Raising achievement is a key area that has been the centre of the educational debate and one of the main goals of government educational strategies in England in the recent years. More precisely, the ambitious objective of these strategies has been to raise achievement of all learners, with particular attention to those pupils in a disadvantage condition, taking in account factors as social class, gender, ethnicity and special education needs. In this context a great stress has been given to the importance of meeting students’ need and, consequently “to move away from standardization towards a greater personalization” (Donnelly, 2012) and to put into practice particular initiatives that could help each student to achieve better.
Besides the national strategies, which by definition focus on general problems, each school has a range of key areas on which intervention are possible in order to face underachievement. Social class is without any doubt one of the most important factor that, still today, influences school achievement in England.
This paper aims to research from a theoretical and practical point of view how attention to the students’ social background impact on the raising of achievement in a school, and to analyse some of the strategies that aim to face social inequality in education. Taking into consideration the existing literature on the issue, this research will firstly consider the correlation between social class and education underachievement in England; I will then use data I gathered from School A and my own personal experience to explore and discuss possible strategies that could help a school to narrow this social gap and raise achievement.
As the “strongest predictor of educational achievement in the U...
... middle of paper ...
...]
Kerr,K. and West, M. (Eds.) (2010) Social inequality: can schools narrow the gap? Macclesfield: British Educational Research Association.
Kounali, D.,Robinson, T.,Goldestein, H., and Lauder, H. (2008) The probity of free school meals as a proxy measure for disadvantage [Online]. Available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cmm/publications/fsm.pdf [Accessed: 20 March 2014]
National Equality Panel (2010) An anatomy of economic inequality in the UK. London: Government Equalities Office.
Perry, E. and Francis, B. (2010) The social class gap for Educational achievement: a review of the literature, RSA projects.
Reay, D. (2012) What would a socially just education system look like? [online] London: CLASS Centre for Labour and Social Studies. Available: http://classonline.org.uk/docs/2012_Diane_Reay_-_a_socially_just_education_system.pdf [Accessed: 13 March 2014]
Hurst, Charles, E. 2013. Social Inequalities: Forms, Causes, and Consequences (8th ed). Boston, MA: Pearson.
In her article she points out how social class has become the main gateway to opportunity in America. The widening academic divide means that kids who grow up poor will most likely stay poor and the kids who grow up rich will most likely stay rich. About fifty years ago the main concern about getting a good education relied on your race but now it's about your social class. Researchers are starting to believe that children who come from higher income families tend to do better in school and get higher test scores.
The work children are given in school is mostly based on the social class that the
Lee, V. E., & Burkam, D. T. (2002). Inequality at the starting gate: social background differences in achievement as children begin school. Washington, D.C.: Economic Policy Institute.
With reference to the secondary curriculum in England, emphasis is placed upon the aims, values and purposes of education. With the implementation of the curriculum, pupils should be given the foundations to develop and apply the knowledge, skills and understanding that will help them become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens; regardless of social background, culture, race, gender, differences in ability and disabilities (QCDA, 2010). In doing so, children will become more aware of, and engaged with, their local, national and international communities; and effectively widen their po...
Jackson, B and Marsden, D (1966) Education and the working classes. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul plc.
The Quality of a child’s education often either limits or opens up a world of opportunities. Those who study the purpose of public education and the way it is distributed throughout society can often identify clear correlations between social class and the type of education a student receives. It is generally known by society that wealthy families obtain the best opportunities money can buy. Education is a tool of intellectual and economical empowerment and since the quality of education is strongly influenced by social class, a smaller portion of the American population obtains the opportunities acquired from a top notch education. Many people believe that educational inequalities are perpetuated from the interests of specific classes, but some researchers like John Gatto believe that there are even stronger social forces in play. In the essay “Against Schools” the author John Gatto presents three arguments: (1) that are educational system is flawed, (2) that the American educational system is purposely designed to create a massive working class that is easy to manipulate, and (3) alternative teaching methods should be applied to teach children to think for themselves. In this essay I will be summarizing and relating each of these arguments to other educational essays. Also, I will be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s argument.
The means of justifying these inequalities are important for the entire world. Education played and will always play a big role in everyone’s lives. Equality in education will eventually guarantee every person a better position in society. Educational inequality is the difference in learning effectiveness and results as faced by students with varying backgrounds. The effects of educational inequality are not only left within the circles of education, but also remain further to have an impact on other life aspects. All over the world, there have been unending calls to reform education at each level. With various causes that are very much connected to society, history and culture, the educational inequality has apparently been one of the most difficult challenges to address. Regardless of the challenges faced in removing educational inequality, education has continued to be a very important part of society with a big expectation of moving it forward. In the current-day America, very many disadvantaged children have continued to grow up missing key skills. Discrimination has continued to persevere in educational achievement between racial issues. Above all, low performance levels among these disadvantaged children have over the years been responsible for the long-term issues, especially in such an society with higher levels of skills and a failing incomes offered to those people that are less-skilled.
This essay presents three different sociological approaches to social inequality, focusing on how social inequality is demonstrated through limitations of an individual’s possibilities and performance in the academic environment, due to an individual’s social capabilities in today’s society. There will be a focus on how the chosen sociological approaches view the relation between structure and agency and how this relation forms, strengthens and reproduces social inequality concerning education and employment possibilities.
According to Byman and Kansanen (2008, p605) ‘… teaching in itself does not imply learning’. The underachievement of young people in education has been a priority in British politics for over two decades (Ross, 2009). The estimates of academic underachievement at Key Stage 4 (KS4) are reportedly between one fifth and one third of the KS4 population in England (Steedman and Stoney, 2004). An Ofsted (2013) report identifies that pupils’ aged from 11 to 16 (early KS4) is below the national average. Underachievement in KS4 has become a recurring phenomenon (Wogboroma, 2014), with several academics and government bodies, identifying a range of significant implications, not only for the individual but also for wider society (Beinart, et al. 2002; McIntosh and Houghton, 2005; Hosie, 2007; Ofsted, 2013; DfE, 2014). This unseen cluster of learners that are academically underachieving is representative of an objectionable waste of potential, in addition incurring subsequent costs, from an individual viewpoint to a national scale (Ofsted, 2013). Consequently, recognizing and instigating timely interventions to tackle underachievement in KS4 and subsequently achieve social justice for this learner group should be a fundamental goal for schools. Motivation is recognised as an effective tool to overcome underachievement (Mega, et al. 2014) Furthermore, the intrinsic loci of motivation has developed to become an important phenomenon for educators, as it produces high-quality and effective learning in addition to creativity and achievement that can be progressively nurtured by teacher practices (Ryan & Stiller, 1991). Theories of motivation, self and society are critically evaluated to determine effective strategies...
“Social Justice in Education” by R. W. Connell discusses the role of education in society and the implications that social justice issues have on education. Connell begins by establishing that education and social justice can be examined separately yet they are inescapably linked through the social medium of their implementation. “Education concerns schools, colleges and universities, whose business is to pass knowledge on to the next generation. Social justice is about income, employment, pensions or physical assets like housing.”(Connell, 1993) Three points validating the equal importance of social justice and the education system to people of all delineations are: 1.) in Western society public schools are key forums of social interaction and comprise some of the largest social institutions 2.) educational institutions are highly economic bodies and have become “major public assets” (Connell, 1993) 3.) teaching becomes a vehicle by which society is ultimately determined and has a great influence over society’s morality. Connell describes the meaning of justice in education as being “a question of fairness in distribution… equality.”(Connell, 1993) “Justice cannot be achieved by distributing the same… standard good to… all social classes.”(Connell, 1993) By stating this, Connell summarizes that in the attempt to achieve equality, unequal means must be employed.
There are many different factors that affect education. One such factor is, socioeconomic status. Children who attend school in a wealthier community receive a better education than those students in poor communities. In poor communities, student’s education is not only affected by a lack of resources, but also from teaching methods and philosophies. Urban and poor schools’ students do not receive as equal of an education as their more affluent and suburban counterparts do.
Whitty, G. (2001) Education, social class and social Exclusion. Journal of Education Policy, 16(4) pp 287-295.
Gamoran, Adam. "American Schooling and Educational Inequality: A Forecast for the 21st Century." American Sociological Assocation. JSTOR, 2001. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
It can be argued that the academic performance of children has nothing to do with their socioeconomic status, because there have been many cases of children from very poor families who have excelled greatly in academics (APA, 2017). Furthermore, many predominantly high-end schools have posted poor results when compared to school with poorer backgrounds. This is despite the fact children from lower socioeconomic classes do not have access to the best forms of learning materials. The high performance of children from poor backgrounds is often attributed to the fact that they are not preoccupied with many activities which would otherwise hinder them from concentrating on their studies (Sacerdote, 2002). Therefore, some believe it is false to say that poor performance is associated with children who come from low socioeconomic classes. Rather, they believe academic achievement is genetic (Sacerdote, 2002).