Class differences in achievement (2) internal factors

Question 1

What does labelling mean?

Answer 1

To attach a meaning or definition to an individual e.g. teachers may label a student as a ‘troublemaker’

Question 2

Becker (1971)

Answer 2

Found that teachers labelled students depending on how closely they fitted the ‘ideal pupil’ image. The teachers saw middle-class students as closest to the ‘ideal pupil’ and working-class students furthest from it as they regarded them as badly behaved

Question 3

Dunne and Gazeley (2008)

Answer 3

Schools persistently produce working-class underachievement because of the labels and assumptions teachers generate

Question 4

How do teachers create a class difference at school when focusing on students who are underachieving?

Answer 4

They give middle-class students extra work to help them achieve whereas they simply enter working-class students for easier, foundation exams

Question 5

Rist (1970)

Answer 5

Rist’s study of American kindergarten shows that teachers used information about the student’s home background and appearance to place them in separate groups e.g. by seating them at separate tables