Social Class : Labelling

• Becker

  Teachers form stereotypes based on their concept of the ideal pupil: female, middle class, white British
• Waterhouse

  Teachers respond to children's behaviour according to the 'pivotal identity' that has been allocated to them - this is based on the teacher stereotypes and the label given.
• Hargreaves

  All behaviour is seen through the eyes of the label assigned to the child — this is called the ‘halo effect'. A child labelled as 'good' will be allowed to have 'off days' if their behaviour does not meet the expectations, whereas a child labelled as 'naughty' will not. When behaving well, a 'naughty' child will be seen to be 'up to something' or the behaviour will be seen as out of character as it does not fit with the expectations of bad behaviour.
• Hempel-Jorgensen

  Observed 12 primary schools in Hampshire over 12 months. Semi-structured interviews with teacher shows they have a concept of an 'ideal learner' This contributes to a learner identity - this affects motivation and aspirations.
• Waterhouse

  Studied four primary and secondary schools and found that the child who is negatively labelled will have times of conformity and display the desired behaviour, but the teachers will see this as temporary due to the negative label. Waterhouse suggests that it is almost as if they are waiting for the child to return to the 'bad' behaviour.
• Harvey & Slatin

  They showed 96 teachers pictures of children from all backgrounds and asked them to rate who would be the most successful. The white middle class children were rated as more likely to be successful.
• Rosenthal & Jacobsen

  Teachers were shown children with labels of 'bright' or ‘likely to fail' even though the children were all of the same ability. The children who had been labelled as 'bright' did better than the children who had been labelled as likely to fail'.
• Ball

  Carried out research into a comprehensive school to see how children in top sets and lower sets were treated differently. He found that top sets children were encouraged to aim for academic courses and careers in professions. The lower sets were encouraged to aim for vocational courses and jobs in working class employment.
• Smyth

  Found that students in lower sets are more likely to disengage with school life and have a more negative attitude to school. These pieces of research show that setting is harmful to students and have a negative effect on their educational achievement. Setting results in some children not being able to access the knowledge and opportunities needed to succeed.