Academic Paper

Brian Okoye

Professor: Megan Keaton

English 1103

8 April 2013

Previous studies show that “children’s social-class backgrounds and parental involvement affect when and how they seek help in the classroom (Calarco, 2011; Lareau, 2000).” Based on my own research, I have concluded that students’ class backgrounds equip them with different micro-interactional resources (e.g., propensities and strategies) for meeting teachers’ expectations in the classroom (Lareau 2000; Lareau and Weininger 2003). Furthermore, “teachers ask for parent involvement and social class has a powerful influence on parent involvement patterns (Lareau 2000).” In addition, “Inequalities arise from class differences in the material resources that families can invest in children (Bachmann and Dip rete 2006; Duncan et al. 1998; Kalian 1994; McLeod and Shanahan 1993; Sirin 2005; Teachman 1987) and the quality of schools that children attend (Hedges and Rowley 1994; Kahlenberg 2003; Lee and Burkam 2002; Rumberger and Palardy 2005).” In some schools, middle-class and working class students receive different resources and opportunities.

Middle-class children are more proactive in the classroom when making request for help forcing teachers’ to be more responsive towards them. They tend to be more proactive in the classroom when making request for help because they bring to the classroom the resources needed to meet teachers’ expectations. Since they have the proper resources needed to meet teachers’ expectations, middle-class children request more help from teachers using different help-seeking strategies. I found it intriguing that the extents to which these help-seeking strategies actually work in the favor of middle-class children coincide with the availability of their resources in the classroom. Since their resources needed to meet teachers’ expectations are automatically available for them, they neglect waiting for assistance and approach their teacher directly, sometimes being interruptive. In result, middle-class children spend less time waiting and are in a better position to complete their assignments. Those who generally asked for help continued until they were satisfied. These help-seeking strategies used by middle-class children puts them at an advantage over their working-class peers and in result these advantageous help-seeking strategies then become forms of “cultural-capital that can be used to produce meaningful situational advantages (Bourdieu 1977, 1985).” This cultural-capital included completing work quickly and correctly and deepening their understanding of key concepts. Middle-class students’ help seeking efforts allow them to appear as smart.

“Middle-class parents have a tendency to be more proactive in parent-teacher interactions than do lower-class parents (Lareau 2000).” Parents in the middle-class consistently take more active roles in school than do working-class parents when considering verbal development, attending school events and reading to children. In addition, middle-class parents generally bring their work into their family’s life, allowing themselves to be available at home. In result, middle-class parents’ spend more time with their children reading to them and helping them with their homework assignments. Middle-class parents’ are also very close to other middle-class parents who have children that attend the same school. In result, middle-class parents’ have more resources and references when they are indeed or information dealing with their child’s schooling. Furthermore, most middle-class parents’ only work one job during the day, enabling them to be a part of their child is after school events. When teachers’ see how involved their student’s parents are outside of school, they can easily build a relationship with that student which often carries over to the relationship they have with that student in the classroom. Middle-class parents’ frequently intervene and attempt to take a leadership role in their children’s schooling.

Working-class students are less assertive in the classroom due to their lack of resources. Their limited facility with help seeking prevents them getting the help they need to complete assignments and activities quickly and correctly. Without the proper resources needed to meet teachers’ expectations in their possession, work-class students miss the instructions of the assignment given by the teacher. They often refrain from asking their teacher for help because they rarely admit that they are struggling, so they sometimes attempt to do it on their own. This gives working-class students less time to complete their assignments. Moreover, working-class students avoid seeking help in situations where middle-class students consistently do so, especially situations dealing with physical objects and in class assignments. Working-class students’ help seeking efforts risked them being seen as uninvolved.

Social class has a powerful influence on life changes because it influences the values that parents hold and pass on to their children. Working-class parents tend to separate their work life with their family life. A lot of them are single working-class parents whom at the end of their shift, they may have another job to attend to in order to provide for their family. It is then up to their child to complete their homework on their own. In reality, they are unable to do because they refrained themselves from asking their teacher for help in class that day. Most working-class parents are unaware of or do not believe afterschool programs. Therefore, they do not intervene in their children’s school programs. These programs have the ability to make up for the material missed by the student in the classroom. Working-class parents’ seek little information about their children’s curriculum or educational process, and the little time that they spend reading to their child and teaching them new words, these approaches are less than the teachers’ expectations. Working-class parents’ lack the skills and the confidence to help their children in school.

                                                                      References

Calarco, J.  (2011). "'I Need Help!' Social Class and Children's Help-Seeking in Elementary School," American Sociological Review 76, no. 6: 862-882.

Lareau, A. (2000). Home advantage: Social class and parental intervention in elementary education. Rowman & Littlefield Pub Incorporated. Book.