In what ways do social class, gender and ethnicity intersect with educational achievement and participation?
Education is an intrinsic part of society since it began mass propagation following the Industrial Revolution. From the outset social class has been inextricably linked to education as the shift from private to public education saw the inclusion of boys from classes below the nobility. Gender is also wedded to education as in the past and in some countries presently girls face barriers when seeking educational opportunities freely provided to boys. In addition girls have been veered more toward domestic life and skills akin to that practice in the past. Diverse ethnic groups are a contemporary feature of education in the West as now there is …show more content…
There is a correlation between educational underachievement and social class. Education secretary Michael Gove once told a Commons education committee that ‘rich, thick kids’ do better than ‘poor, clever kids even before they start school (Guardian, 2010). This bluntly articulates the unfortunate truth that statistics corroborate that working class children fare worse than their middle class peers in terms of educational achievement. Sixty-eight per cent of the children of ‘professional’ parents got five or more A*–C grades at GCSE in 2003, compared with 35 per cent of children with parents in ‘routine’ occupations (DfES, 2006c; see also DfES, 2006b). Nevertheless, these figures neglect the fact that children from higher socio-economic backgrounds tend to go to schools of a higher quality. This is due to a number of reasons namely geographical and economical, as working class neighbourhoods tend to have poorer performing schools, additionally they have less capital to spend on their child’s education e.g. private schooling, grinds etc. Free school meal eligibility is generally the most commonly used indicator to illustrate gaps in social class. Using this basis, the Department for Children, Schools and Families
Education is an intrinsic part of society since it began mass propagation following the Industrial Revolution. From the outset social class has been inextricably linked to education as the shift from private to public education saw the inclusion of boys from classes below the nobility. Gender is also wedded to education as in the past and in some countries presently girls face barriers when seeking educational opportunities freely provided to boys. In addition girls have been veered more toward domestic life and skills akin to that practice in the past. Diverse ethnic groups are a contemporary feature of education in the West as now there is …show more content…
There is a correlation between educational underachievement and social class. Education secretary Michael Gove once told a Commons education committee that ‘rich, thick kids’ do better than ‘poor, clever kids even before they start school (Guardian, 2010). This bluntly articulates the unfortunate truth that statistics corroborate that working class children fare worse than their middle class peers in terms of educational achievement. Sixty-eight per cent of the children of ‘professional’ parents got five or more A*–C grades at GCSE in 2003, compared with 35 per cent of children with parents in ‘routine’ occupations (DfES, 2006c; see also DfES, 2006b). Nevertheless, these figures neglect the fact that children from higher socio-economic backgrounds tend to go to schools of a higher quality. This is due to a number of reasons namely geographical and economical, as working class neighbourhoods tend to have poorer performing schools, additionally they have less capital to spend on their child’s education e.g. private schooling, grinds etc. Free school meal eligibility is generally the most commonly used indicator to illustrate gaps in social class. Using this basis, the Department for Children, Schools and Families