Internal Class Factors Flashcards
What internal factors affect class achievement?
Labelling Self-fulfilling prophecy Streaming Pupil Subculture Pupil Identity
How does labelling affect class achievement?
Becker: Teachers judge pupils according to how closely they fit an image of the ‘ideal pupil’. Middle-class children are the closest to the ideal but working-class children are further from the ideal pupils.
Dunne and Grazeley: Teachers normalised working-class underachievement and felt that they could do nothing about it but put more time into helping underachieving middle-class students.
Middle-class parents are labelled as more supportive but working-class parents are labelled as uninterested in their child’s education.
Teachers are more likely to label working-class pupils negatively and therefore could create low achievement by expecting it e.g. entering working-class pupils for easier exams.
What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?
When the prediction becomes true.
How does the self-fulfilling prophecy effect class achievement?
Rosenthal and Jacobson: Told teachers that some of their students were late bloomers.
The teachers treated those students differently and they improved but if teachers have low expectations of certain children, they could see themselves as failures.
Shows that teacher expectations impact on performance.
What is streaming?
Separating children into different ability groups or classes.
How does streaming affect class achievement?
Becker: Working class children are rarely seen as the ideal pupil and placed in lower streams where it's difficult to move up to progress. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where the pupils live up to their teachers' low expectations by underachieving.
Douglas: Middle-class pupils are likely to be placed in higher streams which makes them work harder and improve their grades.
What do Gillborn and Youdell argue about streaming?
Teachers use stereotypes to stream pupils and enter working-class (and black) pupils into lower exams which denies them the knowledge and opportunity to gain good grades.
How do Gillborn and Youdell link streaming to the A-C economy?
Middle class children are desirable as they achieve better but working class children hinder progression up the league table. Schools focus on students who have the potential to succeed.
What is A-C economy?
A system in which schools focus their time, effort and resources on pupils who have the potential to get 5 grade Cs.
What is the educational triage?
Schools sort pupils into one of three groups:
Those who will pass
Those who can pass with help
Those who will fail
How does educational triage affect class achievement?
Teachers sort pupils into groups using stereotypes of working-class (and black) pupils as lacking ability which produces self-fulfilling prophecy and failure.
What is pupil subculture?
A group of pupils who share similar values and behaviour patterns, usually resulted from labelling and streaming.
Who came up with differentiation and polarisation?
Lacey
What is differentiation?
The process of teachers sorting pupils according to how they view their ability, attitude, or behaviour.
What is polarisation?
Pupils respond to streaming by moving towards pro-school subculture or anti-school subculture.
How does streaming link to differentiation?
Streaming is a form of differentiation as it sorts pupils into ‘more able’ who are given high status and ‘less able’ who are given low status.
How do pupil subcultures affect class achievement?
- Middle-class pupils in high streams are committed to the values of the school and tend to form a pro-school subculture.
- Working-class pupils in low streams have a loss of self-esteem and tend to form an anti-school subculture to gain status among peers.
Who studied a school that had abolished streaming?
Ball
What did Ball find in a school with no streaming?
- Influence of anti-school subculture and polarisation into subcultures declined.
- Teachers continued to sort pupils differently and middle-class pupils as more able.
- Shows class inequalities can continue due to teachers’ labelling without the effect of subcultures or streaming.
What did Woods argue about pupil responses?
Woods argues that other responses to labelling and streaming are possible including:
- ingratiation: being ‘teacher’s pet’
- ritualism: staying out of trouble
- retreatism: daydreaming and mucking about
- rebellion: rejection of everything the school stands for
What did Furlong argue about pupil responses?
Pupils may move between different types of response, acting differently with different teachers.
What is the evaluation of labelling theory?
- Too deterministic.
- Assumes that pupils who are labelled have no choice but to fulfil their prophecy and will fail.
- Marxists: Ignores wider structures of power e.g. labelling theory blame teachers for labelling pupils but fails to explain why they do.
- Marxists: Teachers work in a system that reproduces class division.
What is habitus?
Learned, taken for granted ways of thinking, being, and acting shared by a particular social class.
Which habitus is favored in education?
Middle class has power to define its habitus as superior as a result, schools put a higher value on middle-class tastes and preferences.
How are class identities linked to symbolic capital?
- Schools have a middle-class habitus, so pupils who are socialised at home into middle-class tastes and preferences gain symbolic capital or status from schools.
- Schools devalue working-class habitus so working-class pupils’ tastes seen as worthless.
What is symbolic violence?
Harm done by denying someone symbolic capital (status and value).
What does Archer argue about working and middle-class habitus?
School’s middle-class habitus stigmatises working-class pupils’ identities. Working-class pupils’ performance of style is seen as a struggle but middle-class see ‘Nike’ identities as tasteless.
Why do students adopt Nike identities?
Working-class pupils express their positive preference for a particular lifestyle and may choose self-elimination from education, i.e. education doesn’t fit their identity.
