symbolic interactionist-labelling

• Rosenthal&Jacobson study labelling

  -gave primary school students a fake IQ test

  -'identified' two types of student to teacher

  -high-flyers:likely to progress quickly

  -low-ability:students likely to struggle

  -12 months later found high flyers has progressed at a rapid rate

  -caused by teachers expectations placed onto students
• self fufilling prophecy


  as teachers treat students based on how they view them, student will behave that way eventually
• Ball-Banding


  -students who fathers were non manual workers had the greatest chance of being placed in the top band

  -higher bands were encouraged to have high aspirations and taught in different ways mug+jug principle
• mug and jug principle

  teacher (jug) pouring more knowledge into student (mug) based on whether they thought theyd be able to take it on
• Keddie-streaming

  -Teachers modified information on syllabus based on what stream they were teaching

  -middle class students tended to be places in A stream

  -students from manual backgrounds placed into C stream
• Hargreaves

  -the students viewed as worthless louts by teachers unable to attain high status in school would gain status by misbehaving and being the class clown
• Elliot-Brown/Blue eyes experiment

  -to see how quickly the children would discriminate against their fellow pupils

  -discrimination was quick and led to violence
• educational triage

  -students viewed in categories

  • safe bet, A/A* student
  • underachievers C/D students who could get top grades with hard work
  • without hope U grade
• critique of labelling theory

  -too deterministic

  - Mac an Ghaill:40 asian girls in lower bands labelled as failures, rejected their label and passed all their exams