class differences in achievement internal factors

Question 1

interactionists

Answer 1

study small-scale,
face-to-face interactions between individuals, such as in the
classroom or playground. They are interested in how people
attach labels to one another, and the effects that this has on
those who are labelled.

Question 2

labelling

Answer 2

To label someone is to attach a meaning or definition to
them. For example, teachers may label a pupil as bright or
thick, troublemaker or hardworking.
- Studies show that teachers often attach such labels
regardless of the pupil’s actual ability or attitude. Instead,
they label pupils on the basis of stereotyped assumptions
about their class background, labelling working-class pupils
negatively and middle-class pupils positively.

Question 3

Becker (1971)

Answer 3

carried out an important interactionist
study of labelling. Based on interviews with 60 Chicago high
school teachers, he found that they judged pupils according
to how closely they fitted an image of the ‘ideal pupil’.

Question 4

Máiréad Dunne and Louise Gazeley (2008)

Answer 4

argue that ‘schools persistently produce working-class underachievement’ because of the labels and assumptions of teachers.
From interviews in nine English state secondary schools, they found that teachers ‘normalised’ the underachievement of working-class pupils, seemed unconcerned by it and felt they could do little or nothing about it, whereas they believed they could overcome the underachievement of middle-class pupils.

Question 5

ray rist 1970

Answer 5

He found that the teacher used
information about children’s home background and appearance to place them in separate groups, seating each group at a different table.
- fast learners labelled as tigers
- clowns and cardinals labelled as slow learners most likely working class

Question 6

self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 6

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that comes true simply by virtue of it having been made.Interactionists argue that labelling can affect pupils’ achievement by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Question 7

step1 of self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 7

The teacher labels a pupil (e.g. as being very
intelligent) and on the basis of this label, makes predictions
about him (e.g. he will make outstanding academic progress).

Question 8

step 2 of self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 8

The teacher treats the pupil accordingly, acting
as if the prediction is already true (e.g. by giving him
more attention and expecting a higher standard of work
from him).

Question 9

step3 of self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 9

The pupil internalises the teacher’s expectation,
which becomes part of his self-concept or self-image, so
that he now actually becomes the kind of pupil the teacher
believed him to be in the first place. He gains confidence,
tries harder and is successful. The prediction is fulfilled.

Question 10

rosenthall and jacobson 1968

Answer 10

told the school that they had a new test specially designed to show which students will spurt ,this was untrue because it was just an IQ test .
- they picked 20% of the students at random and lied that theses kids were spurters
-returning a year later 47% of those who were identified as spurters made progress
- Rosenthal and Jacobson suggest that the teachers’ beliefs
about the pupils had been influenced by the supposed test results. The teachers had then conveyed these beliefs to the pupils through the way they interacted with them – for example, through their body language and the amount of attention and encouragement they gave them.

Question 11

streaming

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

streaming and the a to c economy

Answer 12

gillbourn found that teachers less likely to see working class students as being able and teachers place them for easier exams which doesn’t let them to shorten the gap with the brighter students.
- these link tot exam league timetables which rank schools according to its exam performance and the better the grades the more funding they are having to attract pupils .
- this creates an a to c economy which schools focus their time, effort and resources on those pupils they see as having the potential to get five
grade Cs and so boost the school’s league table position.

Question 13

educational triage

Answer 13

Schools categorise pupils into three types: - Those who will pass anyway and can be left to get on with it.
- Those with potential, who will be helped to get a grade C or better.
- Hopeless cases, who are doomed to fail.

Question 14

pupil subcultures

Answer 14

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

Question 15

lacey 1970

Answer 15

differentiation- the process of teachers categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and/or behaviour.
ploarisation -process in which
pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite ‘poles’ or extremes. pro and anti school subcultures

Question 16

pro school subculture

Answer 16

Pupils placed in high streams (who are largely middle-class) tend to
remain committed to the values of the school. They gain their status in the approved manner, through academic success.

Question 17

anti school subculture

Answer 17

Those placed in low streams
suffer a loss of self-esteem: the school has undermined their
self-worth by placing them in a position of inferior status.
This label of failure pushes them to search for alternative ways of gaining status. Usually this involves inverting
(turning upside down) the school’s values of hard work, obedience and punctuality

Question 18

abolishing streaming

Answer 18

Ball found that when the school abolished banding, the basis
for pupils to polarise into subcultures was largely removed and the influence of the anti-school subculture declined. Nevertheless, although pupil polarisation all but
disappeared, differentiation continued. Teachers continued
to categorise pupils differently and were more likely to label middle-class pupils as cooperative and able.

Question 19

education reform act 1988

Answer 19

trend towards more streaming
and towards a variety of types of school, some of which
have a more academic curriculum than others. This has 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 (2001) show.

Question 20

variety of pupil responses
- peter woods 1979

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

Furlong (1984)

Answer 21

observes, many pupils are not committed permanently to any one response, but may move between different types of response, acting differently in lessons with different teachers.

Question 22

criticisms of the labelling theory

Answer 22

However, labelling theory has been accused of determinism.
That is, it assumes that pupils who are labelled have no
choice but to fulfil the prophecy and will inevitably fail.
However, studies such as Mary Fuller’s (1984) show that this is not always true.
- Marxists also criticise labelling theory for ignoring the wider
structures of power within which labelling takes place. Labelling theory tends to blame teachers for labelling pupils, but fails to explain why they do so.
- Marxists argue that labels are not merely the result of teachers’ individual prejudices, but stem from the fact that teachers work in a system that reproduces class divisions.

Question 23

Habitus

Answer 23

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 tastes and preferences about lifestyles and consumption (such as
fashion and leisure pursuits), their outlook on life and their expectations about what is normal or realistic for ‘people like us’. A group’s habitus is formed as a response to its
position in the class structure.

Question 24

symbolic capital and symbolic capital

Answer 24

Because schools have a middle-class habitus, pupils who have been socialised at home into middle-class tastes and preferences gain ‘symbolic capital’ or status and recognition
from the school and are deemed to have worth or value.
By contrast, the school devalues the working-class habitus, so that working-class pupils’ tastes (for example in clothing, appearance and accent) are deemed to be tasteless and worthless. Bourdieu calls this withholding of symbolic capital ‘symbolic violence’. By defining the working class and their tastes and
lifestyles as inferior, symbolic violence reproduces the class structure and keeps the lower classes ‘in their place’.

Question 25

Nike identities

Answer 25

Many pupils were conscious that society and school looked down on them. This symbolic violence led them to seek alternative ways of creating self-worth, status and value.
They did so by constructing meaningful class identities for themselves by investing heavily in ‘styles’, especially through consuming branded clothing such as Nike.
However, at the same time, it led to conflict with the school’s dress code. Reflecting the school’s middle-class
habitus, teachers opposed ‘street’ styles as showing ‘bad taste’ or even as a threat. Pupils who adopted street styles risked being labelled as rebels.
- Nike styles also play a part in working-class pupils’ rejection of higher education,
- Unrealistic because it was not for ‘people like us’, but for richer, posher, cleverer people, and they would not fit in. It was also seen as an unaffordable and risky investment.
l Undesirable because it would not suit’ their preferred
lifestyle or habitus. For example, they did not want to live on a student loan because they would be unable to afford the street styles that gave them their identity.

Question 26

working class identity and educational success

Answer 26

Archer’s study largely deals with the relationship between
working-class identity and educational failure. However, some working-class pupils do succeed.

Question 27

ingram 2009

Answer 27

Ingram found that having a working-class identity was inseparable from belonging to a working-class locality. The neighbourhood’s dense networks of family and friends were a key part of the boys’ habitus. It gave them an intense feeling of belonging. As in Archer’s study, street culture and
branded sportswear were a key part of the boys’ habitus and sense of identity.
- However, as Ingram notes, working-class communities place great emphasis on conformity. The boys experienced a great pressure to ‘fit in’ and this was a particular problem for the grammar school boys, who experienced a tension between
the habitus of their working-class neighbourhood

Question 28

class identity and self exclusion

Answer 28

Even here, however, the clash between working-class identity and
the habitus of higher education is a barrier to success. This is partly due to a process of self-exclusion.
-

Question 29

evans 2009

Answer 29

studied a group of 21 working-class girls from a south London comprehensive studying for their A-levels. Evans found that they were reluctant to apply to elite universities such as Oxbridge and that the few who did apply felt a sense of hidden barriers and of not fitting in.

Question 30

Bourdieu (1984),

Answer 30

many working-class people think of places like Oxbridge as being ‘not for the likes of us’. This feeling comes from their habitus, which includes
beliefs about what opportunities really exist for them and whether they would ‘fit in’. Such thinking becomes part of their identity and leads working-class students to exclude themselves from elite universities.
consistent pattern of a middle-class education system that
devalues the experiences and choices of working-class

Question 31

choices of working class

Answer 31

Studies like those of Evans, Ingram and Archer show a consistent pattern of a middle-class education system that devalues the experiences and choices of working-class people as worthless or inappropriate. As a result, working- class pupils are often forced to choose between maintaining their working-class identities, or abandoning them and conforming to the middle-class habitus of education in order to succeed.

Question 32

the relationship between internal and external factors

Answer 32

Working-class pupils’ habitus and identities formed
outside school may conflict with the school’s middle-class
habitus, resulting in symbolic violence and pupils feeling
that education is not for the likes of them. Working-class pupils using the restricted speech code
(an external cultural factor) may be labelled by teachers
as less able, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy (an
internal factor).
As Dunne and Gazeley show, an internal factor – what
teachers believe about working-class pupils’ home
backgrounds (an external factor) – actually produces
underachievement.
Poverty – an external material factor – may lead to
bullying and stigmatisation by peer groups – an internal
process within school. In turn this may lead to truanting
and failure.
l Wider external factors outside the individual school
may affect processes within it, such as streaming. For
example, national educational policies use GCSE league
tables to measure schools’ performance, allocate funding
and even close some schools down as ’failing’. Gillborn
and Youdell argue that it is this external factor that
drives the A-to-C economy and results in labelling and
streaming within schools.