Internal factors (class)

Question 1

Name five factors affecting achievement in class?

Answer 1

1: Labelling
2: the self fulfilling prophecy
3: streaming (+ a*-c economy)
4: subcultures
5: pupil identity

Question 2

Which study showed that teachers used negative labels about w/c black students abilities to put them into lower streams which denied them of opportunity and widened the gap in class achievement?

Answer 2

Youdell (2001)

Question 3

Which study showed that when teachers were shown pictures of students labelled only with their social class, they more likely to associate middle class pupils as being “ideal pupils” over the working class?

Answer 3

Becker

Question 4

Which study can be used as a criticism to the labelling theory for being too deterministic and assuming everyone will undergo the S.F.P and fail?

Answer 4

Fuller (1984)
studied a group of black caribbean girls who rejected their racist teacher’s negative labelling and formed a pro-school subculture to succeed alone. This shows that students labelled do not always undergo the self fulfilling prophecy

Question 5

In subcultures, what is polarisation?

Answer 5

The creation of two opposite extremes (as a result of differentiation): e.g, pro-school and anti-school subcultures

Question 6

In subcultures, what is differentiation?

Answer 6

When students are categorised by teachers on ability, attitudes, and behaviour (e.g streaming)

Question 7

Which study looked at polarisation and how pupils who are put in the bottom streams can lose self esteem and feel ‘inferior’ therefore form anti-school subcultures

Answer 7

• Lacey

Question 8

Which study looked at the connection between social class and subcultures by studying working class boys who had formed anti-school subcultures and disrupted lessons as a means of gaining respect off the other ‘lads’ in their subculture, and also likely got manual jobs after school

Answer 8

Willis (1997)

Question 9

What causes symbolic violence?

include:
• cult cap and habitas
• symbolic capital

Answer 9

• schools have middle class habitus and cultural capital [they share middle class values and beliefs so teach them]
• this causes them to gain symbolic capital
(m/c beliefs gain approval and status from school = their tastes etc are seen as valuable)
• because of this, w/c students may be viewed as worthless and invaluable (they lack symbolic capital)
• the harm this does (depriving w/c of being able to obtain s/c) is called cultural violence

Question 10

How does identity influence the achievement of the working class?

in regards to (1) cult cap, (2) habitus, (3) symbolic capital, (4) symbolic violence)

(1) school teaches and passes beliefs of w/c on to new generations -> (2) school share/accept m/c beliefs and standards -> (3) school approves of m/c behaviour and tastes so they are viewed as more valuable than w/c -> (4) w/c are seen as worthless

Answer 10

symbolic violence (harm done by lack of symbolic capital in w/c students e.g seeing w/c as worthless) - how does it influence achievement

• w/c feel alienated and that education is unnatural to them (they don’t fit in with ‘standards’): could cause anti-school sub or more w/c in manual jobs rather than higher ed.
• w/c gain status by other means e.g nike identities or hyper-heterosexual feminine: clashes with schools ‘ideal pupil’ = labelling