Education - Class and Achievement

Question 1

What is labelling?

Answer 1

Labelling is the process of attaching meanings (judgements) to individuals or groups.

Question 2

What did becker find?

Answer 2

Interviewed 60 high school teachers in Chicago.

Findings:
Teachers have an image of what is ‘an ideal pupil’ and they judge pupils on how closely they fit this ideal. Pupils are labelled based on their behaviour and appearance.
Middle class pupils tended to be seen as closest to the teachers’ image of an ideal pupil, working class pupils were seen as badly behaved putting them further away from the ideal.

Question 3

Critics of Becker

Answer 3

British studies by Hempel-Jorgensen show that teachers have different notions of an ideal pupil and it is not always linked to the class background of the pupil. For example, in a mainly working class school where there was a lot of behavioural problems, teachers saw the ideal pupil as quiet and obedient.

Question 4

Who did RIST research?

Answer 4

Studied US kindergartens (nursery schools).

Question 5

What did RIST find?

Answer 5

Within 8 days of starting school, children were seated around tables in groups.
The judgements about where to place the children were made by the teacher based on the information the teacher had about their home background and the judgements the teacher made based on the children’s appearance.
Middle class children and those of neat appearance (‘tigers’) were seated at the front near the teacher. They received the most attention and encouragement.
Working class children sat at the back and were given low level reading books (‘cardinals’, ‘clowns’).

Question 6

what is a self fulfilling prophecy ?

Answer 6

prediction that comes true simply because it was made

Question 7

what are pupil subcultures ?

Answer 7

group of pupils who share similar values and behaviours which are different to the mainstream

Question 8

what is streaming ?

Answer 8

placing students into classes by ability and then teaching each class separately from others in all subjects

Question 9

what is setting ?

Answer 9

putting students into sets depending on ability but can vary by subject

Question 10

what is differentation ?

Answer 10

Differentiation is the process through which teachers categorise pupils
according to what they perceive the students’ ability and behaviour to be like.

Question 11

what is polarisation ?

Answer 11

polarisation which is the process in which pupils respond
to streaming by moving to one of two opposite ‘poles’ or extremes.

Question 12

how is streaming a form of differentation?

Answer 12

places students into different
classes according to their ability. Students perceived as able are placed into
higher streams, those seen as less able as placed into lower streams.

Question 13

who came up with polarisation and differentation ?

Answer 13

Lacey

Question 14

pro school subcultures

Answer 14

consist of good high achieving kids (MC) that remain committed to school values

Question 15

anti school subculture

Answer 15

tends to be w/c kids that are in lower streams that decreases their self esteem so they have to look for status from something else rather then educational achievement
- tend to truant and be rude to teachers and also form a self fuffling prophecy of they are going to fail

Question 16

what school did hargreaves study

Answer 16

studied secondary modern

Question 17

what did hargreaves find?

Answer 17

the edu system saw w/c boys in lower sets as triple failures and as they failed their 11+ exam , are in the bottom stream and called “worthless louts”

Question 18

what research did lacey carry out ?

Answer 18

carried out a study of hightown boys grammer school through participant and non participant observation for 18 months

Question 19

what did lacey find?

Answer 19

Students in pro-school s/c develop pro-school
attitudes and succeed, while students in
anti-school s/c develop anti-school attitudes and
underachieve.

Lacey found that w/c students are placed in
bottom streams which explains why w/c students
underachieve.

Question 20

what school did ball research and what did he find?

Answer 20

Students in pro-school s/c develop pro-school
attitudes and succeed, while students in
anti-school s/c develop anti-school attitudes and underachieve.
Lacey found that w/c students are placed in bottom streams which explains why w/c students
underachieve.

Question 21

acc to ball what causes s/c to form ?

Answer 21

teachers continued to differentiate and label students
according to their social class background. m/ students were more likely
to be labelled as cooperative and able and they tended to get better
grades which shows that the self-fulfilling prophecy did occur.
This shows that even without streaming, the class differences in
achievement continue due to negative labelling of pupils by teachers and
the self-fulfilling prophecy it causes.
Therefore, according to Ball, teacher labelling leads to formation of
subcultures which then affects the students’ achievement.

Question 22

what does woods argue causes subcultures to form ?

Answer 22

that labelling and streaming lead to s/c, but that
students can respond in 4 different ways,

Question 23

acc to woods what are the 4 types of subcultures?

Answer 23

Ingratiation – being the teacher’s pet.

Ritualism – going through the motions of attending lessons,
doing the work, staying out of trouble.

Retreatism – daydreaming and messing around.

Rebellion – rejection of school’s values.

Question 24

crits of subculture theory

Answer 24

theories are determinstic - assumes all children will follow the self fuffiling prophecy
It blames the teachers for labelling, but doesn’t
explain why they label students. Marxists argue
that teachers work in a system that reproduces
inequality so it’s not their fault.

Question 25

what is marketisation of education

Answer 25

Marketisation of education refers to running schools like businesses on the
principles of free market economy.

Question 26

what act introduced the marketisation of education

Answer 26

education reform act 1988

Question 27

what were the 3 policies ? marketisation

Answer 27

competition , choice , no gov interference

Question 28

what did the education reform act introduce?

Answer 28

Open enrolment – parents can send their child(ren) to any school of their choice.
Formula funding - all schools get an amount of money from the government per student (£3000). The more students a school has, the more money it gets.
Exam league tables – published annually to show the % of pupils who gain 5+ A-C grades. Schools with high % of students gaining 5+ A-C attract more students thus getting more money.
Ofsted – inspections of schools provide information for parents.

Question 29

critics of marketisation

Answer 29

Gillborn and Youdell argue that marketisation of education contributes to widening the gap in achievement between working class and middle class students.
This happens through the A-C economy - a system through which schools allocate time, resources and effort towards those pupils they perceive as having the potential to get 5+ A*-C grades. These students tend to come from middle class backgrounds.

Question 30

critcs 2 of marketisation A- C economy

Answer 30

Educational triage – a process through which teachers decide which students have the greatest chance of getting 5+ A*-C.

Question 31

what do gillborn and youdell argue ?

Answer 31

teachers carry out educational triage - they decide which students:
Will get A* - C – they don’t need extra help.
Will fail – they’re beyond saving – nothing teachers do will help them so there’s no point.
Borderline students – likely get a D, but may also get a C with a little bit of extra help from the teacher. These are the students who then get extra help, e.g. mentoring.

Question 32

what does bartlett argue schools do ?

Answer 32

cream skimming and silt shifting

Question 33

what is cream skimming ?

Answer 33

select the high ability students who will get A*-C and offer them a place at the school. These students tend to be from middle class backgrounds.

Question 34

what is silt shifting ?

Answer 34

reject applications from students with learning difficulties or behavioural problems – as these are likely to underachieve. These students tend to be from working class backgrounds.

Question 35

what does gewirtz say ?

Answer 35

schools attract middle class parents is through the home school contracts. If these are particularly ‘wordy’ and demanding of parents, some, usually w/c parents are likely to be put off and not apply to the school.

Question 36

what does ball say about how schools attract the right sort of parents ?

Answer 36

attract right sort of parents by allocating bunch of funding towards expensive brochures / merchendise in order to attract parents rather then spending money on teacher resources to help aid childrens learning

Question 37

what does Archer argue ?

Answer 37

pupils form their class identities
outside the school, but these then interact with the
values promoted by the school which can affect the pupils achievement

Question 38

what is a habitus ?

Answer 38

certain behaviours and granted ways of thinking that are shared by a particular social class

Question 39

what are nike identities?

Answer 39

This symbolic violence let them to look for alternative ways
to create self-worth and status.
They did so by creating class identities for themselves by
investing in styles through consuming branded clothing such
as Nike. Therefore, wearing brands was a way of creating identity.
These identities were also heavily gendered, for example,
girls adopted a hyper-heterosexual feminine style.

Question 40

who did ingram study ?

Answer 40

two groups of working class Catholic
boys from the same Belfast neighbourhood.

Question 41

what did ingram find ?

Answer 41

she found that w/c boys identity was linked to living in a w/c locality which had a close network of family and friends
this gave them a string w/c habitus and was linked to branded sportwear
one group had passed the 11
+ and the other hadnt

Question 42

who did evans study ?

Answer 42

studied group of 21 w/c high achieving girls that were doing their a levels

Question 43

what did evans find?

Answer 43

The girls were reluctant to apply to Oxbridge and the few who did apply felt a sense of not fitting in.
this is becuase w/c habitus is part of their identity and makes them beleive they wont fit in into top unis
also found that girls had a strong attachment to their locality