Class difference in achievement (internal) Flashcards
What is labelling, Becker (internal)
- attaching a meaning to someone (troublemaker)
- based on stereotypes (class) rather than ability
- Becker interviewed 60 Chicago teachers, judged pupils according to fitting the image of the ideal pupil (quiet, passive, obedient)
What is the self-fulfilling prophecy?
- teacher labels pupil
- treats pupil accordingly as if the prediction is true
- pupil internalises label, comes apart of their self concept (or reject the label)
What did Rosenthal and Jacobsen find about the self-fulfilling prophecy?
- Told school they had test to identify pupils ‘spurt ahead’
- picked 20% out random, told school they were
- when returned, 47% had made significant progress
- due to teachers body language & encouragement
What is streaming?
- Separating children into different ability groups
- difficult to move up, locked in low expectations
- Douglas, children in lower stream at 8, IQ score declined by age 11
What did Gillborn and Youdell find on streaming?
- less likely to see WC as having ability
- placed in lower streams, denied opportunities, widening achievement gap
- A-C economy, time and effort on pupils with potential to get 5 grade C’s to boost league table position
What is the educational triage (Gillborn + Youdell)?
‘sorting’
- those who will pass anyway, left to get on with it
- with potential, helped to grade C
- hopeless causes, doomed to fail
What are pupil subcultures?
group of pupils who share similar values + behaviour
- emerge as a response to labelling/ streaming
What are Lacey’s concepts of differentiation and polarisation?
differentiation= teachers categorising pupils according to perceived ability (high/inferior status)
polarisation= pupils response to streaming, two opposite extremes, pro/ anti school subculture
What is pro and anti-school subculture?
pro= high streams, committed to school values, gain status through academic success
anti= low streams, low self esteem, undermined, gain status through truanting, not doing homework, smoking, leading to educational failure
What does Ball say about abolishing streaming?
- decline in polarisation of anti school subcultures
- labelling still continued and class inequalities
What are the other responses to labelling & streaming (Woods)?
ingratiation= teachers pet
ritualism= staying out of trouble
retreatism= mucking about
rebellion= reject everything the school stands for
Criticisms of labelling theory?
- deterministic, assumes pupils fulfil prophecy & fail
- Marxists argue it ignores wider structures of power, just blame teachers + not why they label
What is habitus (Archer et al)?
- learned, taken for granted ways of thinking, shared by social class
- ‘people like us’
- MC define habitus as superior, impose on education system
- links to cultural capital
What is symbolic capital and symbolic violence (Archer et al)?
- MC socialised into habitus gain symbolic capital
- devalues WC habitus
- withholding symbolic capital is symbolic violence, keeps lower class in their place
- clash between WC/MC habitus
- e.g Archer, WC change how they talk to be successful
What are nike identities (Archer et al)?
- seek alternative ways of status and self worth
- consuming brands (nike)
- right appearance earned symbolic capital and approval (safe from bullying)
- conflicts with dress code, risk rebel label
- MC stigmatise, struggling for recognition
rejection of higher education
unrealistic= not for ‘people like us’ wouldn’t fit in
undesirable= not suit preferred lifestyle, couldn’t afford street style
