Class Differences In Achievement - Internal Factors Flashcards
What are internal factors and how many are there?
Internal factors are factors within schools and the education system, such as interactions between pupils and teachers, and inequalities between schools.
- Labelling
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
- Streaming
- Pupil subcultures
- Pupils’ class identity and school
What is labelling?
Labelling is when teachers may label students as ‘bright’, ‘hardworking’, and ‘able’ or perhaps ‘troublemaker’ or ‘low ability’.
There is evidence to suggest that teachers pass judgement on their students based on pre-existing stereotypes of what constitutes the ‘ideal pupil’ - Becker (1971)
Becker said that teachers see the characteristics of the ‘ideal pupil’ in MC students. Labelling theorists are associated with the interactionist perspective/theory.
What does Hargreaves suggest about labelling?
Hargreaves suggests that labelling leads to certain students being given imaginary halos which stay with them throughout their educational career. Future interactions with teachers are based on these halos - The Halo Effect (they give MC students the benefit of the doubt when they have clearly done something wrong).
Boys in the lower streams were triple failures: they had failed their 11+ exam; they had been placed in low streams; and they had been labelled as ‘worthless louts’.
What did Cicourel and Kitsuse find?
Cicourel and Kitsuse found that counsellors assessed students largely on their social class and/or race. Counsellors played an important role in judging students ‘ suitability for college courses. MC students tended to be referred to higher ability courses and academic subjects.
What did Rist find?
Rist found that teachers used information about their pupil’s home backgrounds (as well as judging their appearance) to place pupils in separate groups. Each group was asked to sit at different tables. The teacher labelled ‘the fast learners’ as ‘Tigers’ and seated them nearer to her and showed them more encouragement - these students tended to come from MC backgrounds. The other two groups were named ‘Cardinals’ and ‘Clowns’. These were seated further away from the teacher, given lower level reading books and less attention - these were generally WC pupils.
What does Nell Keddie say about labelling?
Nell Keddie says that students have unequal access to classroom knowledge. Keddie found that teachers do not distribute knowledge evenly within the classroom but are more likely to give high ability students ‘High Status Knowledge’ whilst lower ability students are more likely to be given ‘Low Status Knowledge’.
What is the self-fulfilling prophecy?
The self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that comes true purely on the basis of it being made. Labelling can affect pupils’ achievement by creating a SFP.
Stage 1: Teacher labels a pupil & makes predictions about them in relation to the label.
Stage 2: The teacher interacts with the pupil based on this label and prediction.
Stage 3: The pupil internalises then label and the teachers’ expectations and it becomes layer of their self-concept. The pupil becomes the label and acts accordingly to the prediction and this ‘fulfils’ the original ‘prophecy’ (prediction).
Who did the important case study about self fulfilling prophecies and what did they do?
Rosenthal & Jacobson
They conducted a field experiment (in order to observe student and teacher interaction in their natural surroundings).
Told a school that they had a new ability-based test that could be use with pupils to identify those that would ‘spurt’ ahead - teachers believed this.
All pupils were tested and then Rosenthal and Jacobson randomly selected 20% of them and then told the school (again a lie) that these pupils were identified as ‘spurters’.
A year later it was found that 47% of these pupils has made significant progress when compared to the remaining 53% of pupils.
Rosenthal and Jacobson suggested that the teachers interacted with the ‘spurter’ pupils differently and conveyed their high expectation on to them - in turn, these pupils internalised these views and performed better than the ‘non-spurters’.
What is streaming?
Gillborn and Youdell - Educational Triage
Due to pressure from league tables and formula funding, schools/colleges are likely to ‘ration’ their time and resources. Therefore ‘Education Triage’ takes place - a system where pupils are separated into 3 groups and either targeted for help or not. The motivation for help is the A* - C(5-9) economy and the eventual publication of results in league tables.
A) Those who will pass anyway
/ Pupils ———>Triage System —> B) Borderline C/D or 4/5 pupil who are
\ targeted for help.
\
C) Hopeless cases
This system is based heavily on stereotypes and presumptions about pupils based on their appearance and perceived ability and thus the WC are neglected and this is the motivation for streaming. Those deemed to lack ability are segregated and put in lower streams, where they receive less attention, support and resources.
What are pupil subcultures?
It refers to the way that teachers categorise or differentiate between pupils according to stereotypes about ability, appearance etc.
Setting and streaming are forms of differentiation as well as ‘Foundation’ and ‘Higher’ tier exam differentiation.
This is the process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite ‘poles’ or extremes. Lacey found that streaming polarised boys into pro or anti-school.
They found Status and Reward could be achieved through an ‘alternative’ set of values set out by the resistant group (Peer Group Status).
The pupils found the Value System of the school contradictory in terms of their own progress, options, status and progression. This creates frustration and results in WC pupils for,inn ‘Resistant Anti-School Subcultures’ that directly oppose the values that the education system promotes?
What are the subculture responses that polarisation leads to?
The Pro-School Subculture and The Anti-School Subculture
The Pro-School Subculture:
- associated with the MC
- positive stereotypes
- positive labels
- high sets and stream along with high status knowledge and more attention
- high expectations
- positive self-fulfilling prophecy - ‘Halos’
The Anti-School Subculture:
- associated with the WC
- negative stereotypes
- negative labels
- low sets and streams along with low status knowledge and less attention
- low expectations
- negative self-fulfilling prophecy - no ‘halo’
Who argues that dividing students into pro or anti school is too simplistic?
Woods suggests that dividing students into pro or anti school is too simplistic. Whilst his research is now quite old, his framework is still relevant as it does suggest there are a wide range of adaptations to school, each of which will influence what students achieve. Students may change their responses over time as they move through schooling.
Other responses are also possible. These include:
- ingratiation: being the ‘teacher’s pet’
- ritualism: going through the motions and staying out of trouble
- retreatism: daydreaming and mucking about
- rebellion: outright rejection of everything the school stands for.
As Furlong observes, many pupils are not committed permanently to any one response, but many move between different types of response, acting differently with different teachers.
What does Mac an Ghail’s and Willis’ research show?
The case of ‘the lads’ in Willis’ research and the ‘Macho Lads’ in Mac an Ghaill’s research shows that education was rejected as legitimate means of achieving success and status and that the ‘lads’ in this study opted to gain status through proving themselves as troublemakers, thus leading to higher status from their peers. This rejection of education could be set to reinforce the fatalistic attitudes found in WC subcultures as found by Hyman and Sugarman.
What did Paul Willis’ Case Study ‘Learning to Labour’ entail?
Willis case study was set about finding how WC kids get WC jobs and how an anti-school subculture develops.
Willis’ work shows that WC pupils’ developed a resistance to school. Kids at the bottom of education would fill the jobs. Multiple disciplinary schools. WC children need human contact and long-term interaction. Main method: observing participation, diaries of days, group discussions
What the school seemed to be telling them about their future. Facing a future in manual work. The attitude that they were going in factories happened between these kids at school.
Triangulation: Ethnographic (viewing the world through the subjects’ eyes), participant observation (overt), group interviews, diaries
12 boys who were in year 10 at secondary school. Willis divided the school into the earholes, students who listened to the teacher, and the lads who enjoyed themselves, ‘had a laugh’.
What is the pupil’s class identities and the school?
This examines whether pupils’ class identities that are formed outside of school produce educational success and failure.
