Class, ethnicity and achievement

Overview

Material deprivation, Halsey, cultural deprivation, cultural capital, Bernstein's language codes, Keddie, catchment areas and school choice, the ethnocentric curriculum, Wright and Gillborn.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

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1. 1

   How can material deprivation hold back working-class pupils?

   Model answer

   Poor diet, cold or overcrowded housing and no quiet place to study affect health and concentration. Poorer families may be unable to afford books, a computer, internet access, trips or tutoring.

2. 2

   Who was Halsey, and what did his 1980 study find?

   Model answer

   Halsey, a British sociologist in the social democratic tradition, surveyed over 8,000 men in England and Wales. Material factors, such as the cost of staying on, did most to explain why working-class boys left school earlier.

3. 3

   Give two criticisms of Halsey's study of class and education.

   Model answer

   Halsey's sample included only men, so it says nothing about girls' education. The data describe schooling in the mid-twentieth century and may not reflect schools today.

4. 4

   What is cultural deprivation, and how might it affect achievement?

   Model answer

   Cultural deprivation theory claims some working-class children lack the norms, values and language that schools reward. Douglas (1964) linked lower achievement to lower parental interest in children's education.

5. 5

   What is cultural capital, and how does it help middle-class pupils?

   Model answer

   Cultural capital is the knowledge, tastes and attitudes of the middle class that schools value. Middle-class pupils arrive familiar with books, museums and educated language, giving them an advantage. The idea comes from Bourdieu, a French Marxist sociologist.

6. 6

   What did Bernstein (1971) argue about language codes and achievement?

   Model answer

   Bernstein argued working-class children often use a restricted code of short, context-bound speech. Schools use the elaborated code of middle-class speech, which puts middle-class pupils at an advantage.

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