Internal factors

• School factors and achievement

  • Factors and processes within schools and the education system also influence class differences in achievement
  • Most sociologists who have studied the role of school factors are interactionists who focus on small-scale interactions between teachers and pupils
  • They identify a number of related causes of under-achievement: labelling; the self-fulfilling prophecy; streaming and pupil subcultures
• Labelling


  Labels are meanings or definitions we attach to someone or something to make sense of them
• Labels for middle-class pupils

  • Bright
  • Motivated
  • Cooperative
• Labelling (Becker 1961)


  Teachers label middle-class children as 'ideal pupils' and prefer to teach them rather than working-class children
• The key idea of labelling underlies many of the other processes within schools that cause under-achievement
• Self-fulfilling prophecy


  A prediction made about something or someone that comes true simply because it has been made
• Self-fulfilling prophecy


  • It comes true simply because it has been made (e.g. they go on to fail all their exams)
• Teachers create self-fulfilling prophecies through the labels they attach to pupils


  What teachers believe, pupils achieve
• Streaming


  An extreme and institutionalised form of labeling where pupils of similar ability are put together into the same class or 'stream' for all subjects
• Streaming often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy
• The IQ of pupils labelled as less able and placed in the bottom stream actually fell over time, whereas that of pupils put in the top stream increased
• Those placed in lower streams may be denied access to the same curriculum, e.g. not being put in for higher level exams
• Pupil subcultures


  Groups whose beliefs, values and attitudes differ to some extent from the culture of wider society
• Pro-school subcultures


  • Formed by pupils in higher streams, accept the school's values and goals of hard work, regular attendance, respect for teachers etc.
• Anti-school subcultures


  • Formed by those in lower streams, reject the school's values and often invert them, dislike school, flout its rules, disrespect teachers, avoid doing schoolwork, play truant, sabotage their uniform etc.
• Lower-stream pupils form or join anti-school subcultures


  Because school deprives them of status by labeling them as failures
• Pupil subcultures often lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy - members of pro-school subcultures work hard and are successful, while those in anti-school subcultures mess about, truant and fail
• Habitus


  A social class's habitual ways of thinking, being and acting, e.g. lifestyles and expectations about what is normal for 'people like us'
• The middle class has the power to define its habitus as superior and impose it on the education system, so the school holds middle-class values
• Symbolic capital


  Recognition and status
• School commits symbolic violence by devaluing working-class pupils' habitus, judging their clothing, accent, interests etc. tasteless, illegitimate and inferior and denying them symbolic capital
• 'Nike' identities


  Symbolic violence leads pupils to create alternative class identities and gain symbolic capital from peers through consuming branded goods
• 'Nike' identities


  Cause conflict with the school's middle-class habitus
• 'Losing yourself'


  Succeeding at school means being inauthentic, changing how you presented yourself to fit in
• 'Nike' identities


  Are authentic but they cause conflict with school
• Working-class identity and educational success

  • Fitting in was a problem for working-class grammar school boys
  • They experienced a tension between their neighbourhood's habitus and that of their middle-class school
  • They faced being judged worthless at school for wearing 'street' clothes or worthless in their community for not doing so
• Self-exclusion from success


  • Even successful working-class girls faced hidden barriers
  • They felt their identity would not 'fit in with the habitus of elite universities
  • The girls had a strong attachment to their families and intended to remain at home to study
• Educational policies


  • What goes on in schools isn't just a product of what teachers decide to do
  • It is also greatly influenced by government policies, and these can have an important effect on class differences in achievement
• Marketisation policies have increased the amount of streaming in schools
• Policies on issues such as grants, fees, maintenance allowances, the school leaving age, compensatory education etc have an impact on home background factors such as material or cultural deprivation
• Social class is the position that an individual or group occupies within society, based on their economic status.
• Labelling


  Teachers attach meanings (labels) to pupils regardless of their actual ability or attitude, based on stereotypical assumptions
• The MC (middle class) are labelled positively and the WC (working class) negatively
• Becker (1971) study


  • Interviewed 60 Chicago high school teachers
  • Found they attach labels to pupils depending on how close the match the ideal pupil
  • Judgements made using pupils' work, conduct and appearance
  • Saw MC pupils as closest to the ideal pupil, and saw WC pupils as badly behaved
• Dunne & Gazeley (2008) study


  • Interviewed teachers from 9 schools
  • Found they normalised WC pupils' underachievement and didn't think they could do anything about it
  • Thought they could overcome MC underachievement
  • Reason - teachers have different beliefs about pupils' home backgrounds, labelling WC parents as uninterested and MC parents as supportive
• Hempel-Jorgensen (2009) study


  • Ideal pupil depends on the overall class of the school
  • WC primary school - ideal pupil is quiet, obedient and passive, defined by behaviour
  • MC primary school - ideal pupil defined by personality and academic ability
• Rist (1970) study


  • Teachers use info about pupils' home background/appearance to sort them into groups
  • Tigers - MC 'fast learners' with clean appearance, received most help and attention
  • Cardinals & Clowns - WC groups given lower level books and ability work, received less help/attention, seated further from teacher
• Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968) study


  • Told teachers some pupils were 'spurters' who would do really well
  • A year later, the randomly picked 'spurter' pupils had actually improved academically
  • This is because the teachers labelled them as achievers and gave them more encouragement and support
• Self-fulfilling prophecy


  When a teacher's expectations of a pupil's performance cause the pupil to live up to those expectations
• Streaming


  • Sorting children into groups ('streams) based on their ability, so they can be taught separately
  • Very likely to lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy
  • WC pupils aren't seen as the ideal pupil, making it harder for them to move up streams
  • MC pupils benefit from streaming as they are placed in high ability groups