5ED

Question 1

What is an interactionalist?

Answer 1

• A sociologist who highlights the processes and relationships within the education system which result in different levels of achievement for social groups

Question 2

What are the consequences of labelling?

Answer 2

• Self fulfilling prophecy and pupil subcultures

Question 3

What is the definition of typing?

Answer 3

• When a person or group is considered to be a particular type e.g. trouble maker, hard worker

Question 4

What is the definition of labelling?

Answer 4

• The process of attaching a definition or meaning to an individual or group e.g. labelling girls more hardworking than boys

Question 5

What is the definition of SFP?

Answer 5

• Where a prediction is made about a person or a group comes true simply because the prediction has been made

Question 6

What did Hargreaves find out about typing?

Answer 6

• Teachers go through 3 different stages of typing in which they get to know the pupil well enough that they can put them into a type

Question 7

What are Hargreaves 3 stages of typing?

Answer 7

• Speculation: teachers form a working hypothesis on what sort of child each pupil is
• Elaboration: gradually the hypothesis is either confirmed or contradicted
• Stabilisation: teachers feel like they know the pupil and all the pupils future actions will be based on their type

Question 8

What did Becker find about the “ideal type”?

Answer 8

• They were middle class with a neat appearance, hardworking, well behaved and a good attitude

Question 9

What did Cicourel and Kituse find about labelling?

Answer 9

• Social class had an important influence on how students are labelled by their teachers, which affected the students grades

Question 10

What did Rosenthal and Jacobson find about the self fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 10

• They found that when teachers were told that certain students were bright they were treat differently, which made them to better in a test
• They believed that teachers beliefs about pupils influenced the test results as the label affected that way that the teachers interacted with the pupils

Question 11

What is streaming?

Answer 11

• Involves separating children into different ability groups where they were taught separately from others in all subjects

Question 12

What can streaming increase?

Answer 12

• Self fulfilling prophecy

Question 13

What did Ball find about streaming?

Answer 13

• Found that children were put in streams according to not only ability but social background

Question 14

What did Woods find about pupil subcultures?

Answer 14

• All pupils react differently to education
• They accept or reject the aim of academic success and the means of achieving it
• He identified different responses to school in groups of pupils e.g. “compliance” – pupils who mainly got on with work, “retreatists” – pupils who replaced school values with their own values

Question 15

Positives of the Interactionalist approach

Answer 15

• Based upon more detailed evidence than Marxist or Functionalist theories of education
• Has practical applications

Question 16

Negatives of interactionalist approach of education

Answer 16

• Doesn’t explain why labelling happens, they blame teachers for labelling pupils but never say why they label
• Only explains differences in achievement purely based on in schools factors, ignores wider social influence e.g. family background and wider society