Cultural deprivation theory of education

CULTURAL DEPRIVATION

Attitudes and values

BY THE END OF THE LESSON YOU WILL BE ABLE TO

Explain how cultural attitudes can impact educational achievement

Describe two different theories on cultural deprivation

Define Sugarman’s four key concepts of working class culture

Outline two compensatory education schemes

Examine criticisms of the cultural deprivation theory

Parents attitudes and values are a key factor in educational attainment

Less value placed on education

Less ambition

Less encouragement

Less interest in children’s education

Less discussions with teachers

Douglas (1964)

Fernstein (1998)

Underachievment

LINKED TO

Lack of interest from parents

Middle class children more successful because their parents provide them with necessary motivation, discipline and support

Hyman (1967)

Values and beliefs are a “self-imposed barrier” to educational success

They see no point in education

Less willing to make sacrifices

Barry Sugarman took a sub-cultural approach to

the study of the relationship between class

and education.

Sugarman

Four key features of working-class culture that restrict achievement.

Fatalism

Collectivism

Immediate Gratification

Present-time orientation

Sugarman

• Working class children internalise the beliefs and values.

SUMMARY OF THEORY: * Because middle class occupations provided more opportunity for advancement (promotion), such families had an attitude of deferred gratification. Their children were therefore socialized into these values and did better in school as they valued long-term goals.

My son knows it took four years at uni to become a

doctor. He’s well motivated to achieve.

So I accept ploughing

through school for seven

years.

* Working class socialization emphasised present-time orientation and immediate gratification as their work did not allow the same opportunities for advancement.

We live to get our weekly wages. They’re not much but we just use them to

get battered at the weekend.

So I’m not used to waiting for my rewards; school

doesn’t keep me motivated.

* Therefore working class children didn’t have the attitude to stick with education and wanted to earn money instead. They were more focused on collectivism (through parents’ Trade Union involvement), than individual achievement.

The community’s more important...

...than your own status.

The myth of Cultural Deprivation

• Nell Keddie (1973)• Victim Blaming• A child cannot be deprived of its own culture

• Is it really school culture that is deficient in failing to recognise it’s prejudice?

The myth of cultural deprivation

• Troyna & Williams (1986)

• It is not child’s language that disadvantages it, but the school’s attitude

• Speech hierarchy

The myth of cultural deprivation

• Blackstone &Mortimer (1994)• Reject the idea that working class parents are

less interested in their children’s education• May attend fewer parent’ evenings due to

less regular hours of work• May wish to help children but lack knowledge

or skills to

Compensatory Education

• Is compensatory education just a smokescreen?

• Real problem is not cultural deprivation but rather material deprivation

BY THE END OF THE LESSON YOU WILL BE ABLE TO

Explain how cultural attitudes can impact educational achievement

Describe two different theories on cultural deprivation

Define Sugarman’s four key concepts of working class culture

Outline two compensatory education schemes

Examine criticisms of the cultural deprivation theory