Social Class

Social Class

1. Key Words:

   • Cultural capital
   • Speech codes
   • Socialisation
   • Material deprivation
   • Cultural deprivation
   • Middle class
   • Class gap
   • Working class / proletariat
   • Ruling class / bourgeoisie
   • Subcultures
   • Ideal pupil
   • Macho lads
   • Real englishmen

2. Social class has a powerful impact in a child's achievement.

3. Children from middle class families tend to perform better than those from working class families.

4. Key theorists:

   • Bourdieu - developed the concept of cultural capital (the knowledge, attitudes, values, language, style and taste that middle class transmit to their children) to explain the way in which the school advantages middle class pupils and disadvantages working class pupils.
   • Becker - developed the labelling theory, this is where the teacher labels the pupil in a certain way, such as 'bright' or 'dull'. He found from this study that teachers labelled pupils according to how closely they fitted with the image of the 'ideal pupil'.
   • Mac an Ghaill - studied working class students in a working class comprehensive in the Midlands. He found that working class male peer groups result in setting and student-teacher relationships. working class 'macho lads' were dismissive of other working class boys, who worked hard and aspired middle class careers, referring to them as 'dickhead achievers', whilst middle class 'real englishmen' projected an image of 'effortless achievement'.
   • Archer et al - recognised symbolic violence and marginalisation in education. He also recognised that working class pupils have to change themselves to be educationally successful.
   • Bernstein - identified the differences between the working class and middle class language that influences achievement. He argues that there is a distinct difference in the speech codes used by the working and middle class.

5. The class gap in terms of achievement grows as children get older.