To what extent is educational achievement today, still affected by inequalities?
02/06/2009 Lisa Thomas Sociology
To what extent is educational achievement today,
still affected by inequalities?
There are many influences affecting education in today’s society, the main factors being social class, gender and ethnic minority status. Although Education Acts in previous years have helped to reduce some of these factors, the division between social classes and educational achievement remains quite evident, even today.
Social classes have become distorted over the years and are not as clearly defined as they once were. In previous years they were simply defined as: upper class people had wealth and power; middle class people had jobs in management and owned their own homes; and working class people tended to work in the more menial jobs and lived in poverty. Therefore, it was straightforward to establish the correlating class based on income, occupation, assets and district of residence. Although they still have some bearing today, it has become far more complicated as new classes have been added (e.g. celebrity class, underclass, lower-middle and upper-middle). Consequently, the confines have become blurred with regards as to how people fit into each category, thus resulting in many people misjudging the category they belong to. Some of the reasons for this confusion are that some people may have inherited their assets, celebrities (despite their wealth) can originally come from working class backgrounds, pupils can be elected into private schools via a scholarship or may have acquired their wealth via some form of lottery, but they may maintain their working class values and principles and lifestyle.
Over the years the government has made various amendments to Education Acts, for example in Butler’s 1944 Education Act free education was introduced for all children (Spartacus 1997), to encourage the diminishment of inequalities and therefore reduce the distinction between social classes. As a result some people are under the illusion that social classes do not have much influence in education today and that it solely relies on, the functionalist’s view of ‘meritocracy’. However, there is much evidence to contradict this belief. Although the amendments have given working class children a chance to be educated and therefore enable them to have the same opportunities as those from higher classes, for the most part this is theoretical as there are still some impediments.
Working class pupils find it very difficult to strive to better themselves and their education (although this is not impossible) due to various influences in life. Generally these influences are categorised as being in or out of the school environment. Outside of school influences such as home life, social life and welfare all play a part in the educational development of a child. Examples of these pressures are responsibilities within the home, part-time jobs, peer pressure and even abuse, all of which can contribute to a poor education. From a stereotypical stance, it can be assumed that working class parents are likely to be underachievers, some being illiterate and are therefore unable to assist their children with homework or other beneficial activities. Additionally, some parents show none or little interest in their children’s education, interests, welfare or even behaviour, whilst others may simply be too busy juggling jobs (sometimes more than one), siblings and/or being a lone parent. Others may not understand or be concerned how the education system works leaving them with fewer options and focusing on the happiness of their child rather than good exam results and future ambitions (Jarvis et al 2007). Furthermore, there are other parents who do not deem an education to be of any value to their children as they may already consider them to be a ‘no-hoper’, want to discourage them from climbing the social ladder or want them to continue the family trade. This belief reinforces ‘The Dominant Ideology Thesis’ (Urry et al 1975) that the working class should remain working class. Additionally, many parents are unlikely to be able to afford ‘extras’ such as school excursions, extracurricular activities, private tutors or even the correct uniform.
