Class Differences in Education (3) Flashcards
What does DEA stand for?
Differential Educational Attainment.
What does Differential Educational Attainment mean?
Not all social groups perform equally well in education. Social groups are Social class, gender and ethnicity. These group have variations and differences from each other, but also have differences within a group.
For example, the genders achieve differently, as do the social classes (WC and MC) and ethnic groups (Indian, Chinese, Black, White).
What are the external factors that cause class differences?
- Material deprivation.
- Cultural deprivation.
- Capital (cultural, economic, educational, social).
- Social policies - Marketisation.
What is meant by external factors?
Factors that happen outside the school e.g. the home or wider society.
What is meant by internal factors?
Factors that happen inside the school or the educational system.
What are the internal factors that cause class differences?
- Labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Pupil subcultures and streaming.
- Social policies - Marketisation / selection.
- Pupil class identities.
What does Material Deprivation mean?
Lacking material items / financial support to help with educational success.
What does Cultural Deprivation?
Lacking the attitudes, values and cultures which encourages, educational success.
The ethos of a school refers to the attitude or philosophy of a school, what might this include?
Religion. Morals. How they deal with racism, sexism etc. Parent involvement. Non tolerance of bulling. How students are rewarded and what for. Activities they participate in - visits to partner schools other countries. Enrichment activities. Uniforms. Sport facilities.
How is the ethos of the school reflected in?
The hidden curriculum in addition to the studying of formal subjects.
What do Bowles and Gintis’s view school promote?
Schools promote capitalist values and hierarchies has already been mentioned.
What do interactionaists believe about pupils and the educational system?
Interactionists believe that pupils are not passive victims of the education system but play an active part in their learning.
What do interactionaists argue about the educational achievement?
They argue that educational achievement is dependent on our interaction with others and they way we interpret and define situation.
What does Howard Becker (1971) believe about teachers?
Howard Becker (1971) believed that teachers tend to evaluate pupils in terms of an ideal student, by looking at appearance, personality, speech and class.
What did Howard Becker (1971) find about teachers?
Becker found that teachers saw middle-class children as the closest to the ideal, the lower working-class children were regarded as badly behaved. Teachers stereotype pupils and often label them. The label can be positive or negative. A positive can produce a ‘halo effect’. Both positive and negative labels can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy (pupils conform to the label they have been given and act accordingly). Teachers constantly reinforce their initial positive or negative judgements in all subsequent interactions with students, resulting in the pupil being ‘trapped’ in that perception.
What did Waterhouse (2004) argue about labelling?
Waterhouse (2004) argues that being trapped in a perception that has been created by the self-fulfilling prophecy then becomes a ‘privotel identity’ for the student/teacher relationship. This is a core identity providing a pivot which teachers use to interpret classroom behaviour. For example, if a teacher has labelled a student as deviant he/she will interpret ‘normal or good behaviour’ as a temporary episode.
What did Ray Rist’s (1970) study?
Ray Rist’s (1970) study of an American kindergarten shows how labelling occurs from the start.
What did Ray Rist’s (1970) find in his study?
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. Those she decided were fast learners, whom she labeled tigers tended to be middle-class anf of neat and clean appearance. She seated these at the table nearest to her and showed them encouragement. On the other hand, ‘the clowns’ were more likely to be working class. They were given lower level books to read and fewer opportunities to demonstrate their abilities.
Who conducted a field experiment that looked at the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’?
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)
What was the aims of the field experiment that looked at the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’?
There aims were to plant int he minds of the teachers a particular set of expectations about their pupils and, secondly, to see if this had any effects on pupil performance.
What was done in the field experiment that looked at the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’?
They labelled some children ‘spurters’ by administering a fake IQ test. This was to see whether the label given would cause a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’.
What was found a year later in the field experiment that looked at the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’?
On returning to the school a year later they found that almost half of the ‘spurters’ had made significant progress. This was because the teachers had believed what had been told and this influenced how the children were taught.
What did Cicourel and Kitsuse (1971) study?
Cicourel and Kitsuse (1971) studied American high school careers advisers, who directed students towards different courses and career influenced by their social class, demeanour, speech and conduct reports. Students with the same grades were assigned to course of different levels because of labelling.
What are the evaluating points of the labelling theory?
- Critics regard labelling as too deterministic, as students are free agents who can reject labels if determined to do to. Parental support may be more influential.
- Teachers in Britain are now under pressure to achieve the best possible results from all students, so are less likely to neglect groups they think may have less potential.
- Studies such as the ones above have featured in teacher training, so teachers are warned against labelling and this has been reinforced by recent inclusion policies.
- However, researchers such as David Gillborn (1990) have found that well-meaning teachers unknowingly hold expectations of particular ethic groups that can lead to unfair treatment, classroom confrontations and unjustified expulsion.