Educational Attainment Can Be Understood Best By Analysing Social Class, Ethnicity And Gender Differences. Evaluate This View
"We do not all compete on equal terms" Bowels and Gintis.
The quality of schooling is far greater for some than for others, Critics of the educational system maintain that schools actually operate in order to reproduce differences in each generation (Macionis et al.,1998). Failures except failure, because they do not understand the issues to why they have failed, the real reasons are Class;
ethnicity and gender differences (Bowels and Gintis, 1978). But are differences of class, ethnicity and gender the only course of educational attainment inequalities, or are there other effects that influence the attainment levels of children in school, and do these influences analyse educational attainment in the best way.
This paper will evaluate the differences caused by gender, class and ethnicity in regards to education attainment and also research other influences, trying to identify if they understand educational attainment in the best way.
The relationship between a families socio-economic status (SES) and the academic performance of children is well established in sociological research (Graetz, 1995).
Socio-economic status is a persons overall social position taking into account both social and economic position within society (Ainley et al., 1995) there are all ready many studies of SES and attainment (Amato,1987 ; Williams et al.,1991 ; Ainley et al.., 1995 ; Mukherjee, 1995). All of these studies have shown that children from lower SES families are more likely to follow the same patterns of:
Lower levels of numeracy, literacy and comprehension.
Less likely to attended higher education.
Show high levels of problematic school behaviour.
Likely to have difficulty with their study.
Paul Willis researched a small group of working class boys and studied their transition from school t...