Name: Carys Arnold

Student number: 10090797

The impact low Socio-Economic Status (SES) has on children is a profound and self-

perpetuating cycle. With low SES schools holding little enticement for the best and most

qualified teachers, disadvantaged students are “denied equal opportunities to learn because

they have less access to qualified teachers and material resources than advantaged students”

(Cobbold, 2017). The lack of quality schooling combined with the social discourse

surrounding Greater Western Sydney, particularly the area between Blacktown and Penrith,

and the negativity it espouses adds to the barrier children face when trying to break free from

the mould. Education is seen as a commodity in Australian society, therefore the best

education is reserved for the wealthy. With Western Sydney high schools littering the lower

end of the 2017 HSC School ranking (bettereducation.com.au), more thought must be given

to the inequalities faced by those who cannot afford a branded education. Bourdieu’s theory

of habitus will be examined to show the impact social culture can have on a child. The

Capitalist theory behind the separation of social classes and social repression of the lower

classes will also be discussed. The issues at the heart of this essay are how social class

influences ability to learn, and how low SES families are disadvantaged because of the

commodification of schooling.

One of the biggest social constructs surrounding Greater Western Sydney is the lack of

‘correct’ culture it is perceived to give to people. While multiculturalism is a ‘valuable’ trait

in modern Australian society, and some parents may be inclined to send their child to a

school that draws on the culture of its students as a learning tool for all (Ferfolja, Diaz and

Ullmans, 2016), in reality, the Blacktown and Penrith areas are as richly diverse as any other

part of Sydney, and it is the fact that it is overwhelmingly working-class (Australian Census,

2016) that makes it a social pariah. “[R]esearch indicates that unless more powerful people

have the experience of lower-status people “legitimized” to them in some way, they will …

continue to peculiarize the identities of the less powerful” (McIntosh, 2012). What this means
 Name: Carys Arnold
Student number: 10090797

is that teachers in low SES schools must reflect on their own perceptions of class, to be able

to consider ways low SES children can be best included in their own education. The biggest

takeaway of Ferfolja et al and McIntosh’s commentary on privilege is that social class

distinction is very much alive and kicking in today’s society and has a negative effect on

those at the lower end.

The concept of Habitus as described by Bordieu asserts that the family environment and past

school experiences greatly contributes to a student’s perception of schooling. As a teacher

can have very little effect on a child’s home life, the focus must be on changing the

perceptions around school and how the child and their family sees education. Is such a

cultural change even possible in Australia’s capitalist society where “education [has] become

a commodity rather than a social good, and parents [are] encouraged to … seek out advantage

by ‘purchasing schooling’” (Ferfolja et al, 2016, p170)? Habitus also shows that children

from wealthy backgrounds have an advantage simply because their social class places a

higher value on the cultural capitals they already possess. Bordieu’s conception that wealth is

not just economic, but also cultural and symbolic (Bourdieu, 1986) may have a bigger impact

on the lives of low SES children than educators realise. The home environment is a strong

factor in the success of a child at school. As a well-educated middle-class person may

encourage their child to study, or enrol them in extracurricular tutoring, a working-class

parent may not have the means to offer their child extracurricular tutelage. Often, they do not

place the same importance on education outside of the school environment. “[P]arents expect

their childrens’ development to progress in a natural way, if provided with the basic

necessities,” (Ferfolja et al, 2016, p 165) but these necessities are provided differently to

children of different socio-economic backgrounds both inside and outside the classroom.

Entwisle, Alexander and Olsen (2005, p 1488) state that during the school year, children from

low and high SES backgrounds tend to progress through the curriculum at a similar rate.
 Name: Carys Arnold
Student number: 10090797

Entwisle et al surmise that it is the richer home environment that gives middle and upper-

class children an advantage as they are encountering more extracurricular stimulations such

as visiting museums or cultural centres with their family, and are more likely to have learning

tools like computers and books available at home (Howard, Dresser & Dunklee, 2015). It is

therefore the duty of a teacher in a low SES school to create a rich learning environment

inside (and where possible, outside) the classroom in order to replicate the extra-curricular

activities that the upper classes receive through their social privilege. A teacher aware of the

social class limitations of their students is a teacher that can prepare lesson plans in such a

way as to fully engage low SES students.

Place based education, or the intertwining of self-identity and community with education, has

long been shown to be an important part of engaging students with their curriculum. This is

strongly referenced in Shaun’s Story (Reay, 2002), the study of a boy of very low SES in the

United Kingdom. Shaun, living in a ‘sink estate’ and relegated to a school with a poor

reputation even within his own social class, is interesting when viewed as a parallel to

children of low SES within Greater Western Sydney. For all Shaun’s aspirations to attend a

school with a reputation for both academic results and the self-discipline of the students who

attend it, his lack of social connections and his address determines that he must attend the

very school he wishes to avoid. Despite wanting to succeed academically, Shaun struggles to

find the relevance of the curriculum to his life. While Reay criticizes the UK government for

not including relevant education for the working-class students (Reay, 2002), initiatives such

as the Australian Government’s vocational education and training (VET) program, where

students can learn about specific industries and gain experience as part of their secondary

education may have a positive effect on students struggling to see any value in their

curriculum. While that is certainly what programs like VET may be trying to accomplish, this

may be simply playing into the hands that hold the capitalist strings, rather than offering an
 Name: Carys Arnold
Student number: 10090797

opportunity for students to extend themselves. There must be another way for students who

may not even realise they are capable of more.

Do low SES students need more support within the curriculum to achieve greater success?

How then, are the schools in these low SES areas to provide the right teaching styles within

the curriculum to suit their students? How, most of all, are low SES schools to encourage

their students to break free from the fetters and restrictions of their social class, and what

incentive is there to do so? Levitas proclaims;

“If socio-economic status is an ascriptive factor then the modes of socialisation

and its agencies will be such as to create a high expectation from the children of

all social classes that they will acquire roles corresponding to their social status of

origin. (Levitas, 2011 p167)

The days are long gone when the social class a child was born into preordained the life the

child would have. Lords and serfs have faded into history. Why then, in 2018, are children

still following the paths of their parents? The separation of the social classes and the

dominant social discourse around Greater Western Sydney must be examined to understand

the implications of low SES on a child’s opportunities through education. The Capitalist

perspective on education is that the system inherently reproduces and legitimises social class

division and that by doing so, is ideal for the capitalist elite (Levitas, 2011). In other words,

for big businesses to make profits for key players – executive-level staff and stakeholders,

they are dependent on a working class to do the unskilled manual labour. Capitalist society

can only run if social classes are kept apart. The commoditisation of education has a huge

effect on the ability of low SES people to attain it, and therefore, affects their ability to move

between classes.
 Name: Carys Arnold
Student number: 10090797

In Australia, a pattern has emerged showing that education is no longer a social good, but has

become something like the stock market and “parents were being encouraged to exercise

choice and seek out advantage by ‘purchasing schooling’” (Feijoa et al, 2016). With private

school fees often starting from several thousand dollars per year (privateschoolsguide.com), it

is simply outside the scope of families with low SES to be able to afford such luxuries. While

it has been argued that “underprivileged children … benefit from private or autonomous

school choice” (Sahlgren, 2014), the issue is that often, low SES children do not have a

choice at all. They are bound by their address to attend schools within their area, and limited

to public schooling on the basis of their parents income. Parents of middle and higher SES

can “access information, do the social calculations, and utilise the social networks around the

operation of schooling to get the ‘best deal’ for their offspring, while others simply miss out

because they do not know how ‘to work the system’” (Smyth, 2014). In recent years there has

also been a push towards using electronic devices to assist with students learning. The NSW

government funded an initiative in 2012 to give secondary school children a laptop computer

as part of the Digital Education Revolution (DER), but the program was ended in 2014

(Smith, 2014) and students are now expected to bring their own device to school under the

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. This will have a huge effect on the low SES child’s

ability to learn at the same rate as students of higher SES. Low SES students may be forced

to use old or outdated devices, while others may not have access to one at all. The

government’s assertion that even some children binging their own devices will take pressure

off the school bank of resources, however, this is not taking into account the fact that these

schools may already have stretched their budgets thin on extracurricular activities designed to

bring low SES students up to the educational equity of middle class children, such as

breakfast clubs, extra tutoring, or excursions.

 Name: Carys Arnold
Student number: 10090797

“The continued failure to critically educate and to creatively stimulate working-class students

is little short of criminal, and, at the very least, morally indefensible.” Reay (2003). They

have no choice and no options other than to attend their local high school. Therefore, as

educators, and a government purporting to follow a neoliberalist approach where there is an

equal opportunity for all regardless of their social class, the highest priority must be given to

low SES schools. The child’s habitus needs to change. More funding, more incentives for

teachers, more community/school outreach programs. Teachers in low SES schools must

reflect on their own perceptions of class to be able to consider ways low SES children should

be included in education. Teachers must engage low SES students in their learning and

encourage them to reach for more than society expects from them. Students must be

empowered to take control of their learning in ways that suit them best, whether through rich

and creative education, through programs like VET, or through extraordinary teachers

leading by example and showing children they can and should be respected because of their

potential to make their own life choices. Most importantly we much encourage children not

to doggedly follow cultural tropes about social class and focus on giving them the tools they

need to transcend it. Perhaps Bernstein said it best;

We must ensure that the material conditions of the schools we offer, their values,

social organization, forms of control and pedagogy, the skills and sensitivities of

the teachers are refracted through an understanding of the culture the children

bring to the school. After all, we do no less for the middle-class child. (Bernstein,

2003, p. 117-118)

Word count: 2014.

 Name: Carys Arnold
Student number: 10090797

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