CLASS DIFFERENCES IN ACHEIVEMENT-INTERNAL FACTORS

Question 1

what is labelling

Answer 1

attach a meaning or definition to someone.

Question 2

what do studies show about how teachers label students

Answer 2

Studies show that teachers often label their students according to stereotyped assumptions, WC usually are negative labels.

Question 3

what was Becker’s study on labelling?

Answer 3

carried out an interactionist study on labelling. Based on interviews with 60 Chicago high school teachers he found that judged pupils on how closely they fitted the image of the “ideal pupil”. The teachers saw children from MC backgrounds as closet to the ideal pupil, and the wc as furthest away and regarded them as badly behaved

Question 4

How were WC and MC students labelled differently in Becker’s study.

Answer 4

The teachers saw children from MC backgrounds as closet to the ideal pupil, and the wc as furthest away and regarded them as badly behaved

Question 5

what is the ideal pupil

Answer 5

bright, hardworking, white middle class pupils

Question 6

what did Hempel-Jorgenson study

Answer 6

did a study of two English primary schools and found the ideal pupil varied according to the social class makeup of the school.

Question 7

According to Hempel-Jorgenson, how was the ideal pupil defined according to each school?

Answer 7

In largely WC primary school, discipline was major problem so the ideal pupil was defined as quiet, passive and obedient- children were defined in terms of behaviour, not ability.

By contrast, in a mainly MC primary school there was very few discipline problems and here the ideal pupil was defined in terms of personality and academic ability rather than being a misbehaving pupil.

Question 8

How does labelling affect students in secondary school?

Answer 8

teachers normalised the underachievement of WC pupils, unconcerned, little to nothing could be done about it. whereas could overcome the underachievement of the MC pupils. WC parents= uninterested MC parents= supportive

Question 9

what was Rist study on how labelling affects students in primary school?

Answer 9

supports the theory of labelling + found teachers used information of children’s home background to place them in separate groups. MC were labelled “tigers”- fast learners, showed them greatest encouragement. whereas MC were labelled “cardinals” “clowns” seated furthest away from the teacher. more likely to be WC. Fewer chances to show abilities, lower level books which stunted their achievement which might cause the class differences in achievement

Question 10

what is a self-fulfilling property

Answer 10

prediction that comes true simply by virtue of it being made.

Question 11

what is Rosenhan and Jacobson’s study on spurters.

Answer 11

study shows the self-fulfilling prophecy at work. Told teachers that they had a new test to identify pupils who would ‘spurt’ ahead this was untrue .
Researchers picked 20% of pupils at random and identified them as ‘spurters’

Question 12

what was the procedure for Rosenhan and Jacobson’s study?

Answer 12

Researchers picked 20% of pupils at random and identified them as ‘spurters’

Question 13

what were the results for Rosenhan and Jacobson’s study.

Answer 13

a year later almost half had made significant progress. They suggested that the teachers beliefs had a significant influence the supposed test results. positive attention which creates a self fulfilling prophecy due to the label of being being a spurter.

Question 14

what is streaming?

Answer 14

separating children into different ability groups

Question 15

what most likely occurs when children are streamed

Answer 15

Self-fulfilling prophecy most likely to occur when children are streamed

Question 16

what social class re more likely to be put in lower sets ?

Answer 16

WC children more likely to be put in lower sets specially wc black boys

Question 17

what happens once children are streamed?

Answer 17

once streamed, it is usually difficult to move up to a higher stream, so children are “locked in their teachers low expectations of them”. this creates a self-fulfilling prophecy in which the children live up to their low expectations by under achieving

Question 18

how do the MC benefit from higher stets?

Answer 18

more confidence allows them work harder

Question 19

what does Douglas suggest about children placed in lower streams ?

Answer 19

found that children placed in a higher stream at the age of 8 has improved their IQ state by the age 11

Question 20

what is the A-C economy?

Answer 20

where schools concentrate their efforts on students who are most likely to achieve an A-C.

Question 21

What was Gillborn and Youdell study streaming students about.

Answer 21

study of two London secondary schools, shows how teachers use stereotypical notions of “ability” to stream pupils.

Question 22

what did Gillborn and Youdell find about streaming ?

Answer 22

they found that teachers are less likely to see WC (and black) pupils as having ability. as a result these pupils are likely to be placed in lower streams. This denies them the knowledge and opportunity needed to gain good grades.

Question 23

what do Gillborn and Youdell link streaming to

Answer 23

to league tables. schools need to achieve good league tables position if they are able to attract pupils and funding.

Question 24

what are league tables ?

Answer 24

these rank each schools according to its exam performance.

Question 25

what do Gillborn and Youdell believe publishing league labels create?

Answer 25

what they call an A-C economy in schools. this system causes schools to focus time, effort and resources on those pupils they see as having the potential to get 5 grade cs and boost the schools league tables position.

Question 26

what is education triage usually described as.

Answer 26

This term is normally used to describe the process of battle fields where medical staff decide who is to be given the scare medical resources.

Question 27

what are the three different categories of educational triage?

Answer 27

is the process whereby schools sort pupils into “hopeless cases”, “those who will pass anyway” and “those with the potential to pass”

Question 28

what does A-C economy produce

Answer 28

argued to produced educational triage.

Question 29

why are wc pupils labelled as

Answer 29

“hopeless cases” this is because teachers use a stereotypical view of wc (and black) pupils as lacking ability. this produces a self-fulfilling prophecy and failure.

Question 30

what does the need to gain good league table position result in

Answer 30

drives educational triage and becomes the basis of streaming because teachers beliefs about the lack of ability of wc pupils are used to segregate them in lower streams, where they receive less attention, support and resources. This results in lower levels of achievement for WC pupils

Question 31

what are pupil subcultures?

Answer 31

a group of pupils who share similar vales and behaviour.

Question 32

how do pupil subcultures often emerge ?

Answer 32

as a response to being labelled and as a reaction to streaming.

Question 33

what concepts does lacey use to explain how pupil subcultures develop?

Answer 33

polarisation and differentiation

Question 34

what is differentiation ?

Answer 34

is the process of teachers categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and behaviour.

Question 35

what is a form of differentiation?

Answer 35

streaming since it categorises pupils into separate classes.

Question 36

what is polarisation?

Answer 36

the process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite poles or extremes

Question 37

what are pro school subcultures

Answer 37

tend to have a positive attitude to school and respect school values.

Question 38

what are anti school subcultures?

Answer 38

tend to be placed in low streams and blame school for their low esteem. They gain status by rebelling against school norms and values. this likely lead to educational failures e.g Willis 12 lads is an example

Question 39

what did Ball study?

Answer 39

a school which was abolishing banding (a type of streaming) for mixed lessons

Question 40

what did Ball find in his study of abolishing streaming.

Answer 40

when the school abolished banding, pupils were less likely to polarise into subcultures. The basis for pupils to polarise into subcultures was removed and the influence of anti school declined. differentiation continued, teachers continued to categorise pupils differently, likely to label WC as cooperative and able

Question 41

what does Balls study show?

Answer 41

class inequalities can continue as a result of teacher’s labelling, even without the effect of subcultures or streaming

Question 42

what does woods argue?

Answer 42

there are other responses to streaming and labelling. these include:

ingration: being a teachers pet
rebelling: out right rejection of everything the school stands for

Question 43

what is the labelling theory

Answer 43

underachievement is the result of pupils being negatively labelled and often placed in lower streams. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, with pupils often joining anti school subcultures that help to guarantee their failure .

Question 44

criticism of the labelling theory?

Answer 44

• accused of being deterministic. it assumes that pupils who have been labelled have no choice but to fulfil to prophecy and ultimately fail.
• Marxists criticise the labelling theory for ignoring the wider structures within which labelling takes place
• tends to blame teachers for labelling pupils but fails to explain why they do so
• even when labelling is taken away there is still differentiation between pupils.

Question 45

what are the advantages of the labelling theory?

Answer 45

it can sometimes have the opposite effect. Fuller (1984) research on black girls in London comprehensive schools found that the black girls she labelled as low-achievers, but their response to this negative label was to knuckle down and study hard to prove teachers and the school wrong.

Question 46

what is a habitus?

Answer 46

learned, taken for granted ways of thinking/acting that is shared by a social class.

Question 47

what does Bourdieu mean by symbolic violence?

Answer 47

schools have MC habitus therefore MC have ‘symbolic capital’ . in contrast this devalues the WC habitus. Bourdieu calls this symbolic violence- keeps the WC ‘in their place’, clashes with the school and felt they had to change to be successful

Question 48

what does Archer mean by Nike identities?

Answer 48

symbolic violence led them to seek alternative ways of creating status through “styles” such as Nike. The right appearance gained symbolic capital and approval from peers. Not conforming was considered suicide. however, this led to clashes with the school, labelled as “rebels”.

Question 49

which two groups did Ingram study?

Answer 49

tow groups of WC catholic boys from the same highly deprived neighbourhood in Belfast. one group had passed their 11 + exam and gone to a grammar school, while the other group had failed and gone to the local secondary school

Question 50

what type of Habitus did each school have in Ingram’s study?

Answer 50

The grammar school had a strongly middle class habitus of high expectations and academic achievement, while the secondary school had a habitus of low expectations of underachieving pupils

Question 51

what was difficult for the WC boys who went to the grammar schools?

Answer 51

wc boys felt immense pressure to “fit in” they experienced a tension between the habitus of their WC neighbourhood and that mc school

Question 52

what is an example of Ingram’s study?

Answer 52

callum was ridiculed for coming to school in a tracksuit for non uniform day, By deciding to fit into his neighbourhood habitus by wearing his tracksuit, he was made to feel worthless by the MC habitus. it is an example of symbolic violence. pupils are forced to abandon their worthless wc identity if they want to succeed.

Question 53

what did Evans study?

Answer 53

studied a group of 21 wc girls from a south London comprehensive school. Evans found they were reluctant to apply to elite universities like Oxbridge and few that did apply felt a sense of hidden barriers of not fitting in.

Question 54

example of the relationship between internal and external factors?

Answer 54

wc pupils using restricted cod (external cultural factor) my be labelled by teachers as less able leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy (internal factor)

poverty (external material factor) may lead to bulling and stigmatisation by peer groups (internal process within schools) in turn this may lead to taunting and failure.