Can your educational potential be determined by your social identity?

This is the question that came to me while reading into the area of sociolinguistics is: Is it possible or even correct to assume that a person's potential to use language is both dependent upon and hindered by their social identity? Basically: are the two areas intrinsically linked?

Bernstein certainly thinks so, specifically in terms of language, social identity and education. His theory states that "different social structures may generate different systems or linguistic codes"(remember the term) and also that "As a child learns his speech...he learns the requirements of his social structure... The social structure becomes the substratum of his experience". He insists that every time a child speaks or listens, the social structure of which he is part of is reinforced and his social identity constrained.

How does this relate to education you may ask? The codes mentioned above are the terms Bernstein came up with to describe the two types of language use. The first being the restricted code and the second: elaborated code. Bernstein maintains that while middle class children have access to both codes, their working class counterparts only have command of one: The restricted. However these terms can be rather misleading as restricted doesn't by any means mean restricted vocabulary, as similarly elaborated doesn't mean more. The terms are defined by the uses they both have. Now you may be thinking was he just being classist? Have we not been here before? On the contrary Bernstein insisted that "one code was not better than the other; each posses its own aesthetic, its own possibilities". Let's set the first scenario. A father is reading his newspaper and he says to his family "Cameron's at it again." (Restricted) The second is notably different, "I see from the newspaper I am reading that David Cameron, leader of the Conservatives, is once again trying to attack the government from a position of right-wing populism as we discussed a couple of days ago.(Elaborated)". The difference being that while one is dependent upon shared experience (restricted), the other can stand by its self (elaborated). Bernstein stated that while middle class children have command of both and can switch between the two; working class children only use one, meaning that when transferred into an academic institution in which elaborated code is necessary they cannot achieve the same success in essay based subjects. This was supported by the fact that said children, achieved the same or higher results in math based subjects as their middle class counterparts.

The big question is.. if he is right. If a child's ability to succeed in school is dependent upon his/her social identity and if we are to assume that both codes have their Advantages and are by nature equal. Then... is it time for Educational institutions to change? Or will the children have to conform to the standard set?

Jo Barrett