White working class young people are disadvantaged by ‘neighbourhood effects’

But the White families, nothing binds them, some are cousins I suppose but they are not seeking anybody out, I can’t think of anything that would bind them together (Demie and Lewis 2010)

In the Caribbean community there is an ethos of hard work, with Church and music providing a strong focal point for families. Whereas the White I probably have nothing but the pub…there is no pride in the White community, no strong sense of a cultural identity. (Demie and Lewis 2010)

There has been on-going debate about whether neighbourhood disadvantages have an adverse effect on educational achievement. A number of area based policy initiatives were implemented in the recent past which were based on the assumption that this was indeed the case: Health, Education and Employment Action Zones, Excellence in Cities, Sure Start and New Deal for Communities. Also in recognition of this, it has been argued that “both school-level and wider interventions are needed to close the gap in educational attainment” (Lupton 2003).

In explaining how the ‘neighbourhood effect’ works, Ainsworth (2002) has pointed to collective socialisation as a process which has by far the most significant impact on young people. Children living in advantaged areas are more likely to have modelled for them value for education, adherence to school norms and hard work. On the other hand in neighbourhoods (and families) where many adults do not work life can become “incoherent” for young people because what they see in their community outside of school does not complement what school may talk about in terms of values such as ‘work for a living’ or hard work leading to success. Instead, the ‘oppositional’ nature of the messages they get in the outside world may actually undermine what the school says.

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