Pupil Identities and Subcultures Flashcards
What is a subculture?
A group of people within culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture by developing its own norms and values while maintaining some founding principles.
Subcultures can emerge in various contexts, showcasing diversity within a larger cultural framework.
What is symbolic capital?
The status, recognition, and sense of worth that students receive from others.
Symbolic capital can influence social interactions and academic outcomes.
What is symbolic violence?
Using symbolic capital in a negative way, such as demonstrating superiority through values, beliefs, and attitudes.
This can lead to marginalization of certain groups within educational settings.
What is the working class dilemma?
The dilemma faced by working class pupils to achieve symbolic capital from their friends or academic capital by rejecting working class identity.
This dilemma often impacts students’ choices and self-perception.
What is differentiation in the context of education?
The process of teachers categorizing pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude, and behavior.
Streaming is a form of differentiation that categorizes pupils into different classes.
What is polarisation in education?
The process by which pupils respond to differentiation by moving towards one of two opposite poles or extremes, i.e., pro or anti school subcultures.
This can lead to the formation of distinct student identities.
What characterizes pro-school subcultures?
- Committed to school values
- Gain approval/status through academic success
- Involved in the wider life of the school
These students often prioritize traditional academic subjects.
What are the characteristics of anti-school subcultures?
- Lower streams
- Rejection of school values
- Truanting
- Disruption
- Not doing homework
Anti-school subcultures often arise in response to negative educational experiences.
How do peer groups influence pupil identities?
By reinforcing acceptable behaviors through ostracism of those that don’t conform and giving status to those that do.
Peer pressure can significantly impact students’ academic engagement.
What is symbolic violence according to Archer?
Schools impose forms of symbolic violence against students whose identities are shaped by designer clothing or hyper-heterosexual feminine behavior, suggesting that education is not for them.
This concept highlights the intersection of social class and educational access.
How do school environments shape student identities according to Reay?
Students align their ability with the type of school they attend; those in poor performing schools may see themselves as poor students and more likely to form anti-school subcultures.
In contrast, students in high-performing schools tend to form pro-school subcultures.
What is the ethnocentric curriculum according to Ball?
A curriculum that is very focused on Middle class White British culture, referred to as ‘Little Englandism,’ potentially excluding ethnic minorities and girls.
This can lead to feelings of alienation among diverse student populations.
How do schools reinforce gender stereotypes in subject choices?
By pushing girls towards expressive subjects and boys towards instrumental ones, reinforcing gender identity.
Stereotypical images within schools can further entrench these choices.
How do uniforms reinforce gender roles?
Uniform reinforces gender roles as girls expected to wear skirts and blouses and boys’ trousers and ties. Can also shape class identity with schools demanding certain standards of dress or pupils being sent home. Most schools also do not take ethnic minority dress into account within their polices. E.g. Hair cuts and Hijab
What can rejection by school lead to in terms of identity?
Working class and minority ethnic groups may identify as being anti-authoritarian and reject authority in all walks of life.
Studies by Fuller, Willis, and Sewell illustrate this phenomenon.
What is the impact of labeling on students?
Positive and negative labeling can affect self-esteem and self-image; negatively labeled students may not see academic achievement as part of their identity.
This can lead to a preference for more vocational courses in the future.
The academic achievers according to Mac An Ghaill (1994)
Seek to achieve academic success by focusing on traditional academic subjects such as English, maths & sciences.
The New Enterprisers according to Mac An Ghaill (1994)
Rejected the traditional academic curriculum but were motivated to study subjects such as business and computing which they see as a route to economic success.
Paul Willis: Learning to labour
Paul Willis’s Learning to Labour explores how working-class boys’ resistance to schooling and their embrace of a working-class identity led them to reject academic success, reinforcing their future roles in manual labor and perpetuating social inequalities. Through ethnographic observation, Willis found that these boys’ attitudes and behavior helped reproduce class divisions.
What are the two types of Pro - School subcultures and who identified these?
- The academic achievers
- The New Enterprisers
Mac An Ghaill (1994)
What are the two steps of the formation of Pupil Sub cultures and who identified them?
- Differentiation
- Polarisation
Lacey
