CLASS DIFFERENCES IN ACHIEVEMENT

EXPLAINING DIFFERENCES - EXTERNAL FACTORS

CULTURAL DEPRIVATION

• meaning lacking in the attitudes,values and lifestyle that is needed to succeed in the education system
• Language - Hubbs-Tait et al (2002) found that where parents use language that challenges their children to evaluate their own understanding of abilities, cognitive performance improves. Feinstein (2008) found that educated parents are more likely to use language in this way.
• Speech Codes - Bernstein - indicates differences between working-class and middle-class language that influence achievement.

- THE RESTRICTED CODE - speech code typically used by the working class. It uses limited vocabulary and is based on short, simple sentences. 

- THE ELABORATED CODE - speech code typically used by the middle class. It uses a wide range of vocabulary and gramatically more complex sentences. 

• The elaborated code in which the middle class use, give them an advantage at school and put the working class at a disadvantage. The elaborated code is used by teachers, school books and exams. It is taken as the 'correct' way to speak and in Bernsteins view, it is an effective tool for analysing and reasoning for expressing thoughts clearly and effectively, both which are skills within education.
• Critics argue that Bernstein is a cultural deprivation theorist because he describes working class speech as inadequate. But Bernstein argues that working class pupils fail not because they are culturally deprived, but because schools fail to teach them how to use the elaborated code.
• Parents' education - Douglas (1964) found that working-class parents placed less value on education. Due to this they were less ambitious for their children and gave them less encouragement and took less interest in their education. They visited schools less often and were less likely to attend parents evenings
• use of income - Bernstein and Young found that middle-class mothers are more likely to buy educational toys, books and activities that encourage reasoning skills and stimulate intellectual development. Whereas working class homes are more likely to lack these resources and this means children from these homes start school without the intellectual skills needed to progress.
• Working-class subculture - Sugarman (1970) argues that the working-class subculture has four key elements that act as a barrier to achievement:

- Fatalism - the idea that whatever will be will be and the position you are in cannot be changed

- Immediate gratification - wanting things now rather than saving and waiting for the future

- Collectivism - value working collectively in a group rather than individually in order to succeed

- Present time orientation - seeing the present as more important than the future and therefore not having long-term goals

• Working class children internalise beliefs and values of their subculture through the socialisation process and this results in them underachieving at school.
• The differences in values exist because they stem from the fact that middle-class jobs are secure careers.
• Nell Keddie (1973) describes cultural deprovation as a 'myth' and sees it as a victim blaming  explanation. A child cannot be deprived of its own culture…