1. Does the British Education system
play a part in reproducing class
differences? Critically discuss with
reference to the concept of cultural
capital.
By Charis McGowan
2. Introduction
• Explain meritocracy e.g achievement by merit
• Add a quote by a politician explaining
education e.g Thatcher; Blair; Brown
• Is This a true representation? Discuss gap
between working class/middle class.
3. Main Body
• Historical evolution of education
• Class differences starting 19th Century. Discuss
how only elite members of society were
taught in Sunday schools.
• The Industrial revolution meant workers
needed limited education to reproduce
capitalism.
• Discuss education acts.
4. • Discuss recent changes to education eg.
Labour government creating academies for
disadvantaged schools.
• Use stats to show success of academy schools
• This is an attempt to build the bridge between
working class and middle class.
• However Labor then introduced university
fees for the first time which limited working
class from being able to go to University.
• Statistics show the drop in University
applicants since the 9,000 fees.
5. • How does class affect education?
• Class differences start as early as 22 months
old.
• Supports schemes such as Sure Start are
introduced to help this gap. However these
have now been cut by the coalition
government.
• Bourdieu explain how cultural capital helps
middle class families achieve e.g educational
toys and knowledge around the education
system. (main focus of essay)
6. • Teachers Perceptions of students also affect
the working class e.g setting and streaming
them.
• This limits what they know
• Studies such as Becker, Mac and Ghaill and
Willis show this.
7. • However some believe class is not the main
factor in education. Discuss theories such as
Feminism and Marxism.
Conclude your essay with a summary.