Ruth’s Sociology Resources Blog

There is a clear link between social class and educational attainment – if a pupil comes from a middle class background they are more likely to achieve well in education than a student from a working class background. When looking at social class and educational attainment we primarily look at the middle and working classes, this is because the upper class make up less than 1% of the population in the UK.When talking about social class and educational achievement, remember that this is a complex subject – social class has changed significantly in Britain over the last 30 years and some people are even questioning whether social class still exists – for more detail on this look at social class on the Sociology Basics page.

The Facts

• Biggest factor in influencing a child’s educational achievement
• Higher social class corresponds to greater educational success
• Class inequality increases as children move up through the education system
• In comparison to middle class students, lower working class students:
• Are less likely to be able to read when they start school
• Get lower scores in SATs
• Are more likely to be placed in low streams/sets
• Tend to get poorer exam results
• Are more likely to leave school at 16
• Post-16 are more likely to take vocational rather than academic courses
• Are less likely to go into higher education

The Factors

• Out-of-school factors (or home factors) – these theories consider the ways in which a child’s home background may affect their achievement, they tend to come from a structural perspective. We will be looking at:
• Material explanations – these look at the ways in which wealth, or lack of it can affect educational achievement
• Cultural explanations - these look at the ways in which the culture of a social class can affect achievement and include:
• Parental attitudes
• Parental education
• Language use
• Cultural capital
• Compensatory education & positive education policies have been put in place to try and counteract the effects of cultural factors
• In-school factors – theories looking at what goes on inside the school tend to come from an interactionist perspective, we will look at:
• Teacher evaluation
• Banding & streaming
• Access to knowledge
• Counter school sub-cultures

Material Explanations

Material explanations of differences in educational achievement look at the ways in which a child’s physical surroundings at home may affect how well they do at school. So when we talk about material factors we are talking about the effects of having wealth or a lack of it. This can affect things such as how big a house a child lives in – whether they have their own room and space to work or whether they share a room with several other siblings; it can also have an impact on whether a family is able to afford a computer to help with school work, or books and school trips. Wealth can also affect health and diet. The most famous piece of research into the effects of material factors was carried out by Douglas (1964) in his study The Home and the School, however, this piece of research is now quite dated – PCs were not available then and very few children had bedrooms of their own. However, more recent research has been carried out by Halsey, Heath & Ridge (1980) and Gibson & Asthana (1999).

To find out more about material factors and their effects on educational achievement, click here.
Cultural Explanations
Cultural explanations try to explain the underachievement of some social groups in education by looking at their home cultures – the norms, values and behaviour that they have been brought up with and their attitudes towards education.
Parental Attitudes and education
Parental Attitudes - Douglas (1964)

• Parental attitudes are the most important factor affecting educational achievement
• Influence educational success & length of education
• Middle class parents tend to:
• Be more interested in their children’s progress – eg are more likely to make visits to school
• Show more interest and encouragement regarding exam options & career choice
• Encourage their children to stay at school past the minimum leaving age

Douglas’ research is now quite dated – social attitudes and values in society have changed significantly since his study was carried out. However, his findings are supported by more recent research:

• Feinstein (1998)
• Hyman (1987)
• Sugarman (1970) argued that working class culture included values which meant that children and parents did not value education. He identified four particular values passed on from parents to children which contributed to their failure at school:

Parental Education

• Middle class parents tend to be better educated than working class parents and this means that they:
• Have a better understanding of the school system
• Have greater confidence in dealing with the system and can therefore manipulate it to meet their child’s needs:
• Subject choices
• School choices
• Exams
• careers
• Are more able to help with school work
• Are more able to provide educational stimuli – they know which books to buy, which museums to go to…

Linguistic Codes
Bernstein’s theory of linguistic codes looks at the ways we use language at home and at school. Bernstein argues that the working and middle classes use different types of language that the language used in the education system is the language of the middle classes.

To write about this in an exam or essay you will need to know about Bernstein’s restricted and elaborated codes and also about the criticisms of his theory – to find out more, click here.

linguistic codes quiz

Cultural Capital
Cultural capital theory was first developed by Bourdieu in the 1970s, Bourdieu wrote from a Marxist perspective. Cultural capital theory is based upon the idea that there is a dominant culture in society – that of the ruling classes. Like wealth (economic capital), cultural capital is passed down from parents to children; it includes values, knowledge about how society works, reading skills, buying books to increase children’s knowledge, taking them on trips and generally supporting their education both materially and culturally.

For a PowerPoint show on cultural capital, click here

Government Policies and criticisms of cultural deprivation theories
Over the years governments have tried various schemes to compensate for the effects of cultural deprivation. Some of these have been seen to be successful, others have been found to be failures. City academies are at the centre of the current debate about raising achievement. Some city academies have seen impressive rises in GCSE pass rates and other measures of achievement; however, critics are not convinced that the rises in achievement can be clearly attributed to the significant expenditure on these schools and feel that attainment can be raised without spending as much money.

Find out more about schemes which have aimed to reduce the effects of cultural deprivation - compensatory education.

Criticisms of Cultural Deprivation theories
When looking at cultural deprivation theories it is important to also look at the criticisms of these theories, and alternative explanations of differences in educational achievement.

Cultural explanations see underachievement as being caused by home & family background

• Working class culture is therefore seen by such theories as deficient/deprived
• Lacking compared to middle/upper class culture

BUT

• Cultural deprivation theories tend to exaggerate differences between social classes
• They see the differences as clear cut and ignore the increasingly “fuzzy” boundaries between social classes
• Working class parents often are concerned about their children’s progress, however:
• May not be able to get time off work
• Not confident in dealing with system
• Cultural deprivation theories ignore the role of schools in affecting the achievement of their pupils
• Attitudes
• Expectations
• Quality of teaching
• Keddie (1973) argues that the differences between social classes are not cultural deprivation but cultural difference:
• Education is based on white m/class culture
• School devalues working class culture
• Education fails to meet the needs of working class children

In-school factors
Other sociologists have looked at the processes and relationships within schools to explain the underachievement of working class students (remember that many of these explanations can also be applied to ethnic and gender differences in educational achievement).

For a PowerPoint show looking at in-school factors, click here.