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Applying material from Item A, analyze two ways that the hidden curriculum may help to
reproduce the social class structure.
[10 marks]
One way that the hidden curriculum may help to reproduce the social class structure is
uniform. There are schools with strict uniform rules that make their rules more important than
showing personality and self-individuality. Schools require all pupils to wear the same stuff
which does not include external factors why pupils might not be able to get a uniform. For
example, the reason for this could be material deprivation. Hidden curriculum does not take
background, ethnicity and gender into account, some pupils from WC might not have enough
money in their family to buy a new school uniform but if they don't wear it then they will be
outsiders in school and have problems with teachers because it seems like they don't follow
school rules. From marxist perspective, a hidden curriculum reproduces class inequalities.
Another way it reproduces the social structure is a middle class having authority in the
education system. Marxist theorist Althuser claimed that norms and values in school are
written by middle class and ruling class ideology. As a result it affects pupils from the
working class and does not give them an opportunity to get the same level of education, it
also links to restricted and elaborate code in the education system and the way books are
written. Teachers also tend to be from the middle class so the way they teach does not fit
pupils from wc background.
Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate the importance of cultural
factors in explaining patterns of educational achievement.
[30 marks]
Some sociologists might argue about the importance of cultural factors in educational
achievements. All of them play their own important role in education for pupils with different
life experiences, such as: ethnicity, gender and social class.
For example some sociologists argue that pupils from some ethnic groups are more likely to
do better in school like Chinese pupils. The reason for that could be because of the
background in their culture. Chinese pupils value education more compared to other pupils
from ethnic groups because their parents show a good example of how education is
important in their country to achieve more and get a better job in the future to success.
On the other hand, sociologists would claim that Afro-caribbean pupils tend to put work
above education, because of what they see looking at their parents. Parents from this
ethnicity don't study because of the level of life in their home country so children can go to
work to feed themselves as well as their family and the reason is poverty.
Another importance of cultural factors in explaining patterns of educational achievements is
social class and how differences in classes can influence their achievements. Sociologists
argue that white British middle class parents have higher expectations from their children
when they start to study because of the values they have. For them good grades,
attendance and exemplary behavior are important and show that their children follow rules
and learn necessary norms at school. Pupils from white middle class are stubborn to follow
rules which mean it is more difficult to be controlled by a teacher and listen to everything
they teach and say. Also, teachers from the middle class use restricted code to teach their
students so as a result it can be problematically for wc students to understand information
and could lead them to fail in exams.
At the same time some sociologists would still argue that material factors are playing a
bigger role in educational achievements for different backgrounds and nationalities. For
example, pupils from different ethnic groups could do worse in school because of material
deprivation. It includes books, uniform and laptops, they might have a desire to have good
educational achievements but they literally have no access to all possible information and
and needed stuff.

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Applying material from Item A, analyze two ways that the hidden curriculum may help to

reproduce the social class structure.

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