internal factors in class differences

Question 1

Labelling

Answer 1

To attach a meaning to a person, studies show teachers often attach labels to pupils regardless ability or attitude and base it of stereotyped assumptions about their class background.

Question 2

Labelling differences

Answer 2

Wc labelled negatively, mc labelled positively.

Question 3

Labelling -Becker (1971)

Answer 3

Study on 60 Chicago high school teachers, found they judged pupils accordingly to an image of the ‘ideal pupil’. Pupils, work, conduct and appearance effected this, mc were the closest to the idea, and wc far from it.

Question 4

Study of 2 english primary schools - Jorgensen (2009)

Answer 4

In largely wc Aspen primary school, staff said discipline was major problem and idea pupil was quiet, passive and obedient; defined in behavior, not ability. Where as in mc Rowan school, school had few discipline problems, idea pupil was defined in personality and academic ability.

Question 5

Labelling in secondary schools- Dunne and Gazeley (2008)

Answer 5

‘Schools persistently produce wc underachievement because of labels and assumptions of pupils’. Teachers normalized this, unconcerned by it; believed mc could overcome it. One reason being the role of pupils home background, wc parents seem uninterested and mc parents were supportive. Led to class differences in how teachers deal with underachieving (extension for mc and easier exams for wc).

Question 6

Labelling in primary schools- Rist (1970)

Answer 6

Study of American kindergarten, found that teacher placed children on tables according to home background. He labelled mc kids as fast-learners and ‘tigers’, whereas mc were ‘clowns’ or ‘cardinals’, given lower-level books and group work.

Question 7

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 7

A prediction that comes true simply by virtue of it having been made. The teacher labels a pupil, then the teacher will treat the pupil accordingly to the table and then the pupil internalizes the teachers expectation, which becomes part of his self-image and the prediction is fulfilled. Can produce improvement and under-achievement.

Question 8

SFP- teachers expectations (Rosenthal and Jacobson) study of ‘spurters’

Answer 8

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968), study of community school: lie of new test designed to identify pupils who ‘spurt’ (was actually an IQ test), teachers believed this too. 20% were picked at random as ‘spurters’, teachers then treated them accordingly to this and almost half made significant progress in a year. Demonstrates self-fulfilling prophecy.

Question 9

Streaming

Answer 9

Separating children into different ability groups, each group is taught separately from the others. SFP is likely to occur when children are streamed. Once streamed it is difficult to move up to a higher stream: locked into stream. MC pupils benefit from streaming, higher streams= teachers views of ideal pupils, as a result they gain confidence, work harder and improve grades.

Question 10

Streaming - Douglas

Answer 10

Children placed in a lower stream at age 8, had suffered a decline in their IQ score by age 11.

Question 11

Streaming -Gillborn and Youdell, A-to-C economy

Answer 11

Linked to policy of publishing exam league tables: pupils gaining 5 or more GCSES, grade A to C. Schools need to achieve a good league table position to attract pupils and funding: A-to-C economy is system of schools focusing their time, effort and resources on pupils with potential to get those grades, to boost schools league table positions.

Question 12

Streaming -Gillborn and Youdell, educational triage

Answer 12

Schools categorise pupils into 3 types: those who will pass anyway and can be left, those with potential who will be helped, and hopeless cases. Teachers label wc as hopeless cases (SFP). The need for a good league table position drives educational triage and becomes basis for streaming.

Question 13

Pupils subcultures- Lacey (1970)

Answer 13

Explains 2 concepts of how pupil subcultures develop: differentiation, the process of teachers categorizing pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude or behavior. Steaming is form of differentiation: ‘more able’ and ‘less able’. And polarization, the process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of 2 opposite ‘poles’ or extremes.

Question 14

Pupils subcultures- pro-school subculture and anti-school subculture

Answer 14

Pro-school subculture: pupils placed in high streams, mc, tend to remain committed to school values, gain status in improved manner (academic success). Anti-school subculture: pupils placed in low streams, wc, inferior status, label of failure pushes them to look for alternative ways of gaining status (cheeking a teacher, truanting, not doing hw and smoking). Joining an anti-school subculture is a SFP of educational failure.

Question 15

Pupils subcultures- Ball (1981) and abolishing streaming

Answer 15

Study of Beachside, a comprehensive in favor of abolishing banding (a type of streaming) and teaching mixed-ability groups. When abolished, the basis for pupils to polarize into subcultures was largely removed and influence of anti-subculture declined. Differentiation continued, as teachers continued to differentiate pupils: class inequalities can continue as a result of teachers labelling without subcultures or streams.

Question 16

Pupils subcultures- Woods (1979) and variety of pupils responses

Answer 16

Ingratiation (teachers pet), ritualism (staying out of trouble), retreatism (daydreaming and mucking about) and rebellion (outright rejection).

Question 17

Pupils subcultures- Furlong (1984)

Answer 17

Found many pupils are not committed permanently to any 1 response, but may move between different types of response.

Question 18

Criticisms of labelling theory

Answer 18

Most studies (SFP and subcultures) are influenced by labelling theory. Useful in showing schools are not fair institutions. Has been accused of determinism, that it assumes pupils who have been labelled have no choice but to fulfill the prophecy and will inevitably fail. Marxists criticize for ignoring the wider structures of power, labelling theory blames teachers but fails to explain why they label. Marxists also argue labels are not merely results of teachers individual prejudices; but stem from the fact teachers work in a system that reproduces class divisions.

Question 19

Pupils class identities- Archer et al (2010) and habitus

Answer 19

The learned ways of thinking, includes tastes, preferences and consumption. A groups habitus is formed as a response to its position in the class structure. Although one class habitus is not instinctively better than another’s, mc have the power to define its habitus as superior and to impose it on the education system, as a result school puts higher value on mc taste’s, preferences and so on. Linked to Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital

Question 20

Pupils class identities- symbolic capital and symbolic violence

Answer 20

Pupils who have been socialized at home, into mc taste, gain ‘symbolic capital’/status in school. School devalues wc pupils tastes (tasteless and worthless). Bourdieu calls this withholding of symbolic capital. There is a clash between wc pupil habitus and mc habitus: wc pupils may feel education is alien.

Question 21

Pupils class identities- wc pupils attitudes towards success (Archer)

Answer 21

Found that wc pupils felt to be educationally successful they had to change how they talked and presented themselves. Thus education is a process of ‘losing yourself’, felt unable to access ‘posh’, middle class spaces (uni and professional careers).

Question 22

Pupils class identities= ‘Nike’ identities

Answer 22

Pupils are conscience of how society and school view them, symbolic violence has led to seek alternative ways of self-worth, status and value. Wearing brands was a way of ‘being me’, pupils identities are strongly gendered. Style performances prevented ‘social suicides’ and bullying. It also led to conflict with school dress code, teachers oppose ‘street’ styles=bad, rebels. Mc habitus stigmatizes wc pupils identities, pupils performance of style is a struggle for recognition. Wc pupils see higher education as unrealistic and undesirable, investment in ‘Nike’ identities is expressing positive preference, self-excluding from education.

Question 23

Wc identity and educational success: Wc boys and Mc school (Ingram and Belfast)

Answer 23

Ingram (2009) study of neighborhood in Belfast (wc boys and mc school). A wc identity was inseparable from belonging to a wc locality, neighborhood has dense network of family and friends, a key part of boys habitus: intense feeling of belonging. Street culture and branded sportswear: sense of identity. Wc communities place great emphasis on conformity, one boy was bullied for wearing a tracksuit on non-uniform day: worthless by mc habitus.

Question 24

Class identity and self-exclusion- Evans (2009) (wc girls a levels and elite universities)

Answer 24

A group of wc girls doing A levels, were reluctant to apply to elite universities, felt a hidden barrier or ‘not fitting in’. Bourdieu says wc people think of places like Oxbridge as ‘not for the likes of us’, such thinking becomes part of their identity and leads wc to exclude themselves. Also found the girls had strong attachment to locality.

Question 25

Evans, Ingram and Archer studies show…

Answer 25

That there’s a consistent pattern of mc education system that devalues the experiences and choices of wc people as worthless or inappropriate, as a result wc pupils are forced to choose between maintain wc identities or abandoning and conforming to mc habitus of education.

Question 26

Relationship between internal and external factors (class)

Answer 26

Wc habitus and identities formed outside of school may conflict schools mc habitus and result in symbolic violence. Wc pupils using the restricted speech code (external cultural factor) may be labelled as less able, leading to SFP(internal). Poverty (external) may cause bullying and stigmatization by peer groups (internal process).