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Class inequality

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Inequality and education [Feito, R. 2003. Alumnado. At Fernández Palomares, F. (coord.) Sociología de la educación. Pearson, Madrid 333-356]

Inequalities have gone through different phases:

Inequality

Class (capitalist) Most affected: working class

Exclusion

Segregation

Assimilation (and egalitarianism)

Inequalities have been articulated by reason of differences in:

Gender (patriarchal) Most affected: women

Ethnicity (ethnocentrism) Most affected: ethnic minorities

Class inequality [Industrial Worker, 1911. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pyramid_of_Capitalist_System.png]

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Life expectancy at birth by social class and sex, 1997-99 [ref.]

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Wright's social class [Galobardes, B., Shaw, M., Lawlor, D.A., Lynch, J.W. and Smith G.D. (2006) J Epidemiology Community Health 60 95-101]

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Class inequality and education [Feito, R. 2003. Alumnado. At Fernández Palomares, F. (coord.) Sociología de la educación. Pearson, Madrid 333-356]

Despite the extension of schooling, inequalities in educational opportunities remain (however with exceptions, no determinism)

Class inequalityPierre Bourdieu introduced the concept of Cultural capital which refers to the no correspondence between the cultural practices of the family (or close environment) and the school

Another explanation is based on income differences, not because of direct costs of education (like fees) but because of opportunity costs

But we can not claim determinism, not all children from unfavorable environments do fail in the school system. However, these cases have been of rather scarce interest in sociological studies (as the study of Willis ,1988)

Everhart (1983) did study these students stating that although their involvement was minimal, it was enough to succeed. Some ethnic minorities connect in some basic feature of the school as frugality and effort (for instance Asian).

Bernard Lahire found that in families with little or no literacy this circumstance might serve as a stimulus for school children success.

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Jean Anyon (1981) found in five schools (5th grade) that, depending on the social class the parents of the students belonged to, teachers had different expectations, and students different understanding, regarding the origin of knowledge. Accordingly teachers approached differently the activities in the classroom:- If working class children → need for discipline, taking notes,

coloring, avoiding controversial issues, following procedures away from their thinking processes the purpose of which is not explained.

- If middle class children → more effort on understanding materials and flexibility, but little discussion

- If professionals’ children → focus on high concepts, creativity and a lot of discussion about concepts and visions.

- If senior executives children → make them to think for themselves.

Baudelot and Establet (1976) found a similar discriminatory process at the dual vocational and academic tracking, where ‘future proletarian workers’ were given a compact body of simple bourgeois ideas, and ‘future bourgeois’ learnt to become interpreters, actors and improvisers of bourgeois ideology.

The role of teachers inside the classroom

Class inequality and education [Feito, R. 2003. Alumnado. At Fernández Palomares, F. (coord.) Sociología de la educación. Pearson, Madrid 333-356]

The teaching behavior of teachers varies according tothe type of students, this is known as Pygmalion effect

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Emilio Pedro (Portuguese sociolinguist) found that when the lower social background of the students, the greater the imperative control, the more explicit the evaluations, the hierarchical relations, less room for negotiation, and more passive the behavior of the students.On the contrary, the higher the social background of the students, the asymmetry was less explicit, control was more adapted to the individual person and to the context, explanations were given to provoke changes in their behavior, and they were encouraged to participate as individuals in the classroom activities.

The role of teachers inside the classroom

Class inequality and education [Feito, R. 2003. Alumnado. At Fernández Palomares, F. (coord.) Sociología de la educación. Pearson, Madrid 333-356]

Other factors:- Most able teachers tend to teach in more affluent neighborhoods, in

which students are closer to the methodologies and ideologies of teachers.

- Schools of less affluent neighborhoods have less material resources and equipment, which hinders the stability of staff.

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