Education - internal factors

Question 1

What is meant by labelling? What is the basis from which teachers label students?

Answer 1

Labelling is to attach a meaning or definition to someone. Basis of stereotyped assumptions like class background. W/C = - and M/C = +

Question 2

Who are interactionists?

Answer 2

study small scale, face to face interactions in the classroom or playground. How people label each other and the effects it has on those who are labelled.

Question 3

Give an example of an interactionist. What did they suggest?

Answer 3

Howard Becker - interviewed 60 high school chicago teachers and gound that teachers judged pupils based on how close they were to being the ideal pupil. Pupil’s work, conduct, and appearance were key factors. W/C pupils further from ideal while M/C closest.

Question 4

Who is Amelia Hempel Jorgensen?

Answer 4

ASPEN PRIMARY - largely W/C - discipline was the problem. Judged based on behaviour and not abilities. Quiet, passive, and obedient.
ROWAN PRIMARY - largely M/C - personality/ability - discipline not a problem

Question 5

What is meant by Nike identities?

Answer 5

pupils conscious on school looking down on them. Symbolic violence - self worth, status, value. They did constructing class identities for investing heavily in styles like NIKE.

Question 6

What is meant by differentiation?

Answer 6

teachers categorise pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude, or behaviour. E.g. streaming since categorises pupils into separate classes. Schools place ‘more able’ - high streams and less able = inferior status.

Question 7

What is polarisation?

Answer 7

the process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving to one of opposite extremes. pro school and anti school subcultures.

Question 8

What are the characteristics of pro school subcultures?

Answer 8

those placed in high streams committed to values of the school. status gained through approved manner = academic success. highly middle class

Question 9

What are the characteristics of anti school sub cultures?

Answer 9

those in low streams= W/C
loss of self esteem, school undermined their self worth by placing them in inferior status. Find alternative ways of gaining status such as inverting the school’s values of hard work, obedience, and punctuality e.g. not doing homework. Status among peers.

Question 10

Why did pupils wear brands?

Answer 10

without them they would feel inauthentic, strongly gendered for example girls adopted hyper hetero sexual style, style perfomances were heavily policed by peer groups and not conforming was seen as social suicide. This gave them symoblic capital, approval from peer groups and safety from bullying.

Question 11

What were the downsides of wearing brands like Nike?

Answer 11

conflict with school dress code which reflected school’s middle class habitus, teachers suggested street styles showed bad taste and were a threat. Those who Adopted street styles were labelled as rebels

Question 12

What does Archer argue about school’s middle class habitus?

Answer 12

school’s middle class habitus stigmatises working class pupils identities. Seen in pupil’s performances as a struggle for recognition while the middle class see their Nike identities as taste less to the young people a source of generating symbolic capital and self worth.

Question 13

What did the working class see Nike styles as?

Answer 13

unrealistic - was not for ‘us’ but for richer, posher, cleverer people and they wouldn’t fit in. It was seen as an unaffordable and risky investment.
undesirable - would not suit their preferred style or lifestyle. They did not want to live on a student loan as they would not be able to afford the street styles that gave them their identity

Question 14

What does Archer et al say about the cause for working class pupil’s investment?

Answer 14

cause for marginalisation by the school and expresses their positive experience of their lifestyle. As a result they may choose self elimination or exclusion from education. Actively reject the education system since it does not fit in their identity/way of life.

Question 15

What was the study by Nicola Ingram?

Answer 15

on 2 groups of working class catholic boys form the same deprived area in Belfast. One group passed their 11 plus exam and went to grammar school (high expectations and academic achievement) while the other failed and went to a local secondary school (low expectations from underachieving pupils).

Question 16

What did Ingram find from her study?

Answer 16

working class identity inseparable form belonging to a working class locality. The neighbourhood’s dense network of family and friends were a key part of the boys’ habitus. Gave them a sense of belonging. Street culture and branded sportswear were a key part of habitus and identity.

Question 17

What was the difference between the 2 groups of boys pressure to fit in form Ingram’s study?

Answer 17

working class communities place a great emphasis on conformity. Great pressure to fit in especially grammar school boys who experiences a tension between the habitus of their working class neighbourhood and middle class school.

Question 18

Who is Archer et al? (2010)

Answer 18

studied interactions between working class pupils’ identities and their school and how this produces underachievement.

Question 19

What is meant by habitus?

Answer 19

refers to dispositions or learned, taken for granted ways of thinking being acting that are shared by a particular social class including tastes and preferences with lifestyle and consumption, their outlook on life and their expectations on what is normal or realistic for people like us. A response to a group’s position the class structure.

Question 20

Who’s habitus has more power? W/C or M/C why?

Answer 20

the middle class have the power to make their habitus superior and impose it on the education system. Middle class pupils are given an advantage while working class culture is regarded as inferior.

Question 21

What do Dunne and Gazeley argue? (study?)

Answer 21

Interviewed 9 state english secondary schools and found that teachers normalised the failure of W/C students showed no concern/could do nothing about it however the believed they could overcome underachievement of M/C.

Question 22

Why did teachers normalise W/C underachievement and not M/C?

Answer 22

teacher’s belief in role of pupil’s home backgrounds, labelled W/C parents as uninterested and M/C as supportive. Set extension work for M/C and put W/C for easy exams. underestimated potential and those who did well overachieving. Constructed class differences in attainment.

Question 23

What was Ray Rist’s study?

Answer 23

Kindergarten/labelling in primary schools
Tigers - fast learners, M/C, neat, clean, placed them in table nearest to her and gave more encouragement
Clowns - W/C, seated further and gave less encouragement, lower level books to read and fewer chances to show abilities, reading as groups not individual

Question 24

The stages of a self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 24

step 1: teacher puts on a label
step 2: teacher treats student accordingly
step 3: pupil internalises teacher expectation becoming part of self image

Question 25

What was the study of rosenthal and jacobson?

Answer 25

Told school they will give a test which will determine which students will 'spurt' ahead in reality it was a standard IQ test. Picked 20% at random and 47% of those made significant progress a year later with younger children being more affected. Teacher's beliefs impacted results and conveyed them in the way they interacted with them

Question 26

What was the study of Sarah Evans?

Answer 26

More working class young people go to university e.g. Sarah Evans studied 21 girls preparing for a levels who were reluctant to apply to elite universities like Oxbridge, and those who did felt hidden barriers and fear of not fitting in. Only 4 of 21 were willing to move out, narrows options and limits their success.

Question 27

Why do working class pupils see Oxbridge as 'not for the likes of us'

Answer 27

Habitus - includes beliefs about opportunities that exist for them and whether they would fit in. Becomes part of their identities causing them to exclude themselves from elite universities.

Question 28

What do the studies of Evans, Archer, and Ingram show?

Answer 28

consistent pattern of a middle class education system that devalues the experiences and choices of w/c pupils . As a result forced to choose between maintaining w/c identities and abandoning them and conforming m/c habitus of education to succeed.

Question 29

How are internal and external factors interrelated? (4 ways)

Answer 29

- w/c identities and habitus formed outside school may conflict with school's m/c habitus resulting in symbolic violence. - w/c pupils may use restricted speech code and may be labelled as less able - self fulfilling prophecy - what teachers believe about pupils' home backgrounds produces underachievement - poverty - stigmatisation and bullying by peers leads to truanting and failure -GCSE league tables measure schools' performance allocating funding and closing some schools down. Drives A to C economy, labelling and streaming within schools

Question 30

What is meant by symbolic capital and symbolic violence?

Answer 30

pupils who have been socialised into middle class tastes gain symbolic capital and recognition. School devalues working class habitus so /c tastes are deemed to be worthless. (symbolic violence). w/c students experience education as alien or unnatural. w/c felt that to be successful they would need to change how they talked and presented themselves. seen as 'losing yourself'