Differential Educational Achievement: Class (Internal Factors) Flashcards
What does Middle Class refer to?
Occupations that are mostly white collar and professional jobs.
highly educated
What characterizes the Working Class?
Mostly blue collar and manual jobs with low educational achievement.
What are Internal Factors in education?
Factors inside of the school which influence educational achievement.
What does Educational Triage mean?
Putting students into 3 streams: M/C in the top streams, C/D borderline, W/C in lower streams.
What is the A-C Economy?
Schools are judged based on the number of students who achieve A-C grades at GCSE.
What does Labelling theory suggest?
Teachers often attach a label to a pupil that has little to do with their actual ability or aptitude.
Becker suggests that teacher/ pupil interactions are based upon these labels and can lead to a self fulfilling prophecy.
What is a Self-fulfilling prophecy?
When students take on the label attributed to them by the teacher or school.
What was the finding of Margaret Fuller’s (1984) research?
Black girls labelled as low-achievers responded by studying hard to prove teachers wrong.
What is a key criticism of Labelling theory?
It attributes too much importance to teacher agency.
Deterministic
Focuses on the negative effects (Rosenthal and Jacobson)
Fill in the blank: W/C students usually form an _______ subculture.
anti-school
Fill in the blank: M/C students usually form a _______ subculture.
pro-school
What is the difference between Setting and Streaming?
Setting is the placement of students into ability classes within individual subjects, while Streaming is placement across all subjects.
How does being placed in lower streams affect W/C students?
It can lead to lower self-esteem and limit achievement opportunities.
What is Pupil subculture?
Groups formed by students that influence their attitudes and behaviors towards school.
What is Habitus according to Bourdieu?
Learned or taken for granted ways of thinking, being or acting shared by a particular social class.
It includes their tastes, outlook on life, expectations and what is normal or realistic for people ‘like us’
How does M/C habitus affect W/C students?
M/C habitus is valued by schools, while W/C habitus is devalued, leading W/C students to feel they must change to succeed.
What do Postmodernists argue about class impact on student identity?
Class doesn’t have as much of an impact on students’ identities anymore due to pick and mix culture.
(Evaluation)
True or False: Not all students become part of a pro or anti-school subculture.
True
What behaviors characterize anti-school subcultures?
- Rejection of school values
- Truanting
- Disruption
- Not doing homework
What behaviors characterize pro-school subcultures?
- Committed to school values
- Gain approval/status through academic success
How can a negative label affect achievement
A negative label usually placed on W/C students can lead to students forming an antischool subculture and underachieve at school.
How can a positive label affect achievement
A positive label usually applied to M/C students due to ideal pupil characteristics can lead to a pro-school subculture and help students to achieve at school.
Evaluation of SFP
Deterministic
Rejection of the label - Margaret Fuller’s (1984)
Evaluation of habitus
Postmodernists argue that class doesn’t have as much of an impact on students identity anymore due to the pick and mix culture.
