class differences in achievement (internal factors)

Question 1

what are internal factors?

Answer 1

internal factors are factors and processes that happens within school in causing class differentiation

Question 2

what is labelling?

Answer 2

• to label someone is to attach a meaning or definition to them, e.g, teachers may label students as bright or thick, or troublemaker or hardworking
• studies show that teachers often attach a label regardless of the pupils actual ability or attitude. instead they label pupils on the basis of stereotypes assumptions about their class background, labelling working class pupils negatively and middle class pupils positively.

Question 3

Beckers study on labelling

Answer 3

• Becker (1971) carried out an important interactionist study of labelling. based on interviews with 60 Chicago high school teachers - he found that they judge pupils according to how closely they fitted to an image of the ‘ideal pupil’
  -pupils work, conduct and appearances were key factors influencing teachers judgements. the teachers saw children from a middle class background as the closest to the ideal pupil and working class children as furthest away from it because they regarded them as badly behaved.

Question 4

labelling - Jorgensen (2009)

Answer 4

• different teachers may have different notions of the ideal pupil - a more recent study of two English primary schools by Jorgensen (2009) found these notions may vary according to the social class make up of the school:
• in working class aspen primary school where staff said discipline was a major problem, the ideal pupil was defined as quiet, passive and obedient - children were defined by behaviour, not their ability
• by contrast, the middle class school rowan primary school had very few discipline problems and here the ideal pupil was defined instead in terms of personality and academic ability, rather than as being ‘non misbehaving’ pupil, as at aspen

Question 5

labelling in secondary schools

Answer 5

• dunne and gazellen (2008) argue that ‘schools persistent produce working class underachievement’ because of the labels and assumptions of teachers
• from interviews in 9 English secondary schools, they found that teachers ‘normalised’ the underachievement of working class pupils, seemed unconcerned by it and they felt they could do little or nothing about it, whereas they believed they could overcome the underachievement of middle class pupils
• a major difference was the teachers belief in the home background - they labelled working class parents as uninterested in their children education, but labelled middle class parents as supportive e.g attending parents evening
• this led to class differences I’m how teachers dealt with pupils they perceived as underachieving - setting extension work for underachieving m/c pupils, but entering w/c pupils for easier exams. teachers also underestimated w/c pupils potential and those who were doing well were seen as ‘overachieving’

Question 6

labelling in primary schools - rist

Answer 6

• labelling occurs from the outset of a Childs educational career, as rist (1970) study of an American kindergarten shows he found that teachers used information about children home background and appearance to place them Into separate groups, sitting each group at a separate table.
• those that the teacher decided were fast learners, she labelled ‘tigers’, tended to be middle class and meat and clean appearances. she seated these children at the table nearest her and showed them the greatest encouragement
• the other two groups - who she labelled ‘cardinals’ and ‘clowns’ - were seated further away. these groups were more likely to be working class. they were given lower level books to read and fewer chances to show their abilities. e.g, they had to read as a group, not individuals

Question 7

what is the self fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 7

• a self fulling prophecy is a prediction that comes true simply by virtue of it having been made. interactionist argue that labelling can affect pupils achievement by creating a self fulfilling prophecy, as these steps show:
  step 1 - the teacher labels pupils and on the bias of this label, makes a prediction about him.
  step 2 - the teacher treats the pupil accordingly, acting as if the prediction is already true
  step 3 - the pupil internalises the teachers expectation, which becomes part of his self concept or self image, so that he now actually becomes the kind of pupil the teachers believes him to be in the first place. the prediction is fulfilled

Question 8

teachers expectations - rosenthal and Jacobson

Answer 8

• in rosenthal and Jacobson study of oak community school, they show the self fulfilling prophecy at work. they told the school that they had a new test specially designed to identify those pupils who would ‘spurt’ ahead. this was untrue as the test was just an IQ test but the teachers believed them. the researchers tested all the pupils and picked at random 20% of them and falsely identified them as ‘sputers’
• on returning a year later, they had found that almost half (47%) of those ‘sputters’ had made a significant progress. the effect was greater on younger children.
• rosenthal and Jacobson suggest that the teachers beliefs about the pupils had been influenced by the supposed test results. the teachers had conveyed these beliefs to the pupils through the way they interacted with them e.g, through body language and the amount of attention and encouragement they gave them.
• this demonstrates the self fulfilling prophecy simply by accepting the prediction

Question 9

self fulfilling prophecy and underachievement

Answer 9

• can also produce underachievement- if teachers have low expectations of certain children and communicate these expectations in their interaction, these children may develop negative self concept. they may come to seeing themselves as failures and give up try, thereby fulfilling the original prophecy

Question 10

what is streaming?

Answer 10

• streaming involves separating children into different ability groups or classes called ‘streams’. each ability group is then taught separately from the others for all subjects. studies show that the self fulfilling prophecy is particularly likely to occur when children are streamed.
• e.g, as Becker shows, teachers do not usually see working class children as ideal pupils - they tend to see them lacking in ability and have low expectations of them. as a result working class children are more likely to be placed I’m a lower stream.
• once streamed it is difficult to move up to a higher stream, children in the lower streams ‘get the message’ that their teachers have written them off as no hoppers.
• this creates a self fulling prophecy in which pupils live up to their teachers low expectations by underachieving e.g, Douglass fund that children placed in a Lowe stream at 8 had suffered a decline in their IQ by 11
• middle class tend to bereft from it - less likely to be placed in a lower stream, reflecting the teachers view of them as the ideal pupil

Question 11

Streaming and the A to C economy - youdell and gilbron (2001)

Answer 11

• a study of two London secondary schools by gillborn and youdell shoes how teaches use stereotypical notions of ‘ability’ to stream people. They found that teachers are less likely to see working class and black pupils as having ability. As a result, these pupils are more likely to be placed in lower streams and entered for lower tier GCSEs
• they link streaming to the policy of publishing exam league tables - these rank each school according to its exam performance.
• publishing league tables creates what gillborn and youdell call an “A to C economy’’ in schools.
• this is a system in which schools focus their time, effort and resources on those pupils they see as having the potential to get five grades C and sp boots the schools league table positions

Question 12

The educational triage

Answer 12

Pupils - triage - 1. Those who will pass anyway
2. Borderline C/D pupils targeted for extra
help
3. Hopeless cases

Question 13

Educational triage - gillborn and youdell

Answer 13

• call this process the ‘educational triage’ - triage means ‘sorting’. The term is normally used to describe process in medical disasters where medical; staff decide who is to be given scare medical resources
• the authors argue that the A -C economy produces educational triage. Schools categorise pupils into three types:
  1. Those who will pass anyway and can be left on their own to get on with it
  2. Those with potential, who will be helped to get a grade of C or better
  3. Hopeless cases, who are doomed to fail

Question 14

Teacher stereotypes and the educational triage

Answer 14

• teachers create this educational triage by using stereotypical views of working class and black pupils as lacking ability.
• more likely to be labelled as ‘hopeless cases’ and simply ‘warehoused’ in the bottoms sets - produces a self fulfil g prophecy and failure.

Question 15

League table position and educational triage

Answer 15

• the need to gain a good league table positions drives the educational triage.
• this becomes the basis for streaming, where teachers beliefs about the lack of ability of working class pupils are used to segregate the, into lower streams or sets, where they receive less attention, support and resources. This results in lower level of achievement for working class pupils

Question 16

League table and schools

Answer 16

• schools operate within a wider education system whose ‘marketisation’ policies directly affect these micro level processes to produce class differences in achievement. These policies include the publication of exam league tables

Question 17

What is pupil subculture?

Answer 17

• a pupil subculture is a group of pupils who share similar values and behaviour patterns. Often emerge as a response to the way pupils have been labelled and in particular as a reaction to streaming

Question 18

Lacey (1970) - pupils subculture

Answer 18

• Lacey’s (1970) concept of differentiation and polarisation to explain how pupils subcultures develop:
• differentiation = process of teachers categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and behaviour. E.g streaming as it categorises pupils those being more ‘able were given a Hugh status in high stream and those ‘less able’ placed in a lower stream given an inferior status
• polarisation = process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite ‘poles’ or extremes. E.g study of hightown boys grammar school, Lacey found that streaming polarised boys into pro school and an anti school subculture

Question 19

The pro school subculture - Lacey

Answer 19

• pupils in high streams who are largely middle class tend to remain committed to the values of the school.
• they gain their status in an approved manor, through academic success. Their values are those of the school: they tend to form a pro school subculture

Question 20

The anti school subculture - Lacey

Answer 20

• those placed in the low streams who tend to be working class suffer a loss of self esteem: the school had undermined their self worth by placing them in a position of inferior status.
• label of failure pushes them to search for alternative ways of gaining status - involves inverting the schools value of hard work, obedience and punctuality
• such pupils gain status in another way among their peers such as - not doing homework, taunting, smoothing etc

Question 21

What does Lacey say about the anti school subculture

Answer 21

‘’ a boy who does badly academically is predisposed to criticise, reject or even sabotage the system where he can, since it places him in an inferior position’

Question 22

Effects of joining an anti school subculture

Answer 22

• joining an anti school subculture may solve the problem of lack of stats, it creates further problems for such pupils. As Lacey talks about joining an anti school subculture is likely to become a self fulfilling prophecy of educational failure.
• Hargreaves (19670 found a similar response to labelling and streaming in secondary minders school. 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’
• one solutions to this status problem was for these pupils to seek each other out and form a group within which high starts went to those who broke the school rules - formed delinquent subcultures that helped to guarantee their educational failure

Question 23

Abolishing streaming

Answer 23

• ball (1981) takes the analysis a step further in his study of beachside, a comprehensive that was in the process of abolishing banding - type of streaming - in favour for teaching mixed ability groups
• ball found that when the school abolished banding, the basis for pupils to polarise into these subcultures was declined and the influence of the anti school subculture declined
• although, pupils polarisation disappeared, differentiation continued. Teachers continued to categories pupils differently and were still more likely to label middle class as cooperative and more able.
• positive label was reflected in better exam results - suggested a self fulfilling prophecy

Question 24

What does balls study on abolishing streaming show

Answer 24

• study shoes that class inequalities can continue as a result of teachers labelling, even without the effect of subcultures or streaming.
• since balls study, and especially since the education reform act (1988), there has been a trend towards more streaming and towards a variety of types of schools, some of which have more academic curriculum than others
• created new opportunities for schools and teachers to differentiate between pupils on the basis of their class, ethnicity or gender and treat them unequally, as studies such as gillborn and youdell show

Question 25

The variety of pupils responses - woods (1979)

Answer 25

Pro and anti school subculture are two possible responses to labelling and streaming, however woods argues other responses are also possible:
1. Ingratiation
2. Ritualism
3. Retreatism
4. Rebellion
- furlong observes, many pupils are not committed permanently to any one response, but may more between different types of response, acting differently in lessons with different teachers

Question 26

1. Ingratiation

Answer 26

Being the ‘teachers pet’

Question 27

2. Ritualism

Answer 27

Going through the motions and staying out of trouble

Question 28

3. Retreatism

Answer 28

Daydreaming and mucking about

Question 29

4. Rebellion

Answer 29

Outright rejection of everything the school stands for

Question 30

Criticisms of the labelling theory

Answer 30

• has been accused of determinism - meaning is assumes that pupils who are labelled have no choice but to fulfil the prophecy and will inevitably fail. However, fuller shows that this is not always true
• Marxist criticise the labelling theory for ignoring wider structures of power within which labelling takes place - tends to blame teachers for labelling pupils but fails to explain why they do
• Marxists argue that labels are not merely the result of teachers individual prejudices, but stem from the fact that teachers work in system that reproduces class division

Question 31

Public class identities and the school

Answer 31

• archer et al (2010) focuses on interaction between working class pupils identities and school, and how those produces underachievement. Draws on bourdieus coin pet of habitus

Question 32

What is habitus?

Answer 32

• habitus refers to the ‘dispositions’ or learned taken for granted ways of thinking, being and acting that are shared by a particular social class.
• includes their tatters and pretences about lifestyles and consumption - such as fashion and leisure pursuits - their outlook on life and there expectations about wheat is normal or ‘realistic’ for people ‘like us’ .
• a group habitus is formed as a response to its position in the class structure

Question 33

Middle class habitus

Answer 33

• middle class has the power to define its habitus as superior and to impose it on the education system. As a result, the school puts a higher value on middle class tastes, preferences and so on
• linked to bourdieus concept of cultural capital because the school has a middle class habitus, those gives middle class pupils an advantage, while working class culture is regarded as inferior

Question 34

Symbolic capital and symbolic violence

Answer 34

• because schools have a middle class habitus, pupils that have been socialised at home into a middle class tates and preferences gain ‘symbolic capital’ or status and recognition from the school and are deemed to have worth or value.
• in contrast, schools devalue working class habitus - tastes are deemed to be tasteless and worthless
• bourdieu calls those withholding of symbolic capital ‘symbolic violence’ - by defining w/c class and their tastes and lifestyles as inferior, symbolic violence reproduces the class structure and keeps the lower classes ‘in their place’

Question 35

The clash between working class and middle class habitus

Answer 35

• there is a clash between w/c and m/c habitus
• as a result, w/c students may experience the world of education as alien and unnatural.
• archer found that w/c pupils diet that to be educationally successful, they would have to change the way they talked and presented themselves.
• for w/c students, educational success is often inexperienced as a process of ‘losing yourself’. They felt unable to access ‘posh’, middle class spaces such as uni and professional careers, which were seen ‘not for the likes of us’

Question 36

Nike identities

Answer 36

• many pupils were conscious that society and school looked down on them. This symbolic violence led them to seek alternative ways of creates g self worth, status and values. They did so by constricting meaningful class identities for themselves by investing heavily in ‘styles’, especially through consuming branded clothing such as nike

Question 37

Why wear brands - Nike identity

Answer 37

• wearing brands was a way of ‘being me’ - without them they would feel inauthentic
• pupils identities were also strongly gendered e.g girls adopted hyper hetrosexual feminine style
• style performances were heavily policed by peer groups and not conforming was ‘social suicide’ - the right appearance earned symbolic capital and approval from peer groups and brought safety from bullying

Question 38

School conflict - Nike identity’s

Answer 38

• led to conflict with the schools dress code. Reflecting the schools middle class habitus, teachers opposed ‘street’ styles as showing ‘bad taste’ or even threat. Pupils who adopted street styles risked being labelled as rebels.
• archer argues that schools middle class habitus stigmatises w/c pupils identities. Pupils performances of style are a struffle for recognition; while the middle class see their ‘Nike’ identifies as tasteless, to young people they are a means of generating symbolic capital and self worth

Question 39

Archer et al and Nike identity’s

Answer 39

• according to archer et al, w/c pupils investment in ‘Nike’ identities is not only a cause of their educational marginalisation by the school. Also expresses their positive preference for a particular lifestyle. As a result w/c pupils may choose self elimination for self exclusion from education. ‘They get the message’ that education is not for the likes of them so actively choose to reject it

Question 40

Working class identity and educational success

Answer 40

• archers study largely deals with the relationship between w/c identity and educational failure
• Ingram study of two w/c catholic Boys from the same highly deprived neighbourhood in Belfast offers an answer to why some w/c pupils succeed and the relationship between educational success and w/c identity
• one group passed their 11+ and went to grammar school, while the other failed and went to their local secondary school.
• the grammar had a strong m/c habitus of high expectation and academic achievement, while secondary school had a low habitus and low expectations of its underachieving pupils

Question 41

What did Ingram find in her study of the w/c boys in grammar and secondary schools

Answer 41

• Ingram found that having a w/c identity was inseparable from belonging to a w/c locality. The neighbourhoods dense networks of family and friends were a key part of the boys habitus. It gave them an intense feeling of belonging - such as in archers study, street culture and branded sportswear were a key part of the boys habitus and sense of of identity
• however, Ingram notes, w/c communities place a great emphasise on conformity. The boys experience a great pressure to ‘fit in’ and this was a particular problem for the boys at the grammar school, who experienced tension between the habitus of their w/c neighbourhood and their m/c school

Question 42

Class identity and self exclusion

Answer 42

• despite class inequalities in education, many more w/c young people now go to uni. However, the class between working class identity and habitus of higher education is a barrier to success. Partly due to self exclusion

Question 43

Evans (2009) + bourdieu (1984) study on class identity and self exclusion

Answer 43

• evans studied a group of 21 w/c girls from south London comprehensive studying a levels. Evans found that they were reluctant to apply to elite unis such as Oxbridge and that the few who did apply felt a sense of hidden barriers to not fitting in.
• bourdieu found many working class people think places like oxbridge as ‘not for the likes of us’. This feeling comes from their habitus, which includes believes about what opportunities really exist for them and wether they would ‘fit’. Dutch thinking becomes part of their identity and ;ends w/c students to exclude themsleves from elite unis
• archer, Ingram and evans also found that girls had a strong attachment to locality e.g only 4 of the 21 girls intended to move away from home for uni
• these studies show a consistent pattern of m/c education system that devalues the experiences of the w/c as worthless or inappropriate.

Question 44

Reay (2005) - class identity and self exclusion

Answer 44

• as reay et al points out, self exclusion from the elite or distant unis narrows the options of many w/c pupils and limited their success

Question 45

The relationship between internal and external factors

Answer 45

internal and external factors are often interrelated:
- w/c pupils habits and identities formed outside of school may conflict with the schools m/c habitus, resulting in symbolic violence and pupils feeling that education is not for the likes of them
- w/c pupils using the restricted speech code (ef) may be labelled by teachers as less able, leading to a self fulfilling prophecy (if)
- as Dunne and gazeley show, an internal factor - what teachers believe about the w/c pupils homes bacrounds (ef) - actually produces underachievement
- poverty could lead to bullying and stigmatisation from peers in turn may lead to taunting and failure