Download Education 2

Differential Educational Achievement
Inequality In Education
• In looking at inequality in education and
why some groups achieve more than
others, sociologists look at what is going on
inside schools as well as outside.
Differential Educational Achievement
In-school factors
• Included in this are such things as
• Type of school – is it a grammar school or comprehensive
• Structure of the school – how is it organised, does it have
bands or sets etc
• School staff – What is the ethnic/gender/class make up of the
teachers in relation to the students.
• Funding – is it LEA (Local education Authority) funded or is
it a foundation school with responsibility for its own budget?
• Entry requirements – Does the school recruit via an exam
(11+), does it set down requirements for religious belief
(religious schools) etc
• Labelling – How are students labelled by teachers, by the
type of school, by banding etc and does a self fulfilling
prophecy develop?
Differential Educational Achievement
• Out-Of-School Factors
• Included here are:
• Environment – What is the social make up of the area in
which the school stands, mainly middle class, mainly
working class, inner city, rural etc
• Parental Interest – Are parents positive about school and
support their children with homework, encouragement,
attending parents evenings etc.
• Language – Both ethnic language differences and class
differences.
• Cultural Capital – Do parents possess the knowledge, the
confidence and perseverance to tackle the education system
and do they pass this on to their children?
• Positional Theory – Do the children and parents have the
right kinds of links/contacts to do well in education?
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
In general working class children do not do as well at school as
middle class children.
•Middle class children do better in all exams
Middle class children stay on longer at school
Middle class children are disproportionately represented in higher
bands, higher sets, grammar schools etc.
Why this pattern occurs has long interested sociologists.
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
Inside Schools
Rosenthal & Jacobson 1968
• Although 40 years old this study by Rosenthal and
Jacobson shows the importance of the labelling
process.
• They conducted an experiment where teachers were
told that a randomly chosen sample of students
were the most able.
• After a period of time these students were actually
achieving the best results in the class. The labelling
of these students had led to a self fulfilling prophecy.
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
Keddie 1971
• Keddie argued that teachers use an image of an
‘ideal’ student to help categorise the students in
front of them.
• This label is attached on the basis of appearance,
speech, behaviour and social class.
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
• Ball 1981 – Beachside Comprehensive
• In this school students were placed in one of 3
bands when they arrived at the school.
• Ball found that the teachers adopted different
attitudes to the bands and taught them differently.
• Top band students were ‘warmed up’ for exam
success whilst bottom band students were ‘cooled
down’
• i.e. the teachers expected more from the top band
pupils and pushed them accordingly.
Differential Educational Achievement
Smith And Noble 1994
• Schools in affluent areas are better
equipped
• Parents with money provide more
educational aids – computers, books,
private tutors etc
1.Class
Differential Educational Achievement
Willis – Learning To Labour 1977
1.Class
Willis study is a classic in sociology so
do refer to your worksheet on a
detailed analysis of this work
– especially from a methods point of
view as Willis combines Marxism and
Interactionism
in an observational case study of 12
WC lads in one school in the
Midlands.
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
• The ‘lads’ form a counter-school culture
• See themselves as superior to teachers
and ‘ear oles’ (swots)
• ‘Having a laff’ is the most important
thing
• Very sexist and racist
• See themselves as ‘real men’
Differential Educational Achievement
Criticisms
• Blackedge & Hunt 1984
• Sample is to small
• Willis ignores other cultures within the
school
• Since 1977 there are few jobs in manual
work, therefore many such ‘lads’ stay on
longer
1.Class
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
Outside School Factors
Sugarman 1970
• Sugarman argued that working class children and families
had different outlooks to middle class families.
• They were more concerned with ‘immediate gratification’
i.e. rewards now! Hence they left school at the earliest
opportunity to earn money. Middle class families focused on
‘deferred gratification’ i.e. time spent studying and planning
now would lead to greater rewards in the future.
• Over 35 years old now this study is arguably not as
relevant today.
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
Bernstein 1972 – Language Codes
Bernstein looked at language and how its use in
schools disadvantaged the working class
children.
Restricted Code
Shorthand speech
Grammatically simple
Meanings don’t need to be made explicit
“Get out of that puddle”
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
Bernstein 1972 – Language Codes
Elaborated Code
More complex speech
Details and explanations are given
“Get out of that puddle because the
water will get in your shoes and
make your socks wet and
uncomfortable”
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
Bernstein believed that MC kids
could use both codes, switching
when the need arose
The greater use of the restricted
code amongst WC families led to
WC kids suffering a disadvantage
at school
where the more formal elaborated
code was more common.
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
Class Subcultures
Bourdieu – Cultural capital
Bourdieu used the concept of ‘cultural capital’
(language , skills, knowledge, attitudes and life
style) to explain how middle class children have
a head start in the educational race over
working class children
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
• Although economic capital (money, houses,
facilities etc) cannot be ignored as significant,
• Bourdieu points out that the middle class
students also possess the ‘codes to unlock the
mysteries of education’.
• Middle class children are socialised into the
dominant culture and know how it works,
• their parents are confident about tackling the
system and will ensure that their children get
the best out of it.
Differential Educational Achievement
• Linked to this is the concept of
‘cultural reproduction’
• where the working class children grow
up to take working class jobs and have
working class children who…. and so
on
• and middle class children grow up to
take middle class jobs and have
children who…..
• Each generation then replicates the
inequality.
1.Class
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
Boudon 1984
• Boudon used the concept of positional theory to explain
how much harder it is for working class children to
progress in education.
• He used a cost/benefit analysis to explain how working
class children suffer as they try to do well in education,
being successful often is at odds with their background and
ultimately exam success
• and gaining a good occupation moves them into a middle
class arena thus giving them problems when they interact
with their ‘old life’ (working class friends, family etc).
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
• Middle class children suffer no such conflicts as
expectations of friends and family are consistent
with exam and career success.
• They continue along the typical middle class route
and have no conflicts
• It is much harder for working class children to
progress in education.
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
Material Deprivation
• This theory focuses on how economic poverty is a big factor
in low achievement at school:
Douglas 1964
• argued that children living in unsatisfactory living
conditions (Poor housing, poor diet etc) did not do very well
at school.
• Further more working class parents weren’t as interested
in encouraging their children to do well at school.
• Critics have pointed out that such attitudes do not exist
today but 40 years or more later, poverty still is a crucial
factor in educational failure.
Differential Educational Achievement
Halsey (1980)
• found that lack of financial support was a
key issue in working class children not
staying on a school after 16.
1.Class
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)
• has under taken a lot of current research in this
area and in 1997 classified 1 in 10 children as
poor
• (defined as being in a family unable to afford at
least 3 things other families took for granted).
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
• 2006 Statistics
• Only 33% of children receiving school meals
gained 5 or more GCSE’s (A*-C)
• 90 % of failing schools are in deprived areas
• Exclusions are higher for children from poorer
families
Differential Educational Achievement
1.Class
• Conclusion
• There are many factors suggested as to why
working class children fail at school. However do
remember that gender and ethnicity cannot be
ignored.