In what ways may primary socialization have an impact on childrens achievement at school?

Points to develop

What is achievement (educational achievement) What is failure Child rearing practice Different background (financial, ethnicity, parents occupation, language, values and beliefs) Types of families Cultural capital Difference between social classes Difference between rural and urban areas

What is achievement?

It is difficult to measure potential as distinct from actual ability. Vernon in has pointed out that we must reject the notion that any tests can reveal the innate component of mental aptitudes, for these are non-observable and non-measurable (Banks, 1976 pp.69)

The relationship between social-class background and educational achievement, and many different aspects of that background have been suggested as casual factors in the link between home and school. Home environment or background is very complex and researchers tried to break it into child-rearing practices, speech and thought patterns, and fundamental value orientation. (Banks, 1976 pp.68)

Background of family

Extreme poverty, whether this is due to low wages, unemployment, large family or loss of a breadwinner can affect a childs achievement at school. For instance, poverty can lead to the child having frequent school absences through illness, neglected homework and inability to pay fees for materials, exams and any other activities organized by the school. For example, this can impede the childs homework as he or she may lack some physical amenities for the completion of homework and studies. Additionally, parents are less willing to keep a child at school as they have difficulty in affording books, copybooks, and any other equipment to help their children to learn properly. Parents can also enforce their children to stay at home which can make the whole family strained and unhappy.

Another aspect to consider is that material deprivation leads to cultural deprivation. Hyman argues that the value system of lower class people, their attitudes, their mentality, choice, family atmosphere may create a self- imposed barrier which prevents educational success. For example, lower class value system is characterized by the following: school is irrelevant; qualifications are not important, security and immediate economic stratification (reward) of priorities. Effort and sacrifice are worthless; investment in education is a waste of time and money, a strong sense of resignation, fatalism and powerlessness. Such a value system becomes an obstacle which the poor themselves have imposed in their way to success. Thus failure and early dropout become very common among lower class children. However, researches of Floud and Halsey showed that income and good housing; material environment of the home was less important on success but the education, attitudes and ambitions of parents do have an impact. Therefore, educational deprivation is not mainly the effect of poverty and that parental attitude and maternal care are more important than the level of needs.

Difference between social classes

Working class children are less likely than middle class children to enter the more academic types of education and even if they do so, they are less likely to complete the course. Moreover, children from middle class families tend to be found in the courses leading to higher rather than lower qualifications and in full-time rather than in part-time courses. Dropping out of school before high school graduation is more characteristics of low status families, measured in terms of income, and of fathers occupation. The problem of social class in education leads to barriers to opportunity.

Role of values and motivation

Parents can exert an influence on attitudes, values and aspirations for their children as a result of the parents own childhood. Hyman noticed that the beliefs and values of lower classes reduce the voluntary actions to ameliorate their low position (Bank, 1976, pp.76) and therefore these parents have little interest in their childrens achievement at school and provide little encouragement or moral support. Middle class parents take more interest in their childrens progress at school than the manual working class parents do. This is because working class parents are less ambitious for their children and have no aspiration for their children to climb the social ladder. The fact is that if their children are to pursue higher studies for social mobility, the cost of these advanced courses may be high in terms of money and separation from family ties. However, as Banks pointed out, the occupational aspirations of even unskilled working-class parents for their children can often be surprisingly high as there are no big differences in the values attached to success but working class parents put less emphasis upon it because they perceive obstacles in the way of its achievement.

Therefore, children in working class families do not have high ambition in studies and do not achieve at school because they are influenced by their parents thoughts or lower aspirations and self-esteem in jobs. This can be considered as an example of mobility

pessimism or blocked mobility as the child is treated as an extension of the parental self-image on jobs and career paths.

Ethnicity

For example, Negro self-identity is relatively sparse where race and class are often confused. In Britain, it has been found that children from ethnic minorities tend to achieve less well in British schools and generally are early dropouts compared to white British students. In the USA, young Black Americans coming mostly from ghettos tend to perform less well at school. Sociologists have become interested in the issue and have tried to find out the different factors which may explain differential educational attainment among ethnic minorities.

Where English is the main channel of communication, children from ethnic minorities fail to do well in British schools due to cultural differences. They have been probably socialised in a different language. Some even claim that they are linguistically back standard and as a result cannot adapt to the school environment. However, exaggeration must be avoided in their study. Driver and Ballard argue that language may not be an obstacle to educational achievement. They have found that many sixteen year old Asians were as competent and fluent as their English classmates as far as English language and communication skills are concerned. But it remains a fact that children from ethnic minorities do encounter a culture class in British schools.

Prejudice and discrimination resulting from racist stereotypes play an important part in explaining poor educational achievement among ethnic minorities in British schools.

According to Coard, the British educational system makes black students educationally subnormal (below standard). By making them feel inferior, making the black child appearing dirty, ugly and intellectually backward on leaving school, he is fit only for manual, unskilled, dead end jobs. West Indian children are made to understand that their way of speaking is unacceptable, their knowledge is second- grade. In books, the White

and Black are portrayed differently. The Black is always associated with subordinate roles. For example, they are portrayed as submissive servants. Black as a colour is associated with evil whereas white represents enlightenment. According to Coard, racial prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping help to develop in the black child, a feeling of inferiority, a negative self-image and self-concept and thus, low educational aspirations. He is more likely to be an early dropout or failure.

Child-rearing practices

Bronfenbrenner found that the middle-class parents have higher expectations for their child but are more tolerant of expressed impulses and desires coming from their children. Therefore, in matters of discipline, middle-class families rely more on reasoning, isolation, and acceptance to guilt whereas working class parents are more likely to employ physical punishment to acceptance, order and obedience. Moreover, parents play an important part in early sex role differentiation and training. For instance, in Maccobys study, parents influence and strengthen attitudes and interests in boys and girls from a very early age. Feminine personality characteristics were encouraged such as obedience, friendliness, and affection and these are helpful to school achievement. It has been found that the more masculine the boy, the lower his academic average.(Banks, 1976, pp.107)

Language and learning

Bernstein has related speech pattern (linguistic ability of children) with educational achievement. Speech pattern is an important aspect of the cultural dimension within the home: socio- economic background. Bernstein has identified two types of speech patterns or codes: the restricted code and the elaborated code.

The restricted code is a type of short hand speech with short, grammatically simple and incomplete sentences. There is limited use of adverbs and adjectives. Meanings are often conveyed by gestures. Emphasis is on the concrete rather than the abstract.

The elaborated code explicitly verbalises meanings. There are more complex sentences. There is extensive use of imaginative language. Meanings are more clearly stated with reference to the abstract.

Speech patterns are related to family background, socialization practices and the nature of parental occupation. Again speech pattern is very much influenced by social class background or environment encourages the development of a restricted code because in such an environment, positions of members are clear cut; status clearly defined and this require little discussion and communication between parents and children. Parents themselves have a restricted code, at home there is a lack of reading materials to stimulate and develop vocabulary. In addition, occupation of parents is more manual which requires more physical rather than verbal skills. It is clear that the middle class home environment, with all opportunities and facilities, favours the development of an elaborated code in children.

Differences in speech patterns lead to differences in educational achievement. The lower class child at school is at a disadvantage. Classes are conducted in terms of the elaborated code; his restricted code reduces his ability to participate fully in classroom activities and finds it difficult to adapt. For example, he fails to differentiate and distinguish between objects and events, to analyse relationship to develop arguments and make generalizations. In examination he fails to understand instructions. He is bound to fail.

Rural and urban backgrounds

Apart from differences between social classes, which seem to persist in very different societies, there are also very widespread variations between regions and particularly between urban and rural areas. Fiszman in Banks pp.60 has described the situation in Poland where most of the unskilled labour force is recruited from the villages where many of the youth fail to complete even the first six grades.

Using at least two sociological theories, critically assess the ways in which socialization in the school has an important bearing on the success and /or failure of learners.

Points to develop Teachers expectation (linked to the social background of teachers) Hidden curriculum Labeling Self fulfilling prophecy School culture (values) Types of school (single-sex, vocational etc) Peer pressure (students sub-culture) Deviance (resisitance) Types of evaluation in schools to measure performance

Teachers expectations Coard argues that racist stereotypes tend to be reinforced by teachers expectations. Teachers perceive black children negatively. They are labelled or typed as trouble

makers or slow learners. White teachers expect black children to fail, leave school earlier and this is likely to produce a self fulfilling prophecy. This also explains why children from ethnic minorities form part of deviant sub-cultures at school.

However, the conclusions of Coard must be treated with care. The few instances of racial discrimination may not be a general rule, that is over-generalisation must be avoided. Not all ethnic minorities perform badly. For instance, Asian children have been found to

achieve well in British school. Various studies have shown that the extent of racism in British schools could have been exaggerated. Hammersley found no evidence of explicit or covered discrimination or racist attitude in the classroom. Taylor argues that many white teachers are in fact very sensitive, caring towards black children and actively concerned about their progress. Stone found that many black children still have a

positive image of themselves even though they have been negatively labelled. Fuller found that many black girls have a tendency to work even harder to overcome prejudices, discrimination, racist stereotypes and negative labels. They did enjoy academic success.

Typing, labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy One of the most important aspects of the interactionist theory of education concerns the ways that teachers make sense of and respond to the behaviour of their pupils. In their book Deviance in Classrooms, David H. Hargreaves, Stephen K. Hester and Frank J. Mellor analyse the ways that pupils come to be typed or classified. Their study is based upon interviews with teachers and classroom observation in two secondary schools. They examined the way that teachers got to know new pupils entering their first year at the school. Initially, teachers have limited knowledge about their new pupils as individuals. They may know about the types of catchment area from which pupils originate, and have a general image of first year pupils, but apart from this they can only start to build up a picture as the school year progresses. Hargreaves, Hester and Mellor distinguish three stages of typing or classification. The first stage consists of speculation. The teachers make guesses about the types of pupils they are dealing with. The researchers noted seven main criteria on which initial typing was based. Teachers distinguished pupils according to: 1 their appearance; 2 how far they conformed to discipline;

3 their ability and enthusiasm for work; 4 how likeable they were; 5 their relationships with other children; 6 their personality; 7 whether they were deviant. Hargreaves, Hester and Mellor stress that in the speculation phase teachers are only tentative in their evaluations, and they are willing to amend their views if initial impressions prove to be misleading. Nevertheless they do form a working hypothesis, a theory about what sort of child each pupil is. Each hypotheses is then tested in the second phase, which Hargreaves at al. call elaboration. Gradually the hypotheses are either confirmed or contradicted, but either way the teachers become more confident in their judgements as their typing is refined. When the third stage is reached, stabilization takes place. By this time the teacher feels that, He "knows" the pupil; he understands him; he finds little difficulty in making sense of his acts and is not puzzled or surprised by what he does or says. By this time all the pupils actions will be evaluated in terms of the type of pupil they are thought to be. Some pupils will be regarded as deviants, and for them it will be difficult for their behaviour to be seen in a positive light.

Reflect upon the comparative impact of both primary and secondary socialization on students achievement. You may refer to your own knowledge and experience as a teacher.

References Banks, O. (1968). The Sociology of Education. B.T.Batsford Ltd. London Halsey, A.H (1975). Sociology and the Equality Debate. Oxford Review of Education. Vol. 1 pp 14-15

10

Vernon, P.E. (1966).Development of Current Ideas about intelligence tests in Meade, J.E and Parkes. A.S (eds) Biological Aspects of social Pbs, London: Oliver and Boyd. Pg 5 Kohn, M.L (1959) Social Class and Parental values. American Journal of Sociology, vol. LXIV.

11