PUPIL SUBCULTURES

Question 1

Define a pupil subculture

Answer 1

A group of pupils who share similar values and behaviour patterns. They often emerge as a response to the way pupils have been labelled, and in particular as a reaction to streaming

Question 2

Lacey’s (1970) concepts of differentiation and polarisation

Answer 2

Helps to explain how pupil subcultures develop

Question 3

Differentiation:

Answer 3

a. Is the process of teachers categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and/ or behaviour
b. Streaming is a form of differentiation as it categorises pupils into separate classes

Question 4

Polarisation:

Answer 4

a. The process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite ‘poles’ or extremes
b. In his study of Hightown boys’ grammar school, Lacey found that streaming polarised boys into a pro-schol and an anti-school culture

Question 5

What is the pro-school subculture?

Answer 5

Pupils placed in high streams tend to remain committerd to the values of the school. They gain their status through academic success and form a pro-school subculture

Question 6

What is the anti-school subculture?

Answer 6

a. Those placed in low streams suffer a loss of self-esteem as the school has undermined their self-worth by placing them in a position of inferior status.
b. They seek to gain status in other ways; through inverting the school’s values of hard work, obedience and punctuality

Question 7

According to Lacey, why is joining an anti-school subculture likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy of educational failure?

Answer 7

An anti-school subculture commits students to a behaviour pattern which means that their work will stay poor- and in fact often gets progressively worse

Question 8

Hargreaves (1967)

Answer 8

Found a similar response to labelling and streaming in a secondary modern school

Question 9

Why were boys in the lower streams triple failures?

Answer 9

1. They had failed their 11+
2. They had been placed in low streams
3. Been labelled as ‘worthless louts’

Question 10

Ball’s (1981) study of Beachside, a comprehensive that was in the process of abolishing bading in favour of mixed-ability groups

Answer 10

a. When the school abolished banding, the basis for pupils to polarise into subcultures was largely removed and the influence of the anti-school subculture declined
b. However, differentiation continued in the way that teachers continued to categorise pupils differently and were more likely to label middle-class pupils as cooperative and able

Question 11

What are Woods’ (1979) 4 pupil responses?

Answer 11

1. Ingratiation- Being the ‘teacher’s pet’
2. Ritualism- Going through the motions and staying out of trouble
3. Retreatism- Daydreaming and mucking about
4. Rebellion- Outright rejection of everything the school stands for

Question 12

Furlong (1984)

Answer 12

Many pupils aren’t committed permanently to any one response, may act differently depending on the subject/teacher