Social Class and Educational Achievement
Contents: 24 slides
 Data
 IQ Theory
 Cultural Deprivation
 Material Circumstances
 Cultural Difference
 School Organisation: Symbolic Interactionism
 School Organisation: Schools Effectiveness
 School Organisation: Government policies
 Private Education
Click here for more information on the Sociology of
Education.
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2 Sources of Relevant Data
 Youth Cohort Studies
 Students Eligible and Ineligible for Free School
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Meals
Social Class and Participation in Higher
Education
Educational Achievement and Type of School
All of these sources show very clearly that
upper and middle class students are on
average more successful at all levels of the UK
education system.
Click here for links to discussion of these
sources
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3 Explanations [1]: IQ [Intelligence Quotient] Theory
 Key Theorists: Jensen, Herrnstein, Eysenck, Burt,
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Murray. The key assumptions of IQ theory are listed
below.
Intelligence can be defined clearly
It can be measured accurately via IQ tests
Data indicate clear social class differences in intelligence
Research on identical twins suggests that up to 80% of
the variation in intelligence among individuals can be
explained by genetic factors
Environmental factors , therefore, are less important than
inherited IQ as determinants of intelligence
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4 Explanations[1]: Criticisms of IQ Theory
 Intelligence cannot be defined clearly or accurately measured
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by IQ tests.
IQ tests may be culturally biased
Some students may not be at their best when they take the
tests
Others may not take the tests seriously
Student IQ test scores can improve with practice, suggesting
that they do not measure fundamental intelligence
The relative importance of genetic and environmental factors in
determining intelligence is unknown but genetic factors are
unlikely to be as significant as suggested by IQ theorists
Some studies suggest working class students with high IQ
scores are still more likely to leave school at an early age, thus
suggesting environmental factors are important
Return to contents page if required
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5 Explanation [2]: Cultural Deprivation
 Relevant theorists: Hyman, Douglas, Sugarman and,
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[possibly] Bernstein. [Bernstein, however denied that his
theories implied working class cultural deprivation.]
The relative educational underachievement of working
class students is explained by their cultural deprivation.
Key elements of cultural deprivation: fatalism, strong
present time orientation, unwillingness to plan for the
future, unwillingness to defer gratification, linguistic
deprivation.
Click here for further information on Basil Bernstein’s
theory.
Refer to detailed class notes and/or to essay format
materials for further details of the relevant studies.
Note also the possible criticisms of theories based upon
cultural deprivation. [see next slide]
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6 Explanation 2: Cultural Deprivation: Some Criticisms
 Sugarman’ data was derived from interviews: insufficient
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to assess social class differences in attitudes and values.
Douglas’ data on parental interest derived from teachers’
opinions and attendance at parents’ evenings: invalid for
many reasons which you might consider for yourselves!
Working class parental ambitions may have declined as a
result of inaccurate and/or unfair setting processes and/or
inaccurate negative school reports.
It may be lack of material resources which force working
class parents and pupils to be oriented to the present and
make them unable to “defer gratification”
In any case many working class parents are keen to give
their children a better chance than they had.
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7 Explanation 2: Cultural Deprivation: Some Further
Criticisms
 It may be that many middle class students do not have to
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defer gratification to achieve educational success. They
may be well supported financially and, for example,is
University life not rather pleasant?
Theories based upon cultural deprivation may present
inaccurate stereotypes of both working class and middle
class life.
These theories detract attention from other explanations
based upon material circumstances, cultural difference
and the organisation of the schools themselves
The importance of social class differences in material
circumstances will be considered next.
Return to contents page if required
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8 Explanation 3: Adverse Material Circumstances
 Working class students may experience a range of
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adverse material circumstances such as:
Low birth weight
Fewer pre-school play groups and nurseries in working
class areas
Greater risk of poor diet, under-nourishment, tiredness,
sickness and absence from school
Absence may be caused by the need to care for sick
siblings because parents cannot afford to take time off
work
W/C Pupils may feel forced to take part-time paid work
which interferes with studies: for M/C pupils this is
optional rather than necessary.
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9 Explanation 3: Adverse Material Circumstances
{continued}
 No quiet room for study
 Parents unable to afford relevant books, trips or personal
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computers
Parents unable to afford part-time private tuition or full
time private education
Parents unable to afford housing in catchment areas of
most effective schools
Parents and students fearful of debts associated with
higher education
Return to Contents Page if required
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: 10:Raymond Boudon: Positional Theory [1974]
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Distinction between primary and secondary effects of social stratification on
equality of educational opportunity.
Primary Effects = the possible class subcultural effects in attitudes and values
deriving from unequal social class stratification system.
Secondary effects derive from the class different positions of individual pupils
within the social class stratification system. Secondary effects seen by Boudon as
stronger than primary effects
Even if there were no primary effects i.e. working and middle class pupils were
equally ambitious there would still be inequality of education al opportunity
because working class pupils opting for A levels and Higher Education would lose
contact with family and friends, face greater material sacrifices, enter a new and
unknown social environment and face greater difficulties in the event of failure
which can less easily be absorbed by working class families.
Middle class students face none of these difficulties.
Therefore inequalities of educational opportunity derive mainly from different
positions of pupils within unequal patterns of social class stratification
Boudon’s solutions are a common curriculum for all pupils and the abolition of
social class stratification The first solution seems unlikely and the second even
more so…rightly or wrongly.
An interesting study which nevertheless seems to be disappearing from then
textbooks. A pity? Slide added August 2011
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11 Explanation 4: Theories based on Cultural Difference
 Some sociologists argue that working class students may
be at an educational disadvantage not because their
culture is deprived or inferior but because it is different
 Here , for example, we may consider the studies of
Willis and Bourdieu which are outlined in the following
slides.
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Paul Willis: Learning to Labour
Working Class Jobs [1977]
: How Working Class Kids Get
 Willis’ study focuses mainly on 12 male working class non-
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examination students in a midlands secondary modern school
in the 1970s
The study has been said to be based on a combination of
structure and agency in Sociology.
Willis argues that the main reason for the relative educational
under-achievement of these pupils is that they have actively
chosen a future involving hard , unskilled manual work as a
means of confirming their masculinity. This is the “agency”
aspect of Willis’ theory.
The boys have realised that CSE examination passes would in
any case not improve their employment prospects substantially
but they have not realised the long term disadvantages of
unskilled manual work. Here their behaviour is influenced by the
structure of society.
For Willis, their culture is different to middle class culture but
this does not mean that the boys are culturally deprived.
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Criticisms of Paul Willis’ Study
 Willis conducts a very small scale study on 12 nonexamination “lads” who are, to say the least, rebellious
and unlikely to be representative of working class pupils
as a whole , who may be much more “conventional” as
suggested by P. Browne.
 The attitudes and values of the lads’ parents may also be
unrepresentative of working class parental attitudes in
general.
 In the mid 1970s ,unskilled manual work was widely
available but the mass unemployment of the 1980s and
early 1990s and the decline of manufacturing industry will
have changed attitudes to employment for many, if not all,
working class boys.
 Paul Willis was himself a young researcher at the time
and this may have helped him to gain the boys trust but it
is also possible that Willis may have accepted some of
the boys stories rather too readily. Willis had little to say
about working class girls but at the time neither did hardly
anyone else.
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Explanation 4: Theories based on Cultural difference
continued: Pierre Bourdieu
 Pierre Bourdieu’s educational theories are complex and wide
ranging and perhaps do not lend themselves easily to
PowerPoint presentation! Please consult teaching notes and
your teachers for additional detail.
 He is concerned not only with inequality of educational
opportunity but with the overall functions of formal education
systems .
 Pierre Bourdieu has himself stated that he has been influenced
by Marx, Weber and Durkheim but his educational theories do
perhaps seem to have been influenced especially by Marx,
[although some modern Marxists would dispute this!]
 Capitalist societies are seen as class societies in which the
dominant classes use their power to maintain their class
advantages
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Bourdieu Continued
 Objectively speaking we can say only that class cultures are
different and that working class children even if they are
culturally different from middle and upper class children are
culturally different rather than culturally deprived.
 Nevertheless the dominant class have the social power to
ensure that their culture is defined as THE culture which is
superior to other class cultures
 The dominant classes have the power also to ensure that
schools and colleges evaluate students in terms of the culture
[knowledge, attitudes and skills] possessed by most of the
dominant class children but only rarely by subservient class [i.e.
working class] children
 The dominant class culture can be learned only in dominant
class families because schools and colleges do not teach this
culture although they do assess students in terms of it.
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Bourdieu Continued
 Working class students are put at an educational disadvantage
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because they are assessed in terms of a dominant culture
which they cannot learn at home or at school
Bourdieu calls the knowledge attitudes and skills available to
the dominant class children “cultural capital” because its
transmission from parents to children helps to perpetuate class
advantages across the generations in the same way as would
the transmission of wealth [=economic capital] and useful social
connections [= social capital]
It is widely believed that advanced capitalist education systems
are fair and meritocratic but for Bourdieu this is merely a
convenient myth which hides the roles of education systems in
the reproduction of capitalist class structures. Note the overlap
with the theories of Althusser and Bowles and Gintis.
Discuss with your teachers connections between Bourdieu and
Ball, Bowe and Gerwitz
Return to contents page if required
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Explanation 5: The Schools
 The Interactionist Approach
 Schools Effectiveness Research
 Private Education
 The impact of recent changes in government
education policies
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The Interactionist Approach
 Small scale, qualitative research based primarily on
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observation.
Emphasis on effects of within-school factors on pupil
achievement although pupils’ social class background
may well affect teachers’ perceptions of them.
Emphasis on the effects of pupil-teacher interaction.
Importance of streaming, banding, setting and mixed
ability teaching.
Positive and negative labelling and their effects
Self-fulfilling prophecies
It is working class and some ethic minority students who
are most likely to be negatively labelled.
Relationships between gender and labelling are
considered elsewhere
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The Interactionist Approach: Some Important
Studies [Please consult the teaching notes for
further details]
 Hargreaves[1967]: streaming in a boys’ secondary modern
school resulted in the development of “academic” and
“delinquescent” subcultures
 Rosenthal and Jacobson[1968]: when teachers were provided
with intentionally inaccurate assessments of pupils abilities this
had a significant impact on pupil- teacher interactions.
 Keddie[1970]: Banding and the “differentiation of an
undifferentiated Humanities curriculum.” Important information
withheld from lower band pupils because teachers believe they
will not understand it
 Ball[1980]: Vicious negative labelling of lower band pupils but
informal ability grouping within “mixed ability” classes is also
likely so that mixed ability teaching does not remove the
problem of negative labelling.
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Newly Written Slide: Nov 2010
 Please click here to follow a link to the following article.
 The Zombie Stalking English Schools: Social Class and
Educational Inequality by Dianne Reay [2006].
 This is a detailed academic paper but I do believe that
with a little help from their teachers AS and A2 Sociology
students will be able to follow the arguments which are
very clearly expressed.
 Not necessarily an easy task but one that could help you
enormously!
 Also click here and then on the relevant link for another
very interesting recent paper by Diane Reay
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The Interactionist Approach: Some Criticisms
 Small scale studies based mainly on observation may be
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unreliable, unrepresentative and invalid.
The previously mentioned studies are now rather dated
Some later studies suggest [e.g. O’Donnell and Sharpe]
suggest negative labelling now less frequent but other
sociologists disagree
The interactionists tend to argue that negative labels will
be passively accepted but in practice negatively labelled
students may not automatically accept the negative
labels applied
Interactionists do not explain why teachers apply
negative labels to some pupils but not others. They fail to
consider the importance of broader structural factors.
Return to contents page if required
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Schools Effectiveness Research
 Researchers such as Sammons, Thomas and
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Mortimore[1995] have demonstrated that there are
considerable variations in examination results as among
schools with similar socio-economic intakes.
They have also suggested a wide range of factors which
influence school’s effectiveness.
Working class students may be relatively unsuccessful in
education partly because they are more likely than middle
class students to attend ineffective schools.
Critics of schools effectiveness research argue that it
detracts attention from factors external to the schools
which affect educational achievement.
The critics argue that school improvements alone
“cannot compensate for society” an argument
emphasised by Basil Bernstein as early as the 1970s
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Government Education Policies 1979-2010
 There are important arguments that educational reforms
introduced by successive Conservative and Labour
governments have operated to the relative advantage of
upper and middle class students and to the relative
disadvantage of working class students
 Perhaps the most significant study in this respects is
“Markets, Choice and Equity [1994] by Ball, Bowe and
Gerwitz.
 They suggest that middle and upper class parents are
more familiar than are working class parents with the
relative merits of different schools and that they can use a
range of strategies to ensure that their children are
accepted at the better schools
 The relative decline of schools in working class areas
harms working class pupils
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Recent Research [ New slide added April 2012]
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[UN]SATISFACTORY? Enhancing life chances by improving
“satisfactory” schools. [Professor Becky Francis Dec 2011]
In 2010 OFSTED inspections 14% of secondary schools were judged
outstanding, 36% good, 40% satisfactory and 9% inadequate
However there are concerns that the standard of education provided in
satisfactory schools may be significantly lower than in outstanding and
good schools.
Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are disproportionately likely
to attend satisfactory schools and disproportionately unlikely to attend
outstanding or good schools by comparison with children from affluent
backgrounds.
Many socially disadvantaged pupils are therefore doubly
disadvantaged: they may face cultural and material disadvantages
deriving from their social background and they are also more likely to
attend relatively ineffective schools.
Click here to access Professor Francis’ detailed research study
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More Information On Labour Government Education Policies
 It is possible, however, that Labour governments have also
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introduced policies likely to benefit working class students.
Examples include:
The Sure Start Programme
Reduced Infant Class sizes
The Literacy and Numeracy Hours
The Education Action Zones programme
The Excellence in Cities programme
The Aim Higher Programme
The Education Maintenance Allowance
The Government claims also that the Specialised Schools and
Academies programmes can have beneficial effects on working
class educational achievement but critics dispute this
Some further details on these policies can be found elsewhere
on the site.
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Return to contents page if required
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Private Education
 There is considerable variation in the quality of private schools
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just as there is in the quality of state schools.
However the most successful private schools help many
students to gain especially good examination results.
This is partly because students at such schools must have the
ability to pass difficult entrance examinations. Also they are
likely to possess a range of social class advantages already
discussed.
However these schools often have smaller classes, better
teaching resources and on average better qualified teachers
Fees at these schools are high especially for boarding students
and can be afforded only by upper and middle class parents
[and possibly some working class parents ready to make great
financial sacrifices.]
Is the existence of private education is fair? It may be if you
believe that individuals have the right to high incomes received
for hard work and to freedom to spend as they wish .Or,
alternatively?
See also relevant teaching notes. Added 10/01/10
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And Finally
 I have tried in this presentation to summarise the extent
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of and possible explanations for social class differences
in educational achievement.
I hope that you will find the presentation useful as a guide
to more detailed study of textbook materials and, if you
wish, of my teaching notes.
Also , once you have your detailed knowledge perhaps
this presentation may be useful as a revision guide.
You may ,of course, choose to edit the original slides and
to add additional slides of your own
Good Luck.
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