internal factors: social class differences in attainment

Question 1

what does it mean to ‘label’ someone

Answer 1

to attach a meaning or definition to them

Question 2

how do teachers label pupils?

Answer 2

on the basis of stereotyped assumptions about their class background

Question 3

impacts of labelling (interactionists)

Answer 3

can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy
pupils treated differently due to labels
student believes label so internalises it, so it becomes part of their self-concept

Question 4

how did Becker research

Answer 4

interviewed 60 Chicago high school teachers

Question 5

Becker (1971’s) findings

Answer 5

judged pupils according to how closely they fitted with their image of the ‘ideal pupil’

ideal pupil - reference point against which all other students are measured

Question 6

Dunne and Gazeley (2008) research methods

Answer 6

interviews in 9 English state secondary schools

Question 7

Dunne and Gazeley (2008) - findings

Answer 7

schools persistently produce working class underachievement because of the labels and assumptions of teachers

labelled working class parents as disinterested and middle class parents as supportive - led to differences in how teachers dealt with pupils

Question 8

Rist (1970)

Answer 8

teachers grouped students based on their socio-economic status - ‘tigers’ , ‘clowns’ and ‘cardinals’

labels attached to them during the early years of education continued to influence their academic experiences and outcomes

Question 9

who were grouped into the ‘clowns’

Answer 9

considered troublesome students

from poor, working-class and deprived backgrounds

Question 10

who were grouped into the ‘tigers’

Answer 10

neat

middle-class

academically advanced students

Question 11

who were grouped into the ‘cardinals’

Answer 11

average students

Question 12

Dunne and Gazeley (2008)

Answer 12

interviews in 9 English state secondary schools

teachers normalised working class underachievement - thought little could be done about it

teachers labelled working class parents as disinterested in their children’s education

labelled middle class parents as supportive

led to differences with how teachers dealt with pupils they perceived as underachieving - wc entered into easier exams and middle class set extension work

Question 13

Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968) - study name and procedure

Answer 13

‘pygmalion in the classroom’

California primary school

gave fake IQ tests to students and randomly selected 20% of them as ‘bright’ students or ‘spurters’ and another 10% as ‘less able’

informed the school of the results

retested students a year later

Question 14

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) - findings

Answer 14

‘spurters’ progressed faster than other students

‘less able’ students regressed

teachers relayed labels to the students in terms of expectations and amount of praise

suggests higher teacher expectations can make a marked difference to pupil attainment

Question 15

streaming

Answer 15

separating students into different ability groups of classes called ‘streams’

Question 16

how does streaming create self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 16

once being streamed it is hard to move out of that set, and the teachers lower expectations are internalised by the students

Question 17

Douglas

Answer 17

children placed in lower streams at age 8 had suffered a decline in their IQ by age 11

opposite for those in higher streams

Question 18

Ball (1981) - ‘Beachside Comprehensive’

Answer 18

impact of setting

disproportionate amount of middle class children placed in the top band

behaviour became polarised - result of differing teacher expectations

top band students ‘warmed up’ and middle band students ‘cooled down’

even when in mixed ability groups - teachers still categorised and labelled pupils according to their social class

Question 19

polarisation in sets

Answer 19

how pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two extremes

Question 20

setting

Answer 20

where pupils are placed in one of three bands based off information received from their primary school

Question 21

Gilbourn and Youdell (2000)

Answer 21

studied 2 London secondary schools

teachers use stereotypical notions of ability to stream pupils

teachers less likely to see the working class and black students as having ability - placed into lower streams and sets

Question 22

educational triage

Answer 22

the division of students into three groups based on their expected GCSE grades

Question 23

Diane Reay - ‘the zombie stalking English schools’ (2006)

Answer 23

interviews with individual students in 2 secondary schools

bottom set all working class in one school

wc students seen as inadequate learners

experiences similar in the second school, despite having mixed ability groups

‘all you need to do is treat us like humans’

Question 24

pupil subculture

Answer 24

a group of pupils who share similar values and behaviour pattern

Question 25

why do pupil subcultures often emerge

Answer 25

as a response to the way pupils have been labelled and in particular as a reaction to streaming

Question 26

Lacey - how pupil subcultures develop

Answer 26

through differentiation and polarisation

Question 27

differentiation

Answer 27

how teachers categorise pupils according to their perceptions

Question 28

habitus (Pierre Bordieu)

Answer 28

the dispositions, taken for granted ways of thinking, being and acting that are shared by a particular social class

Question 29

what is the impact of schools having a middle class habitus

Answer 29

pupils who have been socialised at home into middle class tastes and preferences gain ‘symbolic capital’ or status, and deemed to have value from the school

school devalues wc habitus

working class tastes and values seen as worthless

Question 30

Archer - main ideas

Answer 30

focusses on the interaction between working class pupils’ identities and school and how this produces underachievement

clash between wc and middle class habitus - wc pupils felt to be successful, they would have to change themselves

Question 31

Archer (2007) - University’s not for me, I’m a Nike Person

Answer 31

culture clash between the habitus of wc pupils and higher education

education suited to the habitus of the white middle class

one of the reasons for lower participation of HE

wc identified themselves as ‘Nike’ compared to the upper class as ‘Gucci’