Social Class & Achievement
Does Social Class Affect Educational Achievement?For my essay, I will answer the above question, 'Does Social Class Affect Educational Achievement?' I have done a lot of extensive reading and feel that I am able to answer this question as best as I can using my own opinions and quotes from certain texts to back-up my points. I will mainly be discussing the affects social class has on the educational achievement of Higher Education pupils. I will begin by giving a brief history of education and social class.Education is something that we all take for granted, we presume that we will leave school after the majority of our childhood lives and get jobs, but schooling is not as simple as this. Education as we know it is a very modern commodity. Formal education has been around for less than 170 years. It all began in 1833 when grants first became available to voluntary societies for the provision of education in the form of schools. At this time there were only two main providers, The National Society (CofE), and The British and Foreign School Society (Non-denominational/Non- conformist). In 1870 The Elementary Education Act was passed, legislating that school boards should be appointed, but it wasn't until 1880 that school
Another interesting piece of text I read was by Stephen Ball and printed in a book called 'Beachside Comprehensive'. In particular institutions and subjects, the proportion of HE students from lower social class groups can range from as low as 10 per cent to above 40 per cent. Affording the cost of studying and being in debt are also key reasons for not going to university. In our society there are many groups and cultures that are then segregated into separate social classes. There are several encouraging and discouraging factors that those from lower social classes must consider. They are also of more importance to certain groups, including those with vocational entry qualifications, some minority ethnic groups and older students. They receive little attention causing disillusionment within the education system. Speculation is when it is assumed whether or not the child conforms to discipline, personality, like-ability, deviance and appearance etc. (1981) Beachside Comprehensive: A Case Study of Secondary Schooling Cambridge: Cambridge University PressBartlett, S. Bernstein saw this as a problem because he believed that most teachers would come from the middle classes and therefore use an elaborated code, alienating students from the lower classes. Hargreaves, Hester and Mellor in their book 'Deviance in the classroom', explained that pupils are typed from day one, and are streamed by three stages; speculation, elaboration and stabilisation. The children are not expected to do well and therefore are not educated above their class level. (2000) Educational Inequality: Mapping Race, Class and Gender: A Synthesis of Research Evidence London: Office For Standards In EducationHalsey, A.
Common topics in this essay:
Jackson Marsden,
Stephen Ball,
National Curriculum,
Rosenthal Jacobson,
Educational Achievement',
Hester Mellor,
Elaborated Restricted,
Butler Act,
According Bernstein,
social class,
Gillborn Mirza,
lower social,
lower social class,
students lower,
students lower social,
lower classes,
people lower social,
class backgrounds,
rosenthal jacobson,
social class backgrounds,
people lower,
mirza 2000,
discouraging factors,
lower class,
gillborn mirza 2000,
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Acceptance Essays
