Demonstrate how social class continues to affect the educational attainment of an individual despite living in a so called meritocratic society.

Have a little read: ... AS Sociology Coursework AIM The aim within this piece of coursework is to demonstrate how social class continues to affect the educational attainment of an individual despite living in a so called meritocratic society. I will be exploring Pierre Bourdieu's concept of 'cultural capital' and Douglas's concept of 'cultural deprivation' to provide explanations for working class underachievement. The reason why I am going to explore this is due to my interest in the differences that occur within educational attainment. It is evident in my community that working class students attain lower than the middle class students. By doing research on this issue I hope to find out what affects the educational attainment of the two classes. (111 words) CONTEXTS AND CONCEPTS From a Marxist perspective Pierre Bourdieu a French sociologist states that there is a dominant culture in society. The higher a person's position in the class system, the greater the amount of dominant culture they are likely to have. From a Marxist perspective, Bourdieu believes that schools are middle class institutions run by and for the middle class and the working class do not have the cultural capital which is the ruling class values and experiences required for the academic success. Bourdieu argues that the education system performs the function of ensuring that the working class accepts their position at the bottom of society. He also argues that these groups are doomed to failure because their success would threaten the ruling class's wealth and power. According to Bourdieu the dominant culture can be seen as 'cultural capital' since it can be converted into material reward for example high qualifications, high status etc. Bourdieu concludes that the primary purpose of education is cultural reproduction. The education system reproduces the dominant culture and helps to reproduce the class system. And by educational success and failure it legitimizes the positions of those at the top and those at the bottom. On the other hand, cultural deprivation theory states that the sub-culture of low income groups are deprived in some respects, and this accounts of the low educational attainment of members of these groups. J.W.B Douglas was a functionalist who looked at class cultures and the material deprivation theory, which is a lack of money and the things that money can buy, for example middle class parents can afford computers for their children where as the working class parents can't. He suggested that middle class parents had more