Outline and assess cultural explanations for different class achievement

Outline and assess cultural explanations for different class achievement (50 marks)
A social class background has a very powerful influence on a child’s chances of success in the education system. The children that are from a middle class background will normally perform better than the working class.
Basil Bernstein identifies to different speech codes that can effect class achievement in the education system. The restricted speech code, this is normally used by the working class. It is based on a very limited amount of vocabulary. There are uses of short, unfinished and grammatically incorrect sentences. Speech becomes very predictable and will normally involve single word answers or even just a gesture. The elaborated speech code is used typically by the middle class. There are uses of long and grammatically correct sentences. The speaker uses context free speech and does not assume that listener shares the same experiences so they use language to spell out the meaning. The different codes give the middle class children an advantage at school and put working class at a disadvantage. The elaborated code is the speech used by the teachers and it is seen as the correct way to speak.
However Bernstein recognises that the school and not just the home is the main courses of class achievement. He argues that the working class children are not culturally deprived but it is because schools fail to teach them the elaborated code in order to proceed with achievement in the future.
Many cultural deprivation theorists argue that the working class homes lack books, educational toys and activities that would stimulate a child’s development in the education system. J.W.B Douglas found that working class children scored lower on tests of ability than the middle class children. He argues that this is because working class are most unlikely to support their children’s intellectual development through reading with them or other educational activities in the home. Middle class parents will sit with their children and read and often pay for extra tuition classes.
However it isn’t that working class parents will not support their children it is that they don’t have the time. Many working class families will be on the lowest income possible. Working for minimum wage could mean having to work more hours in order to get enough money to live. Therefore working class parents will find it difficult to make the time to engage in educational activities.
Douglas found that parent’s attitudes to education effected the achievement. Working class families placed less education were less ambitions and less encouragement to their children in the education system. They didn’t visit their children’s schools often and didn’t engage with the child’s progress. As a result of this working class children would have a lot less value on education themselves and found it difficult to find motivation in themselves to stride and achieve in the system. Leon Feinstein found that working class parents’ lack of interest was the main reason for their children’s underachievement. Middle class children are more successful as their parents provide them with the necessary motivation, discipline and support.
According to Tessa Blackstone and Jo Mortimore, it isn’t that working class lack interest in their children’s education. They don’t attend parents evening’s because they are put off by the middle class atmosphere. They may want to take an interest in their children’s education but they actually lack the knowledge to do so.
Pierre Bourdieu argues that both cultural and material factors both contribute to the educational system and are not separated, they are actually interlinked. He uses the concept of ‘capital’ to explain why middle class are more successful. Bourdieu uses the term cultural capital to refer to the knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities of the middle class. He refers to the cultural as a type of capital because like wealth, it is an advantage of who has it. He argues that their socialisation, middle-class acquire the ability to grasp, analyse and express abstract ideas. Proceeding on to develop intellectual interest and an understating of the education system and what it needs. This gives middle class an advantage at school because of their abilities and interest being highly valued. Working class find that their culture is devalued as rough and inferior. Lacking cultural capital leads to exam failure. This leads to many working class pupils dropping out of education as they get the idea that school isn’t for them.
However Sullivan found that cultural capital only accounted for part of the difference in class achievement. Even if pupils of different classes had the same cultural capital, middle class pupils still did better. Sullivan concluded that the greater resources, aspirations of middle class families explain the remainder of the class gap of achievement.
Sharon Gerwitz examines class differences in parental choice of secondary school. She based her study on 14 London school and interviewed the parents and on secondary data such as school documents. She used Bourdieu’s ideas to explain her findings. She found that difference in economic and cultural capital lead to the class differences in how far parents can exercise choice of secondary school. She indentifies three choosers. Privileged choosers who were mainly middle class who used their economic and cultural capital to gain educational capital for their children. Disconnected local choosers were working class that were restricted as they lacked economic and cultural capital and found it difficult to understand. Semi skilled choosers were mainly working class but they were ambitious about their children’s education. However they lacked cultural capital so they found it difficult to understand the educational market. Middle class families with cultural and economic campital are better placed to take advantage of the available opportunities.
Geoff Witty believes marketisation has not led to working class gaining more achievement in the educational system. It has allowed middle class to use their wealth and knowledge to their own advantage even more effectively to what they have done before.