Interactionalism Flashcards
Key words of interactionist perspective
Labelling theory, self fulfilling prophecy, streaming, banding, expectations, educational triage, field experiments, subcultures, class identities, habitus, pro school subcultures, cultural capital
Key names in interactionalism
Howard becker, hempel-jorgensen, Dunn and gazeley, Rosenthal and jacobson, gillborn and youdell, Lacey, ball, fuller, archer et al
Who developed the labelling theory
Howard becker
What is labelling
To attach a meaning to a person e.g. a teacher may label a student to a trouble maker
What is a self fulfilling prophecy
A person lives up to a label they were given, because it was given
What takes place in the labelling theory
The teacher defines or labels the pupil in a particular way, such as bright or dull, the way the teacher interacts with a pupil will be determined by the label they have given the, for example by only asking brighter pupils harder questions.
the pupil may respond accordingly the label becomes true and the prophecy is fulfilled Becker found from his study that teachers labelled pupils according to how closely they fitted the image of the ideal student
What is the halo effect
One impression or judgement that influences others
What did dunne and gazeley research
Labelling in secondary schools.
What is labelling in secondary schools within dunne and gazeleys study
From interviews of 9 English state secondary schools, they find that teachers normalised the underachievement of working of working class pupils, seemed unconcerned by it, whereas with middle class pupils, teachers believed that they could overcome the underachievement.
A major reason for this was the teachers beliefs in the role of the pupils, home background. They labelled working class parents as uninterested in their child’s education and labelled middle class parents as supportive. This led to class differences in how teachers dealt with pupils who were underachieving.
Dunne and Gazeley concluded that the way teachers explained and death with underachievement itself led to class differences.
Who did studies on the self fulfilling prophecy
Ball, gilbourne and youdell, Rosenthal and jacobson
what did Rosenthal and jacobson do
Rosenthal and Jacobson’s field experiment was one of the most influential studies into educational within sociology. It was also one of the most criticised studies due to its ethical issues. Conducted a study in an elementary school in America. They told the class teachers that 20 of their students were expected to do very well in the exams. They claimed that on the basis of a test these students has been found to be late bloomers, when in fact there were no differences within the students when compared to their peers.
They studied them for a year and they found that teachers treated the students differently in the way they spoke to them and the tasks they were given to complete the students then began to think of themselves different to their classmates. When completing iq tests at the end of the academic year the 20 students who were initially labelled as bright made the most progress in the test. They called this the PYGMALION EFFECT
This shows us that when teachers positively label students they will achieve academically, so , in turn identifies that when students are negatively labelled there will be a negative effect on their grades and they may not achieve their full potential
what occured in balls study
balls study examines the organisation of a comprehensive school. pupils were put into one of 3 bands according to information passed on by their primary schools. This was for a mixture of academic ac results and personal information. Factors other than academic criteria were used to decide which band they should be placed in such as their fathers proffession. Ball spent three years in Beachside Comprehensive, carrying out a participant observation. He particularly focused on two groups of students, one who had been banded or streamed by ability, and another that was taught in mixed-ability classes. The banding was well-intentioned. There was a concern among teachers that in mixed-ability classes the brightest pupils were held back and the weakest pupils were left behind, with a tendency that it was the middle swathe of pupils who were focused on. However, Ball found that the process tended to have a negative impact on working-class pupils.
He found that pupils who started school with similar attitudes to study began to diverge when they were banded/streamed. That is when they were put in classes supposedly based on their ability. Streaming is when pupils of a similar ability are in the same, streamed class for all subjects whereas with setting pupils could be in a high set for Maths and a low set for English (for example).
Working-class pupils gravitated towards the lower bands and then became increasingly disinterested in education and “anti-school”. The net effect of this was that children from lower-income families left school with fewer qualifications, therefore reproducing class inequalities, apparently by accident. He describes a downward mobility - quite the opposite of what Parsons or Davis and Moore imagined - where attempts at differentiation damage working-class pupils’ education and life chances.
what study did gilbourne and youdell conduct
Gilbourne and Youdell conducted studies in two separate London secondary schools into teacher and pupil interactions within education. This ranged from the way teachers thought about pupils and their expectation to the subconscious behaviour they could see taking place and thus labelling
14-16 education in both schools was organised through banding and streaming: students were put in the top bands if teachers believed they had the ability to sit the higher tier, more difficult exam paper, but restricted to the lower bands if it was thought their maximum potential was a C grade.
Gillborn and Youdell further argued that the schools operate a ‘triage’ system based on the perceived ability of the students.
Triage is a military-medical term which describes how medical treatment for wounded soldiers is rationed:
Those who need urgent treatment to survive are prioritized
Those with less urgent, non life threatening needs are dealt with later
Hopeless cases are left to die
Educational Triage works along similar lines, with schools rationing education based on the perceived chances of a student gaining five good (A-C) GCSEs.
Borderline students who could get 5 good GCSEs but need help to do so are prioritized.
More able students who will probably get 5 good GCSEs anyway are dealt with as necessary
Hopeless cases are written off.
Though there are negative links with ethnicity SUTTON argued Asian girls are usually seen as ideal pupils with the halo effect being in place. Being in the category of educational triage as “being able to be left to get on with the work and being considered when talking about the halo effect to describe how these students are favoured by teachers.
what did lacey believe in
sub cultures
what is a pupil subculture
a group of pupils who share the same values and patterns of behaviour. Pupil subcultures often emerge as a response to the way pupils have been labelled, and in particular as a reaction to streaming
