Education Internal factors - Topic 2

Question 1

labelling

Answer 1

-to attach a meaning or definition to a student, for example a teacher labbeling a student bright, troublemaker, or thick
-studys shown that teachers often label students not because of there attitude or ability but on stereotypes about there class background

Question 2

Becker
interactionalist study on 60 teachers labelling

Answer 2

-based on interviews with 60 teachers from chicago
-pupils work, conduct and appearance were key factors in their judgment
-middle class students were seen as ideal, whereas WC students were furthest away regardless if behaviour

Question 3

self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 3

-the teacher labels a student and the student then internalises it which becomes part of their self concept and image.

Question 4

Rosenthal and Jacobson
teachers expectations primary school

Answer 4

-told the teachers they had a test to identify those who will spurt ahead
-this was untrue and was simply an iq test
-they then picked a random sample of 20 and labelled them spurters and returned a year later to find almost half had made significant progress and believed it was due to the teachers imposing there beliefs onto the students

Question 5

streaming (sets)

Answer 5

streaming involves seperating children of different abilities into different groups or classes called streams
-studies show that streams and the self fulfilling prophecy are linked
-As Becker shows teachers do not usually see WC students as ideal pupils resulting to them being in lower streams

Question 6

streaming self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 6

-once streamed its hard to move up and often are locked into teachers low expectations of them where they believe the teachers written them off
-this creates a self fulfilling prophecy in which students live up to teachers low expectations

Question 7

Gilbourn and youdell
streaming and A to C economy

Answer 7

-link streaming to the policy of publishing exam league tables
-A-C economy is a sytem where schools focus there time and effort on those pupils that they beleive can get 5 Cs to boost school league tables

Question 8

educational triage and labelling

Answer 8

-they call the proccess of a-c economy an educational triage. triage means to sort
-this is where they focus on those with chances of potential to get a c grade and focus on them, ignore those who they believe are hopeless cases and let those who will pass anyway get on with it.

-those who are labelled hopeless cases produce sfp and internalise it and give up once in bottom streams
-these market policies than have micro level proccesses to class differences in achievement

Question 9

pupil subcultures

Answer 9

-a group of pupils that share similiar values and behaviour patterns
-often emerge as a reponse to labelling and a reaction to streaming

Question 9

Laceys concept of differentiation and polarisation to explain how pupil subcultures develop

Answer 9

differentiation: process of teachers catergorising pupils based on ability/attitude e.g. streaming. this also gives status to those placed in high streams

polarisation: the way pupils respond to streaming by moving to the 2 opposite poles or extremes. anti school subcultures and pro school subcultures

Question 10

pro school subculture

Answer 10

-mainly MC students
-commited to the values of school
-gain status through academic success

Question 11

anti school subculture

Answer 11

-WC students
-students try to gain status through alternative way such as inverting the schools values.
-gain status amoung peers e.g. smoking, truanting, not doing homework

Question 12

Ball abolshing streaming

Answer 12

-in favour of teaching mixed ability groups to reduce polarisation
-however although the anti school subculture declined differntiation still occured due to teacher labelling

-since balls study and the introduction of the education reform act the trend towards streaming and a variety of types of schools increased, leaving more oppurtunities for differentiation on the basis of class, gender and ethnicity.

Question 13

woods variety of pupil responses

Answer 13

-ingratiation: being the teachers pet
-ritualism: going through the motions and staying out of trouble
-retreatism: daydreaming or messing about
-rebellion: outright rejection of everything the school stands for

however furlong says that not every student is commited to one response and moves between them

Question 14

criticisms of labelling

Answer 14

-been accused of been deterministic and assumes all pupils labelled self fulfill
-marxist accuse them of ignoring wider structure of power and fails to explain why they have been labelled.
-argues that it reproduces class ineqaulity

Question 15

pupils’ class identities and the school
habitus

Answer 15

-habitus refers to the dispositions or learned/taken for granted ways of thinking, acting or being compared by a particular social class. it includes their tastes and prefrences about lifestyles and consumptions
-a groups habitus formed as a response to its position in the class structure

Question 16

middle class habitus

Answer 16

-the midde has the power to define its habitus as superior and to impose it on the education system, as a result the school puts a higher value on middle class tastes, prefrences and so on.
-this gives the MC students advantages.

Question 17

symbolic capital and violence

Answer 17

-because schools have a MC habitus pupils socialised at home in MC family have symbolic capital or status. this is where there recognised at school and are deemed to have worth or value
-in contrast WC students are deemed tasteless and worthless

-Bourdieu calls this clash symbolic violence and believed it reporiduces class inequality keeping the WC in place

Question 18

Archer symbolic capital

Answer 18

-archer found that is WC students wanted to be educationally successful then they would change the way they talked and presented themselves, thus educational success can be seen as a process of losing yourself.

Question 19

‘nike’ identities

Answer 19

-symbolic violence lead to them to seek alternative ways to creating self worth,status and values for example investing heavily in styles, especially through branded clothing such as nike.
-not conforming to style performances can lead to social suicide
-at the same time it conflicted with the schools dress code leaving those students to be labelled as rebels

Question 20

nike styles play a part in rejection of higher education

Answer 20

-saw uni as undesirable and unrealistic

-unrealistic: because its not for people like us but for posher richer and smarter people. it was also seen as unaffordable and risky
-undesirable: because it would not suit their preffered life style or habitus, for example not living on student loan as you coudnt afford their street style

Question 21

working class identity and educational success

Answer 21

-Archers study deals with the relationship between working class identity and educational failure, however some working class students do succeed

Question 22

Ingrams study on the working class

Answer 22

-focused on two groups of WC catholic boys from the same highly deprived neighbourhood.
-one group passed there 11 plus exam went to a grammar school and the other failed and went to a local secondary school
-the grammar school had a high middle class habitus, whereas the secondary school had a habitus of low expectations
-Ingram found that the WC identity came with the locality, which is the key part to the habitus

Question 23

Class identity and self exlusion

Answer 23

-the clash between working class identity and the habitus of higher education is barrier to success. This is partly due to self exlusion

-for example Evans studied a group of 21 working class girls from SL and found they was reluctant to apply to the elite universties such as oxford and those who did apply felt there was hidden barriers and of not fitting in.

-Bourdieu found that many WC students found that the ‘likes of us’ didnt belong to obridge, and the feeling comes from the habitus

-these studies showed a pattern of MC educarion system devaluing the experiences and choiced of working class people as worthless or innapropriate, as a result WC students have to abandon their idenitites or conform to the MC habitus

Question 24

the relationship between internal and external factors

Answer 24

-they are often interalated for example the restricted speech code (external factor) can lead to teacher labelling, furthermore on to self fulfilling prophecy (internal factors)
-poverty; an external factor may lead to bullying and stigmatisation, an internal process, producing under achievment.

-wider proccesses outside of the school may effect proccesses within it such as streaming. Gilborn and Youdell argue its external factors that drive a-c economy and results to labelling and streaming.