why are those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds less likely to become politically engaged?

When we look at political engagement amongst different socioeconomic backgrounds we will tend to find that those who are from higher socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to become politically engaged when they move into adulthood. why is this?

Lets take a look at schooling as a factor to why those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may feel less inclined to become politically active. I myself come from a very proud working class background, and at school I was never taught about politics, voting or being politically engaged and how I would be able to accomplish this task. my political knowledge when I left school was extremely limited and only started to grow by going to university where those from middle class backgrounds and I would engage in political conversations, however I feel for many people from my background would not favour a university education, and so their political knowledge would stay limited as they would struggle to know where to find the knowledge or would not be interested in learning, as they do not feel that they would gain anything from containing this knowledge.

We can see that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to gain political knowledge from their schooling, we can see this as, “Middaugh (2008) found that in the US, disadvantaged youth had significantly less access to service learning opportunities and debates than students from more privileged groups.” this helps us to make an assumption that those students from working class backgrounds are less likely to become politically engaged, due to a lack of education about the political system compared to students who are from a middle class background. this I believe is further proved when looking at voter turnout in the 2019 election, where those aged 18-34 from the lowest socioeconomic background had a turnout rate off only 43% this is compared to 59% from the highest socioeconomic background for the same age. I believe that this shows how those from two different forms of teaching have had dramatically different experiences from school, as we can see how one group feel that it is their duty to vote compared to working class who haven’t had the knowledge to be able to make an informed decision on voting.

2019 voter turnout for 18-34 year olds by class courtesy of : https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2019-election

But why don’t working class students take in the knowledge for their own future, I feel that it is explained best by what Hoskins and Janmaat say that “Schools can further exacerbate these inequalities by providing learning opportunities from which middle-class children benefit more than working-class ones.” I believe that this again is why those from working class backgrounds wont get politically engaged, as if they cannot understand and comprehend what is being taught to them then eventually they are going to stop trying to learn which i feel is being done in schools, which will keep this class divide, especially through politics. But why do schools do this I hear you ask? It is I believe because most teachers come from a middle class background and so are trying to reproduce middle class individuals, however this in turn alienates those from working class backgrounds within school.

were you taught about politics at school?

Lets look at voter turn out, we can see from data that turnout for those who are skilled and unskilled in manual labour jobs, usually represented mainly by the working class population, have the lowest voter turn out. when looking at the image below we can see the voter turnout by class of the last three general election and the EU referendum. as you can see the two lowest turnouts across all four of the votes are the C2 and DE, the working class, with the lowest turn out being only 51% compared to 64% being the lowest turnout for the middle class over the last 4 elections.

voter turnout by social class for last three general elections and the EU referendum. Courtesy of: ipos accessed:https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2019-12/general-election-2019-poll-aggregate-v8.pdf

By looking at these graphs we can see how social class is a big contributing factor in to people voting however I feel that the easiest and best way that we can change this is through schools and educating young people especially those from low socioeconomic backgrounds about politics and actively engaging them and encouraging them to become politically engaged within society no matter how small. As Converse states “Having a high level of education is associated not with a higher capacity for searching for information and gaining political knowledge” I believe that this shows that if all students can attain the same level of education then no matter what socioeconomic background they are from they will be motivated to become politically engaged.

one final question do you feel that if you had a higher quality of education in school would you be more inclined to become politically engaged?

Bibliography

Castillio, J, et al, Mitigating the political participation gap from the school: the roles of civic knowledge and classroom climate, 2014, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2014.933199

Hoskins,B, Janmaat, J, Education, Democracy and Inequality : Political Engagement and Citizenship Education in Europe : Political Engagement and Citizenship Education in Europe, 2019, available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/roehampton-ebooks/reader.action?docID=5802349&ppg=81

2019 voter turnout for 18-34 year olds by class available at : https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2019-election

voter turnout by social class for last three general elections and the EU referendum. available at: ipos accessed:https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2019-12/general-election-2019-poll-aggregate-v8.pdf