Relationships and Processes in School

Question 1

Gillborn & Youdell: systematic discrimination by teachers against students

Answer 1

• Teachers do not recognise the intelligence of WC as they do not exhibit it in the ‘right way’
• Blinkered judgements are more influential than decisions made

Question 2

How can labelling theory spur on educational achievement?

Answer 2

Students can be motivated to prove the label wrong

Question 3

How can it be argued that students are ‘labelled’ by schools?

Answer 3

• Setting and Streaming
• Behaviour can worsen when this is present - children conform to negative assumptions
• ‘Talent Tables’ in primary school - research shows impact on self esteem
• Where setting is less present - social adjustment/attitudes and attitudes towards peers are healthier

Question 4

Hargreaves (1967): formation of anti-school WC subcultures

Answer 4

• Formed when children need status, support, and belonging from peers who are similarly disenfranchised by school system
• Anti-school WC subcultures predominantly found in lower streams/sets

Question 5

Peter Woods (1983): ‘Eight ways of adapting to school’

Answer 5

• Ingratiation
• Compliance
• Opportunism
• Ritualism
• Retreatism
• Colonisation
• Intransigence
• Rebellion

Question 6

Hollingworth & Williams: What has happened to the complexity of male sub-cultures since the 1970s?

Answer 6

• WC peer groups with anti-school sentiments still exist - now seen as ‘chavs’ rather than ‘lads’ by MC
• Far greater diversity of MC subcultures
• Studies increasingly show more complexity and matters to do with sexuality

Question 7

Griffin, Mirza

How do female subcultures differ from male subcultures?

Answer 7

• Griffin (1985): Female deviance is more readily identified through sexual behaviour than trouble making
• Mirza (1992): Female subcultures have more positive attitudes to school even if teachers are a barrier to success

Question 8

What do ethnic subcultures formed in schools suggest?

Answer 8

• Some black boys reject school in favour of conspicuous consumption and credibility (links to Sewell’s theory)
• Some subcultures borrow aspects of another’s culture (appropriation)
• All groups have conformists who are often forgotten in the research

Question 9

The Hidden Curriculum

Answer 9

Exists to socialise students into accepted norms and values: messages and ideas that schools do not directly teach

Question 10

How can the Hidden Curriculum lead some anti-school subcultures to form?

Answer 10

• Experience of HC can shape pupils’ experiences, producing particular outcomes which are positive for some while being negative/challenged by others
• Some values and beliefs are encouraged and others not - can lead to alienation

Question 11

What are some ways the Hidden Curriculum is transmitted?

Answer 11

• The organisation of services and the physical layout of the school
• The members of staff (eg. ethnicity, gender)
• What isn’t in the curriculum that is taught, as much as what is