education: class differences in achievement (internal)

• Pupil subcultures


  lacey: Two ways in which they develop: popularisation and differentiation
• hargreaves

  • boys in lower streams were triple failures- they failed most of their exams, had been placed in lower streams, and were labelled as 'worthless louts' their solution to this was to form a group which provided status to those who flouted school rules and guaranteed educational failure
• Archer: Pupil identities

  Working-class pupils invest in their 'nike' identity, leading to self-exclusion from education because it doesn't fit their identity and way of life. They see it as unrealistic (for rich and smart people) and undesirable (doesn’t suit their habitus)
• Becker: Teacher labelling

  Teachers judge and label pupils according to how closely they fit the ideal pupil
• Self-fulfilling prophecy


  When students are given a positive label, they react to it by creating a positive self-concept which means they are motivated to work hard and improve their grades. This also works in reverse, with negative labels leading to negative self-concepts and less motivation.
• Rosenthal and Jacobsen studied this by informing teachers of students who scored highly on an IQ test and would be a quick learner. The catch was that these test results were fabricated. Teachers treated those who were falsley identified as ’spurts’ differently. 47% that were “spurt’ made improvement
• streaming: Gillborn and yodell

  found teachers label w/c students as unintelligent resulting in being placed in lower sets