Class Differences in Education Achievement: External Factors
Cultural Factors (Language, Parents, Working Class Subculture)
Material Factors (Housing, Diet and Health, Income)
Key Facts:
- By the age of 3 children from disadvantaged backgrounds are already one year behind those
from more privileged homes and the gap widens with age (Centre for Longitudinal Studies 2007)
- In private education the average class size in less than half of those in state school
- Private schools educate only 7% of Britain’s children yet they account for nearly half of the
students entering elite universities of Oxford and Cambridge
- In a 3-year period, Eton sent 211 pupils alone to Oxbridge, whilst over 1300 state schools
sent NO students to these institutions (Sutton Trust 2011)
Cultural Factors: Language
Hubbs-Tait (2002): Found that where parents use language that challenges and evaluates the child’s
experience, this evaluates the child’s understanding and abilities. I.E. Using open questions such as
‘what do you think’, this according to Hubbs-Tait enhances cognitive performance.
Feinstein (2008): Found that educated parents are more likely to use language in this way, however
by contrast, less educated parents tended to use language that required less thoughtful provocation
(i.e. closed questions), which results in lower performance. He also found that educated parents are
more likely to use praise, this encourages their children to develop a sense of their own competence
and thus more likely to strive for excellence incentivising intellectual and academic responses.
(THE USE OF LANGUAGE CAN INCREASE EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT): develops sophistication in
thought process and vocabulary, broadens understanding and questioning and creates teacher
preference as the children are easier to teach and more fluent.
Bereiter and Engelmann (1966): claim that the language used in lower class homes is deficient. They
describe lower-class families as communicating by gestures, single works and disjointed phrases
(such as ‘oi’, in place of ‘how are you). Consequently, these children fail to develop the necessary
language skills, and they grow up incapable of abstract thinking and unable to use language to
explain, describe, enquire or compare which affects academic ability and their ability to progress
within the education system.
Bernstein (1975): Identifies the differences between working class and middle class that influences
achievement, being within speech codes.
The Restricted Code: Typically used by the working class, short and grammatically simple sentences.
The Elaborated Code: Typically used by the middle class, wider vocabulary an more grammatically
complex sentences – speech is more varied and communicates abstract ideas.
Bernstein argues these codes put middle class children at a distinct advantage academically, because
the elaborate speech code is used by teachers, textbooks and exams. Early socialisation into the
, elaborated speech code means that the middle-class children are already fluent in this code when
they reach schooling, which means they are able to seamlessly incorporate into the academic cycle
and thus achieve higher.
Bernstein thus recognised that working class children fail not only because they are culturally
deprived, but because the schools fail to teach them how to use elaborated speech codes.
Cultural Factors: Parents
Douglas (1964): found that working-class parents placed less value on education, as a result, they
were less ambitious for their child’s education, and gave less encouragement and less active interest.
His argument was that parents visited schools less often and were less likely to discuss their
children’s progress with teachers – perhaps leading the children to become less interested in
education. Become disillusioned with the prospect of education, due to their parents view, receiving
less support, encouragement or teacher interaction. Reinforcing circular process in which the
working-class children sustain lower educational achievement and are unable to access sufficient
jobs, maintaining this cycle of poor educational achievement and poor salaries in later life.
Douglas (1964): Found that the working-class children scored lower on tests than middle class
children and argues this is because working class children’s parent are less likely to support their
child’s development.
Feinstein (2008): (PARENTING STYLE due to EDUCATION) Parents own education Is the most
important factor affecting children’s achievement, better educated parents (typically middle class)
give their children an advantage by how they socialise them.
Educated parents style emphasises consistent discipline and high expectations of their children,
supporting achievement by encouraging active learning and academic skills. In contrast, less
educated parents’ style is marked by inconsistent discipline, being told to do what parents say
(dependence), when prevents children from learning independence and self-control, as well as the
parent’s trend towards less interaction with children and motivation to children. Therefore, parents’
education shapes children’s view of education as they create encouragement and motivation, which
will lead to them doing better in school, socialised to create better behaviour patterns.
Parents Educational Behaviour: Educated parents are more aware for what is needed to assist their
children’s educational progress, this means they are more likely to take an active involvement in
education and help assist the child’s interaction with school. An example of this is the parent’s
likelihood to encourage more academic A-levels and GCSE choices.
Bernstein and Young (1967): (USE OF INCOME) Middle class mothers are more likely to buy
educational toys/books/activities, thus encouraging reasoning skills and stimulating intellectual
development. Educated parents also have a better understanding of nutrition and its importance in
child development, higher income means the children are able to afford vastly more nutritious food.
They reached the conclusion that the toys and books bought by parents link to and influence the
child’s educational development, therefore the income (and as such the social class) and education
of parents is a key factor in determining the child’s education development, i.e. it is estimated that
wages are on average £10,000 higher for those who have acquired a degree.
