the role of education in society - interactionalist perspective

Question 1

what do interactionalists believe and what are they concerned with regarding education?

Answer 1

individuals can behave in a way they want

concerned with how teachers interact and respond to pupil’s behaviour

Question 2

hargreaves

Answer 2

looked at how pupils came to be typed or classified in the classroom, noting three stages of typing or classifying pupils.

speculation - was the first and typing is based on: appearance, how far they conformed to discipline, their ability and enthusiasm for work, how likeable they were, their relationships with other children, their personality and whether they were deviant.

elaboration - hypothesis confirmed or contradicted. typing is refined

stabilisation - teacher feels they know the pupil and can make sense of them. actions are evaluated in terms of the ‘type’ of pupil

Question 3

rist

Answer 3

as early as the 8th day of school, children are seated permanently at three separate tables

• table 1 = fast learners
• table 2 and 3 = less able

suggests these weren’t based on ability but how far the child conformed to the teachers middle class standards - students were therefore labelled on their social class

Question 4

becker

Answer 4

labelling theory suggests that the way a person acts and sees themselves can be changed by the ways that others describe them.

teachers attach labels and act towards pupils on this basis. becker went onto suggest that teachers had an ‘ideal’ pupil.

interviewed 60 teachers from chicago high and found they tended to classify students in terms of a standard of the ideal pupil

students from non manual backgrounds = closest.

lower working class = furthest.

Question 5

rosenthal and jacobsen - pygmalion in the classroom

Answer 5

looked into teacher expectations of student’s abilities and the influence of this.

they identified 20% of the class as ‘spurters’ but these students were actually chosen at random.

they found that all ‘spurters’ did improve when they returned and carried out the same test 8 months later.

concluded that teachers expectations can affect a pupils performance.

Question 6

ball - beachside comprehensive

Answer 6

looked at the impact of banding and found that other factors other than ability influenced the bands

those with fathers who were non manual workers were likely to be in the top band

saw behaviour deteriorate as a result of the stereotyping of bands - band two expected to be the most difficult and least cooperative and band three with learning difficulties

highlighted the link between banding and performance and social class and banding

Question 7

keddie - streaming and classroom knowledge

Answer 7

looked at impact of streaming in a single subject and highlighted the importance of abstract knowledge - viewed as highly valuable and was made available if students were perceived as able to handle it

made the link between class and perceived ability

white collar background - a stream
unskilled, manual labour - c stream

Question 8

woods - pupil adaptation

Answer 8

suggests pupils way of dealing with school life depends on whether they accept or reject the aim of academic success

pupils accept or reject goals and means with greater or lesser enthusiasm

ingratiation
compliance
opportunism
ritualists
retreatists
colonisation
intransigence
rebellion