CHAPTER 3: CLASS

AND SOCIOECONOMIC
STATUS
Multicultural Education (MCE)
Prepared by: Quijada, James C. BSED
Science 3D
Instructor: Mrs. Joriza Lou I. Trillanes
What does the picture signify?
 CLASS DIFFERENCES
• The Unemployed and Homeless
• The Working Class
• The Middle Class
• The Upper Middle Class
• The Upper Class
1. The Unemployed and Homeless
1. The Unemployed and Homeless
• The portion of the population who suffers
the most from lack of a stable income or
other economic resources.
• The long-term poor fall into this group, but
most other are temporarily at this level,
moving in and out of poverty as they work
off and on at low wages.
1. The Unemployed and Homeless
• Families and people in poverty have been
socially isolated from the dominant society.
• They usually are not integrated into, or
welcome in, the communities of the other
classes.
• In the Philippine history, these people are
called “Aliping Namamahay” and “Aliping
Sagigilid”.
2. The Working Class
 2. The Working Class
• The occupations pursued by the working
class are those that require manual work,
for which income varies widely, depending
on the skill required in the specific job.
• A factor that is important in defining the
working class is the subordination of
members to the capitalist control of
production.
 2. The Working Class
• These workers do not have control of their
work. They do not give orders; they take
orders from others.
• Blue-collared workers engaged primarily on
manual work that is routine and
mechanical. They are hard workers who are
performing important work for society.
Example of working class are those
construction workers, jeepney drivers, etc.
3. The Middle Class
 3. The Middle Class
• The middle class includes members of the
working class, managers, and professionals
who do not see themselves as either poor
or rich.
• The jobs held by the middle class vary
greatly, especially an income compensation.
Commonly, middle class are those who
belong to the white-collared workers, who
have stable jobs.
 3. The Middle Class
• Examples of middles class are businessmen
with small to medium-sized enterprises and
self-employed professionals.
• As a group, white-collar workers have
greater job security and better fringe
benefits than many blue-collared workers.
• Overall, middle class workers earn a median
income above than most of the blue-
collared workers in the working class.
4. The Upper Middle Class
 4. The Upper Middle Class
• The upper middle class are the affluent
members of the middle class.
• Professionals, managers, and administrators
are the elite of the middle class. Their
income level allows them to lead lives that
are, in many cases, quite different from
those of white-collar and blue-collar
workers.
 4. The Upper Middle Class
• The professionals who best fit in this
category are those who must earn
professional or advanced degrees and
credentials to practice their professions.
Judges, lawyers, architects, physicians,
pilots, college professors, computer
programmers, and scientists are example of
these professionals.
 4. The Upper Middle Class
• This group also include managers and
administrators, successful executives and
business people, a very diverse groups that
includes CEOs’ of companies, presidents of
colleges, and owners of local businesses.
Those who are the most affluent make up
the middle and upper management
positions in financing, marketing, and
production.
5. The Upper Class
 5. The Upper Class
• High income, power and wealth are
necessary characteristics for entering the
upper class, as well as being accepted by
those who are already members.
• The income level of this class is composed
of two groups. One group includes the
individuals and families who control great
inherited wealth, the other group are top-
levels administrators and professionals.
 5. The Upper Class
• The upper class includes individuals with
top-level, highly paid positions in large
banks, entertainment companies, global
business empires and industrial
corporations. It also includes those who
serves as primary advisors to CEO’s and
government leaders—for example,
corporate lawyers. With their wealth and
income, ensures power.
The population is often divided into classes
based on income and occupation. Individual
choice is most limited for those who are in
poverty, the unemployed and homeless who
can barely meet essential needs.
The working class and middles class are
distinguished by the type of work their
members do. The affluent in the society are
the upper middle class of professionals and
administrators who have many advantages
but not as many as the members of the upper
class, who protect their power and privileges.
ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
 ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
1. Racial and Ethnic Inequality
2. Gender Inequality
3. Age Inequality
1. Racial and Ethnic Inequality
Although equality is an important value,
some differences in income among workers
is expected. Income differences among
groups should be minimal in a society that
values equality. However, income
differences between whites and persons of
color and ethnicity and between men and
women, continue to exist, regardless of
their educational level.
1. Racial and Ethnic Inequality
The historical experiences of ethnic groups
have had a great impact on their gains on
socioeconomic status. Mexican-Americans
are highly overrepresented as farm
labourers, one of the lowest-status
occupations. Many American-Indians have
been isolated on reservations, away from
most occupations except those lowest in
prestige, and the numbers of such positions
are limited.
1. Racial and Ethnic Inequality
Asian-Americans, who as a group have a
high educational level and relatively high in
socio-economic status, often reach middle-
management positions but then faced a
glass-ceiling that prevents them from
moving into upper-management.
1. Racial and Ethnic Inequality
 2. Gender Inequality
As a group, women earn less and more
likely to suffer from poverty than any other
group, with women of color suffering the
greatest oppression. The origins of such
inequality, however, are very different from
any inequality based on race and ethnicity.
Women, especially those who are the heads
of the households, are more likely than men
to fall below the poverty level.
 2. Gender Inequality
Institutional discrimination based on gender
began in a patriarchal society in which
women were assigned to the traditional
roles of mother and wife and, if they had to
work outside the home, to jobs in which
subordination was expected. This status has
limited their job opportunities and has kept
their wages lower than those of men.
2. Gender Inequality
 3. Age Inequality
Both women and men earn their maximum
income between ages 45 and 54. The
median income of people 14-19 years old
(18-21 for some) is lower for any other
group, primarily because most of them are
just beginning to enter the workforce at the
end of this period, and some may not enter
for several more years, especially if they
attend college.
 3. Age Inequality
Income then increases steadily for most
people until they reach 55 years of age. The
income of women remains fairly constant
throughout much of their working lives,
whereas the income for a large percentage
of men increases dramatically during their
lifetimes. The highest incidence of poverty
occurs for young people, as their class
status depends on their families/parents.
3. Age Inequality
According to a certain study, the
populations that are most likely to
suffer from income inequality are
persons of color, children, and single
mothers with children. Forty percent of
the population are low income or near
poor, struggling to meet their basic
needs from week to week.
 TEACHING FOR EQUALITY
• Many social reformers, educators and
parents view education as a powerful
device for achieving social change and
reducing poverty. From the beginning of
the public school movement in the early
nineteenth century, low incomes and
immorality were believed to result from
inadequate education.
TEACHING FOR EQUALITY

EDUCATION
 TEACHING FOR EQUALITY
• Different sociohistorical interpretations of
education are presented to explain the
role of schools in society and the degree to
which this goal and other are being met.
1. In one view, schools are an agent of social
reform that can improve the chances of
economic success for their graduates.
 TEACHING FOR EQUALITY
2. The second view pose that schools exist
as an gent of a larger social, economic, and
political context, with the goal of inculcating
the values necessary to maintain the
current socioeconomic and political
systems.
Rather than provide equal education
opportunity, many schools perpetuate
existing social and economic inequities in
society.
 TEACHING FOR EQUALITY
1. Teaching Expectations
2. Tracking
3. Curriculum for Equality
4. School Funding
 1. Teaching Expectations
• Ethnographic studies of schools document
how students are classified, segregated,
and taught differently, starting with their
first days in school. Most teachers can
identify the characteristics of students that
will lead to their academic success.
 1. Teaching Expectations
• They then develop instruction and
interactions with their students to ensure
that the students will, in fact, behave as
the teachers expect—a phenomenon
called the self-fulfilling prophecy , or
Pygmalion effect.
1. Teaching Expectations

The Pygmalion Effect

 1. Teaching Expectations
• When teachers make such judgements
about students, they are taking the first
step in preventing students from having an
equal opportunity for academic
achievement. Hence, this action does not
congruent with the democratic belief that
all students should be provided equal
educational opportunities.
 1. Teaching Expectations
• All students can learn , including those in
the lower-ability group; they can learn at
the same level as many other students
with the assistance of effective teachers.
• In helping to overcome the stigma of
poverty, educators must consciously
review their expectations for students.
Students’ feeling of low self-esteem should
not be reinforced by teachers.
 1. Teaching Expectations
• Seeing students as individual rather than
as members of specific socioeconomic
group may assist educators in overcoming
the classism that exists in the school and
the community.
• Educators should become aware of any
prejudices they, themselves hold against
members of lower socioeconomic groups
and work to overcome their biases.
2. Tracking
 2. Tracking
• Tracking students into different groups or
classes based on their intellectual abilities
is a common educational practice.
Teachers divide the class into smaller
groups for instructional purposes, with
heterogeneous make up o boys and girls,
from different ethnic groups and with high
or low achievers. These group could help
each other.
3. Curriculum for Equality
 3. Curriculum for Equality
Helping student achieve academically in
schools that serve students from low-income
families requires competent educators who
know the subjects they are teaching as well
as believe that all students can learn.
Equality in student achievement could be
increased by raising the level of instructional
content and instructional discourse in all
course at all levels.
 3. Curriculum for Equality
• Achievement is improved when teachers
help students interact with the academic
content through discussion and
authenticity—relating the content to
students’ prior experiences and real-world
applications.
• Students need to see some of their own
cultural experiences reflected in the
curriculum.
4. School Funding
 4. School Funding
• Education is financed by local, state, and
federal sources of government.
• Some researchers suggest that higher per-
pupil or students expenditures, better
teacher salaries, more educated and
experienced teachers, and smaller class
and school sizes are strongly related to
improved student learning.
 4. School Funding
• It is safe to say that, it is agreeable that
more money would help reduce the
inequalities across groups in schools and
that greater resources are needed in low-
wealth school districts to supply materials
and facilities for better learning
Disproportionately large numbers of
students from lower socioeconomic
status levels are tracked in low-ability
groups in their early school years.
Educators should consciously review
their expectations for students and their
behavior toward students from different
socioeconomic status levels to ensure
that they are not discriminating.