EDUCATION - INTERNAL Class differences in achievement Flashcards
INTERNAL
Labelling
Becker
Becker carried out a small interactionist labelling study in 1971
He used interviews with 60 Chicago High school teachers and found they judged pupils based on their similarities with the ‘ideal pupil’
Work, conduct and appearance all influenced their judgement. M.C backgrounds were closest to ideal… W.C were furthest away.
INTERNAL
Labelling
Hemel-Jorgensen PRIMARY
This was a study of two English primary schools in 2009.
In Aspen, a W.C area, behaviour was a major issue. The ideal pupil was defined as passive and quiet.
Students were judged based on behaviour and not on ability.
Rowan school = mainly M.C and so the ideal pupil was defined based on academic ability and not behaviour.
INTERNAL
Labelling
Dunne + Gazeley SECONDARY
They argue that schools encourage and produce W.C underachievement because of teacher labelling. They used interviews from 9 English state schools to find that teachers became used to underachievement and normalised it for the W.C pupils though they believed they could change the underachievement of M.C pupils… this happened because they labelled W.C parents as uninterested but labelled M.C parents as caring. The W.C pupils were entered into easier exams etc.
INTERNAL
Self-fulfilling prophecy
The three steps
- Teacher labels pupil and makes predictions of the pupil
- Teacher treats pupil accordingly.
- Pupil internalises this expectation and it becomes part of their self-image.
INTERNAL
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Rosenthal and Jacobsen 1968
They studied Oak Community School, a primary in California.
They told staff they had a test to determine what pupils would grow faster… this was untrue because it was just an IQ test.
They tested the students and randomly picked 20% and labelled them ‘spurters’.
One year on, 47% of the ‘spurters’ made huge progress. The younger the child, the greater the effect.
The teachers changed their behaviour towards the S… spending more time with them and their body language.
This was a key interactionist perspective… and outlined the dangers of producing under-achievement through self-fulfilling prophecies
INTERNAL
Streaming
Why is it negative?
Douglas
The separation of children based on their ability reiterates the self-fulfilling prophecy.
Once W.C are streamed, they find it difficult to move to a higher seat. The children understand that their teachers do not think they are capable. M.C pupils tend to benefit because they develop positive self-concepts and are placed in higher sets.
Douglas found students placed in lower streams had IQ scores lowered by 11, when set in a lower stream at age 8 - this is the opposite for M.C students.
INTERNAL
Streaming
A-C Economy
Gillborn and Youdell 2001
This explores how teachers use stereotypes to stream and band children… teachers, consequently, were less likely to see W.C and Black students as having ability.
These pupils were placed in lower streams and were forced to sit lower tier GCSEs. They were not given the opportunity to be successful… these sociologists link streaming to the publishing of league tables.
They rank schools based on exam performance and use criteria such as the percentage of students gaining 5+ GCSEs A*-C grades which creates an economy where schools only focus on the pupils who have the potential to get 5 grade Cs or more to boost the school’s league table position within the country.
INTERNAL
Streaming
Educational Triage
Gillborn and Youdell 2001
The term triage was used to separate soldiers on the battlefield according to how serious their injuries were.
There are three segments:
- Walking wounded.. who can be ignored because they can survive.
- Those who die anyway and will be ignored because there are 0 chances of survival.
- Those who have a chance of survival and can be prioritised.
The A-C economy produced triage because pupils are split to those who will get a C, those with the potential to get a C or higher, and those doomed to fail.
INTERNAL
Pupil subcultures
Lacey
What is differentiation and polarisation?
Differentiation + Polarisation
Differentiation is the process of categorising pupils according to how their ability is perceived. Streaming is a form of differentiation because those who are deemed able, are placed in higher streams.
Polarisation is the process where pupils respond to the stream by moving two extreme opposites
INTERNAL
Pupil subcultures
Lacey and Hightown Grammar School
Lacey explores how differentiation and polarisation happened at this Grammar school where there were two subcultures:
Pro School - pupils placed in the higher streams remained loyal to the values of the school and so they gained status through academic success.
Anti School - students placed in lower streams suffered self-esteem losses because the school placed them in an inferior status. The label of failure pushes them towards alternative ways of gaining status e.g., upturning school values of hard work. Joining the subculture solves the issues of lacking status but endorses the failure of the self-fulfilling prophecy.
INTERNAL
Pupil subcultures
Hargreaves 1967 - pupil subcultures as a pathway to educational failure
Found a similar response to streaming in a secondary modern school.
Boys in the lower streams were subject to triple failures because they failed the 11+, were placed in lower streams, and were labelled as failures.
Pupils formed groups where high status was awarded to those snubbing school rules… they formed a subculture which guaranteed failure - sort of like the crime and deviance paper with Cohen’s status frustration and alternative status hierarchy.
INTERNAL
Streaming + subcultures
Stephen Ball 1981
Beachside school - a comprehensive in the process of disbanding banding to teach in mixed ability groups
78% of year 8 pupils in the middle band were W.C in comparison to the 36% in the top bands.
Banding abolished? Polarisation removed and anti-school subcultures’ influence declined.
It was superficial… Teachers still categorised pupils differently and labelled W.C students as uncooperative.
Positive labels were reflected in better exam results
INTERNAL
Pupil subcultures
Significance of Ball’s study
It proved that self-fulfilling prophecies happen regardless of streaming or subcultures.
Since Ball’s study and the ERA in 1988, there has been a trend towards more streaming. Some schools have more academic curriculums than others which means schools have the opportunity to differentiate based on class or gender or ethnicity.
INTERNAL
Pupil subcultures
Woods 1979 - Pupil responses to labelling + streaming
Recognised 4 responses:
Ingratiation - teachers pet
Ritualism - staying out of trouble
Retreatism - daydreaming and messing about
Rebellion - rejecting everything the school stands for
CRITICISMS OF LABELLING THEORY
Interactionists fail to address determinism = the assumption that the pupils who are labelled have no choice but to fulfil them
Marxists also believe that they ignore wider structures of power within society… the labelling theory blames teachers but failed to explain why they label the way they do. Marxists believe that labels are not because of individual prejudice but because of a system that reproduces class division
INTERNAL
Pupil’s Class Identities
Louise Archer 2010
She focuses on the interactions between W.C pupils’ identities formed outside of school and the relationship with the school - this can explain underachievement.
Archer uses the ideas of Habitus to explain this. She addresses how for W.C students, being academically successful translates to ‘losing themselves’ to be posh. They felt unable to access M.C benefits such as university or professional careers because they were often excluded.
INTERNAL
Pupil’s Class Identities
Bourdieu 1984 - Habitus
Habitus refers to the dispositions, the way we think and learn (we take this for granted).
It includes the taste and preference about lifestyles and consumption… perspective of life too.
A group’s habitus is formed as a response to class structure and ranking on it.
The M.C have the power to define their habitus as superior and impose it within the education system… schools consequently place higher value on the M.C habitus… W.C pupils and habitus are seen as inferior.
INTERNAL
Pupil’s Class Identities
Symbolic Capital
Pupils who are socialised into M.C tastes and gain symbolic capital are deemed worth it.
As the W.C habitus is undervalued, they are deemed tasteless and consequently, worthless.
INTERNAL
Pupil’s Class Identities
Symbolic Violence
Withholding the symbolic capital, is symbolic violence and this violence reproduces the class structure because W.C tastes are seen as inferior.
There is a clash between W.C pupil’s habitus and M.C pupil’s habitus… W.C experiences of the world of education are alien and unnatural.
INTERNAL
Pupil’s Class Identities
Nike Identities
Symbolic violence led W.C pupils to find alternative ways of finding self-worth. They constructed meaningful identities for themselves through style investment.
Nike, a brand of the W.C, unlike Guccie or Prada. W/O this style, they’d feel inauthentic. Their identities are strongly gendered. Not conforming to this style would be social suicide. This led to conflict within the school because the school dress code was overridden by this style.
INTERNAL
Pupil’s Class Identities
Nike Identities - Archer
She believes that M.C habitus excludes W.C pupil identities… pupil performances of style were a struggle for recognition.
Nike also contributed to the W.C students seeing university as unrealistic - their investment in this style caused educational marginalisation… self-exclusion.
INTERNAL
W.C pupils DO success - what is the relationship between success academically and W.C identity?
Ingram
She studied two groups in 2009, both were W.C Catholic boys from the same underprivileged neighbourhood in Belfast. One group did very well in their 11+ and went to Grammar school.
The secondary school lads failed their 11+. The grammar school instilled very high M.C habitus and the secondary school had low expectations of their pupils.
Ingram notes that the W.C communities emphasise conformity and so the boys experienced pressure to fit in… the Grammar school lads struggled because they experienced tension with their W.C neighbourhood and M.C school life…. one boy was scrutinised for wearing a tracksuit on non-school uniform day.
INTERNAL
Pupil’s identities and self-exclusion
Evans
A growing number of W.C students go to the university… still, the clashes between habitus form a barrier of success.
Evans studied 21 W.C girls from a comprehensive school in South London who were preparing for their A-Levels.
They did not feel comfortable enough to apply for a Russel Group university. Only 4/21 wanted to move away from home to study.
Bourdieu believes that not fitting in prevents W.C people from feeling as though there are opportunities for them. This leads to self-exclusion from elite university.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS?
- W.C habitus and outside-school-identities can clash with the M.C habitus in schools.
- W.C use restricted speech code with can be labelled as inability in school.
- Teacher perception of home-life can produce underachievement through labelling.
- Poverty leads to stigma at school
- External factors can lead to the A-C economy and setting/streaming.
