Social Class in the online classroom

Social class has always been seen as a tool for stratifying people into different groups, in which one benefits more than the other in terms of access to healthcare, education, political participation, etc. This also translates to the educational world, where according to Diane Raey (2006) “we are still educating different social classes for different functions in society.” Through this, social mobility and meritocracy become harder-achieving terms. This is also magnified in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, where one’s social class plays a significant role in how ‘hard’ one will be affected by this pandemic. Where the privilege of the upper classes is shown during the struggles of adapting to the restrictions of lockdown. This paper will consider the often unearned privilege of social class, and its impacts on education, especially in Covid times.

Social class refers to the stratification of social groups based on a similar position they hold in terms of the economic system of reproduction. Neo-Marxists literature would further regard social class in terms of its relation to profit and the means of production in which one differentiates between manual labour and non-manual. This of course reinforces the Marxist approach, established in the early 19th century, in which it mainly emphasizes on ownership of means of production as a pointer for a class-system. The Weberian approach, late 19th century, would regard social class in relation to one’s position in the market as well as their life chances, which can be explained as the attainment of education, wealth, and income.

Neo-Weberians would add that one’s authority also signifies one’s social class. Weber and Marx both acknowledge that one’s social class is determined by their relationship to economic assets as well as the life chances that result from the exchange of relations in the labour market. However, Marx emphasizes the exploitation by the ruling class that is inherent to the structures that keep on reproducing subordination and dominance. Whereas Weber stresses the importance of status and prestige that define one’s social class, in other words, it is not your relation to the means of production but your situation in the market that also defines your class. According to Bourdieu, in the 20th century, social class is strongly determined by the reproduction of one’s familial privilege in which one can achieve further on better symbolic and cultural capital. He, in comparison to the others, also emphasizes the significance of cultural possessions which with economic possessions signify your social class. The significance of one’s family does not escape Bourdieu as he adds that your family background and their social class also influence your social class greatly (Stubager, Tilley, Evans, Robison, & Harrits, 2018).

Research by Diane Raey (2017), on working-class children’s experiences of education, indicates that it is the income and inclination of parents that have the greatest impact on the educational performance of a child today, rather than the potential and efforts of the child. This research shows that society has been more unfair, and there is a far larger divide between rich and poor than there was even 30 years before. As austerity is often the direction governments follow in which it continues to target the poor as the gap continues to widen (Ferguson, 2017). Arneses (2017) supports the argument that inequalities seem to be augmenting, especially in the context of Norway, where disparity seems to be rising, with studies finding that the major winners are high-achieving middle-class students, relative to lower-achieving working-class and underprivileged students with fewer cultural resources. In the dynamic interplay of economic and cultural configurations, social status is shown to work. Arneses’ research shows that in the organisation of schools and pupils, social status has become a major marker of who is considered the 'normal' member of the standard class, who must compromise, and who is moved to separate provision. When students come into contact with the classroom, the disproportionality of special ed and projects of unengaged working-class pupils, especially working-class boys (both ethnic Norwegians and minority groups), results in their stigmatization. The effect of this ranges in different aspects from their choices in a program to the treatment they receive from the teachers. Zarifa, Kim, Seward and Walters (2018) found that low-socioeconomic status (SES) students have a higher chance of being affected by their social class in making direct and indirect decisions about their education. This also goes together if they receive any financial contribution from their families, which would result in having a higher chance to complete their degree at a faster pace.

Covid-19 disproportionately affects those from a lower-class to the extent that it has been called a poor man’s disease according to Plumper and Neumayer (2020). This translates also to the classrooms where their social class is significant in their educational experience and further on augments the need for adequate cultural competencies for the teachers when dealing with these exceptional situations. Plumper and Neumayer (2020) stress the unequal impact of the pandemic in terms of mortality rates and infection rates. Not only are those with a lower socioeconomic status more likely to be infected, but they are also hit with a higher chance of unemployment. This in return also reflects in the educational sphere of life in those families, where the ones who are hit the most are more affected. Di Pietro, Biagi, Costa, Karpiński and Mazza (2020) emphasize the disproportionate inequities within the home of those who are less advantaged. Where the switch to an online-learning platform is more likely to affect the vulnerable in terms of access to digital resources, having a sufficient learning environment at home, parental support, being able to afford private online tutoring, and their pace of adapting to this virtual learning environment. Whilst Reza (2020) also stresses the home environment of the pupil she also emphasizes the importance of the role of the teacher in these circumstances. She exemplifies this through the disparities of parental support at home in which children will further be more subjected to not having the same experiences as their peers from a different social class. This leads to a transition where there is more exposure to stressful home environments and less parental support. The need for cultural competence amongst educators is emphasized as parents from lower incomes are less likely to facilitate the same aid at home. This cultural competence is needed to have a better understanding of different home situations as well as a better transitional structure to distance learning platforms. The pandemic has only accelerated this movement further as socio-economic background can further encourage inequalities amongst pupils. The aspect for the need of cultural competencies during these hard times is more than ever required as these circumstances influence home environments differently in their coping with the changes.

The socio-economic position is still influential to what extent one experiences education and, in the case of the pandemic, to what extent one is able to adapt to the virtual learning platforms due to the pandemic. One’s position in society still influences one’s privilege in what way they will experience education and the abrupt transformation they have to go through.

References

Arnesen, A. L. (2017). Social class, inclusion and exclusion: Teacher and student practices in Norwegian urban education. In Second International Handbook of Urban Education (pp. 695-717). Springer, Cham.

Reay, D. (2006). The zombie stalking English schools: Social class and educational inequality. British journal of educational studies, 54(3), 288-307.

Ferguson, D. (2017, 27 november). ‘Working-class children get less of everything in education - including respect’. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/nov/21/english-class-system-shaped-in-schools

Stubager, R., Tilley, J., Evans, G., Robison, J., & Harrits, G. S. (2018). In the eye of the beholder: What determines how people sort others into social classes?. Social science research, 76, 132-143.

Di Pietro, G., Biagi, F., Costa, P., Karpiński, Z., & Mazza, J. (2020). The likely impact of COVID-19 on education: Reflections based on the existing literature and recent international datasets (Vol. 30275). Publications Office of the European Union.

Reza, F. (2020). COVID-19 and Disparities in Education: Collective Responsibility Can Address Inequities. Knowledge Cultures, 8(3), 68-75.

Plümper, T., & Neumayer, E. (2020). The pandemic predominantly hits poor neighbourhoods? SARS-CoV-2 infections and COVID-19 fatalities in German districts. European journal of public health, 30(6), 1176-1180.