Topic 2: class differences in achievement (Internal factors)

• Labelling

  Study show that teachers often attach labels regardless of the peoples actual ability or attitude. Instead they label peoples on the basis of a stereotyped assumption about their class background, labelling working class pupils, negatively and middle-class pupils positively.

  • becker, based on a study with 60 Chicago high school teachers, he he found the judge pupils according to how closely they fitted the image of an ideal pupil which middle-class were closest to
• Labelling


  Pupils conduct, appearance and Work were key factors influencing teachers judgements they saw working class as furthest away from ideal people and regarded them as badly behaved

  • cicourel found labelling disadvantages working class peoples as counsellors based suitability towards higher education and social class and race
• Labelling in secondary schools

  Dunne and Gazeley argue schools persistently produce working class under achievement because of the labels and assumptions of teachers

  • From interviews in English state secondary schools, they found that teachers normalise the under achievement of wc pupils, seemed unconcerned by it and felt they could do little or nothing about it, whereas they believed they could overcome the underachievement of mc pupils
• Labelling in secondary schools

  A major reason for this difference was the teachers belief in the role of peoples home backgrounds, they labelled working class parents as uninterested in their kids education but labelled middle-class parents as supportive e.g. paying for music lessons or attending parents evening

  • this led to class differences in how teachers dealt with pupils they perceived as underachieving, setting extension work for under achieving mc pupils but entering wc peoples for easier exams
• Labelling in primary schools


  Labelling occurs from the outset of children’s educational career

  • Rist looked at American kindergartens and found teachers used info on home backgrounds to separate kids into either the ‘ tigers’ Tended to be mc and of a neat and clean appearance seated nearest to her and showed them the greatest encouragement or ‘ clowns’ More likely to be working class, seated further away, given lower level books and fewer chances to show their abilities
• labelling in primary schools

  sharpe studied primary school where kids choose their own activities at their own pace, middle-class kids appeared ready to learn while working class kids engaged in compensatory playtime until deemed ready, they also received less attention
• Self fulfilling prophecy


  sfp is a prediction that comes true simply by virtue of it having been made. Interactionist is argue Labelling can affect peoples achievement by creating sfp

  1. teacher labels people as good/bad based on criteria of ideal pupil
  2. Teacher treats people accordingly acting as if the prediction is already true
  3. Pupil internalises label and prophecy is fulfilled, student doesn’t work hard and isn’t inspired due to label so they don’t achieve
• self fulfilling prophecy- teachers expectations


  In their study of Oak community school a California primary school Rosenthal and Jacobson found when they created a fake ability test and selected 20% of students to be high ability, in a years time it was found that 47% of selected peoples had improved

  • Teachers create self-fulfilling prophecy study shows students achieve what teachers believe
• Streaming

  Involves separating children into different ability groups or classes called streams. Involves separating children into different ability groups or classes called streams.

  
  

  • Each ability group is taught separately from the others for all subjects. Studies Show that self-fulfilling prophecy is particularly likely to occur when children are streamed.
  • as becker shows, teachers don’t usually see wc children as ideal pupils, they see them lacking ability and have low expectations of them so put them in a low stream
• Streaming


  once Streamed it’s hard to move as teachers right off low streams as no hope

  • Streaming causes sfp as peoples live up to expectations by underachieving. Douglas found the IQ of those in bottom sets decreased overtime and those in top sets increased
  • Smyth found lowest dreams had a negative attitude to school, teacher pace was slow which damaged self-esteem
• Streaming and the A-to-C economy

  A study of two London secondary schools by Gilborn and Youdell shows how teachers use stereotypical norms of ability to stream pupils

  • They found that teachers are less likely to see working class pupils as having ability
  • As a result, these likely to be placed in low and entered into lower teams which denies them the knowledge and opportunity needed to gain good grades and widens the class gap in achievement
• Streaming and the A-to-C economy

  Gilborn and Youdell link streaming to the policy of publishing exam league tables, these rank each score according to its exam performance, e.g. in terms of the percentage of pupils attaining five or more GCSE A-C. Schools need to achieve a good league table position if they are to attract pupils and funding.

  • Publishing league tables creates what they call an A-to-C economy in schools
  • a system in which schools focus their time, efforts and resources on those peoples they see is having the potential to get five grade seeds and so boost the league table
• Streaming and the A-to-C economy- educational triage


  Gillborn and Youdell call this process educational triage arguing schools categorise pupils into three types:

  • Those who will pass anyway- can be left to get on with it
  • Those with potential- helped to get a C+ grade
  • And those those who are hopeless and doomed to fail, wc peoples often viewed as doomed so I put in the low set producing sfp and failure
• People subcultures

  Result from labelling and streaming

  • lacey uses the concepts of differentiation and polarisation to explain how people subcultures develop
  • Differentiation- is the process of teachers categorising kids as low/high status according to stereotypes. Setting/streaming is an example of this.
  • Polarisation- the way the people respond to differentiation either through pro/anti subcultures
• People subcultures- pro/anti school

  Pro school- middle class, positive stereotype, high sets and expectations, positive sfp, they gain status through good grades

  • anti school- working class, low streams, low expectations, low self-esteem. label makes students find other measures to gain status e.g. through going against school rules. Lacey argues they do this as they put in an inferior position.
• Pupil subcultures- abolish streaming

  Ball At a school using mixability groups, this stopped polarisation but teacher labelling continued leading to sfp

  • Highlighting how inequalities can continue even without setting and streaming
  • Since balls study and especially since the education reformat 1988, there has been a trend towards more streaming, this has created new opportunities for schools and teachers to differentiate between pupils on the basis of class, ethnicity or gender and treat them unequally
• People subcultures- variety of people responses

  Woods argued there was other responses than pro/anti-school

  • ingratiation- being the teachers pet
  • Ritualism- going through the motions and staying out of trouble
  • Retreatism- daydreaming and mucking about
  • Rebellion- outright rejection of everything the school stands for
  • furlong that many pupils may move between responses
• Criticisms of labelling theory

  Labelling theory has been accused of determinism, it assumes that people who are labelled have no choice but to fulfil the prophecy and will inevitably fail. However, studies such as fullers show that this is not always true

  • marxists also criticise labelling theory for ignoring the west structures of power within which labelling takes place
  • Marxists argue that labels are not merely the result of teachers individual prejudices but stem from the fact that teachers work in a system that reproduces class divisions
• Peoples class identities and the school

  Archer focuses on the interaction between working class, pupils, identities and school, and how this produces under achievement

  • To understand this relationship they draw on Bourdieus concept of habitus
• Pupils, class identities and the school- habitus 


  Hi refers to the dispositions or learned, taken for granted ways of thinking, being an acting that are shared by a particular social class

  • It includes their tastes and preferences about lifestyles and consumption (such as fashion and leisure pursuits), their outlook on life and their expectations about what is normal or realistic for “ people like us”
  • Groups habitus is formed as a response to its position in the class structure
• Peoples class identities and the school- habitus


  Although class habit is imtimsically better than others, the middle-class has the power to define its habitus as superior and to impose it on the education system. as a result, the school puts a higher value on middle-class tastes, preferences ect

  • this is linked to bourdieus concept of cultural capital as the school has a middle-class habitus, this gives middle-class pupils an advantage whilst working class culture is regarded as inferior
• Peoples class identities and the school- symbolic capital and symbolic violence

  Because schools have a middle class diabetes, pupils have been socialised at home into middle-class tastes and preferences gain symbolic capital or status and recognition from the school and are deemed to have worth or value

  • By contrast, the school values the middle class habitus, so that working class pupils tastes (e.g. clothing, accents and appearance) are deemed to be tasteless and worthless
• Pupils, class identities and the school- symbolic capital and symbolic violence

  bourdieu calls this with holding of symbolic capital, symbolic violence. By defining the working class and their tastes and lifestyles as inferior, symbolic violence reproduces the class structure and keeps the lower classes in their place

  • There is a clash between working class pupils habitus and the schools middle-class habitus. As a result, the working class students may experience the world of education as alien and unnatural.
• Pupils class identities and the school- symbolic capital and symbolic violence

  Archer found that working class pupils felt that to be educationally successful, they would have to change how they talked and presented themselves.

  • Thus for working class students, educational success is often experienced as a process of losing yourself
  • They felt unable to access posh, middle-class spaces such as university and professional careers, which were seen as not for the likes of us
• Pupils, class identities and the school- Nike identities

  Many peoples were conscious that society and school looked down on them

  • This symbolic violence led them to seek alternative ways of creating self worth status and value.
  • They did so by constructing meaningful class identities for themselves by investing heavily in styles especially through consuming branded clothes such as Nike
  • wearing Brands was a way of being one, without they would feel inauthentic
• Pupils class identities and the school- identities

  Peoples identities were also strongly gendered, for example girls adopted a hyper heterosexual feminine style

  • However, at the same time it led to conflicts with the schools dress code, reflecting the schools middle-class habitus, teachers opposed street styles as showing bad taste or even even as a threat
  • Peoples adopted street styles wrist being labelled as rebels
• Pupils class identities and the school- identities


  Archer argues that the middle-class stigmatise is working class peoples identities. the pupils performance of Nike styles is struggle for recognition, but middle-class see their Nike identities as tasteless. For young people they are a means of generating symbolic capital and self-worth.
• Pupils class identities and the school- Nike identities


  Nike styles also player apart in working class pupils rejection to higher education, which they saw us both unrealistic and undesirable

  • Unrealistic, because it was not for people like us, but for richer, clever people and they would not fit in. It was also seen as an unaffordable and risky investment.
  • Undesirable, because it would not suit their preferred lifestyle or habitus e.g. they didn’t want to live on a student loan because they would be unable to afford the street styles that gave them identity
• Pupils class identity and school- Nike identities


  According to archer, working class pupils investment in Nike identities is not only a cause of their educational marginalisation by the school, it also expresses their positive preference for a particular lifestyle

  • As a result working class people may choose self elimination or self exclusion from education
  • Not only do they get the message that education is not for the likes of them, but they actively choose to reject it because it does not fit within their identity or way of life
• Pupils class identities and the school-working class identity and educational success

  Ingram studied 2 groups of wc Catholic boys from the same highly deprived neighbourhood in Belfast. To establish what the relationship between ed success and working class identity was.

  • One group had passed their exam and gone to a grammar school while the other group had failed and gone to a local secondary school
  • The grammar school had a strongly middle-class habit of high expectations and academic achievement, while the secondary school had a habit of low expectations for its under achieving pupils
• Peoples class identities and the school- working class identity and educational success


  Ingram found that having a wc identity was inseparable from belonging to a working class locality

  • The neighbourhoods dense networks of family and friends were a key part of the boys habitus, gave them intense feeling of belonging. Archers study, street culture and branded sportswear were key part of the habitus and sense of identity
• Peoples class identities and the school- working class identity and educational success


  ingram notes wc communities place great emphasis on conformity. The boys experienced a great pressure to fit in And this was a particular problem for the grammar school boys, who experienced attention between the habitus of their wc neighbourhood and that of their mc school
• Pupils class identity and the school- class identity and self exclusion


  Despite class inequalities in education, more wc people now go onto uni

  • Even here the clash between wc identity and the habitus of higher education is a barrier to success, this is partly due to a process of self exclusion
  • Evans studied a group of 21 wc girls from South London comprehensive studying for their A-levels, she found they were reluctant to apply to elite uni such as Oxbridge and a few that did apply felt ascent of hidden barriers and not fitting in
• Peoples class identity and the school- class identity and self exclusion


  bourdieu found many wc people think of places like Oxbridge as not being for the likes of us, a feeling that comes from their habitus including beliefs about what opportunities exist for them and whether they would fit in

  • Thinking becomes part of their identity and leads wc students to exclude themselves from elite unis
  • Evans also found that girl had a strong attachment to their locality, e.g. only four out of the 21 intended to move away from home to study
• Peoples class identity and the school- the relationship between internal and external factors


  Working class peoples habitus and identities formed outside school may conflict with the schools middle-class habitus resulting in symbolic violence and peoples feeling that education is not for the likes of them

  • wc pupils using the restricted code may be labelled by teachers as less able leading to sfp
  • as dunne Found what teaches believe about wc pupils home backgrounds actually produces under achievement
  • Poverty may lead to stigmatisatisation by peer groups this may lead to truanting + failure