Topic 2

Question 1

LABELLING AND SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY

Hartley and Sutton’s study of 140 children in three Kent primary schools

Answer 1

Children were assigned to work in two groups , the first were told that boys don’t perform as well as girls, the other group was not told this. They were then tested in maths, reading and writing. Boys in the first group performed significantly worse than those in the second. White girls performed better in both groups

Question 2

Interactionist perspective

Answer 2

Micro or small scale detailed studies of what happens within the class room

Qualitative research methods like unstructured interviews or participant or non-participant observation. They seek to discover, upon interaction with others, teachers or pupils experience education.

Question 3

What is labelling ?

Answer 3

The process of defining a person of group in a certain way- as a particular “type” of person or group.

Can contribute to the moulding of student identities and has been shown to affect educational performance

Question 4

What is a stereotype?

Answer 4

A generalised oversimplifying View of the features of a social group, allowing for a few individual Differences between members of the group

Can produce a halo effect e.g if a teacher may think a student is bright etc even if they are not just because they are well mannered etc
Opposite also occurs

Question 5

What is the Halo effect ?

Answer 5

When pupils become stereotypes, either favourably or unfavourably, on the basis of earlier impressions

Question 6

What is self fulfilling prophecy ?

Answer 6

Where people act in response to predictions which have been made regarding their behaviour thereby making the prediction come true

Question 7

Waterhouse (2004) on pivotal identity

Answer 7

Case study on 4 primary and secondary schools
Teacher labels pupil either label a pupil as either normal/ average or a deviant.
Affects the way a teacher interacts with pupils , Waterhouse says this produces a pivotal identity for students , a core identity providing a pivot from which classroom events are interpreted
Once established this affects the interpretation of specific classroom behaviour
For example: if a pupil was labelled with a pivotal identity as deviant is likely to have episodes of normal, conformist behaviour is thought by the teacher to be a temporary episode and the other way around

Question 8

Becker (1971) on teacher stereotypes of the ideal pupil

Answer 8

Teachers initially evaluate pupils in relation to their stereotypes of the “ideal” pupil. Which set the standard for teachers judgements of the quality of young people as pupils and would represent the typical normal or average conforming pupil .

Question 9

Hempel-Jorgensen (2009)

“Ideal pupil” research in 12 primary schools

Answer 9

Year long research - observation with children and semi structured interviews with teachers.
Pupils and teachers have same views of the ideal pupil and ideal learner when pupils were asked what the ideal pupil would be if they were to start school.
This influenced how children viewed themselves and classmates. It also affected their motivation, aspirations and academic attainments

Question 10

Becker (1971) and Rist (1970) 
 Social class affecting labelling

Answer 10

Social class and how far pupils conform to middle class standards of teachers, rather than their ability, were the most significant factors influencing student labelling.

Question 11

Gillborn (2011)

Ideal pupil

Answer 11

Ideal pupil held by teachers is mainly white , do not see black students as academically successful.

Denying opportunity to black pupils especially black Caribbean pupils regardless of their social class,gender or ability

Question 12

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)

Evidence for self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 12

Randomly chosen group of students whom teachers were told were bright and could be expected to make good progress even though they were no different from other students in terms of ability, did in fact make greater progress than students not so labelled

Question 13

Hartley and Sutton (2011)

Gender affecting labelling and self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 13

Labelling, stereotypes and the expectations of teachers, as well as peers , parents and the media, generating a self-fulfilling prophecy with negative effects on performance of boys.
Study of 140 children in three Kent primary schools
Children assigned to two groups , with one told that boys do not perform as well as girls, and the others were not told this. They were then tested in maths , reading and writing. Boys in the first group performed significantly worse than those in the second. Suggests that boys poor performance nationally could be explained due to stereotyping

Question 14

What is banding?

Answer 14

Either is where schools try to ensure their intakes have a spread of pupils drawn from all bands of ability , or more commonly is used as an alternative word for streaming

Question 15

What is streaming?

Answer 15

Where in schools, students are divided into groups of similar ability (bands or streams) in which they stay for all subjects

Question 16

What is setting ?

Answer 16

Where students are divided into groups (sets) of the same ability in particular subjects

Question 17

Gillborn and Youdell (2000)

What is educational triage?

Answer 17

Refers to the way schools divide pupils into three groups- those who are likely to succeed in exams
(Mainly concerning GCSES A*-C ) whatever happens, those who have a chance of succeeding if they have a chance of succeeding if they get extra help (mainly those around the C/D boundary) and those who have little chance of succeeding what ever is done. Schools concentrate on the first two groups and basically write off those who have little chance of success.

Question 18

Ball’s research in Beachside Comprehensive (1981)

Answer 18

Top stream students were “warmed up” by encouragement to achieve highly and to follow academic courses of study. On the other hand, lower stream students were “cooled down” and encouraged to follow lower status vocational and practical courses, and consequently achieved lower levels of academia success, frequently leaving the school at the earliest opportunity .

Question 19

Smyth et al. (2006)

Attitudes of those in the lower-stream classes

Answer 19

Have a negative attitude to school, find the teaching pace too slow, spend less time in homework, and are more likely than other students to disengage from school life and become disaffected with school.

Question 20

Research conducted for the Sutton Trust (2010) on setting and social class

Answer 20

Found that while setting was a good way of stretching bright pupils from poor backgrounds, not enough of them were reaching top sets. It also found that streaming put poorer pupils at a disadvantage and favoured those from the middle class . The evidence suggests that the higher a pupils social class the greater their chance of being allocated to a top stream. Therefore streaming contributes to the underachievement of working class pupils and affects the occupation and social class they may eventually achieve

Question 21

Keddie

Unequal access to classroom knowledge

Answer 21

Consequence of streaming is that not all students get the same access to classroom knowledge. Teachers taught pupils in higher sets differently from lower sets. Pupils were expected to behave better and do more work. Teachers gave them more and different types of knowledge which gave them greater opportunities for educational success. Lower streams may therefore underachieve in educational success

Question 22

DIFFERENTIATION AND POLARISATION 
Lacey’s (1970) study of middle class grammar schools

Answer 22

Most schools generally place a high value on things such as high work, good behaviour and exam success and teaches judge students and rank and categorise them into different groups according to this criteria ( DIFFERENTIATION)
One of the consequences through streaming setting and labelling is POLARISATION. The way students become divided into two opposite groups . Those in the top sets who conform and therefore achieve high status in terms of values and aims of be school and those who are in bottom streams and are labelled as failures are therefore deprived of status

Question 23

DIFFERENTIATION AND POLARISATION

Ball (1981) research in a streamed comprehensive school

Answer 23

Found teachers perceptions of students academic ability and the processes of differentiation and polarisation influence how students behaved and lead to be formation of pro and anti school subcultures. Involvement in such subcultures and interactions and relationships among pupils themselves within them , can shape their identities and have an important effect on their chances of educational failure or success

Question 24

What is a pro-school culture ?

Answer 24

A group organised around a set of values, attitudes and behaviour which generally confirms to the academic aims , ethos and rules of the school

Question 25

Mac and Ghaill (1994)

Two male pro school subcultures

Answer 25

The ‘Academic Achievers” (academic success) and the “New Enterprisers” ( vocational subjects like technology and computers) who were semi skilled manual working class white and Asian students who were aspiring to middle-class careers

Question 26

Sewell (1998)

Pro school subcultures among black pupils ( the conformists)

Answer 26

They sought to achieve academic success and avoid racist stereotyping and labelling by teachers by conforming to school values

Question 27

What is a sub culture of resistance ?

Answer 27

Not only has some differences from the dominant culture but is also in active opposition to it

Question 28

Jackson’s (2006) research on “ladette” behaviour from girls

Answer 28

Research among 13-14 year old boys and girls suggest girls are becoming more and more involved in ant school sub cultures as they take on ladette behaviours, the female equivalent of be assertive, boisterous and crude “laddish” culture found among boys and to make teachers lives hell. However some girls still try to achieve academic success by hiding their work .

Question 29

Woods (1979)

Eight responses ranging from pro school to anti school

Answer 29

PROSCHOOL:
Ingratiation- pro school conformity with eagerness to please teachers and win favour with them

Compliance- conformity but just what they can get out of school such as good exam results , do not necessarily enjoy school

Opportunism- those who try to gain both teacher and peer approval, who move between both depending on what is more beneficial at the time

Ritualism- lack of interest and engagement with schooling but appearing to conform by going through the motions and avoiding trouble

Retreatism- not actively opposed to school values but indifferent to them, distracted and lacking concentration, indifferent to exam success and not involved in school including subcultures

Colonisation- those who generally accept school for what is offers them but rejects school for things it forbids . They take opportunities to have fun, express aggression and hostility so long as they avoid getting into trouble

Intransigence- troublemakers who are indifferent to school, and who aren’t that bothered about he consequences of non-conformity

Rebellion- outright rejection of schooling and is values, and involvement in antischool activity as in the anti school subculture

Question 30

Fuller (1980)

Negative labelling actually doing the opposite

Answer 30

Found in a study that although list black girls were subject to negative labelling and stereotyping and placed in low streams, some of them consciously chose to reject wish labels and strived to prove the teachers wrong by achieving educational success, while still seeming not to conform to the ethos and rules of the school. This shows that negative labelling does not always lead to failure