School
...o groups: those who had sole use of household facilities, such as bathrooms, and those who did not. He found that the children living in 'unsatisfactory condition scored much more poorly on tests that those in 'satisfactory´ conditions. Reason suggested for this include poor housing conditions and diet leading to ill health, leading to absence from school, and underperformance while there. It is also often believed that difference in class culture can contribute to educational success or failure. Douglas believed parental interest was the most important factor in educational success, his research suggesting middle class parents showed more interest than working class parents. However, his research has been criticised, as he measured parental interest by attendance at open days, and job difference between middle class and working class parents may account for this. These and other finding came to be known as cultural deprivation theory, believing that those at the bottom for the class structure are deprived of certain values and skills that are vital for educational success, and that working class children suffer from a lack of ambition, and fatalism. This theory has come under great criticism however, from those who support materialistic reasons for leaving school early, and those who believe that differences between class cultures are minor and insignificant. Rather than looking at factors within the family, there are those who believe that it is the class structure that generates educational inequality, and that equality is impossible in a class-based society. Pierre Bourdieu, a structural Marxist, argues that the role of the education system is to reinforce class differences. This is achieved by promoting the 'dominant culture´ of the ruling classes in the classroom though use of language, ensuring that working class students will be less likely to understand and be understood. This disadvantages working class students, and by creating educational success and failure, legitimises the position of both those at the bottom and top. Basil Bernstein pointed the different speech codes used by the middle and working classes, the 'restricted code´, which is context bound and requires previous common knowledge between users, and the 'elaborated code´ which is not context-bound, and does not require previous common knowledge. He believed that middle class children are fluent in both codes, but that working class children are confined to the restricted code, and are therefore placed at a distinct disadvantage, because teachers use the elaborated code. Middle class children are therefore more likely to understand the teacher, and be understood themselves. Finally, rather than focusing on the societal structure or relationships outside of the school, others, particularly those of a interpretive viewpoint, focus on factors inside the school, believing that this is what determines educational success or failure. This type of approach centres around the concepts of labelling theory and self-fulfilling prophesy, believing that if someone is labelled in a particular way, other will respond to their behaviour in terms of that label, and the person will act in terms of that label, resulting in a self-fulfilling prophesy. This has been illustrated in studies by Rosenthal & Jacobson, where it has been shown that a teacher perception of a pupil´s abilities strongly affects how that pupil progresses. Rist, in a study of an elementary school for black children in St. Louis, showed that teachers are more likely to perceive middle class children as being of higher ability than working class children, and treats them as such. He was also able to show, in concordance with Rosenthal & Jacobson´s s...