group, instead of working independently. 

- W/C Parent's attitudes 

Parents from working class families were often associated with having little or no interest in eduction. So pupils were not motivated to work hard in school.
So less discussion with parents e.g at parent's evenings.

EVALUATION

• Troyna and Williams - Found that it is not speech codes that causes lack of educational achievement, but the school's language. Like a speech hierarchy.
• W/C parents don't actually show a lack of interest in education. They feel intimidated by the school's m/c atmosphere. Or due to long hours of work.
• Myth of cultural deprivation - It's victim blaming. Children cannot be deprived of their own individual culture.

2) Material Deprivation Theory:

• LIVING CONDITIONS
  - People from a w/c background may live in smaller homes, or in houses with more people in, so sufficient space to revise or do homework may be a problem.
  - Damp in homes could lead to poorer health or unsanitary working conditions.
  - Noise from lots of siblings…