internal

• speech code - Bernstein - language

  • restricted code - used by working class students, is more informal and doesn’t  includes context
  • elaborated code - used by middle class students, detailed and analytical
  • schools use elaborated code: gives middle class advantages in understanding + expressing academic concepts
  • however: Bernstein underestimates the abilities of working class pupils by not acknowledging how they can learn both codes
• government policies which attempted to reduce class divide

  • free school meals
  • sure start programs, education maintenance allowances, student grants (university)

  helps overcome financial barriers within education for working class
• Labelling

  Becker (1971)

  • Found that teachers have negative labels for working class + lower expectations of them
  • the ideal pupil = middle class
• labelling

  Rist (1970)

  • looked at US nurseries
  • children grouped based on appearance + back ground

  1.   Tigers - smartly dressed, middle class a more time + encouragement.
  2.   cardinals + clowns - sar further anay, not encouraged + given low level books.
• labelling

  Rosenthal + Jacobson (1968)

  • randomy selected 20% students labelled as 'spurter’ - (achieved highly)
  • Found that 47% of the spurters had made significant progress
  • study demonstrates self fulfilling prophecy
• labelling

  Gillbourn + Youdell

  educational triage 

  • argues that the A-C economy produces an education triage, sorted into:

  1. those who will pass anyway and can be left to get on with it
  2. those with potential, who will be helped to get a grade C or better
  3. hopeless cases, who are doomed to fail

  • teachers base this from stereotyping - lower class become negatively labelled as being doomed to fail which creates a self fulfilling prophecy 
• Hargreaves - pupil subcultures

  • said boys in lower streams were triple failures
  • working class boys solved this by seeking forming a group and breaking rules for support and gaining status
  • this guaranteed their educational failure
• streaming

  keddie

  • teachers view middle class as having more cultural capital so they speak to them with higher access knowledge

  douglas

  • if you’re in a higher stream, your IQ increase, will decrease if you’re in a lower stream
  • found that 8 year olds in lower streams faced a decline in IQ at 11 years old
• Wood - pupil subcultures

  1. compliants
  2. retreatists

  identified the pupil’s responses to school life, would fit into these groups
• willis - pupil responses and subcultures

  • “the lads” study of working class boys
  • they gained status by forming a counter school sunculture
  • characterised by smoking, truanting, drinking
• streaming

  Ball

  • studied Beachside comprehensive
  • found that streaming caused pupils to feel deflated, they were keen before
• Hargreaves - labelling

  • analysed how teachers classify pupils

  1. speculation
  2. elaboration
  3. stabilisation

  • this was based from appearance, personality, likability - middle class were advantaged
• Cicourel + Kitsuse - self fulfilling prophecy

  • studied an American high school
  • counsellors streamed working class pupils into lower job areas
• Feinstein - parental interest

  • found that middle class parents are more involved (eg parents evening) helping their child to achieve higher
• Sugarman - values and attitudes

  • identified working class pupils as having a fatalistic attitude (leaving it to fate, not trying)
  • causes them to be doomed to fail
• internal

  Dunner + Gazeley

  • teachers react quicker when a middle class pupil underperforms
  • will call their parents (more involved - Feinstein), giving external support
• Bourdieu 1984 - identity

  • the transition from home to school life is difficult for working class pupils
  • this is due to school valueing middle class norms (eg uniform fitting white collared jobs), causing working class pupils to form a subculture by misbehaving to gain status

  Archer 2008

  • working class pupils form nike identity in response to education favouring middle class habitus, which formed a symbolic violence against them
  • they will misbehave and intimidate

  however : not all w.c. pupils struggle with this transition