Social Class & Achievement: External Factors (AQA A Level Sociology): Revision Note

Statistics on social class & educational achievement

• One way to characterise a person's place in society is by their social class

  • This is typically determined by a person's occupation or that of their parents

• A child's access to free school meals (FSM) (opens in a new tab) may indicate a lower income and, consequently, a lower social class

• According to statistics, middle-class students, compared to working-class students, are more likely to:

  • do better in reading, writing and maths

  • be placed in higher sets or streams

  • get more GCSEs and higher grades

  • stay longer in full-time education

  • pursue higher education, e.g., go to university

• Sociologists have offered several theories as to why working-class students perform relatively poorly

  • The influence of factors outside the education system (external factors)

    • E.g., the influence of home, family background and wider society

  • The influence of factors within schools and the education system (internal factors)

    • E.g., interactions between pupils and teachers and the inequalities between schools

Cultural deprivation theory

• Cultural deprivation theorists argue that working-class students are disadvantaged because they are socialised into subcultures that do not equip them with the attitudes, skills, and knowledge needed for academic success

• Cultural deprivation theory argues that children are 'failed' by their parents as:

  • they do not teach their children to use language in a way that suits the classroom

  • they have values that prevent educational success

  • they lack interest in their children's education

• Therefore, these children grow up 'culturally deprived' and so underachieve

Language use and speech codes

• Bernstein (1975) argued that middle-class parents use the 'elaborated code':

  • This is language that is grammatically complex, context-free, and rich in meaning

  • Schools, teachers and textbooks are based on this code

• Contrastingly, working-class children are more likely to use the 'restricted code':

  • This is language that is context-bound, has limited vocabulary and is grammatically simple

  • Bernstein argued that this places them at a disadvantage in understanding curriculum content and exam questions

Parental attitudes and values

• Douglas (1964) found that middle-class parents place a higher value on education, visit schools more often, and show more interest in their child’s progress

• Middle-class parenting styles tend to encourage independence, active learning, and high aspirations

• Working-class parents, on the other hand, are less likely to encourage visits to museums or libraries or engagement in school dialogue

• Middle-class parents are more likely to spend their income on educational toys, books, and activities that promote intellectual development

• Working-class families may lack the resources or knowledge to make such investments, contributing to early educational disadvantages

  • Consequently, working-class children become demotivated and less ambitious

Working-class subculture

• Sugarman (1970) identified four key features of the working-class subculture that act as barriers to achievement:

  • Fatalism – the belief that success is down to fate

    • Middle-class values emphasise that you can change your position with effort

  • Collectivism – valuing group loyalty over individual success

    • The middle-class view is that you should not be held back by others

  • Immediate gratification – preferring short-term rewards over long-term goals

    • Middle-class values emphasise deferred gratification – make sacrifices now to reap the rewards later

  • Present-time orientation – lacking long-term planning for future success

    • The middle-class view is that you should plan for the future

Evaluation of cultural deprivation theory

Strengths

• Highlights home background factors

  • Cultural deprivation theory draws attention to the importance of early socialisation, parental attitudes, and language development, which can affect educational progress

  • It helped shape compensatory education programmes (e.g., Sure Start, Education Action Zones) that aimed to reduce disadvantage

Criticisms

• Myth of cultural deprivation

  • Keddie (1973) argues that working-class children are not culturally deprived but culturally different

  • The education system is biased towards middle-class norms, and schools fail to recognise or value working-class culture, placing these pupils at a disadvantage

• Blames the victim

  • The theory places responsibility on working-class families for their children’s underachievement, rather than questioning the role of the school or structural inequalities

  • For example, parents may not attend school events not due to disinterest but due to working long or irregular hours

• Stereotypes of working-class parents

  • The theory generalises all working-class families as inadequate or uninvolved, ignoring variation within the working class

  • Many working-class parents value education but may express it in ways not recognised by schools

• Ethnocentric and class-biased

  • Cultural deprivation theory is often seen as ethnocentric, as it implies that middle-class parenting (e.g., visiting galleries and using elaborate speech codes) is inherently superior

  • It reflects a middle-class value system that judges other lifestyles as lacking

• Ignores material factors

  • Critics argue that cultural deprivation theory overlooks the real impact of poverty

  • Robinson (1997) suggests the most effective way to tackle underachievement is not to change parenting but to address child poverty directly (e.g. through better housing, nutrition, and financial support).

Material deprivation

• Material deprivation refers to poverty and a lack of physical and economic resources

  • E.g., insufficient income, poor housing, or lack of access to learning materials

• Some sociologists believe that material deprivation is responsible for the academic underachievement of working-class students

Effects of material deprivation on education

• Housing

  • Overcrowding reduces space for homework, disturbs sleep, and increases illness rates

  • Poor housing can also cause frequent school absences

• Diet and health

  • Poor nutrition, e.g., no breakfast, weakens the immune system and concentration

  • This negatively affects learning (Howard, 2001)

• Cost of education

  • Lack of money for books, computers, school trips, after-school clubs or transport creates educational disadvantage (Tanner, 2016)

  • Cost of 'free schooling' forces low-income families to make sacrifices (David Bull, 1980)

• Fear of debt

  • Working-class students are more likely to avoid higher education

  • Tuition fees and student loans may discourage university applications (Callender and Jackson, 2005)

• Access to university

  • Working-class teenagers are three times less likely to attend a top university compared to their middle-class peers (Sutton Trust, 2013)

  • Working-class students are more likely to be in part-time work when studying for a degree

  • Only 11% of Oxbridge students come from working-class backgrounds

Research methods in context

• Alisdair Forsyth and Andy Furlong (2000)

  • Forsyth and Furlong researched why bright, working-class students were less likely to go to university

  • They used quantitative and qualitative research methods

    • postal surveys with students and parents and in-depth face-to-face interviews with a sub-sample of respondents to the surveys

  • Found that material deprivation significantly reduces the likelihood of working-class students applying to university, even when they have the same qualifications as their middle-class peers

  • The parent survey revealed that even when parents were supportive in principle, limited money and discomfort with student loans and fear of debt could still discourage bright working-class youngsters from taking up university places

Cultural capital

• Bourdieu (1984) argued that middle-class students are more successful in education because they possess more cultural capital

  • This refers to knowledge, behaviours, and values that are aligned with the school system

Types of capital

• Cultural capital

  • This includes familiarity with books, art, museums, language, and critical thinking

  • Middle-class parents pass this down, giving children a better grasp of how to navigate school and exams

    • E.g., being able to interact with teachers confidently

  Social capital

  • Middle-class parents use their understanding of the education system and social networks to make strategic choices

    • E.g., choosing schools, organising private tuition and work placements

• Educational capital

  • Middle-class parents and students have educational advantages (Bourdieu, 1984)

    • E.g., graduate parents invest more resources and communicate the value of university, having experienced its benefits themselves

Research methods in context

• Alice Sullivan (2001)

  • Sullivan researched Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital

  • 465 Year 11 students from four English secondary schools completed a questionnaire about their tastes in books, music, television, visits to theatres, art galleries and museums and their parental occupation

  • Sullivan found that those with greater cultural capital (e.g., reading complex fiction, engaging in middle-class activities) were more likely to do well in their GCSEs

  • However, she claims that cultural capital only partly explains the social class effect