A new study found that social class largely influences how children tackle and deal with problems they face in the classroom.
Social differences can also create inequality in the classroom and affect a child's education, according to researchers from IU Bloomington's Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences.
"Parents have different beliefs on how to deal with challenges in the classroom," said Jessica McCrory Calarco, lead author of the study. "Middle-class parents tell their children to reach out to the teacher and ask questions. Working-class parents see asking for help as disrespectful to teachers, so they teach their children to work out problems themselves."
For the study, researchers examined the students of four classrooms in a public school from third grade through fifth grade. To isolate differences based on social class alone, analysts only collected interviews from Caucasian students and families, in addition to their teachers.
Researchers noted that middle-class children get more attention from their instructors because they actively seek it, while working-class children tend to stay silent through their educational struggles so as not to be a bother. Calarco said the differences in how parents teach their children to deal with problems in school stem primarily from the parents' level of involvement in their children's schooling.
"Middle-class parents are more plugged into the school, so they know what teachers expect in the classroom. Working-class parents don't think it's their place to be involved, so they tend to be less aware of what teachers expect today," Calarco said. "Schools can step in to alleviate these differences in kids' willingness to seek help. Teachers need to be aware of social class differences that students are bringing with them into the classroom. They need to be more active in seeking out struggling students, because if we leave it up to the kids, they may not seek it themselves."
Findings of the study will be published online in the October issue of the American Sociological Review.
