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
