2. Basic Statistics
Social Class Ethnicity
How might these two things
effect achievement in school?
77% of children who have 70% of students from Asian
parents from a background and 62% of
‘professional’ background Indian background attained
attain 5 GCSEs at A*- C. 5 good GCSEs.
50% of ‘white’ students.
32% of children who have
parents from a ‘manual’
23% of Pakistani and 25%
background.
of African-Caribbean.
*All statistics from year 2000
3. Why is there such variation in achievement?
Material Deprivation
Cultural Deprivation
Cultural Difference
Questions.
4. Material Deprivation Theory
Lack of Material objects can both directly and indirectly influence attainment.
Evidence For Evidence Against
Less access to varied experiences are styles
of play can impair cognitive development.
While 70% of Bangladeshi and 50% of
Less space or more stressful environment in Pakistani children do grow up in
which to study. poverty, Black-Caribbean families
have very similar rates of poverty to
May be more open to being bullied. Indian families who perform
May also be more likely to move regularly extremely well.
causing disruption.
More likely to suffer ill health, both reducing
performance in school and missing school.
Parents may be more stressed and therefore
less supportive of students children.
Back to Options
5. Cultural Deprivation Theory
Inadequate socialisation of children fails to prepare them properly for education.
Evidence For However…
Asian and Indian groups tend to have
closer and larger families. Pakistani families also tend to be large
and close, yet students from this
In the United Kingdom there is a high background perform the worst of the
rate of single parenting in Black- major ethnic grouops.
Caribbean communities.
Working class families tend to have
lower expectations and so fail to Many families from non-white
prepare children for education, backgrounds perform well despite not
compared to middle class families. being socialised to ‘British’ culture and
literature.
Middle class families are more likely to
give broader experiences to their
children. i.e. Museums and literature. Back to Options
6. Cultural Difference Hypothesis
Heavily disagrees with Cultural Deprivation Theory. It is not a problem of ‘inadequate
socialisation’, it is because there is a cultural difference between Home and School
which means they do not recognise and are not recognised by the Curriculum.
Evidence For Evidence Against
Methods of assessment often require a Does not explain why different ethnic
‘form’ rather than ‘content’ of answer in groups with similar cultural disconnects
order to be recognised. have such different attainment. E.g.
i.e. certain language / structure / examples Indian and Asian families compared to
which are culturally specific. Pakistani and Caribbean.
Majority of teachers and role models in
school are from a white and middle class Why do only 50% of White students
background. So students may find it hard to attain 5 good GCSEs? Cultural Deprivation
identify and may also feel marginalised. Theory may explain this better than
Cultural Difference.
Some children may have lacked access to
better education, disadvantaging them later. Back to Options
7. Questions.
Which of the three theories do you think best explains why different
class or cultural groups perform better?
Do different theories explain different groups better? In other words,
are they correct in some situations and wrong in others?
Can you think of examples in the school curriculum which might
disadvantage people from different class or racial backgrounds?
If so, why?
Back to Options
