Assess the argument that social class difference in educational attainment are the result of processes within school

        Self-fulfilling prophecy is an additional internal factor that has an influence on the educational achievements of pupils and links with the labeling theory.  A prediction that causes the outcome to develop into the prediction is the self-fulfilling prophecy. In Ball’s study of “Beachside Comprehensive”, he argued that groups can be affected in the same way an individual was affected by the self-fulfilling prophecy. He performed an experiment with 3 groups of students, each group with a different level of ability and backgrounds. All students were eager to learn. However, due to the different expectations and attitudes of the teacher, one group did well while the two other groups failed. This clearly shows that the teacher’s attitude towards the pupils are important and may affect their educational success.

        An external factor that influences pupils’ educational attainment is material deprivation. Material deprivation is the lack of money in one’s life that leads to disadvantages such as substandard housing, an unhealthy diet and attending state schools. This made a huge influence on the pupils’ academic results. In 1995, Smith and Noble formed a list of barriers that has an influence on the pupil because of insufficiency of money, preventing them from achieving their best. When a pupil’s guardian is unable to pay for school expenses, it often leads to isolation and oppression from other pupils. Also, the pupils with a lower familial income is incompetent to use any other resources unless provided and may be deficient of the comfortable space to complete their work and study. Furthermore, the pupils from a richer background have the opportunity to attend a private school with funding from sponsors while pupils in working class families can only attend a state school with bigger classes and a smaller funding from the government.

        Cultural deprivation is another external factor that affects the academic accomplishment of pupils. Cultural deprivation means to be deficient of an educational-filled lifestyle because of a shortage of money. In 1977, Bourdieu and Passeron pointed out the importance of cultural capital in education in order for the pupils to achieve better results. Cultural capital is the idea of certain advantages and disadvantages due to the social class one’s in. It is easier for middle class children to understand, interact and communicate in school rather than working class children since schools are mostly middle class establishments. This may lead to a higher chance of failure for the children in working class. According to Alice Sullivan’s survey research on Bourdieu’s theory of cultural

capital in 2001, success seemed to occur more for those that read complicated novels and watched educational shows or documentaries.

        Overall, I believe that the external factors are more influential than the internal factors to the success of the pupils because effort may be useless when one lacks the resources and the benefits of the middle and upper class. From the theories and researches sociologists have done over the past decades, it appears that even if one has the motivation to study and do well, it’s not as common for them to succeed without the help of money, resources and culture from their family in the right social class. In conclusion, I believe that for one to succeed in life, one must have the right instructions, motivation and connections.