2.2 class differences in achievement (internal factors)

Question 1

internal factors

Answer 1

• labelling
• the self fulfilling prophecy
• streaming/setting
• pupil subcultures
• pupils class identity

Question 2

labelling

what does the labelling theory suggest

Answer 2

Howard Becker suggests that teachers often attach a label to a student that actually has little to do with their ability or aptitude
instead they form their idea of what the student should act like and form an opinion on them based on how close they come to the ‘ideal pupil’
sociologists believe students can conform to this label and fall into the self fulfilling prophecy, only achieving what their label reaches.

Question 3

labelling

what research was done on labelling in two different english primary schools?

Answer 3

• amelia hempel- jorgensen
• aspen primary school mainly working class school- discipline was a major problem, staff saw ideal pupil as quiet, passive and obedient (defined by behaviour not ability)
• rowan primary school mainly middle class school- ideal pupil was instead described by personality and acedemic abilty

Question 4

labelling

labelling in secondary schools

Question 5

labelling

Woods identifies a total of 8 different types of pupil adaptation: ingratation

Answer 5

conformist pro-school “teachers pet” seeks approval from teacher and wants to please them, favourable attitude towards school.

Question 6

labelling

Woods identifies a total of 8 different types of pupil adaptation: opportunism, ritualism, retreatism and colonization

Answer 6

• opportunism- fluctuates between seeking aproval from teachers and peers
• ritualism- attends school but doesn’t show much enthuiasm
• retreatism- indifferent to schhol values nd exams, mess about a bit but don’t challenge authority of school
• colonization- mess around as much as possible but still avoid getting into trouble

Question 7

labelling

Woods identifies a total of 8 different types of pupil adaptation: what is the difference between instransigence and rebellion

Answer 7

• instransigence- trouble makers who are indifferent to school and not that b othered about conformity
• rebellion- main goals are deviant

Question 8

self-fullfilling prophecy

3 stages of the self- fullfilling prophecy

Answer 8

1. teacher labels a pupil and on the basis of this label, makes predictions
2. teacher treats pupil accordingly, acting as if the prediction is already true
3. pupil internalises the teachers expectation, acts acordingly and it becomes part of their self-concept

Question 9

self-fulfilling prophecy

Rosenthal and Jacobson’s study

Answer 9

A class of students were administered an IQ test.
20% of the class were selected and random, and the teachers
were told that they should be expected to make faster
academic progress
The researchers returned a year later to administer another IQ
test and examine the school reports of the children in the
study.
The teachers were merely informed that about 20% of the students were ‘bloomers’ who could be expected to outperform their classmates. Only the names of the purported ‘bloomers’ were unveiled to the teachers.
8 months later given another IQ test, the results indicated that the scores of the ‘bloomers’ had increased significantly in comparison to those of the other children, as a result of having more attention paid to them.

Question 10

streaming

what is the difference between setting and streaming?

Answer 10

Setting is the placement of students into ability
classes within individual subjects.
Streaming is the placement of students into
ability groups going across all subjects.

Question 11

streaming

what impact does streaming have on education

Answer 11

W/C students are usually placed in the lower
streams/sets which can lead to lower self
esteem and therefore under achieve. Being
placed in lower streams can also limit student
achievement by not allowing them access to
opportunities to achieve.

Question 12

streaming

evaluation: positive impacts of setting and streaming

Answer 12

• higher achieving students can be challenged, lower ability students can be supported, both leading to high achievement

Question 13

streaming

what makes it difficult for working class students to move up into a higher stream

Answer 13

• teachers tend to see them as lacking ability and have low expectations for them (be in a lower stream)
• then, the children are more or less locked into their position and the low expectations for them and get the message that there isn’t much hope for them
• creates SFP

Question 14

streaming

what was the study that David Gillborn did of two London secondary schools?

Answer 14

• teachers more likely to put working class and black students in lower ability sets and lower tier GCSE’s
• this denies them the knowledge and opportunity needed to gain good grades and widens the class gap in achievement

Question 15

streaming

what is the A*-to-C economy?

Answer 15

a system in which schools concentrate their efforts on those pupils that seem most likely to gain A* to C grades at GCSE’s and so boosts the school’s leage table position.

Question 16

streaming

what does the A* to C economy produce?

Answer 16

educational triage

Question 17

streaming

what are the 3 types of pupils within an educational triage?

Answer 17

1. those who will pass anyway and can be left to get on with it
2. those with potential, who will be helped to get a grade C+
3. hopeless cases who are doomed to fail

Question 18

streaming

what drives educational triage?

Answer 18

the need to gain a good position in the school league table

Question 19

streaming

who came up with the theory of educational triage?

Answer 19

Gillborn and Youdell

Question 20

streaming

what is the link between markitisation policues and streaming

Answer 20

publication of exam league tables impacts micro-level face-to-face interactions with students which contribute to class differences in achievement.

Question 21

Pupil subcultures

what is a pupil subculture?

Answer 21

a group of pupils who share similar values/ behaviour patterns.

Question 22

Pupil subcultures

what are the two different ways that pupil subcultures develop?

Answer 22

• differentation
• the process of teachers categorising pupils according to how they percieve their ability
• streaming is a form of differentation (putting kids in to high and low streams based on how “able” they percieve them to be.
• polarisation
• the process in which pupils respond to streaming, by moving towards one of two “poles/extremes”

Question 23

Pupil subcultures

characteristics of the pro-school subculture

Answer 23

Committed to school
values
Gain approval / status
through academic success

Question 24

Pupil subcultures

characteristics of the anti-school subculture

Answer 24

Lower streams
Rejection of school
values
Truanting
Disruption
Not doing homework

Question 25

Pupil subcultures

what effects does the label of being a failure have on those (generally working class) in lower streams

Answer 25

it pushes them to search for alternative wyas to gain status usually through inverting school values of hard work, obedience and punctuality.
such pupils form an antischool subculture as a means of gaining status amongst staff and peers

Question 26

Pupil subcultures

what problems does joining an anti-school subculture pose for students?

Answer 26

being in that group commits him to a behaviour pattern that means work will only get worse
is likely to become a self-fullfilling prophecy of educational failure

Question 27

Pupil subculture

what makes it difficult to study anti-school subcultures

Answer 27

• more likely to truant- harder for researcher to have contact with them
• adult researcher could be seen as an authority figure an be unwilling to respond openly
• head teachers may refuse to maintain schools public image
• peer pressure is likely to influence the responses of individuals, making it harder for researchers to uncover individual variations in attitudes
• difficult to gain parental consent- parents may not want their kids to be labelled as “anti-school”

Question 28

Pupil subcultures

for what reason may a member of anti-school subculture be willing to particpate in research

Answer 28

• if trust is gained- it gives them the opportunity to speak openly about their feelings toward school

Question 29

Pupil subcultures

evaluation of pupil subculture theory

Answer 29

not all pupils may fall into pro or anti school subculture

Question 30

Pupil subcultures/streaming

what did stephen ball find the effect of abolishing banding

Answer 30

• the basis for students to polarise in subcultures was largely removed and the influence of anti-school subculture declined

Question 31

Pupil subcultures

in stephen balls research, even though polarisation dissapeared … continued

Answer 31

differentiation, teachers continued to label and catagorise pupils

Question 32

Pupil subcultures

since balls study and the …. …. act, streaming has increased, as well as more variety in schools which has lead to …

Answer 32

the education reform act 1988
new opportunities for teachers to differentiate between pupils based on assumptions

Question 33

Pupil subcultures/labelling

criticisms of labelling theory

Answer 33

• assumes pupils will take on the label and have no choice but to fulfil the prophecy and fail
• marxists- say that labelling ignores wider structures of power, labelling blames teachers but doesn’t tell us why teachers do so and that they are part of a system that reproduces class division (not their indiuvidual prejudices)

Question 34

Pupil’s class identities and the school

what does the term habitus include?

Answer 34

• lifestyle preferences and consumption
• outlook on life
• expectations of what is normal/realistic for people like themselves

Question 35

Pupil’s class identities and the school

which class habitus does the school favour

Answer 35

middle class
as it has the power to define its habitus as superior and to impose it on education

Question 36

Pupil’s class identities and the school

what is symbolic capital within education?

Answer 36

middle class tastes and preferences gain status and reconition and deemed to have worth/value.
working class tastes (e.g. appearence and accent) are deemed to be tasteless and worthless

Question 37

Pupil’s class identities and the school

what does bordieu’s “symbolic violence” refer to?

Answer 37

• the withholding of symbolic capital
• which is achieved through defining working class ways as inferior which reproduces the class structure, keeping working class pupils in their place

Question 38

Pupil’s class identities and the school

what is the consequence of the working-class pupils habitus and the schools middle class habitus clashing?

Answer 38

working class pupils may experience education as alien and unnatural

Question 39

Pupil’s class identities and the school

according to archer, how did working class pupils feel about becoming educationally successful?

Answer 39

they felt that in order to gain educational success they would have to “lose themselves”
and that to get into good universities/a successful career felt that they were “not for the likes of us”

Question 40

Pupil’s class identities and the school

symbolic violence led working class pupils to seek alternative ways of creating…
they did so by…

Answer 40

• self worth, status and value
• investing heavily in styles, consuming brnded clothing like nike

Question 41

Pupil’s class identities and the school

“but people like us, they’re just, we’re ….”

Answer 41

nike

Question 42

Pupil’s class identities and the school

how would working class pupils feel without wearing brands

Answer 42

inauthentic

Question 43

Pupil’s class identities and the school

style performances were policed by who?
not conforming resulted in what?

Answer 43

peer groups
social suicide

Question 44

Pupil’s class identities and the school

how did nike identities clash with the schools middle class habitus?

Answer 44

• led to conflict within the school dress code
• tecahers opposed street styles as showing bad taste or even as a threat
• risking them being labelled as rebels

Question 45

Pupil’s class identities and the school

how did nike identities lead to higher education being seen as “unrealistic” or “undesireable”

Answer 45

• unrealistic- higher education wasnt for “people like us”, but for richer, posher and cleverer people as well as being an unaffordable and risky investment
• undesireable- wouldnt suit their preffered lifestyle/ habitus e.g. didn’t want to live on a loan because then wouldnt be able to buy their style that gave them their identity

Question 46

Pupil’s class identities and the school

what was nicola ingrams study of two working class catholic school boys?

Answer 46

• both from the same highly deprived neighbourhood in belfast
• one group passed the 11 plus exam while the others were sent to a local secondary school
• the grammar school had s strongly middle class habitus of high expectations and acedemic achievement

Question 47

Pupil’s class identities and the school

how do working class pupils self-exclude themselves from university?

Answer 47

• reluctant to apply to elite universities such as oxbridge
• bordieu- as these places were felt to be “not for the likes of us”, a feeling that comes from their habitus, which suggests what opportunities really exist for them and whether they would fit in or not, which becomes a part of their thinking and identity, leading them to believe university is not for them

Question 48

Pupil’s class identities and the school

what did evans find out about the 21 working class girls she studied?

Answer 48

• they had a strong attachment to their locality
• only 4/21 wanted to move away to study

Question 49

Pupil’s class identities and the school

relationships between internal and external factors

Answer 49

• working class habitus >conflict with schools middle class habitus (leads to think that school is not for the likes of them)
• restricted speech code >labelled by teachers as less able (SFP)
• wc home backgrounds> what teachers believe about them
• poverty >bullying and stigmatisation by peer groups >truanting and failure