what is interactionism?
Interactionism is a micro theory that focuses on the interactions that take place between people on a daily basis
what is the interactionist view of eduaction?
They focus on the interactions between pupils and between pupils and teachers, looking at concepts such as labelling at the processes and relationships that happen within schools.
what is labelling?
the process of defining a person or group in a simplified way
what is a self-fulfilling prophecy?
jane elliot - blue eyes/brown eyes experiment
She categorised school children by eye colour, something unchangeable. She then emphasised that one was smarter than the other, which then created a divide within the classroom
- Found that on a maths test, on the day blue eyes were said to be superior and smarter, they performed better and the same with brown eyes on a different day.
becker
Argued middle class teachers have an ideal pupil and use this as a standard by which to judge all pupils.
Positive labels were given based on things such as smart appearance and language, not intelligence
This gave middle-class pupils positive self-esteem and working-class pupils negative self-esteem
This can lead to the halo effect, where the behaviour of the ideal pupil is interpreted differently from the same behaviour by others, they’re less likely to be disciplined because teachers see the halo rather than the misbehaviour or underperformance.
Hargreaves
Within his research, Hargreaves looks at the way in which teachers classify students. However instead of categorising them based on academic ability, he categorised them on factors such as:
- Personality
- Ability and enthusiasm for work
- How likeable they were
- Relationships with other students etc
what is the halo effect?
- refers to one possible impact of a positive label being applied to pupils by teachers
- it is where the behaviour of the ideal pupil is interpreted differently from the same behaviour by others, they’re less likely to be disciplined because teachers see the halo rather than the misbehaviour or underperformance.
Reification
- This is the process of taking the assumptions about who is a good or bad pupil, and acting as though they were true.
- It is the process where the teacher’s prejudice and labelling are considered to be truth.
cooley
The looking glass self
Cicourel and Kitsuse
argued that counsellors decisions were based around a number of non academic criteria related to social class such as the clothes students wore, their manners and their general demeanour, rather than their ability levels
rist
interactionist
Rist conducted a study on kindergarten children and found that teachers made judgements/labelled based on the pupil’s class and appearance, rather than on ability, then placed on tables according to teachers’ perception.
Rosenthal & Jacobson - the Pygmalion Effect
self-fulfilling prophecy
- Their experiment made pupils do an IQ test, but teachers were told that certain pupils were “spurters” with great potential, despite just being randomly selected.
- At the end of the process, the “spurters” had developed much more than the control group, this is because teachers labelled them as achievers and gave them more encouragement and support than other pupils. This led to a self-fulfilling prophecy where the pupils succeeded academically
mirtza - self refuting prophecy
- The schools that young Caribbean working class women were in were poorly resourced and teaching was stretched. The young women sat in the back of the classroom and got on with their work.
- They often pretended to not be working, but did their homework. Most of all they had to stay on longer and go to college to achieve academic success.
- What Mirza found is that these young girls rejected the label of being poorly educated and worked harder for longer to achieve, therefore achieving meritocracy
