Internal Factors. Flashcards
what is labelling?
it is to attach a meaning or definition.
what do studies show about labels?
labels are based on stereotyped assumptions. w/c have negative labels and m/c have positive labels.
what does Dunne and Gazeley say about labelling in secondary schools?
teachers ‘normalise’ the underachievement of w/c pupils. emphasis the role of the pupils’ home background. they underestimate the potential for them and enter them for easier exams.
what does Rist say about labelling primary schools?
teachers’ used information about their background and appearance to separate students. w/c students are given lower-levels books to read.
what is self-fulfilling prophecy?
it is a prediction that comes true as it has been made.
what does Rosenthal and Jacobson say about self-fulfilling prophecy?
if teachers believe that a pupil is a certain type then they will make that pupil that certain type.
what is the interactionist principle about self-fulfilling prophecy?
what people believe to be true will have real effects even if the belief was not true originally.
what is streaming?
separating children into different ability groups (streams).
what does Douglas say about streaming?
children places in a lower stream at age 8 had suffered a decline in IQ by age 11 and for high stream students it has improved by that time.
what is more likely to happen when children are streamed?
self-fulfilling prophecy.
what is the A-C economy?
it is when the schools only focus on pupils who are more likely to achieve 5 GCSEs.
what did Youdell say about streaming?
the Educational Triage: the A-C economy produces the educational triage.
1) those who will pass anyway.
2) those with potential but need a little help..
3) hopeless cases-doomed to fail.
why do they need to gain good league table position?
the need to gain a good league table position drives the educational triage (marketisation of education).
what is a pupil subculture?
it is a group of pupils who share similar values and behaviour patterns.
what does Lacey argue?
differentiation and polarisation to explain how pupil subcultures develop.
what is differentiation?
it is the process of teachers categorising pupils’ according to how they perceive their ability, attitudes and/or behaviours.
what is polarisation?
it is the process in which pupils’ respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite ‘poles’ or extremes.
what did Lacey find out about streaming polarised boys?
they are two types:
- the pro-school subculture.
- the anti-school subculture.
what is the pro-school subculture?
pupils in high streams (mainly m/c) tend to stay committed to values of the school. Gain their status in approved manner, through academic success. these tend to form a pro-school subculture.
what is the anti-school subculture?
pupils in low streams (mainly w/c) suffer a loss of self-esteem. the school undermined the self-worth by placing them in a position of inferior status. labels of failure pushes them to find other ways of gaining status. this mean they form an anti-school subculture. could solve the problem of lack of status.
what can joining an anti-school subculture likely to become?
it is likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy of educational failure.
what does Stephen Ball say about abolishing streaming?
study of Beachside- school abolished banding, basis for pupils to polarise into subcultures was removed and influence of anti-school declined.
what continued after pupil polarisation disappeared?
differentiation- teachers continued to categorise pupils differently and were more likely to label m/c as cooperative and able.
what did the positive labelling reflect?
better exam results- self fulfilling prophecy had happened.
what has happened since Ball’s study and the Educational Reform Act 1988?
a trend towards more streaming and a variety of types of schools. this has created new opportunities for school and teachers to differentiate between pupils on the basis of their class, ethnicity and gender.
what does Peter Woods argue about responses to labelling and streaming?
- ingratiation- being the teachers’ pet.
- ritualism- going through the motions, staying out of trouble.
- retreatism- daydreaming and mucking about.
- rebellion- rejection of everything the school stands for.
what does John Furlong argue?
many pupils are not committed permanently to any 1 response, can move between the different types of response, acting differently in lessons with different teachers.
what are the criticisms of the labelling theory?
- been accused of determinism, assuming pupils who have been labelled have no choice but to fulfil their prophecy and will fail.
- however Mary Fuller proves that wrong.
- marxists—> ignoring the view of wider structures of power within which labelling takes place- tends to blame teachers but fails to explain why. stem from the fact the teachers work in a system that reproduce class divisions.
what theorists focuses on interactions between w/c pupils’ identities and school and how this produces underachievement??
Louise Archer et al.
what does habitus refer to?
dispositions or learned, taken for granted ways of thinking, being and acting that are shared by a particular class. this includes: tastes, preferences about lifestyle and consumption, outlook on life and expectations of what is normal and realistic for ‘people like us’.
what does the m/c have the power to define?
it’s habitus as a superior and to impose it on educational system so the schools put high value on m/c tastes.
what is symbolic capital?
getting the status at school and recognition because the m/c is deemed to has more worth whilst the w/c habitus is worthless.
what is symbolic violence?
w/c pupils don’t experience the world like the m/c do. the withholding of symbolic capital.
what is said about Nike identities?
- symbolic violence lead the w/c to find other ways to bring themselves up to standard.
- the ‘right’ look earns symbolic capital and not conforming is ‘social suicide’.
- these styles are labelled as ‘rebels’ by the schools.
- it is linked to the rejection of higher education for w/c pupils.
- unrealistic- not affordable and not for people like us.
- undesirable- can not maintain this style, does not suit.
what does Archer et al say about identities?
w/c pupils get a message that education is not for them and then reject it- as it does not fit in with their identity or way of life.
what does Ingram say about w/c identities and educational success?
- Ingram had found that having a w/c identity was inseparable from belonging to a w/c locality.
- pupils had to leave their w/c identity if they want to succeed.
what does Reay et al say about class identity and self-exclusion?
- self-exclusion from the high/long distant uni- limits them from success.
- w/c forced to either leave their w/c identity and conform to m/c habit of education or to keep their w/c identity.
