Labelling In Schools

Question 1

What is labelling?

Answer 1

To attach a meaning or definition a person e.g attaching being hard working or a trouble maker

Question 2

How do teachers label the social classes?

Answer 2

Working class - negatively as trouble makers

Middle class- positively as hard working

Question 3

What did Howard Becker find from his interviews with 60 Chicago high school teachers?

Answer 3

They judged pupils according to their own perception of an ‘ideal pupil’
Pupils work, conduct and appearance all influenced teachers judgement
Middle class pupils were seen as the ideal and lower working class furthest away from ideal as teachers regard them as badly behaviour

Question 4

What did Aaron Cicourel and John Kitsuse’s study of educational counsellors in American high school show?

Answer 4

Labelling can disadvantage working class students- counsellors play an important role on which students get onto course that prepare them for higher ed
Cicourel and Kituse found inconsistencies in the way counsellors assessed students' suitability for courses 
They claimed they judged according to ability BUT in practice they judged them on basis of race and social class  
Counsellors were likely to label middle class students as having college potential - therefore, giving them further opportunities and making the process of further education easier for them

Question 5

What did Ray Rist’s study of an American kindergarten show?

Answer 5

Teachers used info from child’s home background and appearance to place them in separate groups - seating each group at different tables

Those considered fast learners - tended to be middle class and neat and clean
The teacher seated them nearest to her and showed them greatest support 
The other groups were more likely to be working class and given fewer opportunities

Question 6

What was the result of those not ready to read being able to have ‘compensatory play’ until they were ready in Rachel Sharp and Tony Green’s study of a ‘child centred’ primary school?

Answer 6

Middle class children (who already started reading earlier) gained any help they needed and meant they got even further ahead whereas working class children were ignored

Question 7

What did Nell Keddie’s study suggest about labelling bein applied to knowledge they are taught?

Answer 7

Pupils and knowledge can be labelled as high or low status
Although teachers believed they were teaching al pupils the same way …. They taught the top streams with abstract, theoretical high status knowledge and the ‘less able’ lower streams were just given descriptive, common sense, low status knowledge related more to everyday experience

Because lower streams generally contain more working class pupils it withholds them from high achievement

Question 8

What did David Gillborn and Deborah Youdell’s study show about teacher’s notion of ability when deciding potential students had of obtaining 5 A*-C’s?

Answer 8

Working class and black pupils less likely to be less likely to obtain 5A*-C ... Therefore placed in lower sets and entered for foundation 
This denies them the opportunity to achieve and further widens gap in class achievement