cultural deprivation

cultural deprivation

the lack of appropriate cultural resources, e.g. language and knowledge. The concept has been used to account for the educational limitations of working-class and ethnic minority children. It was particularly influential in the late 1960s and early 1970s, both in the US and the UK. The Headstart Project in the former and the Educational Priority Area Project in the latter were designed to compensate working-class children for lack of parental interest, the failings of home and neighbourhood, and the inadequate provision of appropriate cultural experience. This deficit theory of educational failure has been heavily criticized because it suggests personal inadequacy. Some sociologists believe that the issue is one of cultural difference: the idea that the school incorporates social values and ideas of social knowledge which are distinct from those held by members of the working class.