Education - Social Class & Achievement (Internal Factors) Flashcards
SOCIOLOGIST: What did Becker say about labelling?
Some teachers give positive labels to their students (e.g. clever) & give negative labels to others (e.g. stupid), this may alter how they act with those students and depending on how they label them, the student may internalise it & live up to it
Interviewed 60 Chicago high school teachers & found teachers judged pupils if they fit the ‘ideal pupil’ & they’re appearance, conduct etc. influenced their judgement.
Teachers are more likely to label working class boys negatively - creates low achievement
STUDY: What was the procedure for Rosenthal & Jacobsen’s study
Selected a random sample of 20% of a student population in a Californian school and informed teachers these children were going to rapidly improve in terms of intellectual development
Tested the IQ of all the student before & 1 year after the experiment began
STUDY: What were the findings for Rosenthal & Jacobsen’s study?
Found on the IQ tests that the 20% group (on average) had gained more IQ than the 80% group (believed to be average)
The report cards on the 20% group showed the teachers believed these children had made greater advances in reading
STUDY: What was the conclusion of Rosenthal & Jacobsen’s study?
Concluded that teachers had passed their expectations onto students which had produced a self-fulfilling prophecy
What is a subculture & why do they form?
A group of pupils who share similar views & behaviour patterns (often emerge as a response of labelling)
SOCIOLOGIST: What did Willis say about anti-school subcultures?
His study ‘learning to labour’ found a group of working class boys (the ‘lads’) subverted school values and found academic success bad but rewarded ‘mucking about’
Said that they had accepted that they were going to work in low-skilled & low paid jobs & behaved in a way that would prepare them for it
SOCIOLOGIST: What did Ball say about Setting & Streaming?
Conducted a study at a comprehensive school that was abolishing banding & introducing mixed ability groups
Found that children didnt polarise into subcultures as much (antischool subcultures had declined) but teachers still labelled students based on social class
Evaluation: What are the criticisms of Labelling?
- Deterministic -> many working class children are sucessful at school despite being labelled negatively
- Criticised by marxists as it ignores structural inequalities
- Links to capitalist society as education reproduces class divisions
What is habitus?
Refers to the learned ways of thinking/being or acting that are shared between a particular social class e.g. preferences on consumption - fashion/leisure
SOCIOLOGIST: What did Bourdieu say about habitus?
The middle class have the power to impose their habitus on the education system so the education system will place a higher value on middle class preferences so middle class children have the advantage (links to cultural capital)
SOCIOLOGIST: What did Archer say about Nike identities?
The working class construct meaningful identities for themselves by investing in branded clothing e.g. Nike because they feel society & schools look down on them.
This earns symbolic capital & approval from peers as they have the ‘right’ appearance but it creates a conflict with the school dress code (middle class habitus) so students risk being labelled as ‘rebels’.
Working class children end up ‘getting the message’ that education isnt for them and so they actively reject it as a result
What are some examples of how internal & external factors are linked to pupils’ achievement in schools?
- Working class habitus & identities are formed outside school & they may conflict with middle class habitus of the school so they may reject school as it isnt for the likes of them
- Working class pupils use the restricted speech code so they are more likely to be labelled leading to a self fulfilling prophecy.
- Poverty may lead to bullying by peer groups which leads to underachievement & failure.
