Pupil Subcultures

• Who created the concepts of differentiation and polarisation?

  Lacey (1970)
• Differentiation


  the process of teachers categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and/or behaviour e.g. streaming
• Polarisation


  the process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two poles/extremes: pro-school and anti-school subcultures.
• Pro-school subculture


  • pupils places in higher streams (largely m/c)
  • gain status in an approved manner, through academic success
  • their values are those of the school
• Anti-school subculture

  • those placed in lower streams (w/c)
  • inferior status
  • label of failure pushes them to gain status elsewhere
  • inverting school's values
  • gain status among peers by cheeking teacher, truanting, not doing homework, smoking etc
• What's the problem with anti-school subculture?


  • solves the problem of lack of status
  • self-fulfilling prophecy to educational failure
• Hargreaves (1967)


  • from the pov of the education system, boys in lower streams in secondary moderns were triple failures because:

  1. they'd failed their 11+
  2. been placed in lower streams
  3. been labelled worthless louts

  > as a result they formed a delinquent subculture
• abolishing streaming Ball (1981)

  • Ball studied a school abolishing banding
  • polarisation mostly disappeared and anti-school subculture declined
  • however differentiation and labelling continued

  conclusion: class inequalities can continue as a result of teacher labelling even without effects of streaming or subcultures
• pupil responses to labelling and streaming Woods (1979)


  apart from pro and anti school subcultures, Woods identified other responses including:

  1. ingratiation- being 'teachers pet'
  2. ritualism- going through the motions and staying out of trouble
  3. retreatism- daydreaming and mucking about
  4. rebellion- outright rejection of everything the school stands for.

  Furlong (1984)

  > students may move between responses depending on teacher and lesson