Education Full Set Of Notes

EXTERNAL FACTORS-
External factors can be broken down into three categories- material deprivation, cultural deprivation and cultural capital. The definitions are as below:

Material Deprivation- The idea that working class children do not have the money for material resources in order to succeed in education.

Cultural Deprivation- Having inferior norms and values which put people at a disadvantage in life.

Cultural Capital- A resource which is enquired through primary socialisation and carries values of middle-class culture.

Material Deprivation:
Flaherty (2004)- Money problems within the family is a significant factor in the lack of attendance and therefore achievement in school.

The 3 main types of material deprivation identified is housing problems, financial issues and diet. These have a serious impact on the way people live and therefore has a knock-on effect on their school life.
Housing- overcrowding, disturbed sleep, frequent moves and illness
Finance- Bull (1980) believes there is a hidden cost of ‘free’ schooling. For example, meals, uniform, trips, transport, equipment etc. Flaherty found that 20% of people eligible for free school meals don’t take them due to the fact they don’t know they have them or the stigma and bullying that surrounds them.
Diet & Health-Howard (2001) argued that young people who were malnourished were likely to have emotional or behavioural problems, such as- mood swings, lack of concentration, ADHD and dyslexia. He said that this would lead to truancy. Wilkinson (1996) argued that people from lower classes are more likely to have higher rates of hyperactivity and anxiety. Robinson (1997) believes that tackling poverty would be more effective than tackling the education system. Mortimore and Whitty (1997) believe that material deprivation has a bigger effect on children than the actual school itself.

Cultural Deprivation
Sociologists argue that we begin to learn the basic values, attitudes and skills that are needed for educational success through the process of primary socialisation, however some families (mainly working-class ones) fail to socialise their children properly.

The 3 main types of cultural deprivation are intellectual developments, language barriers and attitudes and values.
Intellectual- Refers to thinking, learning and reasoning skills. Bernstein & Young (1967) argued that middle class parents are also more likely to choose educational toys for their children due to the fact they themselves are more likely to be well educated. Douglas (1964) argues that middle class parents are more likely to read with their children at home.
Language- Bereiter and Engelman (1966) argue that language used in a working-class home is not as developed as in middle class homes. This is called restricted code whereas language used by middle classes is called elaborated code. They argue that working class children fail to fully develop their language skills which makes them unable to use language to perform daily tasks such as describing and explaining- this will put them at a disadvantage at school. Bernstein (1975) argues the two codes- restricted and elaborated. Restricted code is said to be based on the pure context…