Class differences in achievement - internal Flashcards
What is labelling in the context of education?
Teachers label students based on stereotyped assumptions.
Interactionist Becker found that students were judged on how closely they fit to being an ‘ideal pupil’.
How does labelling affect underachievement in secondary schools?
Teachers underestimate the potential of working-class students, leading to normalised underachievement.
Dunne & Gazeley argue that labels and assumptions of teachers contribute to this.
What did Rist find regarding labelling in primary schools?
Children are grouped based on home background and appearance, with higher aspirational students seated closer to the front.
Higher-level material is given to these students.
What is the self-fulfilling prophecy in education?
The process where a teacher’s label leads to corresponding treatment, which the pupil internalises.
This can lead to students fulfilling the expectations set by the teacher.
What did Rosenthal & Jacobson’s IQ test reveal?
Labeling 20% of students as ‘spurters’ led to significant improvement in their performance.
The belief in potential can have real effects, and lead to underachievement.
What is streaming in education?
Students are separated into different ability groups or ‘streams’.
Working-class students are more likely to be placed in lower streams, which are hard to leave.
What were Douglas’ findings regarding streaming?
Children placed in lower streams at age 8 experienced a decline in IQ scores by age 11.
What is the A-to-C economy?
A system where schools focus on students most likely to achieve good results to improve their league table rankings.
Gillborn & Youdell linked this to the policy of publishing exam league tables.
What is educational triage?
A process where students are categorised based on their potential to pass, often labelling working-class children as ‘hopeless cases’.
This leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy and subsequent failure.
What are Lacey’s concepts of differentiation and polarisation?
Differentiation is the categorisation of pupils based on perceived ability, while polarisation is the reaction to this categorisation and the movement of pupils to pro-school or anti-school subcultures.
These concepts explain how pupil subcultures develop.
What characterises a pro-school subculture?
Students in higher streams who are committed to school values and gain status in approved ways.
What characterises an anti-school subculture?
Students in lower streams with low self-esteem who invert school values and seek status among peers.
What did Hargreaves find regarding boys in lower streams?
They were labelled as ‘worthless louts’ and formed delinquent subcultures.
What was the impact of abolishing streaming according to Ball?
It reduced the basis for pupils to polarise into subcultures but did not eliminate differentiation.
What are the four pupil responses to streaming described by Woods?
- Ingratiation (teacher’s pet)
- Ritualism (fitting in, out of trouble)
- Retreatism (daydreaming, messing around)
- Rebellion (full rejection of school values)
What is a criticism of labelling theory?
It is accused of determinism, suggesting all students fulfill the prophecy of their label.
Fuller agrees and argues that this idea of fulfilment is not always true.
What do Marxists believe regarding labelling theory?
They argue it ignores the wider structure of power and does not explain why teachers label students.
What is habitus according to Bourdieu?
Learned ways of thinking, being, and acting shared by a social class, influenced by their position in the class structure.
What is symbolic capital?
The value gained by pupils socialised with middle-class values, which is recognised by the school.
What is symbolic violence?
The withholding of symbolic capital from lower classes, keeping them in a position of inferiority.
What did Archer find about working-class students and their identities?
They felt forced to change how they presented themselves to achieve educational success.
What are Nike identities?
Class identities constructed through symbolic violence, where students adopt styles for self-worth.
Styles may be gendered and contribute to rejection of higher education.
What did Ingram’s study reveal about working-class identity?
Having a working-class identity is inseparable from belonging to a working-class locality.
What pressure do working-class boys experience in school?
They feel tension between their working-class identity and the expectations of a middle-class school.
