Sociology-Education-Social Class-Internal Flashcards
What does it mean to label someone?
To attach a meaning or definition to them, eg teachers may label a pupil as bright, troublemaker, hardworking etc
What do studies show about teachers and labelling?
Teachers often attach labels to pupils, regardless of their actual ability or attitude. Instead they label on the basis of stereotyped assumptions about their class background (labelling working class negatively and middle class positively)
Who carries out most of the studies on labelling?
Interactionists
What are interactionist studies like?
Small scale, face to face interactions between individuals, such as in the classroom or playground. They are interested in how people attach labels to one another, and how this affects the labeled person
What study did Becker carry out?
study of 60 Chicago high school teachers, found they judged pupils based on how close they were to the ‘ideal pupil’
What are key factors that influence teachers judgements?
Pupil’s work, conduct and appearance. Teachers saw children from middle class backgrounds as closest to the ideal and working class as further away as they were regarded as badly behaved
What did Amelia Hempel-Jorgenson find?
Study of primary schools found that the ‘ideal pupil’ image, differs based on the predominant class attending the school (mainly middle class schools have an ideal of academic ability and mainly working class schools have an ideal of good behaviour)
What do Dunne and Gazeley argue?
Schools persistently produce working class underachievement due to teacher labelling affecting the way that underachievement is dealt with (which varies with class)
What did Dunne and Gazeley find in a study of 8 secondary schools?
Teachers ‘normalised’ working class underachievement especially due to perceptions of their parents attitudes and home backgrounds, leading to class differences in how teachers dealt with underachievement and underestimation of working class pupils potentials, so those doing well were classed as overachievers
What is a study for labelling in primary schools?
Rist 1970 study of American kindergarten
What did Rist find?
Labelling occurs from the outset of a child’s educational career and seating plans are created based on children’s home background and appearance
What is a self fulfilling prophecy?
A prediction that comes true simply by virtue of it having been made
What do interactionists argue about labelling?
They can affect pupils achievement by creating a self fulfilling prophecy
What is step one of a self fulfilling prophecy?
Teacher labels a pupil and then makes predictions form them (eg labels them as intelligent and so makes predictions of outstanding academic success)
What is step two of a self fulfilling prophecy?
Teacher treats pupil according to the label, and as if the prediction is already true (eg by giving more attention and expecting a higher standard of work)
What is step three of a self fulfilling prophecy?
Pupil internalises the teacher’s expectation which becomes part of their self image, so they become the kind of pupil they were believed to be in the first place (eg they gain confidence, tries harder, succeeds and the prediction is fulfilled)
What is one of the studies into self fulfilling prophecies?
Rosenthal and Jacobson
What did Rosenthal and Jacobson find?
Gave pupils a test and picked 20% randomly and told the teacher they were exceptionally clever then nearly half of those students made significant progress a year later (had greater effect on younger children)
What interactionist principle does the study’s findings illustrate?
That what people believe to be true will have real effects-even if the belief was not true originally
What is streaming?
Involves separating children into different ability groups or classes (streams), each group is then taught separately from the others for all subjects
How does streaming link to self fulfilling prophecies?
Studies show that self fulfilling prophecies are particularly likely to occur when children are streamed
What does Becker show?
Study on ideal pupils show how different classes are likely to be streamed
What happens once streamed?
It is difficult to move up to a higher stream so are more or less locked into their teachers low expectations of them, and so the children in lower streams ‘get the message’ that their teachers have written them off as having no hope, creating a self fulfilling prophecy
What did Douglas find?
Children’s IQ score changes from 8 years old to 11 years old based on the stream they’re placed in (positively in higher streams, and negatively in lower streams)
What does Gillborn and Youdell study show?
How teachers use stereotypical ideas of ability to stream pupils, and so working class are more likely to be streamed lower and placed into lower tier GCSE exams, denying them opportunities to succeed and so widens the gender gap
What do Gillborn and Youdell link streaming to?
The policy of publishing exam league tables
What are exam league tables?
They rank schools according to its performance eg in terms of % of pupils gaining 5 or more GCSE grades A*-C . Higher position attracts more pupils and funding
What idea did Gillborn and Youdell come up with in response to league tables and streaming?
The A-C economy in schools, which is a system in which schools focus time, effort and resources on pupils they see as having potential to get five grade Cs and so boost school’s league table position
What process do Gillborn and Youdell call this?
Educational triage, derived from triaging in battlefields
What three groups are pupils sorted into?
Those who will pass anyway, those with potential/borderline C/D pupils targeted for extra help, and hopeless cases who are doomed to fail-These become the basis for streams
What is a pupil subculture?
A group of pupils who share similar values and behavioural patterns. They often emerge as a response to the way pupils have been labelled and streamed
What concepts does Lacey use which help explain how pupil subcultures develop?
Differentiation and polarisation
What is differentiation?
Process of teachers categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and behaviour. Streaming is a form of this as it categorises pupils into separate classes, those more able are given higher status as placed in a higher stream, those deemed less able are placed in low streams and given inferior status
What is polarisation?
The process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite ‘poles’/extremes, eg pro school or anti school subculture
What is the pro school subculture?
Pupils placed in high streams (usually middle class) tend to remain committed to the values of the school. Gain their status in the approved manner, through academic success. Their values are those of the school
What is the anti school subculture?
Those placed in low streams (usually working class) suffer a loss of self esteem as the school has undermined their self worth by placing them in a position of inferior status, pushing them to search for alternative ways of gaining status
How do anti school subcultures gain status?
Usually by inverting school’s values of hard work, obedience and punctuality, eg by being rude to teachers, truanting, not doing homework, smoking etc
Why are pupil subcultures not good?
Although the pupils feel they are gaining status, it creates further problems for them
What did Hargreaves find?
Boys in lower streams were seen as triple failures for failing the 11+, getting into lower streams and labelled as ‘worthless louts’
What did Ball find?
In a school that had abolished streaming polarisation stopped but differentiation continued and teachers still labelled based on class, which could be seen in exam results, suggesting self fulfilling pupils (teacher labelling continues even without the effect of subcultures or streaming)
What has happened since Ball’s study and the Education Reform Act 1988?
Trend towards more streaming and towards a variety of school types (some with a more academic curriculum than others) creating more opportunities for teachers and schools to differentiate and create greater inequality
Apart from subcultures, what did Woods 1979 argue are other responses to labelling and streaming?
Ingratiation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion
What is ingratiation?
Being a teachers pet
What is ritualism?
Going through the motions and staying out of trouble
What is retreatism?
Daydreaming and messing around
What is rebellion?
Outright rejection of everything the school stands for
What did Furlong observe?
Pupils aren’t committed to just one response and may act differently depending on the teacher
What are the studies into labelling and self fulfilling prophecies useful for?
To show that schools aren’t neutral or fair institutions as cultural deprivation theorists assume
What has labelling theory been accused of?
Determinism, it assumes that if a pupil is labelled negatively, they will inevitably form a negative self fulfilling prophecy and fail, which Fuller 1984 proves to be untrue
How do marxists criticise labelling theory?
It ignores the wider structures of power within which labelling takes place, and it tends to blame teachers for labelling pupils, without explaining why. It isn’t just a result of individual teachers prejudices, but he system as a whole which constantly reproduces class divisions
What does Archer et al focus on?
Interaction between working class pupil’s identities and school, and how this produces underachievement , and uses Bourdieu’s concept of habitus to explain this
What does habitus refer to?
Dispositions or learned, taken for granted ways of thinking, being and acting that are shared by a particular social class
What sorts of things does habitus include?
Tastes and preferences about lifestyle and consumption (such as fashion and leisure), their outlook on life and their expectations for what is normal and realistic for people
How are habitus’ formed?
As a response to the position in the class structure
Which habitus is best?
One isn’t intrinsically better, but middle class has power to define its habitus as superior, and to impose it on the education system so it puts higher value on middle class tastes and preferences
How is habitus linked to Bourdieu’s cultural capital?
The school has a middle class habitus, giving middle class pupils an advantage, while working class culture is regarded as inferior
How is symbolic capital gained?
Schools have a middle class habitus so those socialised into middle class tastes and preferences gain symbolic capital and recognition from school so are deemed to have worth/value
What is symbolic violence?
Withholding of symbolic capital. Defining working class and their tastes and lifestyle as inferior so symbolic violence reproduces class structure, keeping working class ‘in their place’
Why may working class students find education to be ‘alien’ or unnatural?
Because of the clash between the school’s middle class habitus, and their working class habitus
What did Archer find, concerning the clash of habitus?
To be successful at school, working class pupils either had to change themselves, and so education is seen as ‘losing youself’ and saw middle class spaces such as university and professional careers as not for people like them
What does symbolic violence lead to?
Working class know that society and school looks down on them, so seek alternative ways to create self worth, status and value
How did working class pupils gain status?
Constructing meaningful class identities for themselves by investing heavily in ‘styles’, especially through consuming branded clothing such as Nike
How important were these identities?
They were heavily policed by peer groups and not conforming was ‘social suicide’. The right appearance earned symbolic capital and approval from peer groups, bring safety from bullying
How do ‘nike’ identities bring conflict?
There is conflict with school dress code. Reflecting the school’s middle class habitus, teachers opposed their ‘street’ styles as showing ‘bas taste’ or as a threat, and so pupils were labelled as rebels
What does archer argue about habitus and identities?
Schools middle class habitus stigmatises working class pupils identities, and their performance of style is a struggle for recognition, where middle class see it as tasteless and working class see it as a means of generating symbolic capital and self worth
What do Nike styles play a part in?
Working class rejecting higher education, as they view it as unrealistic and undesirable
Why do working class see higher education as unrealistic?
It wasn’t for ‘pupils like them’, but for richer, posher and cleverer people and so they wouldn’t fit in. It was also seen as unaffordable and a risky investment
Why do working class see higher education as undesirable?
It wouldn’t ‘suit’ their preferred lifestyle or habitus eg they didn’t want to live on student loan as they couldn’t then afford the street styles that give them their identity
What does Archer et al suggest working class pupils investment in Nike identities do?
Causes educational marginalisation, but also expresses their positive preference for a particular lifestyle, and so they may self eliminate or self exclude from education as hey feel it isn’t for them and doesn’t fit in with their identity
What does Ingrams study show?
Study of two groups of working class boys from the same, highly deprived area. One group passed 11+ and went to grammar school and the others went to local high school. Tension between habitus and grammar school habitus, as they have great emphasis on conformity and fitting in, and neighbourhoods and local friends/family were key part of habitus and gave them a sense of belonging. Fit in with working class habitus, but not schools, so was ridiculed eg on non-uniform day
What did Evans find?
Group of working class a level girls reluctant to apply to elite universities and felt hidden barriers and strong attachments to their locality and so self excluded themselves from top universities
What did Bourdieu find?
Working class people don’t feel universities like Oxbridge are places for people like them due to habitus and they self exclude themselves
What does Reay point out?
Self exclusion from top universities narrows many working class pupils opportunities and limits their success
What do studies like Evans, Ingram and Archer show?
Middle class education system devalues working class habitus leading to the choice between development of working class identities or conforming to middle class habitus in order to succeed in education
What is the relationship between internal and external factors in explaining class differences?
They are often interrelated
How are internal and external factors interrelated?
Habitus and identities formed out of school conflict with school habitus and lead to symbolic violence and feeling that education isn’t for them, working class use restricted speech code (external) but are then labelled for it (internal), poverty (external) can lead to bullying and stigmatising (internal) which leads to things like truanting, and wider external factors outside of individual schools can affect inner processes, eg national education policies such as publishing league tables, leads to labelling and streaming
How do Dunne and Gazeley show that internal and external factors can be interrelated?
what a teacher believes about a child’s background can cause underachievement
