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The Impact of social class on education

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THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL CLASS ON EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE AND ATTAINMENT IN UK.
Sociologists have argued that social class differences in educational attainment can be explained in many terms but not necessarily in mutual exclusive kinds of theories such as; IQ theory; social class differences in material circumstances; sub-cultural attitudes and values and the school labelling processes just to mention a few. Sociologists tend to be critical of the IQ theory for various reasons including the factors affecting how it is measured, so in this essay, I shall therefore concentrate upon the other more sociological approaches and exclude the IQ theory. The following list of key words were essential in my argument; different methods of …show more content…

This clearly puts the working-class at a disadvantage despite their equal enthusiasm with the middle class to do the best for their children. Ball, Bowe and Gewirtz (1995) talk about 'cultural capital and educational choice ' to reflect on how being better educated themselves, middle-class parents have better knowledge and skills to negotiate and influence the education system. Many working-class parents are ambitious for their children too but do not know how to give practical help and they are usual tied up with long hours at work. However, middle class parents are likely to hold a more advantaged position than working class parents when interacting with teachers and other professionals and this may be demonstrated by their ability to: monitor their child’s progress at school, assist with home work, pay for extra tuition, they seek extra support for their child or complain about what they judge to be shortcomings in the school. Troyna (1986) and Sarup (1991) claim that there are school structures and environment that favours the white, middle-class culture especially the language and curriculum (Gewirtz, 2001. pp 365 - 378 ).
Many sociologists see social class achievement as linked to the meanings and experience that are negotiated in schools and classrooms. According to interactionists the underachievement of working-class pupils is not caused by unequal social structures, but by processes within the

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