Education and social class

Relationship Between Social Status and Education

Many researchers have attempted to investigate the relationship between social status and education in order to classify their different interactions by calculating the influence of each factor on the other. The association between the two variables must be maintained by taking into account, among other things, the number of opinions, social statistics, and diverse perspectives of the interested participants. Thus, the initial goal is to comprehend and describe the keywords associated with the influences that influence education. As a consequence, they have varying effects on each other. It is vital to note that education can be a major component of the social class that affects it both indirectly and directly. For instance, according to researchers, it reveals that both the education and social class can be directly proportional. It shows individual from a higher social class is likely to achieve a higher level of education. Therefore, it is imperative to understand how education and social class relate and the need to identify the contributing factors.

Social Class and Education Environment

The public schools that exist in a setup of society, which have a technical complexity that always makes a different nature of experience in education and the ability for students to have knowledge in various societal classes. That is the reason why Jean Anyon in her survey she explores the difference in the work of a student in contrast from the different social class that exists in the communities. She describes the characters that contribute to the scope of events that takes place in the classroom. However, the priority concern is not only the activity but as well as what reflect the deeper understanding of the social meaning, the excellent sense in theory and the happening of the particular social setting among others. Thus, that is the reason why she uses the symbolic nature of the social class to describe the education environment. The ownership system is the representation of physical capital for authority in the control of the production activity that can be developed by every school in children (Anyon, 78). It shows the replication of economic knowledge and skills that are transmitted to every classroom can be determined beyond the elementary school. Similarly, on the children of working class, they have a relationship between potential conflicts with the capital. Their future income is directly proportional to the present school work they are provided with, to mean it is a source of profit to other individuals. That explains the industrial conflict, which includes the wages, conditions of working and the control among others. Alternatively, it depicts how the occurrence of the future for students in the working class have not only the capability of learning to be docile but rather to be obedient in what awaits them in future on financial exploration. They also develop the ability to be the resistance to unfavorable conditions, which begins from school that is limited to the ultimate effectiveness.

School Work, Class Work, and Social Classes

A comparison of the tasks in school and work relates to appropriate future in regards to capital that is considered as bureaucratic. Jean describes this from the context of the school where the middle-class children can develop the different potential to authority, work, and capital. According to Jean the school work is similar to the white collar job of individuals working in jobs referred to as working class and those in the middle class. These are the kind of employment where people involved does the paperwork, sales, technical and the social service for state bureaucracies and private entities(Anyon, 80). Moreover, she explains how it relates to class work in that both have no reward but need individuals to know how to answer the question asked and where to retrieve the answer for self-expression. Further, for the case of the affluent school of professional, there is a relationship developed to tap the potential of the capital considered to be physical by using effective means of expressing negotiations that are substantial in nature. Schools where these children attend they can acquire symbolic capital by developing the artistic expression of scientific creativities into real ideas. There reflection in the society upon the skills leads them to become successful in scientific, intellectuals and legal skills. It is a sign of the community that even though they always do not have control over these skills they are valuable as fundamentally satisfying. The school of executive elites represents the children who are provided with the conditions that are unique from other forms of institutions in the society. They are given the opportunity of learning to analyze and utilize the intellectually on the mathematical and vocabulary rules. These skills are used for analysis of the societal control situations. The use of such knowledge symbolizes capital essential for a production system. Thus, as a reflection of to the school children affirms that they develop work in a human capacity for the demanded skills. Additionally, they can control the capital, which is physical and productive means in the society.

Hidden Curriculum and Social Class

As a result, the analysis of the different school work there is a different angle to the social class in the society. According to Jean, she enumerates that in the context that a hidden curriculum of the school work there is implicit in preparation to the relationship of the process of production in a given way. The curricular that differ, the evaluation practices for pupils is an emphasis on various behavioral and reasoning skills established in every setting of the society. It assists in developing children who have certain potential relationships that are physical and symbolic of capital, the process of work, and level of authority(Anyon, 82). The samples of the school show the experience of the difference of the qualitative social class and contribute to the development of children that takes place in each social class that would be reproduced economically in the society. Further, there is a different emphasis on the difference in the classroom in the sample to the social class in that there should be more research on more schools so as to identify the kind of task of work and interactions to find out if they have a change in discussions.

Socioeconomic Status and Education Achievement

The education achievement of the children can be determined by the socioeconomic status where they belong. Ray Rist conducted an observation of how a classroom teacher managed to put the students in learning groups of three. The ones considered to be the first learners were the arranged at the front while the other slow learners were placed at the back. Surprisingly, Rist was able to notice that a predictor of placement was the social class and the middle class was the group made up of the first learners while the lower class consisted of the remaining two groups (Rist, 481). His determination was that every journey of the child in school, specifical kindergarten was determined on the eighth day of attending school.

Eliminating Social Class Pervasiveness in Education

There should be a need to identify the insights that show the presence of interplay in the social class in the school. That is because the parents, pupils and the teachers have the ability to erase the fact that there is a distinction generated due to the difference in the existence of social class. According to Michael Knapp and Sara Woolverton, they describe the importance of eliminating the pervasiveness of social class in the lives of teachers and students in the education sector (49).The scholars addressed the dynamism of social class within the schools and advocates that the society should develop alternative perspectives of limiting the relationships between society’s social class and education. There is an enduring relationship between social class and educational outcomes. The nature of curriculum is developed to suit the social class of the learners. For instance, students of the high social class have technological courses incorporated in their studies. The authors conclude that more research must be carried out to determine the primary method of dealing with the social classes.

Parental Choices and Social Class

The choices made by the parents are the pillars that guide the children when it comes to education and the effects of social class that ensures achievement in school quality. Therefore, parents are expected to view themselves as the consumers of education and thus work hard to provide the best education for their children. According to Stephen Ball, Richard Bowe, and Sharon Gewirtz, they suggest that it is necessary to ensure that the students attend the best schools and their social class does not limit their kids from attaining maximum education benefits (91). That shows a contradiction on the fact that social class relates to education that may lead to the propagation of class inequalities and should be abolished from the society.

The Role of Schools in Achieving Equality

Schools should be a means to propel the need and instill a responsibility of preparing children in a social order that is essential for teaching them citizenship. It has been a crisis for the American education due to the presence of the preference creation in social classes that is rising due to the demand in schools in the entire society. Stanley, Aronowitz enumerates that most people believe that for students to be successful, they must achieve in education (15). Pupils and students are expected to work by all means with the parents and the whole society to ensure that they succeed in school life. Many schools believe that students should be allowed to choose the particular fields they want to specialize in so as to avoid pursuing careers they are not interested. Students from middle-class parents are molded to adapt technological courses that are imperative to the contemporary society. Social classes may influence the method the students choose their careers. For example, pupils from low social class may be forced to work hard to achieve in academics and become doctors and other professionals they view as substantial. They, therefore, become the models of the families by transforming their parents’ social class, On the other hand, pupils from high social class may take education for granted because their parents can provide all that they require for life. In this view, education can bring equality to social classes. It is prudent for the government to give opportunities for the students from low social backgrounds so as to enable them to bring the gap in academic achievements. The culture of upholding social classes in elementary schools should be shunned off, and all students must be accorded equal chances to acquire education (Stanley and Aronowitz, 17). Teachers must never discriminate or group students according to the social classes they belong to; professionalism must be maintained. Jobs and employment opportunities must be provided for all based on merits and academic qualifications. Many graduates after colleges do not bother to seek for jobs because their parents in the capitalists’ jobs would provide an opportunity to their companies. On the contrary, the lower social class children may suffer seeking for jobs because they do not have any leads to their success. That culture is contrasting to the effect of societal effect on education and achieving equality in education.

Correlation Between Performance and Social Class

Another comparison is about the existence of a direct correlation between the performances on the difference between socioeconomic classes. The case of poor performance in education is deemed to be due to the background of the social class. Richard Cloward and James Jones explain that the schools admitting low-class students reported poor performance due to increased absentees caused by ill health and less instructional time (12). The society today motivates academic achievers by giving a promise of future occupational rewards. Moreover, they examined the class attitude and how parents regarded the education of their children. Surprisingly, the middle-class that is deemed as a position with economic security reported being less concerned about providing quality education to their children because they take academics for granted. The lower class parents perceive education as beyond their financial abilities, and the value of education to them does not matter. It is evident that the comparison between education and the social class is directly related and the only type that attaches much significance to education is the high working class.

Conclusion

Conclusively, social class is a vital contributor in the achievement of the performance in education. Different authors have made a comparison of the relationship and the effects, and as a result, they have come to a joint solution on how education is affected by social class. It is evident that they believe that a higher social class will always lead to produce children who are fast learners. Therefore, it is a challenge to determine the adverse effects affecting the low-class individuals to correct the problem.

Works Cited

Anyon, Jean. “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work.” Journal of Education, vol.162, no.1, 1980, pp. 66-92.

Aronowitz, Stanley. “Against Schooling: Education and Social Class.” Social Text, vol.22, no.2, 2004, pp.13-35.

Ball, Stephen J., Richard Bowe and Sharon Gewirtz. “School choice, social class, and distinction: the realization of social advantage in education.” Journal of Educational Policy, vol.11, no.1, 1996, pp.89-112.

Cloward, Richard, and James Jones. “Social Class, Education Attitudes, and Participation.” Journal of Education, vol.1, no.1, 1962, pp.1-31.

Knapp, Michael S., and Sara Woolverton. “Social Class and Schooling.” Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education, 1995, pp 48-69.

Rist, Ray. “Student Social Class and Teacher Expectations: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy in Ghetto Education.” Harvard Educational Review, vol.40, no.3, 1970, pp.411-451.