Class Differences: Internal

Question 1

Becker

Answer 1

• Labelling - teachers attach a meaning to a student.
• Interview found m/c’s work, conduct + appearance labelled them as the ideal pupil; w/c was furthest away as badly behaved.
• w/c students are more likely to be placed in a lower stream.

Question 2

Hempel-Jorgensen

Answer 2

• Notions vary according to the social makeup of schools.
• In w/c schools, pupils are judged in terms of their behaviour - the ideal pupil is: quiet, passive, obedient.
• In m/c schools, pupils are defined by their academic performance.

Question 3

Dunne + Gazeley

Answer 3

• Labels + assumptions produce underachievement.
• Teachers normalised the underachievement of w/c students.

Question 4

Rist

Answer 4

• Teacher’s used info about home background to sort students into tables.
• Tigers - m/c, fast learners.
• Cardinals - w/c, medium abilities.
• Clowns - w/c, troublesome.

Question 5

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (SFP)

Answer 5

• Rosenthal + Jacobson: Pygmalion effect - fake IQ test labelled random 20% as bloomers, who progressed with more IQ points a year later.
• Interactionism: what people believe to be true will have true effects.

Question 6

Setting vs Streaming

Answer 6

• Setting - placement of students into ability classes within individual subjects.
• Streaming - placement of students into ability groups going across all subjects.
• SFP is more likely to occur when streamed.

Question 7

Douglas

Answer 7

Children placed in lower streams at 8 suffered a decline in their IQ score.

Question 8

Gillborn + Youdell

Answer 8

• Teachers use stereotypical notions of ‘ability’ to stream students - less likely to see w/c (+ black) as having ability.
• A* to C - schools focus time + effort on those with potential to achieve in order to boost the school’s league table position.
• Educational triage - w/c students are labelled as ‘hopeless cases’, so ‘warehoused’ in the lower / bottom sets.

Question 9

Lacey

Answer 9

• Focuses on how pupil subcultures develop.
• Differentiation - teachers categorise students according to how they perceive their ability, attitude + behaviour into streams.
• Polarisation - pupils’ response to streaming: pro-school subculture - m/c, committed to the school’s values; anti-school subculture - w/c, low streams, so attempt to gain status among peers, e.g. smoking, truanting, etc.

Question 10

Hargreaves

Answer 10

• Boys in lower streams were labelled as triple failures: failed 11+; placed in a low stream; labelled as ‘worthless louts’.

Question 11

Ball

Answer 11

Removal of streaming led to a decline in anti-school subcultures.

Question 12

Wood

Answer 12

• Ingratiation - teacher’s pet.
• Ritualism - staying out of trouble.
• Retreatism - daydreaming.
• Rebellion - rejection of school values.

Question 13

Furlong

Answer 13

Response changes depending on teacher / subject.

Question 14

Bourdieu

Answer 14

• w/c habitus includes beliefs about what opportunities really exist for them + whether they would ‘fit in’.
• Symbolic violence - reproduces class structure, w/c as inferior.
• Habitus - school has a m/c habitus, stigmatising w/c identities.

Question 15

Archer

Answer 15

Nike identity - counter response to not lose their identity.

Question 16

Ingram

Answer 16

w/c boys faced pressure to ‘fit in’ at grammar school.

Question 17

Maguire

Answer 17

w/c cultural capital counted for nothing in a grammar school.

Question 18

Evans

Answer 18

• w/c girls were reluctant to apply to elite universities (e.g. Oxbridge) as they felt that they may not ‘fit in’.
• Attachment to locality (4/21 intended to study + move away from their homes).

Question 19

Reay

Answer 19

Self-exclusion from elite + distant universities limits their success.

Question 20

External + Internal Factors

Answer 20

• w/c habitus formed outside school conflicts with m/c school’s habitus, resulting in symbolic violence (Bourdieu).
• w/c pupils using restricted speech codes (Bernstein) may be labelled as less able.
• What teachers think about w/c background helps to produce underachievement.
• Poverty may lead to stigmatisation + bullying by peer groups.