Social class: internal factors

• Social class and educational achievement are influenced by internal factors such as labeling, which is the process of attaching a meaning or definition to someone.
• Becker found that middle class students were closest to the ideal that the teachers had in their mind, while working class students were further away and regarded as badly behaved.
• Say also looked at this issue and found that labeling can disadvantage working class students.
• American school counselors and careers advisors claimed to assess students' suitability to enter higher education on the basis of their academic ability, but in reality, they were judging their suitability mainly on the grounds of their social class or race.
• Writs found that teachers used information on student homes and backgrounds to separate them into different tables, with the fastest learners, known as the Tigers, often being middle-class or coming from middle-class areas.
• The Cardinals and the Crown's, students who tended to be working-class, were often given lower-level work when engaging in reading, read as a group rather than as individuals, and received less opportunities to show their abilities.
• Sharpened Green studied a British primary school where children choose their activities and develop at their own pace, and found that middle class children appeared ready to learn quicker and received more attention from teachers.
• Working-class children engaged in compensatory playtime until they were ready to learn, received less reading time and attention, and were not as quick to ask for help.
• The self-fulfilling prophecy is a statement that says something is going to happen.
• The process of differentiation is the process by which a teacher categorizes pupils, measuring students against the idea a teacher has in mind of what an ideal pupil is and determining if they're able or not.
• Pupil subcultures form as a response to teacher labeling and streaming.
• If a student is able, they will be considered high status, if they're not able they may be considered low status.
• An IQ test is supposed to be a test of innate intelligence, intelligence that you're born with.
• Douglass found that IQ of those in the bottom stream actually fell over time whilst in the top set it increased.
• In education, a self-fulfilling prophecy involves a teacher labeling pupils as good or not-so-good, treating them according to the label, and the pupil internalizing the label.
• Streaming is an extreme and institutionalized form of labeling and pupils of similar ability are placed in the same class or stream.
• This led to pupil polarization and the disappearance of student subcultures, but teacher labeling persisted leading to self-occurring prophesies whereby the middle class students outperformed the working class students.
• A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that comes true simply because it has been made.
• Students in the lower streams are often working-class, have low self-esteem and low self-worth, and gain status in the subculture by being cheeky, truanting, and engaging in anti-social behaviors.
• Once a student is streamed their IQ seems to change based on whether or not they've been placed in the top or bottom stream.
• Students in the highest streams tend to be middle class, committed to the values of the school, and gain status in the subculture through academic achievement.
• Colin Lacey stated that streaming is a way of separating sheep from goats and educating them separately.
• The trend in the UK has been towards more streaming, with many schools following the policy and parents often believing that their children are hard-working good students often think that streaming is a good thing.
• The process of differentiation can lead to polarization, with students moving towards either the North Pole or the South Pole, representing the complete opposites of each other.
• Rebellion is when students actively go out their way to disrupt lessons, upset teachers, drop set other students, and prevent learning.
• Pro school or anti school subcultures are formed once students have been differentiated and placed in different streams.
• Ingratiating is when students seek to be the teacher's pet, talking to the teachers before and after lessons and making them buy them presents at Christmas.
• Peter woods identified a variety of pupil responses to streaming and labeling, including the Pro and anti school subculture type.
• Marxists argue that there is a failure to account for wider structures of power in labeling theory, blaming teachers without asking why the teachers label.
• Students who have performed well in primary school up to the 11th class may join anti school subcultures when they are streamed into different groups in secondary school.
• Another criticism of labeling theory is that it is too deterministic, stating that students' destinies are written the moment they turn up in school and teachers label them, they can't change it, they can't overcome problems.
• Stephen Ball was interested in the abolition of streaming and looked at a convert comprehensive school known as side which was abolishing streaming or going through the process of doing so and instead introduced mixed ability groups.
• There has been an increase in the variety of school types and curriculums, where the middle classes often take on more academic studies and the working classes often take on more vocational hands on manual studies.
• Ritualism is when students go through the motions, staying out of trouble and doing what's asked of them.
• Students in an anti school subculture may turn to value inversion, where they purposely behave in a way that goes against the school's values, to gain status.
• Peter Woods found that there was no commitment to any of these responses necessary by the students, meaning that students may move between different responses depending on the lesson.
• Peter Woods argued that students may react to teacher labeling and streaming by ingratiating, ritualism, retreatism, or rebellion.
• In a pro school subculture, students aim to gain approval from teachers and peers, while in an anti school subculture, students aim to gain approval from their peers.
• The overarching aim or claim of labeling theory is that underachievement is caused by teacher labeling, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy that guarantees failure.
• Retreatism is when students retreat into themselves, engaging in daydreaming or mucking around in lessons as a way of distracting themselves and retreating into themselves or their peer group.