Assess the Cultural Explanations for Working Class Performance in the Educational System

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Amy Morris        12/8        Sociology

                Education

Assess the Cultural Explanations for Working Class Performance in the Educational System

Cultural deprivation is the lack of certain norms, values, attitudes and skills, which are necessary for educational success. The theory states that working class pupils lack the stimulation and encouragement needed for high attainment. It also blames their failing on their background, not on the educational system. It is a known fact that middle class pupils exceed in education and that working class pupils underachieve. This is shown in J.W.B.Douglas’s findings. He found that lower working class students only got 37% of good certificated at GCE O’level; where as upper middle class students got 77%. This also links with how many students stay on at school after their fifth year. 50% of lower working class students left after their fifth year; whereas only 10% of upper middle class students left.

The key sociologists in this essay are J.W.B.Douglas, Sugarmen and Hyman, and Bernstein. The Marxist theory is called cultural capita theory. It does not assume that the culture of higher social class is superior to the working class. Bourdieu, a Marxist, argues that working class failure is the fault of the education system and not of their culture or family. He feels that the education system is based towards the middle class culture and it devalues the knowledge and skills of the working class students.

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J.W.B.Douglas (1964) did a longitudinal study of 5,362 children who were born in the first week of March in 1946, and came to the outcome that the key factor in children’s success in education is parental interest. This is because middle class parents gave greater attention to their children’s education, than working class parents did. Also, middle class parents expected more from their children and gave them more rewards. He came to the assumption that the working class were ‘culturally deprived’. He, also, suggested that during primary socialisation, middle class children receive greater attention and stimulus from their parents. ...

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