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Nicola Ingram (2009)
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This sociologist studied 2 groups of working-class catholic boys from the same highly deprived neighbourhood in Belfast. 1 group passed their 11-plus exam and went to Grammar School. 1 group failed and went to a local Secondary School: -The Grammar School boys experienced a tension between the habitus of their working-class neighbourhood and that of their middle-class school. -Working-class identity was inseparable from belonging to a working-class locality. Neighbourhood's dense networks were a key part of boys' habitus - gave them intense feeling of belonging. Street culture/branded sportswear was a key part of the boys' habitus and sense of identity. -One boy, Callum, was ridiculed by his classmates for coming to school in a tracksuit on non-uniform day. He felt worthless by the school's middle-class habitus: 'the choice is between unworthiness at school for wearing certain clothes and worthlessness at home for not' (example of symbolic violence). -Pupils are forced to abandon their 'worthless' working-class identity (from school's perspective) if they want to succeed. -This study shows working-class communities' great emphasis on conformity.
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Diane Reay (1998)
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This sociologist interviewed mothers of 33 children at 2 primary schools in London, finding that, "It is mothers who are making cultural capital work for their children". The amount of cultural capital possessed by middle-class mothers meant that their children succeeded more in education than their working-class peers. She ascribes this to cultural capital. Middle-class mothers had the knowledge and skills to help their children more effectively with homework, and to challenge the school and negotiate with teachers for the benefit of their children. Evaluation: Although this study provides empirical support for Bourideu's cultural capital theory, it is a London based sample of the mothers of a relatively small group - not representative of the whole population. |
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Mey Maguire (1997)
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This sociologist stated, 'the working-class capital of my childhood counted for nothing in this new setting'.
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Colin Lacey (1970)
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This sociologist looks at the link between subcultures to labelling and streaming. He begins by defining these terms, which can be used to explain how pupil subcultures develop: Differentiation: Distinguishing or creating differences between individuals or groups - Streaming is an example. I.e. Teachers categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude, and/or behaviour. Polarisation: A process that results in the creation of two opposite extremes. I.e. Pupils respond to labelling by creating a pro-school or anti-school subculture.
He argues streaming is a form of differentiation as it categorises pupils into 'separate classes'. Those that the school deems 'more able' are given higher status by being placed in a high stream, whereas those deemed 'less able' and placed in low streams are given inferior status. In the Hightown Boys' Grammar School study, he found that streaming polarised boys into a pro-school and anti-school subculture.
He states, 'a boy who does badly academically is predisposed to criticise, reject or even sabotage the system where he can, since it places him in an inferior position.' Thus, 'the boy who takes refuge in such a group because his work is poor finds that the group commits him to a behaviour pattern which means that his work will stay poor - and in fact often gets progressively worse'. |
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David Hargreaves (1967)
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This sociologist argued that teacher labelling and streaming resulted in the formation of subcultures as students responded differentially to their positive or negative labels: -Through studying one Secondary Modern school, he found that students labelled as ‘troublemakers’ (non-conformist delinquents) were placed in lower streams, whilst those viewed as having better behaviour (conformists) were placed in higher streams.
-The students placed in the lower streams were viewed as 'triple failures' and had in fact been negatively labelled by the education system three times: once by failing the 11+ and being put in a failing school (a secondary modern), second by being put in the lower streams, and third by being regarded as ‘worthless louts’ by many teachers.
-Faced with the prospect of being unable to achieve in school, these students somehow had to maintain their self-worth and construct a sense of identity within the school. They tended to seek each other out and formed a non-conformist delinquent subculture in which they gained status through breaking school rules: disrupting lessons, giving cheek to teachers, truanting, not handing in homework, thus guaranteeing their educational failure.
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Pierre Bourdieu (1971, 1974)
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This Marxist sociologist argues that the role of the education system is cultural reproduction - the education system reproduces the culture of the dominant or ruling capitalist class: -He argues that education is biased in favour of the middle classes as they share similar norms and values to these higher social groups. -By having knowledge and experience of the dominant culture, upper- and middle-class children possess what he calls ‘cultural capital’ or a cultural advantage (can be translated into wealth and power). -Examples of cultural capital include certain language norms; cultural activities such as visiting the museum and reading literature. -Middle-class children are more likely to share aspects of high culture, whereas working class children do not always have access to such cultural practices and knowledge. As such, they are disadvantaged in the education system. This sociologist also argues that working-class failure is the fault of the education system and not working-class culture, as it the education system is biased towards the culture of the dominant social classes and devalues the knowledge and skills of the working-class.
Schools having a middle-class habitus also links with his concept of cultural capital, as it gives middle-class pupils an advantage, since working-class culture is considered as inferior. Furthermore, pupils who have been socialised at home into middle-class tastes and preferences gain 'symbolic capital' and recognition from school, so are deemed to have worth of value. However, school devalues working-class pupils tastes (for example: style and accents) which are deemed to be tasteless and worthless. This sociologist calls this withholding of symbolic capital, 'symbolic violence', as it reproduces the class structure and keeps the lower classes 'in their place'. This means working-class students may experience the world of education as alien and unnatural. |
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Amelia Hempel-Jorgensen (2009)
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This sociologist found labelling notions by different teachers varying according to the social class make-up of the school: -Largely working-class Aspen Primary School found discipline to be a major problem, with the 'ideal pupil' being defined as quiet, passive and obedient. The children were defined based on behaviour. -Mainly middle-class Rowan Primary School had very few discipline problems, with the 'ideal pupil' being defined in terms of personality and academic ability. |
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John Furlong (1984)
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This sociologist found that many pupils are not committed permanently to any adaptation described by Woods, but may move between different types of adaptation, acting differently in lessons with different teachers.
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Alice Sullivan (2001)
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This sociologist saw that those with more cultural capital were more likely to be successful at GCSE. Most successful students with greater cultural capital were in the middle-class. Where pupils of different social classes had the same level of cultural capital, middle-class pupils still did better. She suggests that greater resources and aspirations of middle-class families explain the remainder of the class gap in achievement. |
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Herbert Hyman (1967)
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This sociologist suggests that the working classes and middle classes have different ‘value systems’ and that these different values help explain differences in educational achievement: -He argues that the working classes place a lower value on education compared to the middle classes. -The working classes are less likely to value professional jobs that have a higher status in society and as such they limit their own opportunities. -For example, he suggests the working classes place more value on manual work or ‘getting a trade’ which is seen as a stable and secure job that involves less risk than non-manual jobs that may require greater risks to achieve. -Therefore he argues that the values of working class parents limit the educational achievement of their children. |
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Peter Woods (1983)
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This sociologist identified a range of ways in which pupils may ‘adapt’ to their schooling environment: -For example, he argues that some pupils may adopt positive adaptations whereby they accept the school aims for academic success. -He labels such an adaptation as ‘ingratiation’ whereby such students seek to ingratiate themselves with their teachers as fully as possible ('teacher's pet'). -Whereas other students may opt for ‘ritualism’ which is not as strong an adaptation but reflects a degree of conformity. -He also identifies a more negative adaptation called 'retreatism', which describes students who daydream and muck about, not showing complete defiance to the education system, but not conforming to it either. -The most negative adaptation that he identified is 'rebellion', whereby students openly reject the goals of the school and the means as to how to achieve these and this culminates in an anti-school culture. -He generalised that pupil adaptations could be linked to class in that working class pupils were more likely to adopt negative non-conformist adaptations, whereas middle class pupils were more likely to be positive and more conformist. |
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A. H. Halsey (1980)
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This sociologist argues that education fails to offer equality of opportunity for all children: -He found that children from working-class backgrounds were most likely to fail in the education system whereas middle-class children were most likely to succeed. -He highlighted evidence that shows that middle-class children are most likely to stay on in post-compulsory education at both age 16 and 18. -Although he acknowledged cultural factors can act as a barrier to educational success, he emphasised the importance of material factors. -He argued that lack of economic resources was the most important factor in determining whether a child would stay on in post-compulsory education or not. -He argued that to reduce class inequalities in education, children from low income families should be given financial support such as grants to encourage students to stay on at schools/college. |
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