Social Class and Educational Achievement
Differential educational achievement by social class describes the well-established pattern that pupils from working-class backgrounds tend, on average, to achieve lower grades than pupils from middle-class backgrounds. Explanations fall into two broad camps.
Before you start
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Method
- Separate material explanations (a lack of money and resources) from cultural explanations (different values, language and knowledge) before writing, since they earn credit as distinct points.
- For material deprivation, name a specific mechanism, such as being unable to afford a computer, revision guides or a quiet study space, rather than just saying a family is poor.
- For cultural deprivation, apply Bernstein's distinction between the restricted speech code (used within a close-knit group, context-dependent) and the elaborated speech code (used to explain ideas to strangers, closer to the code schools test), and Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, the ability to navigate and be valued by the education system.
- Consider Sugarman's idea that working-class culture favours immediate gratification while middle-class culture favours deferred gratification, delaying reward for a future qualification, as a further cultural explanation.
- Note the standard criticism of cultural deprivation theory, that it risks blaming working-class families for underachievement rather than examining how schools themselves treat working-class pupils, for example through labelling or streaming.
- For a 12-mark discuss question, weigh material deprivation, cultural deprivation and in-school factors such as labelling against each other, and reach a conclusion about which explanation is most convincing or whether the causes interact.
Worked example
A sociologist argues that cultural capital, not money, is the main reason working-class pupils achieve lower grades than middle-class pupils. Explain this argument and give one criticism of it.
- Define cultural capital: Bourdieu's term for the knowledge, tastes, vocabulary and confidence that let a person navigate a system such as education successfully.
- Explain how middle-class families tend to pass on more of this capital, for example knowing which subjects and universities carry the most status, or being confident asking teachers questions.
- Explain how schools are set up in a way that rewards this capital, for example valuing the elaborated speech code and standard forms of essay writing in marking.
- State the argument's conclusion: because cultural capital, not raw money, decides who is rewarded, a working-class family that is not poor can still be disadvantaged if it lacks this cultural know-how.
- Give a criticism: cultural capital cannot fully explain the gap on its own, since material deprivation, for example the cost of resources and the need to work part-time, also measurably affects study time and outcomes, so the two explanations likely interact rather than one alone being sufficient.
Practice questions
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Q1What is material deprivation?Show answer
Answer: A lack of the material resources, such as money, housing, or equipment, needed to support a pupil's education.
Q2Name the sociologist who distinguished between the restricted and elaborated speech codes.Show answer
Answer: Basil Bernstein.
Q3What is cultural capital?Show answer
Answer: Bourdieu's term for the knowledge, tastes, vocabulary and confidence that help a person succeed within a system such as education.
Q4According to Sugarman, do working-class or middle-class families more often favour deferred gratification?Show answer
Answer: Middle-class families - they are more likely to delay reward, for example by staying in education for a future qualification, whereas Sugarman argues working-class culture favours immediate gratification.
Q5Give one criticism of cultural deprivation theory.Show answer
Answer: It can be accused of victim blaming, locating the cause of underachievement in working-class pupils and families rather than examining how schools themselves might disadvantage them, for example through labelling or streaming.
Q6Give one example of how a lack of money could directly affect a pupil's ability to study at home.Show answer
Answer: For example, no internet access or computer for homework, no quiet space of their own to work in, or having to take a part-time job that reduces study time.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Sociology exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain two ways that material deprivation might affect a pupil's educational achievement.
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Explain, using sociological concepts, how Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital can be used to explain social class differences in educational achievement.
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Discuss the reasons for differences in educational achievement between pupils from different social class backgrounds. (12 marks)
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See real GCSE Sociology past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
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