Class and Attainment: In School

Question 1

Keddie

Answer 1

Labelling. 
Working class students are negatively labelled by teachers. This is because the ideal student is middle class- more like the teachers, and thus teachers see working class pupils as inferior and have lower expectations of them. For example, they put them in a lower set, where they don't learn as much and are not set the same amount of homework as the middle class pupils, who thus do better in school because they are receiving a better education.

Question 2

Ball

Answer 2

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
Teachers label working class pupils as less intelligent, and therefore have lower expectations for them. This results in a self-fulfilling prophecy, where, for example the working class students adopt their label as less intelligent, and don't work as hard, believing they are not capable. Thus, they have taken on their label, and do not attain high grades.

Question 3

Willis

Answer 3

From carrying out ethnographic research into school subcultures, he noted the ‘lads’ were an anti-school subculture that modeled themselves on their working class role models and were masculine and aggressive.

Question 4

Keddie Evaluation

Answer 4

Labelling theory fails to explain: why some students accept negative labels and others reject them, and where the negative label came from.

Question 5

Ball Evaluation

Answer 5

Not every label results in a self-fulfilling prophecy- he ignores an individual’s ability to resist their label.

Question 6

Willis Evaluation

Answer 6

This study is now outdated as working class communities are no longer this rigid and divided from the middle classes.