1.1.1 Education: Class Differences in Achievement Flashcards
Internal Factors: Labelling
Internal Factors: Labelling
- Schools consistenly produce working class underachievement, due to the assumptions and expectations of the teachers.
- Found that teachers normalised wc underachievement so treated them differently, challenging them less and entering them into easier exams.
Internal Factors: Labelling
What were the findings ofHempel-Jorgensen’s more recent study of two schools.
- IN the lower class school, the ideal pupil was defined by behaviour and obedience.
- IN the middle class school, the ideal pupil was defined by ability and achievements.
- In the lower class school, behaviour was more of a problem then in the middle class school.
Internal Factors: Labelling
Describe Becker’s study of labelling
Interractionist study of labelling
Interviewed 60 high shcool teachers on what they believed was the ‘ideal pupil’
Pupil’s work, conduct, and appearance were key factors
Middle class students were closest to the described ideal pupil whereas lower class students were furthest.
Internal Factors: Labelling
What do interactionist sociologists focus on?
small-scale, face-to-face interactions between individuals.
Internal Factors: Pupil’s class identities and the school
How does Archer define Nike identities? And how does she explain those with nike identities view higher education?
Creates a positive expression of preference for a certain lifestyle.
Viewed higher education as ‘unrealistic’ and ‘undesirable’
* Unrealistic - not for ‘people like us’
* Undesirable - doesn’t fit preferred lifestyle.
Internal Factors: Pupil’s class identities and the school
What are ‘nike identities’?
- Working class pupils seeked to create their own symbollic capital and status.
- They did this through creating ‘styles’ and investing in brands such as nike.
- Heavily gendered with hyper-femininity.
- Styles were policed by peer group.
- Often clashed with school dress code and contributed to labels.
Internal Factors: Pupil’s class identities and the school
What is Bourdieu’s ‘symbollic violence’?
- defining the working class and their tastes and values as inferior.
- Reproduces class structure and keeps lower class ‘in their place’.
Internal Factors: Pupil’s class identities and the school
What is Bourdieu’s ‘habitus’?
- The dispositions, or learned ways of thinking and acting, shared by a social class.
- Includes preferences and outlook on life.
- Links to Bourdieu’s ‘cultural capital’.
Internal Factors: Streaming
How does Gillborn and Youdel argue that the A to C economy turns into an ‘educational triage’?
The authors argue that the A-to-C economy produces educational triage. Schoolscategorise pupils into three types:
- Those who will pass anyway and can be left to get on with it.
- Those with potential, who will be helped to get a grade C or better.
- Hopeless cases, who are doomed to fail.
These categories are given based on class assumptions.
Internal Factors: Streaming
What is Gillborn and Youdell’s ‘A to C economy’
Where teachers put most effort into those students expected to get high grades to get good statistics in exam league tables, further developing the gap between streamed students.
Internal Factors: Streaming
What is the self fulfilling prophecy?
- Students are placed in streams based on the teacher’s expectations of them.
- For lower class students, this is in lower streams. Difficult to move up streams so pupils ‘get the message’ that they are ‘no hopers’ and then live up to their teachers low expectations of them.
- For middle class students, they are set in high streams which boosts confidence, causing them to work harder and achieve well.
Internal Factors: Streaming
What is streaming?
- Where students are placed in ability groups across all subjects and are taught differently.
- Studies show that the self-fulfilling prophecy is most likely to occur when students are streamed.
Internal Factors: Pupil subcultures
What are some criticisms of labelling theory?
- Accused of ‘determinism’ - assumes that those labelled have no choice but to fulfill their prophecy, which isn’t necessarily true.
- Marxists criticise labelling theorists for ignoring the wider structures of power in play
- Theory blames teachers for labelling students but doesn’t explain why they do this.
Internal Factors: Pupil subcultures
What are Wood’s four reactions to labelling and streaming?
- Ingratiation: Being the teache’s pet
- Ritualism: Going through the motions and staying out of trouble.
- Retreatism: Daydreaming and mucking about.
- Rebellion: Outright rejection of everything the school stands for.
Internal Factors: Pupil subcultures
What were the findings of Ball’s study of a school?
- Ball studied a school which abolished streaming.
- She found that the influence of the anti-school subculture declined
- However, teachers remained labelling pupils subconciously which led to a difference in exam results remaining.
Internal Factors: Pupil subcultures
What is an anti-school subculture? (and what theorist)
- Lacey
- Those placed in low streams (usually lower class) and suffer a loss of self esteem
- They are given an inferior status within education so turn to alternative methods of gaining status, inverting school values.
Internal Factors: Pupil subcultures
What is a pro school subculture? (And which theorist?)
- Lacey
- Pupils placed in high streams (largely middle class) who remain committed to the values of education (punctuality, obedience) and get validation through acedemic success.
