Assess the view that the working class under- achievement in education is the result of home circumstances and family background

To fully assess the view that the working class under- achievement in education is the result of home circumstances and family background we must look at what is within education such as socialisation. Socialisation helps develop language and communication by talking to others and learning and repeating words they use. A factor affecting education is material deprivation; this is when someone cannot access the right resources needed for education e.g. books and the internet. Howard did research on how diet and health of a child can affect their concentration in school. Income can affect the diet and health of a child, income very big within material deprivation because low income means that you cannot afford fresh vegetables and cook nutritious meals and so their children will be less able to concentrate in class. Other factors of low income include smaller houses and overcrowding which then makes it difficult for children to concentrate if there is a lot of noise or not so much space so they can do their homework. However policies such as EMA and aim higher where put in place, these are forms of compensatory education giving extra help to those who need it. A second factor affecting education is cultural deprivation, this is when people don’t have experiences of middle class norms and values, and so affects education as the middle class are seen as the dominant social group and are said to know the ‘right kind of knowledge’. Bernstein came up with the idea that there were two language codes used, these codes were called the elaborated code, used by middle class people, and the restricted code used by working class people. He said that schools used the elaborated code and so working class children would be at a disadvantage because