They are able to manipulate the education system to their advantage which means their children have a better chance at doing well in school. Disconnected-local choosers and semi-skilled choosers are working-class parents who have a lack of cultural capital and therefore their child’s academic progress suffers as they are usually sent to ‘local’ schools which they aren’t necessarily best suited for. Children who have cultural capital also have an elaborated code (wider vocabulary) which gives them an advantage at school as it is the code used by teachers and in textbooks. The elaborated code is typically used by middle class and helps with their academic achievement. Children with a lack of cultural capital are more likely to use the restricted code (limited vocabulary) which disadvantages them at school as they feel excluded and are therefore less successful.
This is because if the parents lacks this they wouldn't be able to encourage and help their child with their studies in the same way others do. This affects working class children more because their parents tend to be less well-educated and reduces the child's chance of achieving high in life as they may become less developed than another family leading onto my next point involving Bernstein. However, you this is criticisms by the fact working class parents cannot help their child because they have to work long and tiresome hours to live a decent life. Therefore, you cannot blame all working class parents for having a lack of interest if they are working to pay bills. Another cultural factor that might affect educational chances was argued by Bernstein.
A less privileged family who does not have as good resources at home than a richer more privileged family, an example would be the Internet. Work set at home and completed at home does not promote the chance for all kids to show their skills. Thus the home environment is not a level playing field as it is at school. This is why homework should not be allowed. Second of all, while students are completing their homework they are getting stressed because these tasks are a large part of their grade.
Many EMGs are classed as working class families meaning social deprivation can often happen. The lack of money can often mean that families cannot afford the extra things which may aid their child in education. These are things could be as simple as books or stationary or not owning a computer, therefore having no access to the internet. As working class EMG families are on low incomes, children may not have the same experiences as working class children, missing out on holidays and trips to places such as museums and galleries. Many EMG children also do not have that initial push of how important education is for them.
The cultural ecological theory attempts to explain that some macro-ethnographic groups perform well in school, while others do not. Adult students or learners are the ones with the most diverse backgrounds. They have been adult for most part of their lives. They like to have control over whatever they learn and where and how it is learned. They should be given with the course having some kind of autonomy.
Marxists and Functionalists believe that schools play a role in legitimizing social inequality but an Interactionist believes there is more to school than that. They argue that it is a person’s self-concept, their view of themselves that define who they are and they will be able to move from their assigned social class if they work to do so. Interactionist Paul Willis; who is a Neo-Marxist conducted a micro approach on some school boys and discovered the negative effect the self-fulfilling prophecy had on their behaviour and so therefore their education. This helps understand education because it can help see the effects that a negative self-fulfilling prophecy can have on pupils. Following on from Paul Willis’ evidence to show the negative behaviour of pupils bring on a similarity between the two macro approaches.
Middle-class mothers are more likely to have more of an interest in their child’s intellectual development. Bernstein identified two forms of speech pattern, the restricted code and elaborated code. According to Bernstein, most middle-class children have been socialised into both the restricted code and the elaborated code, working-class pupils are placed at a distinct disadvantage. They are less likely to understand what teachers say and are more likely to be misunderstood and criticised for what they themselves say. Bernstein’s early work comes close with being a ‘cultural deficit’ model.
In a poor socioeconomic group, students are more likely to drop out of school; this happens since the environment around them does not allow them to achieve an academic goal or have parents who support them. The government should implement more programs to help in the contribution for poor families. With poverty, children can experience stress or depression, hence, not obtaining a career.
Aaron Cicourel and John Kitsuse’s study of educational counsellors in an American High school shows how labelling can disadvantage working-class students and it states in item A that ‘they were negatively labelled as non-academic and often as ‘difficult’’. This is because counsellors play an important role in deciding which students will get onto courses that prepare them for higher education. They found from their study that although they claimed to judge them on their ability, in practice they mainly judged them on the basis of their social class and/or race. Even where students had similar grades, counsellors were more likely to label middle-class
However, the question is not how loved children are, it is how well educated they are. Homeschooling provides a better and safer environment for children to learn. “Some families choose to homeschool because their local schools are plagued