Pupil subcultures

• Lacey:

  • concept of differentiation and polarisation
• Hargreaves:

  • labelling and streaming in a secondary modern school.
  • joining anti-school subcultures it is likely to become self-fulfilling prophecy
• Ball:

  • study of Beachside, a comprehensive that was in the process of abolishing banding in favour of teaching mixed-ability groups.
  • influence of anti-school subculture declined.
  • teachers continue to categorise pupils and still labels them
• Furlong:

  • many people are not committed permanently to any one response, but may move between different types of response, acting differently in lessons with different teachers.
• Criticism - Fuller:

  • children who are labelled negatively do not always accept the self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Criticism - Marxists:

  • ignores the wider structure of power within which labelling takes place
  • labels are not merely the result of teachers' individual prejudices, but stem from the fact that teachers work in a system that reproduces class divisions