Please note: that I have currently written 7 essays on the Sociology of Education and intent to write a few more in the near future. Note that in each case these essays are far longer than could be written under examination conditions and that although they include points of knowledge , application and evaluation I tend to use separate paragraphs for each of these categories rather than to combine several categories in each paragraph  as in the strongly recommended PEEEL approach whereby each paragraph should included Point; Explanation, Example: Evaluation and Link to following Paragraph.

I hope that you find the information in these essays useful but would strongly recommend that you write your own essays using the PEEEL approach or something very similar to it. Obviously your teachers will advise you as to appropriate essay writing technique.

Working Class Subculture and Educational Disadvantage

[Click on the EDUCATION link above for related information including some PowerPoint Presentations]

Click here for DFE data relating to 2018/19 GCSE results Some data on ethnicity, free school meal eligibility and  gender can be found on pp7-12  in the main text document  but for more detailed information click on the third link [ Characteristics National Tables]  and then to find Tables CH1 and CH2   which are especially useful  February 2020

Click here for DFE publication December 2019: Widening Participation in Higher Education

Click here for Guardian coverage of DFE analysis of 2019 GCSE results

Also click here for more information on the effects of poverty and adverse material circumstances on educational achievement

Also click here for information on Compensatory Education.

Click here and here for recent research on differential access to private tuition.

Click here for a review of Professor Diane Reay's study Miseducation

Click here for Esher College podcasts on internal and external factors affecting social class differences in educational achievement

Click here  for recent data on private school access to Oxbridge universities

Click here for Do schools make a difference from 2012

Click here for BBC summary coverage of recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation reports on patterns of educational achievement.

 Click here for a summary of Robert Cassen and Geeta Kingdon's research paper 2007

Document Last Edited: 29/02/2020 

.Essay: How have sociologists analysed the effects of working class subculture on educational achievement?

Essay Plan Introduction Class Cultural Characteristics and Cultural Deprivation Hyman, Sugarman, Douglas,Bernstein. Class Cultural Characteristics and Cultural Difference Willis, Bourdieu. Leon Feinstein  [See Inequality in the Early Cognitive Development of British Children in the 1970 Cohort: Economica Feb 2003] Criticisms of Theories based on Cultural Deprivation and Cultural differences Class Differences in Material Circumstances Do Schools Make Difference? The Quasi-Marketisation of State Education Interactionism and Labelling Theory Hargreaves, Keddie, Ball, O'Donnell and Sharpe and Reay. Conclusion with discussion of interconnections between internal and external factors

 Introduction

            Four types of theory have been advanced to explain the relative educational failure of working class students: IQ theories which suggests that differences in IQ ( possibly mainly inherited) are significant; theories emphasising the importance of social class differences in cultural characteristics; theories emphasising the importance of social class differences in material circumstances; and interactionist theories focussing on labelling, setting/streaming and self-fulfilling prophecies. Most sociologists are critical of IQ theory and it has been shown in any case that even among  children of similar measured IQ, working class students are less likely than middle and upper class children to be educationally successful which demonstrates the independent significance of social factors as determinants of educational success and failure.

Class Cultural Characteristics and Cultural Deprivation

When we consider the importance of social class differences in cultural characteristics it is vital to distinguish between theories based upon cultural deprivation and theories based upon cultural difference. Writers such as Hyman, Sugarman , Douglas and Willis have argued that working class students are disadvantaged by their own culture while Bernstein has emphasised the importance of class differences in language which may have put working class students at a disadvantage because of their use of a restricted rather than an elaborated code.

Hyman argued essentially that by comparison with the middle class, working class people tend to lack ambition because they feel that upward social mobility will take them away from their working class roots; they tend to be fatalistic; they are said to have a strong present time orientation and to be unwilling to defer gratification: they are seen as unwilling  to make present sacrifices in order to make future gains. Sugarman supported these ideas adding that working class attitudes derived from their experience of working class manual labour with few promotion prospects and hence no reason to plan for the long term. Douglas added to this line of argument his “evidence” that middle class parents tended to take more interest in their children’s education as measured by their willingness to attend parents’ evenings which, however,  was  a far from ideal measure of parental interest since working class parents might be more physically tired after work , more likely to have had negative experiences of school and, in the early 1960s less likely to have their own transport than  middle class parents.

 Essentially the implication of these theories was that relative working class educational underachievement could be explained by the cultural deprivation of the working class. Bernstein in turn argued that relative working class disadvantage  could be explained in terms of class differences in linguistic codes: middle class and working class people were said to operate with a  so-called elaborated code and a so-called restricted code respectively and Bernstein argued that middle class usage of  the elaborated code would confer educational advantage although he did also emphasise that these class differences in language usage did not in any way imply that one code was superior to another. You might also like to include for yourselves further information on the theories of Basil Bernstein and on criticisms of them by William Labov. Click here  for useful information.

Class Cultural Characteristics and Cultural Difference

The studies of Hyman, Sugarman and Douglas soon attracted criticism but by the late 1970s Willis was still emphasising that working class culture was a key factor in explaining lack of educational success. “The Lads” in his study (12 working class, non-examination pupils in a Midlands Secondary Modern school) actively hoped to find physically demanding manual employment because of their patriarchal beliefs that this was the kind of work which, rather than skilled professional non-manual work , would confirm their manliness.  In this respect Willis was arguing that these working class boys were culturally different rather than culturally deprived. With this view of life, school could offer them little and they responded accordingly by taking an absolutely minimal interest in school, an attitude more or less supported by their parents. However, Willis also recognised that many school students were much more conventional and in some respects if he was seeking to analyse overall working class attitudes to education, it might have been better to concentrate upon the conventional majority rather than upon the rebellious few.

The following links provide very useful current data on current parental attitudes to education and suggest , for example that working class parents are now more likely to attend parents' evenings and help with homework than they were in the past although attendance at parents' evenings , for a variety of reasons, has always been a far from ideal measure of parental attitudes to education. Be that as it may the summary link especially will enable students to update their information on this aspect of the issue.

Click here for report of Social Mobility Commission on The Childhood Origins of Social Mobility and here for BBC coverage of the report   June 2016

From the  1970s onwards Pierre Bourdieu also rejected the concept of cultural deprivation and focussed instead upon working class cultural difference  as an explanation of relative working class educational underachievement. Using the concept of Cultural Capital he argued that although the cultures of the upper, middle and working classes may well be different, they are nevertheless equally valuable but that the upper class has the power to establish its culture as the dominant culture in society and to ensure that educational ability is assessed mainly in terms of the possession or non- possession of this dominant culture. The possession of the dominant culture is described in Bourdieu's theory as the possession of cultural capital because it is likely to guarantee access to high paid occupations for upper and possibly middle class students whereas working class pupils are disadvantaged in school and in employment because of their lack of cultural capital . The conclusion of this theory is that working class students are not culturally deprived but that they are culturally different and at a disadvantage because educational success depends upon possession of cultural capital which they do not have. [Bourdieu emphasises also that the upper and middle classes possess economic capital {i.e. wealth} and social capital {i.e. useful social connections } which similarly improve their economic prospects and contribute to the reproduction of capitalist class structures.]

It has sometimes been suggested that the meaning of cultural capital is not entirely clear although it might involve some or all of the following elements: middle and upper class parents may provide more educational play activities and hobbies* which prepare their children more effectively for school entry; they may socialise their children in ways that enable them to interact more effectively with teachers [many of whom also come from middle class backgrounds]; they may help their children to develop what are considered to be higher level linguistic skills and appropriate cultural tastes in art, music and literature; and because of their own higher educational levels they may be more able than working class parents to help with homework.

[* This could be one important factor which helps to explain the results of Professor Feinstein's research. as outlined below]

Furthermore Bourdieu argues that upper and middle class parents also have access to economic and social capital as well as cultural capital which can be used to advance their children's educational prospects: they can afford to buy houses in the catchment areas of the most effective state schools: they can afford private education if they are dissatisfied with the state system and they can use their social contacts for example to arrange appropriate work experience placements for their children which will advance their future career prospects. Very few working class parents and even fewer poor working class parents possess these kinds of cultural, economic and social capital as is illustrated in  the recent work  Ball, Bowe and Gerwitz in which the authors make good use of   Bourdieu's concepts of cultural, economic and social capital .

In his 2003 study Professor Leon Feinstein agrees class differences in educational achievement may be explained in terms of competing theories emphasising differences in inherited intelligence, social class differences in cultural and material circumstances and within school factors and states that his aim is not to assess the relative usefulness of these theories but to demonstrate that , for whatever combinations of reasons, the  relative educational development of working class children is restricted even in their pre-school years. This suggests that social class differences in cultural and/or material circumstances external to the schools themselves do help to explain social class differences in educational achievement.

Professor Feinstein's research demonstrates suggests that  even before children begin Nursery School the intellectual development of working class children appears to be slower than that of their middle class peers and that this is the case irrespective of the initial levels of the children's measured intelligence. His research findings indicate that children’s educational progress between 22 and 42 months is related both to their test scores at 22 months and to their parents’ socio-economic status [SES: i.e. their social class position.] In particular his data indicate that children with high test initial scores but low parental SES are overtaken by 42 months by children with low test scores but high parental SES, thus demonstrating that parental SES has a significant impact on pupil progress. He demonstrates further that pupil educational levels at 22 and 42 months are good predictors of pupil’s educational achievement at age 16.

Professor Feinstein concludes that further investigation of the effects of differing parenting techniques is necessary given the extent to which educational development varies so significantly even before children enter nursery school but also that wider investigations of patterns of social disadvantage are necessary to assess the reasons why patterns of achievement at ages 22 and 42 months are such good predictors of educational achievement in later life.

Criticisms of Theories based on Cultural Deprivation and Cultural Difference

Several criticisms have been made of studies of Hyman, Sugarman and Douglas mentioned above  and their conclusions  should clearly not be accepted entirely at face value. 

Firstly, there are methodological criticisms of the methods on which these studies are based.   Hyman and Sugarman relied upon questionnaire data which may have been invalid; differences between working class and middle class attitudes may have been exaggerated and similarities underestimated; Douglas’ measure of parental interest  (attendance at parents’ evenings) is unacceptable for several reasons; Willis ‘research relied on a small number of not necessarily  representative working class students; Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital is complex and possibly vague. Also it may be applicable more too success in Arts subjects than in Science subjects and Mathematics.

Secondly the theories of Hyman, Sugarman and Douglas implied that because working class pupils and their families were fatalistic, unwilling to defer gratification and had a strong present time orientation they were culturally deprived. However critics argued that when working class students and their families appear to lack ambition, they may be being realistic rather than fatalistic about their educational prospects. Their experience tells them that they are unlikely to be successful; they may fear the prospect of failure more than middle class students and their parents. Also, working class ambitions may be reduced as a result of poor school reports which demoralise them whereas  middle class parents are more likely to respond to poor school reports by trying to remedy the situation, for example by purchasing books and /or private tuition. Furthermore working class parents may themselves lack the education to help their children as much as they would like. : they may not be able to turn their ambitions for their children into effective help:.

Thirdly although many sociologists have considerable sympathy for the work of Willis and Bourdieu, Willis' study is unrepresentative of contemporary working class students because it concentrates on a very small number of non-examination Secondary modern school boys in the 1970s. These pupils' subcultural characteristics are not necessarily typical of the working class as a whole and attitudes to work may have altered because the hard physical work preferred by Willis'" lads" is no longer widely available leading most but not all working class boys to adopt different attitudes to future employment although, of course serious problems remain for working class boys who cannot adapt to the changing labour market circumstances.. Critics of Bourdieu argue that the concept of cultural capital is rather vague and that it is far from obvious that the possession of some kinds of cultural capital [such as higher level linguistic skills and willingness to engage with "high culture" are necessary to success especially at First School, Middle School and early Secondary school levels although they  may possibly be very helpful especially in the study of the Humanities at Advanced Level and in  Higher Education. However other aspects of cultural capital involving preparation for school, inculcation of pro-school attitudes and help with homework  may well be useful at the lower educational levels. Click here for an article on the importance of help with homework

Class Differences in Material Circumstances

It is necessary also to consider other possible explanations of working class relative educational underachievement. Working class students may be unsuccessful not because of their cultural characteristics but because of their lack of financial resources and/or because of labelling processes operating in the schools themselves. Working class students may live in substandard housing; they may have poorer diet; they may be forced to miss school to look after sick siblings; they may be forced to take part-time jobs which reduces the time available for study; their parents may be unable to afford books, computers, expensive school trips and private tuition. Whereas affluent parents may be able to afford to move house into the catchment areas of successful schools and/or to afford Private education, these expensive options are not available to many working class parents and the possible financial sacrifices associated with higher education may be especially alarming.

Click here for recent information the extent of substandard housing.

Click here and here for brief BBC items on the extent of private tuition

Click here for further information on class differences in material circumstances

Do Schools make a Difference?

There are disputes within Sociology as to the relative importance of cultural and material factors as determinants of educational attainment but there is nevertheless substantial agreement that the combined effects of these "external factors" are very significant. Thus for example in a 2007 study  Robert Cassen and Geeta Kingdon  argued that although schools do make a difference "while students' social and economic circumstances are the most important factors explaining their educational results about 14% of the incidence of low results is attributable to low school quality"  and "disadvantaged kids are more likely to attend poorly performing  and can miss out on best teaching due to the 5 A*-C target." [However this target has recently been replaced by the Progress 8 target]

Also Professor Stephen Ball in his study The Education Debate [3rd edition 2017] stated that there is  good evidence that the variance in student attainment can be explained primarily by factors external to the schools and that although it is clearly important to investigate how changes in school organisation and teaching practices can improve the prospects of disadvantaged students it may be that "educational inequality might be better tackled not inside schools or families but by addressing poverty and inequalities in health housing and employment."

This view is reiterated in the recent study by Lee Elliot Major and Stephen Machin entitled Social Mobility and Its Enemies [2018]. Here the authors argue that while it is obviously true that all schools provide some education for all of their students  and that some particularly effective schools compensate to a considerable extent  for the adverse effects of some students' social background, "The truth is that schools can only do so much. They are governed by the 80/20 rule; on  average 80% of the variation in children's school results is due to individual and family  characteristics, while the remaining 20% is due to what happens in school. Some schools are producing better results with very similar intakes of children. But the idea that teachers on their own  can cancel out extreme inequalities outside the school is fanciful."

Nevertheless it must also be recognised that researchers are trying very hard to investigate the causes of differences in school effectiveness  and that if a way can be found to spread best teaching practices to all schools this could significantly increase equality of educational opportunity. I have included the 4th and 5th links below to give a flavour of  the School Effectiveness approach  but Advanced Level Sociology students obviously need not familiarise themselves with the details of this research for examination purposes.

1. Click here for Do schools make a difference from 2012
2. Click here for BBC summary coverage of recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation reports on patterns of educational achievement.
3.  Click here for a summary of Robert Cassen and Geeta Kingdon's research paper 2007
4. Click here for a detailed 2015 DFE paper in which the School Effectiveness approach is used.
5. Click here for a 2012blog post from Professor Becky Allan

 

The Diversification and Quasi-Marketisation of State Education

However from the 1970s onwards it came to be argued by the supporters of schools effectiveness research that if on average schools had considerable effects and thatif  some schools had very significant effects on student attainment it was certainly worthwhile to try to determine exactly what factors caused some schools to be particularly effective.  This general  conclusion encouraged the Conservative Governments of 1979-1997 and subsequent, Labour, Coalition and Conservative Governments to introduce and extend processes of school diversification and quasi-marketisation of the education system in the hope that the introduction of City Technology Colleges, Specialised Schools, Academies, Free Schools and University Technical Colleges '[ combined with the expansion of Faith Schools and the proposed expansion of Grammar Schools ] would lead to increases in average pupil attainment  and in particular to increases in the attainment of more disadvantaged pupils who were also to be helped by additional measures of compensatory education such as the Sure Start Scheme, the Educational Maintenance Allowance and the Pupil Premium.

However it has also been argued the State policies involving the quasi-marketisation of education introduced by Conservative governments [1979-97] and extended by Labour , Coalition  and Conservative Governments  thereafter  have actually benefited middle parents and their children disproportionately since it is these middle class parents who are much more likely to be able to use their cultural, economic and social capital to secure entry  to over subscribed effective state schools  thereby indirectly reducing the educational opportunities of more disadvantaged pupils.

These issues are described in great detail in a study by S. Gerwirtz, S. Ball and R. Bowe entitled Markets, Choice and Equity in Education [1995] and you should consult your textbooks to familiarise yourselves with the details of this  very useful study which is relevant to several aspects of the Sociology of Education.

You may also click here for further information provided elsewhere on this site.

click here for a 2018 update of this report from the Sutton Trust .  October 2018

Also the quasi-marketisation increases the possibilities that schools may engage in expulsion policies and even , on occasion , prior revelation of examination questions in order to sustain their league table positions.

Click here,  for article indicating the pupils in one grammar school were prevented from progressing to year 13 due to poor examination results at the end of year 12; to the reversal of this decision; and to broader trends on the extent to which progress to year 13 is restricted depending upon examination results in year 12 . You might like to discuss this with your teachers. Clearly it suggests that some schools are prepared to effectively expel some pupils in order to  protect the schools' overall examination results  and hence their league table positions. Also  click here for article showing evidence has emerged that in a few private schools pupils have been given prior knowledge of public examination questions.  September 2017

It has also been argued that , for a variety of reasons the impact of compensatory educational measures on the relative achievements of pupils eligible for free school meals has been very limited such that in overall terms education policies over the last 40 years have done little to reduce social class differences in educational attainment which is not at all surprising if the above mentioned 80/20 rule operates as powerfully as has been suggested.

Interactionism and Labelling Theories

It has been argued that theories emphasising subcultural characteristics and material circumstances both focus upon home background and that in so doing they deflect attention from processes operating in the school. It has been suggested that if working class parents do lack ambition for their children this may be explained partly by the failure of schools to offer them sufficient encouragement so that they in turn can encourage their children. In addition it is argued by interactionist theorists such as Hargreaves, Keddie and Ball that, for example, by processes of setting, banding and streaming, mainly working class students are labelled as failures. Anti school subcultures may develop in the lower sets , bands or streams as students seek to regain informal status among their peers having been denied official academic status by the schools while the more experienced teachers may be allocated to higher streams and teachers in general may prepare more carefully for higher stream classes. Consequently self- fulfilling prophecies arise whereby the very definition of working class students as failures helps to ensure that they do indeed fail.

These theories are widely respected but have also been criticised. It has been argued by previous Conservative Governments, [1979-1997], previous Labour Governments[ 1997-2010] and the current Coalition Government that setting is actually more effective than mixed ability teaching as an organisational strategy and that it benefits both rapid and slow learners if they can be taught in groups setted according to ability. Interactionist studies are small-scale and not necessarily representative and we cannot necessarily assume that students will passively accept the negative labels which teachers may apply to them. Alternatively in some cases the labels may be accurate and students may be labelled as disruptive because they are disruptive . Also the best known interactionist studies are now rather dated and although many sociologists might claim that little has changed since the 1970s and 1980s, M O'Donnell and S. Sharpe in "Uncertain Masculinities" (2000) tentatively suggest that changing attitudes within the education profession mean that teachers are less likely to label pupils negatively and that they are likely to face disciplinary measures if they do. However there are still many supporters of the interactionist approach who deny the validity of these criticisms of interactionism and argue that little has changed since the classic interactionist studies were conducted.

In her 2006 study  Diane Reay drew the following main conclusions from studies  in which she and colleagues used a combination of classroom observations and interviews with both pupils and teachers

1. Setting processes continue to operate to the disadvantage of working class students.
2. Teachers may also use informal "ability" groupings within formally mixed ability classes.
3. Teachers are still prone to label working class pupils negatively such that as one pupil expressed it "Some teachers are a bit snobby and some teachers act as if a child is stupid...like they think you're dumb" while middle class pupils often receive preferential treatment.
4. Some teachers are well informed sociologically and show sympathetic concern for working class students  but others do not and also demonstrate ill-informed prejudicial views of working class parents. "I'm afraid some parents are just pig ignorant" as on e teacher delightfully put it.
5. Nevertheless external class cultural factors also influence pupils' attitudes to school. Diane Reay found that peer pressure among many working class boys irrespective of their ethnicity was a significant factor inhibiting their educational achievement and in this respect Dianne Reay found strong continuities with the attitudes expressed by Paul Willis "lads" in 1977.
6. When asked: If you had a choice what would you choose to learn?  students responded as follows : Jamie: "Nothing". George :" Nothing". Andy: "No idea". Paul: "Definitely nothing." [However insightful as these responses were we should also have to ask whether they reflected pupils' real views  and , if they did, whether these views were typical of working class boys in general.]

Diane Reay's study suggests that Mike O'Donnell's and Sue Sharpe's study may well have been over-optimistic . You may also click here for further information on interactionist theories.

Conclusions including interconnections between internal and external factors affecting educational achievement 

In summary, therefore, the theories of Hyman, Sugarman, Douglas , Bernstein, Willis ,Bourdieu  and Feinstein do suggest that in various ways working class subculture may help to explain the relative educational under-achievement of working class students. However we should not automatically accept that working class students are the victims of cultural deprivation as is implied by Hyman, Sugarman and Douglas because relative working class educational underachievement may be explained also by cultural difference as in the work of Willis and Bourdieu.  Professor Feinstein,  provides evidence that many working class children are beginning to fall behind in the educational race even before they start school and that performance in tests in the early years are very good predictors of educational achievement at ages 16-18. However it is clear also that working class educational underachievement can also be partly explained by financial constraints, by the increasing quasi-marketisation involved in state education policy and by processes of streaming, setting, labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy operative in the schools as in the work of Hargreaves, Keddie and Ball.. Working class parents and their children may hope for educational success  but fail to achieve it through no fault of their own. It is very important to note that the combined effects of external cultural and material circumstances on educational attainment are widely believed to be more significant than the effects of factors internal to the schools themselves.

It is also important to note that in any case the external and internal factors mentioned above are interconnected in several respects as outline below.

Within -School internal influences on educational attainment are discussed here but it is clear that internal and external factors interact in various ways to influence educational achievement. This may be illustrated as follows in the case of social class differences in educational achievement

Also click here for a very useful podcast from Kate Flatley on interaction of external and internal factors.

1. The early subcultural theories of Hyman, Sugarman, and Douglas suggested that, in comparison to middle class parents,  working class parents gave less attention to their children's education because they were subject to fatalism, a strong present time orientation and an unwillingness to defer gratification all of which meant that they were unlikely to plan for their own or their children's longer term futures. Insofar as these theories are accurate they may inhibit working class educational progress which may mean that they are more likely to be allocated to low streams with further adverse consequences for their education. However later theorists have called these ideas into question , claimed that nowadays social class differences in attitudes to education are more limited and that social class differences in educational achievement can be better explained in terms of social class differences in the possession of cultural. economic and social capital. However insofar as teachers believed these earlier theories this may have persuaded them to label middle class and working class pupils positively and negatively respectively
2. Bourdieu emphasised that middle class pupils were more likely to possess the kinds of cultural capital  which would facilitate educational success. Here it is possible that teachers interpret the possession of socially determined cultural capital  as evidence of biologically determined higher intelligence which increases the likelihood that working class pupils will be negatively but inaccurately labelled and consigned to lower sets and streams for invalid reasons.
3. Bernstein argued that working class and middle class pupils were likely to operate with restricted and elaborated language codes respectively  and middle class students' possession of the elaborated code may mean that they can more easily understand school text books and follow teachers' language which is also more likely to use the elaborated code.  Although Bernstein's theories have been called into question by other theorists [e.g .William Labov]  teachers might well label pupils in terms of their fluency or otherwise in the elaborated code which they mistakenly take to be evidence of higher intelligence.
4. In some cases teachers might label working class students negatively on the basis of their dress, appearance, demeanour or behaviour none of which necessarily reflect their academic potential. Working class parents may not be able to afford new school uniforms on  a regular basis; working class parents may find it difficult to interact with middle class teachers; and their possibly  boisterous behaviour is not necessarily evidence of lack of intelligence.
5. Working class students educational attainments may be restricted due to adverse material circumstances which mean they may be more often ill and therefore absent from school and more likely to be  to be tired at school. They  may not have a quiet room for study or  a home computer which means that they are unavble to complete homework effectively.. Such factors  mean that these working class students are more likely to be allocated to low streams which may have further adverse consequences for their progress.
6. It is also the case that if pupils are negatively labelled in school this may help to exacerbate already existing social class differences in cultural circumstances Thus , for example, if a working class child should fail the 11+ or be placed in lower sets  or receive negative school reports  s/he may well be demoralised but the working class parents  may also come to believe that their child's academic abilities are limited and they may therefore be discouraged from encouraging their child to persevere at school and/or from spending money on educational resources for their child.. Conversely if a middle class child is negatively assessed in any way middle class parents may be less likely to take these negative assessments at face value, may question the competences of the child's teachers  and /or employ private tutors to offset the child's negative performance.
7. There are substantial variations in the examination results achieved by different comprehensive schools  and it has been shown that  middle class parents are able to use their greater resources of cultural, social and economic capital to secure entry for their children to more successful schools in ways not available  to many working class pupils.. Children who gain access  to the more successful schools may be exposed  to a more optimistic school culture  which may encourage both pupils and parents to   believe that educational success is possible. The culture of the successful school is likely to reinforce an achievement- oriented middle class culture  but it may also increase the ambitions of working class pupils and their parents. Entrance to a less successful school may have the reverse effects. Thus cultural, social and economic capital affect school choice but school choice may also influence cultural attitudes and values. [For illustrative purposes and on a brief autobiographical note when I was 10 years old neither I nor my parents would have dreamed that 3 years later they  would be buying me a Latin dictionary for Xmas. Thanks Mr Browne  and thanks mum and dad!]

 

Please note that in this  I have not considered specific problems associated with the relative underachievement of white working class students. Some information on this aspect of the topic can be found here

Some further links

I hope that students have found the above essay useful. I have also been adding links to the essay during the past 3-4 years but as of June 2016 this list of links has become increasingly long and unmanageable.  I have decided to retain the list  but suggest that AS and Advanced level Sociology students might care to look only at some of the first 8 links. Other links have been retained mainly for my own personal use.

1. Click here  for detailed report of Social Mobility Commission on The Childhood Origins of Social Mobility and here  for very useful BBC coverage of the report  June 2016
2. Click here for links to several Joseph Rowntree Foundation articles [2010-12 on social class, aspiration and educational achievement  December 2015
3. Click here for summary of research by Prof Louise Archer et al [ King's College London]: Poverty of Aspiration is largely a myth  October 2015
4. Click here for article from The Conversation on the growth of private tuition  October 2015
5. Click here  for Underachievement by white working class children by Garth Stahl. In this article Garth Stahl discusses the issue of working class attitudes to educational achievement in considerable detail June 2015
6. Also Click here for a thought provoking article by Garth Stahl on the nature of white working class aspiration and click here for an article by Prof. Tony Sewell and click here for further comments from Garth Stahl.. The differing emphases of these articles may generate useful discussion. You may  Click here for a recent report on access of white working class students to HE
7.  Click here   for Daily Telegraph coverage of research on middle class mothers and how they try to secure educational advantage for their children. October 2015
8. Also click here for recent BBC coverage of information from the National Literacy Trust that poor children are especially unlikely to own their own books and here. for BBC coverage of recent University of Manchester research suggesting that recent changes in education policy have done little to reduce social class inequalities in educational achievement.

 

Additional links

mainly for own personal use! Advanced Level Sociology students may disregard these links

Click here for Education Select Committee Report Underachievement in education and white working class children. October 2015

Click here for Radio 4 Thinking Allowed: Laurie Taylor in  discussion with Vik Loveday on Social Mobility and Higher Education. interesting comments on "Aspiration"  October 2015

In 2011 an important paper by John Jerrim and Anna Vignoles was published in which the authors take issue with some aspects of the statistical methodology used by Professor Feinstein. Familiarity with the details of advanced statistical methodology is not required in the AS and A2 Sociology examinations but I include some links to the work of John Jerrim and Anna Vignoles for any teachers and undergraduates who might like to follow it up. Click here and here [look at second part of the article ] and here  and here for some fairly brief newspaper and Blog comments  and here for the complex original article

Also click here for recent[  March 23rd 2012] statement of OFSTED chief blaming limited educational achievement on poor parenting, celebrity culture, desires for instant gratification  and poor teaching., But does he have hard evidence for these views? I wonder.

Addendum: April 2012

 

• In this study Professor Francis points out that under the terms of the OFSTED school inspection system schools may be judged outstanding, good , satisfactory or inadequate and that in 2010 14% of secondary schools were judged outstanding, 36% good, 40 satisfactory and 9% inadequate. However she points out  also that there are concerns that children attending "satisfactory" schools may be educated considerably less effectively than pupils attending outstanding or good schools and that pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds are disproportionately more likely to attend "satisfactory" secondary schools  and disproportionately  less likely to attend outstanding or good secondary schools by comparison with pupils from more affluent backgrounds.
• Consequently many children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds are doubly disadvantaged: they may face material and cultural disadvantages deriving from their social background and they are more likely to attend relatively ineffective secondary schools.