Social Class Internal Factors Flashcards
Labelling
— Teachers often attach labels regardless of pupils actual ability or attitudes, instead these labels are based on stereotyped assumptions about class background.
— Becker 1971 found pupils were often judged accordingly to how close they fit the image of the ideal pupil.
Pupil work, conduct and appearance were the key factors influencing the judgement.
Teachers saw children from middle-class backgrounds as closest to the ideal.
— Hempel-Jorgenson (2009) UK PRIMARY SCHOOL
In the largely working-class primary school staff said discipline was a major problem the ideal pupil was defined as quiet and passive children were defined in terms of their behaviour, not ability.
In the mainly middle-class primary school there were very few discipline problems and that ideal pupil was defined in terms of the personality and academic ability rather than being non-misbehaving. 
Labelling in primary schools
Ray Rist 1970 — He found that the teacher used information about the children’s home background and appearances to place them into separate groups setting each group at a different table. Those the teacher decided were fast learners she named these the ‘Tigers’ tended to be middle-class and oven needs a clean appearance she seated these at the table nearest to her and show them the greatest encouragement.
The other two groups whom she labelled the ‘Cardinals’ the ‘Clowns’ were seated further away they were more likely to be working-class they were given lower level books and they were disregarded. For example they had to read as a group not as individuals.
The Self Fulfilling Prophecy
A self fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that comes through simply by virtue of it have been made interactionist argue that labelling can affect peoples achievement by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
— Step one: The teacher labels a pupil and on the basis of this label makes predictions about them
— Step two: The teacher treats the pupil accordingly acting as if the prediction is already true
— Step three: The pupil internalises the teachers expectations, it becomes part of his self image and now he actually becomes the kind of pupil the teacher assumed he would become.
Streaming
— Streaming involves separating children into different ability groups called streams. Each ability group is going to be taught separately from the others for for all subjects, studies show that the self-fulfilling prophecy is particularly likely to occur in children are streamed.
— Once streamed it is difficult to move up to a higher stream children are more or less locked into these expectations children in the lower streams get the message that the teachers have written them off as no hopers.
— Middle-class pupils tend to benefit from screaming they are likely to be placed in the highest dreams of reflecting the views of them is ideal pupils as a result they develop more positive self image, gain confidence and improve their grades.
A-C economy & Educational Triage
Gillborn and Youdell found how teachers use stereotypical notions of ability to stream pupils. They found that teachers are less likely to see working-class and black people as having ability.
— these pupils are more likely to be placed in lower streams and entered for lower tier GCSEs, this denies them the opp to gain good grades
— The publishing of league tables create an a-c economy in schools
A-C ECONOMY
— Schools focus their time effort and resources on the people they only see having the potential to get five grade GCSEs and so boost the score of the league table position.
— Educational Triage - sorting of students to boost league table results. 
Proschool subculture
Pupils placed in high streams tend to remain committed to the values of the school, they gain their status in the approved manner through academic success. Their values are of those of the school.
They form a pro school subculture.
Anti school Subculture
Those placed in lower streams suffer a loss of self-esteem
— The school has undermined them and their self-worth by placing them in a position of inferior status. This label of failure pushes for search for alternative ways of gaining status, usually this involves rebelling the schools values of hard work, obedience & punctuality.
They form an anti-school subculture as a means of gaining status among their peers, by example by not doing homework, smoking & truanting.
Ball Abolishing Streaming (1981)
Stephen Ball text analysis a step further in his study of a comprehensive school that was in the process of abolishing banding (streaming)
— He found that when the school abolish banding, the basis for pupils to polarise was largely removed and the influence of anti-school subculture had declined.
— Although polarisation all but disappeared, differentiation continued teachers continue to categorise pupils differently and were more likely to label middle-class pupils as cooperative and able.
— This positive labelling was later reflected in better exam results suggesting that self-fulfilling prophecy had still occurred. This shows that class inequalities can continue as a result of labelling even without the effects of subcultures or streaming.
Pupil responses to Streaming
Woods (1979)  argues that responses other than pro and anti-school subculture are possible . These include:
— ingratiation : being a teachers pet
— ritualism:  going through the motions and staying out of trouble
— retreatism: daydreaming and mucking about
— rebellion: going against everything the school stands for
Pupils Class Identities and the School : Habitus
 Habitus refers to learned, taken for granted ways of thinking, being and acting that are shared by a particular social class.
It includes:
- their tastes
- preferences about lifestyles
- consumption
- the outlook on life
- expectations about what is normal or realistic for people like them
A groups habitus is formed as a response to its position in the class structure.
— The school has a middle class habitus this gives middle-class pupils an advantage well working-class culture is regarded as inferior. 
Pupils Class Identities and the School: Symbolic capital/violence
Schools have got a middle class habitus
— Pupils who have been socialised at home into middle-class tastes gain symbolic capital as they are recognised by the school and are deemed to have worth or value. — The school devalues the working class habitus so that working class pupils tastes are deemed to be tasteless and worthless. 
ARCHER found that working class pupils felt that to be educationally successful they would have to change how they spoke and presented themselves. — For working-class students educational success is often experienced as a process of ‘losing yourself’
Pupils Class Identities and the School : Nike identities
Symbolic violence leads to working class pupils creating alternate ways of self-worth status and values they do so by constructing meaning for class identities for themselves they invest heavily in styles especially through consuming branded clothing such as Nike.
— girls created hyper heterosexual feminine styles
— the right appearance earned symbolic capital and approval from peer groups and bought safety from bullying
— at the same time it lead to conflict with the schools dress code reflecting the middle class habitus teachers opposed ‘street’ styles are showing bad taste or even as a threat pupils who adopted street styles risk being labelled as rebels.
Pupils Class Identities and the School : Working Class Identity and educational success
INGRAM 2009 studied two groups of working-class Catholic boys from the same highly deprived neighbourhood — one group has passed the 11+ exam and are currently attempting to the grammar school — the other group had failed and gone to a local secondary school
The grammar school held strongly middle class habitus of high expectations and high academic achievement well the secondary school had a habitus of low expectations of its underachieving pupils. — The grammar school boys experienced tension between the habitus of the working-class neighbourhood and of the middle-class school, for example one boy was ridiculed by his classmates for coming to school in a tracksuit on non-uniform day but wore this to fit in with his neighbourhood habitus. — By wearing this he was made to feel worthless by the schools middle class habitus as Ingram puts it the choice is between unworthiness at school or worthlessness at home.
Class identity and self-exclusion
Despite class inequalities in education many more working-class young people now go onto university even here the clash between working-class identity and the habitus of high education is a barrier to success, this is due to the process of self exclusion.
The relation between internal & external factors
— Working class pupils habitus an identity is formed outside school may conflict with the schools middle class habitus resulting in symbolic violence. — Working class pupils using the restricted speech code (EXTERNAL) may be labelled by teachers as less able leading to self-fulfilling prophecy (INTERNAL) — Poverty (EXTERNAL) may lead to bullying and stigmatisation (INTERNAL)
