WJEC Eduqas GCSE Sociology Revision Guide

Material deprivation and material factors Chapter 3 Education 46 The children’s TV programme Sesame Street came out of an American compensatory education initiative. Find out what the aims were and what skills it wanted to develop in poorer children. Was Sesame Street an effective form of compensatory education? What do critics of the scheme say? AO2 Apply Take it further Diane Reay has written a book, Miseducation: Inequality, education and the working classes , about the inequality between the classes in the British education system. She believes that working-class children get less of an education than middle- class pupils – even if they are in the same school in the same building. Reay would be a great person to use in an essay on class and educational achievement and/or material deprivation and education. Read some of her interviews or her book and make sure you include a few sentences about her research and findings in your exam answer. How canmaterial deprivation affect educational achievement? Inside school factors Working-class children may underachieve in comparison with middle-class children due to lack of resources and money. Research from UCL found that the average primary-aged pupil in private education has £12,000 a year spent on their education compared to £4800 per year on the average state pupil. This can mean bigger class sizes and fewer resources. Lack of school funding can also affect what schools can provide outside school hours. Many working-class areas, such as in the inner cities, may lack pre-school facilities. Schools in poorer areas tend to have poorer facilities and a higher turnover of staff. Research has found that this can have a negative effect on a child’s development. Jan Flaherty found that material deprivation and financial issues were an important factor in younger children’s poor attendance at school. In 2006 only 33 per cent of children receiving free school meals gained five or more GCSEs at A*–C, compared to 61 per cent of pupils not receiving free school meals. How canmaterial deprivation affect educational achievement? Outside school factors Working-class pupils may underachieve due to lack of resources and money. They may have no computer or internet access, no educational toys or books and cannot afford private tutors. Poor diet may make them ill and lead to absence. Older students may need to take a job while studying. Tess Ridge found that children from poorer backgrounds take on jobs such as babysitting and paper rounds. Helen Connor and Sara Dewson found that working-class children fear being a burden on already overstretched families so go to work, which leaves them less time to study. Housing can have a detrimental effect. Their choice of school may be limited by where they live – selection by mortgage. They may live in housing with no adequate study area – overcrowding can mean nowhere to study or complete their homework. Poor housing can lead to illness and absence from school, e.g. from damp or cold conditions. Pupils frommore advantaged backgrounds can afford to attend the better universities. For example, Coventry is 15–19 per cent more expensive to live in than the average city in the UK but middle-class parents are willing to pay that to enable their children to attend Warwick University. Link to textbook pp 88–89: The importance of material factors and material deprivation pp 90–91: The importance of schools and what goes on inside them Spec spotlight 3.3 Patterns of educational achievement: patterns of attainment by social class 3.4 Factors affecting educational achievement: contribution of material factors Does the ability to pay for a private tutor give a child an advantage?