Education - Internal Factors (Class Difference) Flashcards
What is labelling?
The process by which powerful individuals/groups apply a positive or negative expectation onto another individual/group
Which class is labelled positively in the education system?
The middle class
Who did Howard Becker study?
60 high school students in Chicago
What did Howard Becker find out?
Teachers prejudged pupils on how closely they fit their idea of an ‘ideal pupil’
(Judged based on appearance, work, behaviours)
What did Amelia Hempel-Jorgensen find out?
Teachers’ ideas of an ‘ideal pupil’ can be shaped by the schools in which they work in
W/C Environment: Quiet, passive, obedient
M/C Environment: Hard working, determined
What did Dunne + Gazeley do?
Interviewed 9 high schools in England
What did Dunne + Gazeley find out?
Teachers would normalise the underachievement of working class pupils as they believe they couldn’t be changed, whereas effort was given to m/c pupils to help them succeed
What did Ray Rist do?
Examined how kindergarten teachers labelled pupils based on their backgrounds and physical appearance
(Grouped into The Tigers and The Cardinals and The Clowns)
What is the self-fulfilling prophecy?
When people become the label that has been applied to them because of how they are treated
What did Rosenthal + Jacobson do?
20% of pupils were assigned as ‘spurters’, which was told to the teachers. They were selected at random.
47% of ‘spurters’ made significant progress over their classmates because of their treatment and self-belief
What is streaming?
Storting pupils into different groups based on their abilities
What are the disadvantages of streaming?
Lower streams are not challenged in education, leading to lower IQ and worse performance
W/C children often end up in lower streams
What is the educational triage?
(Gillborn and Youdell)
A streaming policy within schools that correlated to the A-to-C economy
What is differentiation?
(Colin Lacey)
Teachers categorising pupils based on how they percieve their ability, attitude, and behaviour
What is polarisation?
(Colin Lacey)
A process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving to one of the oppsite ‘poles’ or extremes
What are the characteristics of a pro-school subculture?
- Pupils in high streams
- Gain status through approved manner (academic success)
- Values align with those of the school
- Largely middle-class
What are the characteristics of an anti-school subculture?
- Pupils in lower streams
- Often working-class
- Low self-esteem
- Gains status by inverting the school’s values
- Traunting, not doing homework, smoking
What negative effects continued when streaming was abolished?
(Stephan Ball)
- Pupil labelling
- Middle-class were labelled better
What is a limitation of the labelling theory?
It is determinsitic
- Some labels don’t stick
- Some actively reject their labels
What do Marxists think of labelling?
- Argue it largely ignores the structure of power within society and fails to explain why students are labelled
- Argue that the entire education system is aimed at increasing inequality in schools
What is habitus?
(Bourdieu 1984)
The way in which certain social groups form opinions and they types of behaviours that are learned and taken-for-granted.
A way of life for a particular social class.
What are ‘Nike identities’?
(Archer)
Working-class students who generated thier own status and self-worth throught style and clothing brands.
- Heavily policed by peer groups
- Ensured safety from bullying
- Conflicted with the dress code
- Percieved as rebellious
What was Ingram’s 2009 study about?
- Studied 2 groups of working-class Catholic boys in Belfast
- 1 group went to grammar school and the other went to a local secondary school
- The working-class prioritised community and branded streetware
- Callum (a grammar student) was picked on for wearing a tracksuit on non-uniform day
- Working-class pupils had to abandon their identity if they wanted to succeed
