Education pt 2 Year 13 sociology

Question 1

What did Amelia Hempel-Jorgensen (2009) suggest about labelling?

Answer 1

the ‘ideal pupil’ is different according to social class make-up of the school:
Aspen primary school- mainly w/c- where discipline major problem, the school’s ideal was quiet, passive and obedient= defined by behaviour. Rowan primary school- mainly m/c- few discipline problems, so the child was defined in terms of personality and academic ability

Question 2

What did Dunne and Gazeley (2008) find out about labelling in secondary schools?

Answer 2

persistently produce w/c underachievement because of labels and assumptions that teachers make. They ‘normalised’ w/c underachievement so did little about it but believed m/c could overcome it. Set extension work for m/c pupils but entered w/c pupils into easier exams.

Question 3

What did Lacey (1970) say about differentiation and polarisation?

Answer 3

differentiation= process of teachers categorising pupils on how they perceive their ability- ‘more able’ gets higher status and higher stream- ‘less able’ gets inferior status and lower stream. polarisation= process which pupils respond to streaming by moving into one of two extremes- pro-school or anti-school subcultures.

Question 4

What did Rist (1970) suggest about labelling in primary schools?

Answer 4

used home background and appearance to place in separate groups on different tables. The ‘Tigers’ were the fast-learning group- mainly m/c and of clean, neat appearance- seated closest to her and had greatest encouragement. The ‘Cardinals’ and ‘Clowns’- mainly w/c- were seated further away, given lower-level books to read and fewer chances to show their ability.

Question 5

What did Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) find relating to the SFP?

Answer 5

told school had a test that shows the ‘spurters’- but the test was actually simply an IQ test. Picked 20% of students purely at random and told them that those were the ‘spurters’.found= when came back a year later, almost half identified as spurters made significant progress. The effects were greater on younger children.
Therefore, teachers influenced by thinking that they were a certain type and treated them as so by giving them attention and encouragement.

Question 6

What did Stephen Ball (1981) find when streaming was abolished?

Answer 6

by teaching mixed-ability groups the basis of polarisation was largely removed and the influence of anti-school sub. declined.
BUT, differentiation continued and the positive labelling showed in better exam results.SO, inequalities continue as result of teacher labelling, even without pupil subcultures.

Question 7

What did Woods (1979) suggest regarding a variety of pupil subcultures?

Answer 7

more than just pro and anti school subcultures: Ingratiation= teachers pet
Ritualism= going through motions and staying out of trouble, Retreatism= daydreaming and mucking about, Rebellion= outright rejection of everything the school stands for. Furlong not committed to one response but may move between them, acting differently in lessons with different teachers.

Question 8

What did Douglas find out about streaming?

Answer 8

children placed in lower stream at age 8 had a decline in IQ by 11.streaming helps m/c as most likely to be placed in high streams, reflecting their view that they are ‘ideal’. Children placed in higher stream at age 8 had an improved IQ by 11

Question 9

What did Keddie find about access to knowledge via streaming?

Answer 9

unequal access to classroom knowledge with higher sets having access to higher status learning

Question 10

General evaluation of Labelling

Answer 10

useful in showing that schools are not neutral institutions, as cultural deprivation theorists assume
deterministic- not always accept labels
Marxists= ignoring structures of power within schools. Fails to explain why teachers’ labels.

Question 11

What is symbolic violence?

Answer 11

withholding of symbolic capital. By defining w/c as inferior, symbolic violence reproduces the class structure and keeps lower classes ‘in their place’. Archer found, w/c pupils had to change how they talked and presented themselves to be educationally successful

Question 12

What is a Nike Identity?

Answer 12

the sports brand becomes part of the W/C pupils identity as they use it to gain symbolic capital and acceptance from peers. However, it clashes with school’s dress code, teachers find the street style as showing bad taste, they risk being labelled as rebels

Question 13

What did Archer propose about Nike Identity?

Answer 13

the pupils’ performances of style are a struggle for recognition. While m/c see their ‘Nike identities’ as tasteless, to the w/c they are ways to gain symbolic capital and self-worth. It expresses their preference for a particular lifestyle so they may choose to self-exclude from education because it does not fit with their identity.

Question 14

What did Ingram (2009) find about the relationship between W/C identity and educational achievement?

Answer 14

W/C boys in a grammar school felt pressure to conform and fit in with their community but felt tension in schools as a result of this not fitting in with the M/C status of the school and felt they had to abandon perceived worthless W/C identity in order to succeed.

Question 15

What did Sarah Evans (2009) find about class identity and self-exclusion?

Answer 15

21 w/c girls in sixth form- reluctant to apply to elite universities like Oxbridge and the few that did apply felt a sense of hidden barriers to success. Plus, the girls had a strong attachment to their locality as only 4/21 intended to move away from home to study.

Question 16

Howard Becker: Labelling and the Ideal Pupil

Answer 16

In the 1970s argued that middle class teachers have an idea of an ‘ideal pupil’ that is middle class. This pupil speaks in elaborated speech code, is polite, and smartly dressed, He argued that middle class teachers are likely view middle class pupils more positively than working class pupils irrespective of their intelligence

Question 17

Rosenthal and Jacobsen

Answer 17

argued that positive teacher labelling can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy in which the student believes the label given to them and the label becomes true in practice.

Question 18

Paul willis study on working class subcultures. ( a counter-school culture)

Answer 18

research involved visiting one school and observing and interviewing 12 working class rebellious boys about their attitude to school. Their value system was opposed to that of the school. They Lads attached no value to academic work, more to ‘having a laff’ because they thought that their future work roles in factories would not require them to have qualifications. They saw school as irrelevant.

Question 19

Mac an Ghail’s study of Parnell School.(Found that there was a greater variety of working-class subcultures that Willis’ research suggested.)

Answer 19

The Macho Lads – just like Willis’ Lads
The Academic Achievers – these were working class kids who were doing well and tended to come from the upper end of the working classes. The New Enterprisers – these focused on vocational subjects and were interested in business and technology – were still concerned with success rather than rejecting school.

Question 20

Stephen Ball

Answer 20

Banding and Streaming disadvantages the working classes and some minority groups found that following comprehensivisation working class children were more likely to be put into lower sets.
.

Question 21

Bourdieu on the organisation of teaching and learning.

Answer 21

Bourdieu argues that schools are middle class environments full of teachers with middle class values and tastes. It has been argued that the absence of working class teachers with their distinct accents and dialects means that teachers fail to relate to working class children.

Question 22

David Hargreaves – Lumley School

Answer 22

Not only did Hargreaves find that there was a close correlation between social class and streaming (middle class children in the top streams, working class children in the bottom), but he also found that the experience of streaming helped to confirm each child into a self-perception as either a “success” or a “failure