The Effect of Social Class on Educational Attainment

The Effect of Social Class on Educational Attainment

Introduction

My intentions in this project are to demonstrate research into the

relationship between class and educational attainment. I will include

previous studies by well-known sociologists and the outcomes of their

research, as well as creating my own research methods. My research

methods will include how I intend to gather information on my study of

social class. The Aim of the project is to find relationships between

social class and educational attainment and explain the out come,

previous studies indicate that working class pupils do less well

academically and my project explains the reasons why, and how one

might go about gathering useful information about it

Concepts

It is believed that difference in class culture can contribute to

educational success or failure. Douglas believed parental interest was

the most important factor in educational success, his research

suggested middle class parents showed more interest than working class

parents. However, his research has been criticised, as he measured

parental interest by attendance at open days, and job difference

between middle class and working class parents may account for this.

These and other findings came to be known as cultural deprivation,

believing that those at the bottom of the class structure are deprived

of certain values and skills that are vital for educational success.

Computers, printers and new technologies are often not available to

working class children and because of this they suffer from a lack of

opportunity, ambition, and fatalism. This theory has come under great

criticism though, fro...

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...s in the classroom for 1) the pupils to get used to me and 2)

to gather enough information on both social classes. Participation

observation is very qualitive and not quantitive so I might not have

any relevance to the occurrences in other schools or cities. The main

con to participation observation is that it is not repeatable and that

it is a one-off study. This means that the events that occur within

the observation become useless because they can't be proven and they

cant be replicated. Questioning the students about their education and

what their parents to do contribute may lead some deviant pupils into

not participating in the study.

Choosing an ethically and morally acceptable form of research whilst

still being valid is not an easy task, but I think overt participant

observation would be the best form.