Differences in Achievement » Social Class and Achievement: Home and Material Factors

Why look at the home?

The lesson on patterns in educational achievement showed that, on average, middle-class students do better in exams than working-class students. This lesson looks at the first set of explanations: what happens outside school, at home and in the community. The next lesson looks at what happens inside school.

These are only explanations. Not every working-class child does badly and not every middle-class child does well. Sociologists are describing what is more likely on average.

Material factors

Key terms:

• Material factors: the money, possessions and living conditions of a family that affect a child's education.
• Digital divide: the gap between people who have good access to digital technology and those who do not.

Learning costs money, even in a free state school. Families with a higher income can usually pay for things that help a child to succeed:

Some students from poorer families also take part-time work or help to earn money for the family. This leaves less time and energy for study.

Cultural and social factors

Money is not the only thing that matters. Cultural factors are the attitudes, values and ways of living that children learn from their family and social group. Social factors are the people who surround a child, such as relatives, friends and neighbours, and what they expect and know.

Children whose parents value education, take an interest in school work and talk about the future are more likely to see education as important. Some families have less experience of education, or have not found it useful, and so may give it less priority. This is not because they do not care. Often they have not had the chance to learn how the system works.

Cultural capital applied

Remember, cultural capital is the knowledge, language and tastes that give a child an advantage in education. Here is how it works at home:

• Visiting museums, libraries and exhibitions builds general knowledge that links to lessons.
• Being read to from an early age helps a child start school with a wide vocabulary.
• Parents who know how school works can choose subjects, pick the best options and talk confidently to teachers.

School tends to value the culture of the middle class. Children who already have this cultural capital feel at home in school, while others have to learn it from scratch.

Home and community factors

The family and the neighbourhood both shape a child's chances.

• Parents' education and jobs: parents who stayed in education longer can often help with homework and give advice.
• Expectations and role models: in a community where most adults went to university, going is seen as normal. Where few did, it may seem unusual or out of reach.
• Community resources: a local library, safe places to study and good youth clubs help. Their absence hurts.
• Responsibilities: a child who must look after younger brothers or sisters has less time for school work.
• Local attitudes: if friends and neighbours see education as pointless because jobs are scarce, a child may feel pressure to agree.

Linguistic factors: Bernstein

Key terms:

• Restricted code: a way of speaking with short, simple sentences that depends on shared understanding between people who know each other well.
• Elaborated code: a way of speaking with longer, more detailed sentences that explains things fully so that anyone can understand.

The sociologist Basil Bernstein studied the language used by different social classes. He argued that children from working-class homes often learn only the restricted code. Middle-class children usually learn both and can switch between them.

The problem is that schools, textbooks and exams use the elaborated code. A child who has only met the restricted code may find lessons and exam questions harder to understand and answers harder to write. This is why language is seen as a cause of class differences in achievement.

Compensatory education

Compensatory education means programmes that give extra help and resources to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, to make up for (compensate for) the disadvantages they have at home.

Example: Head Start in the USA began in the 1960s. It gave young children from poorer families early learning, meals and health checks before they started school. The idea is to give them a fairer start by dealing with the material and cultural gaps explained above.

Exam-style question

(a) Define the term compensatory education. [2 marks]

(b) Give two examples of material factors that may affect a child's achievement. [2 marks]

(c) Explain three ways in which home or community factors may help to explain why working-class students achieve less on average. [6 marks]