Social Class and education The Facts of disadvantage 12/2/2018 Andy Walker Learning Online

Some key facts about working class children Even when compared to middle class children with the same IQ, working class children are: less likely to be found in nursery schools more likely to be poor readers when they start school more likely to be in low sets and streams in secondary school more likely to underachieve at GCSE and A level less likely to go to University more likely to leave school early more likely to be suspended and excluded 12/2/2018 Andy Walker Learning Online

Explanations: Intelligence Sociologists and psychologists such as Eysenck suggests that working class children have lower innate intelligence that middle class children. Intelligence is inherited from parents which explains the child’s educational performance and the lowly social status of their parents. Problems Intelligence is a cultural construct Most regard factors such as poverty and time spent in school as far more meaningful than raw IQ scores 12/2/2018 Andy Walker Learning Online

Explanations: Cultural Deprivation Working class culture viz. parental attitudes, child rearing practice and language used, is to blame for underachievement. JWB Douglas argued working class parents do not value education. Bernstein argued the restricted code of the working class handicapped children’s language development. Education being delivered in the elaborated code of middle class standard English. The Newsons suggested middle class parents are measurably more child centred than the working class. 12/2/2018 Andy Walker Learning Online

Criticisms of Cultural Deprivation Theory It fails to consider material deprivation. Factors such as poverty are arguably far more significant – working class children do not get access to nursery education or expensive educational toys and games. It has a rather suspect methodology e.g. Douglas’ counting of parental visits to parents evenings is seen as unscientific. 12/2/2018 Andy Walker Learning Online

Explanations: Marxism School is seen as a middle class institution run by middle class teachers using middle class language and perpetuating middle class values, attitudes and power. Marxists such as Bourdieu suggest that working class pupils lack the cultural capital to achieve in such an environment. Marxists see school as part of the state machinery which is designed to condition the working class to failure and drudgery. Working class failure is therefore guaranteed as this is one of the systems desired outcomes. 12/2/2018 Andy Walker Learning Online

Explanations:The interactionist view Interactionist sociologists us labelling theory to explain working class underachievement. Negative labels of the working class child are constructed by middle class teachers which are in turn communicated to pupils who internalise them and become self fulfilling prophecies of failure. Positive labels are communicated to the middle class child as ideal pupils who work hard and keep quiet – they too become self fulfilling prophecies this time successful ones. 12/2/2018 Andy Walker Learning Online

Examples of labelling theory Rosenthal and Jacobsen – self fulfilling prophecy. Keddie who characterised streaming as institutionalised labelling. Top sets are treated more favourably whilst bottom sets are blamed for their own failure. Hargreaves who studies the counter sub- cultures that pupils develop in response to labelling 12/2/2018 Andy Walker Learning Online

Criticisms of labelling theory It ignores important structural factors such as class inequality. It underestimates counter school culture. Paul Willis claims working class boys choose to fail because school achievement isn’t valued in their culture. There is little empirical evidence to back it up. 12/2/2018 Andy Walker Learning Online

Important point to note Intelligence, cultural deprivation theory and labelling theory have also all been used to attempt to explain the relative underachievement of certain ethnic groups. 12/2/2018 Andy Walker Learning Online