Class Differences in Achievement - Internal Flashcards
What is meant by labelling?
Labelling is attaching a meaning or definition to someone, often based on prejudice or assumption.
What is meant in sociology by the ideal pupil?
Becker (1971) found that teachers judged students on how close they were to their ideal pupil. For most, middle class students were closest so they were treated better and with higher expectations than their working class peers.
Hempel-Jorgensen (2009) found that, in predominantly working class schools, the ideal pupil was based more on qualities than class.
How might labelling affect a student’s quality of education?
Rist (1970) found that information about background and appearance led to students being placed in groups like ‘Tigers’ and ‘Clowns’. This would affect the attention given to students and how much they were pushed to improve. Since most working class pupils ended up in ‘Clowns’, the working class students were given lower level reading and less chance to succeed.
Cicourel and Kitsuse (1963) found that counsellors assessed students on class and race and would refer middle class students to higher level courses.
How does labelling affect the information and knowledge students receive?
Keddie (1971) found that teachers 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?
A teacher labels a student and begins to treat them accordingly. The pupil then internalises the teacher’s expectations which leads them to become the kind of pupil they were perceived to be in the first place.
Is there any proof of the self-fulfilling prophecy?
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) randomly selected 20% of pupils in a school as ‘spurters’ and only told the teachers. They found that the students labelled such often did significantly better than other students, proving teachers likely caused a self-fulfilling prophecy. Those predicted to make better progress were given more encouragement and had higher expectations.
What is streaming and how does it affect achievement?
Streaming is when students are divided in school based on their ability level. This can create or reinforce labels for students.
What is one theory on how streaming affects the treatment of students?
Gillbourn and Youdell (2004) described the educational triage - one way students are streamed in schools. Pupils are put through a triage system which means they are either labelled as:
A) Those who pass anyway
B) Borderline (C/D) and targeted for help
C) Hopeless cases
This system is heavily based on stereotypes meaning working class pupils and black pupils are more likely to be placed in lower sets, even when gaining similar results to middle class or white pupils.
How do pupil subcultures to do with social class affect achievement?
Hargreaves (1967) found that students in lower streams who had been labelled as trouble makers rebelled against the school. They had developed a non-conformist subculture in which getting in trouble was valued and conforming was looked down on. This meant there was a polarisation of pupils into pro-school and anti-school subcultures.
Are there class divisions in school?
Willis (1977) found there were pronounced class divisions in school. These caused polarisation as working class students formed anti-school peer groups which also looked down on middle class values. Willis believed this was due to the position of boys from different class backgrounds, not the school teachers.
Evaluate these interactionist theories.
- They focus heavily on internal factors and ignore wider inequalities and external factors (apart from Willis).
- Labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy theory are too deterministic. Labelling can have no effect on students or even the opposite effect - Fuller (1984) found that a group of black, working-class girls were labelled as failures but they responded by working harder to achieve success.
- The theories are limited and don’t account for the wide range of responses a school might have - not all teachers act the same.
- Many of the studies are based on male peer groups and are less applicable to female peer groups.
