A Level Sociology

Education

Topic 3

Class differences – internal

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Objectives:

Understand the main internal factors that cause class differences in education Analyse the impact of labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy Analyse and explore pupil subcultures Evaluate interactionist views of education

Interactionist views on education:

Interactionists examine education from a micro-perspective. The focus is on the day-today running of schools and the interaction between pupils and teachers and between pupils and pupils within the classroom.

The classroom is constructed and constantly renegotiated through interaction between teachers and pupils. Pupils are not passive recipients of teachers’ knowledge, but actively participate in learning and resistance.

Teachers play a crucial role in the success of their students, because they can affect the self-concepts and self-esteem of students. The labelling and typing of students by teachers can lead to the creation of self-fulfilling prophecies.

Streaming and setting have significant effects on the success of pupils in school. There is a close relationship between banding and the social class background of pupils.

Some pupils resist the school system. This resistance takes different forms, varying from active rebellion and aggression to subtle adaptations of behaviour.

Peer groups are also seen as having considerable influence on some pupils. This influence can have positive or negative effects on behaviour and achievement.

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Labelling:

To label someone is to attach a meaning or definition to them. For example, teachers may label a pupil as bright or thick, trouble maker or hard worker.

Studies show that teachers often attach such labels regardless of the pupil’s actual ability or attitude. Instead, they label pupils on the basis of stereotyped assumptions about their class background, labelling working-class pupils negatively and middle-class pupils positively.

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Pretend that you are a teacher who has just met this student. What are your initial views of this student?

Amandeep enters your classroom he looks smart, smiles and says hello politely and sits down and gets his books and pencil case out. He appears to be shy to other students.

What do you expect this child to be like?

You have had several lessons with Amandeep, he is quiet but does his work and overall keeps to himself. He does not really speak to the other students in the class and always seems to finish before the other students.

Is your initial speculation confirmed or contradicted?

Pretend that you are a teacher who has just met this student. What are your initial views of these students?

Kayleigh turns up late to class and is not wearing uniform, when asked she answers sharply “me mum hadn’t washed it, I’ve got a note”, she sits down and starts distracting 2 other girls.

What do you expect this child to be like?

Kayleigh misses a lot of your lessons and always has vague excuses when she does turn up to your class- she is often late and smells of smoke. When she is wearing uniform she wears it scruffily and you constantly have to remind her to put her tie on and tuck her shirt in. When she is in lessons she is always talking and can be quite rude to you.

Is your initial speculation confirmed or contradicted?

The ideal pupil:

Draw an image of the ideal pupil and label it with all the characteristics you think teachers see as making up ‘the ideal pupil’ include some indication as to why teachers may perceive this particular type of student as ideal:

Howard Becker (1971)

He carried out an important Interactionist study of labelling. Based on interviews with 60 Chicago high school teachers, he found that they judged pupils according to how closely they fitted an image of the ‘ideal pupil’.

Pupils’ work, conduct and appearance were key factors influencing teachers’ judgements. The teachers saw children from middle-class backgrounds as the closest to this ideal, and lower working-class children as furthest away from it because they regarded them as badly behaved.

Amelia Hempel-Jorgensen (2009)

She found that different teachers had different notions of the ideal pupil. These notions vary according to the social make-up of the school:

In the largely working class Aspen primary school, where staff said discipline was a major problem, the ideal pupil was defined as quiet, passive and obedient – they were defined by their behaviour not their ability

By contrast, the mainly middle class Rowan primary school had very few discipline problems and here the ideal pupil was defined instead in terms of personality and academic ability

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Labelling in primary schools:

Ray Rist (1970)

Labelling occurs from the outset of a child’s educational career as Ray Rist’s study of an American kindergarten shows. He found that the teacher used information about children’s home background and appearance to place them in separate groups, seating each group at a different table. Those she decided were fast learners, whom she labelled the ‘tigers’, tended to be middle-class and of neat and clean appearance. She seated these at the table nearest to her and showed them the greatest encouragement.

The other two groups- whom she labelled the ‘cardinals’ and the ‘clowns’ – were seated further away. These groups were more likely to be working-class. They were given lower-level books to read and fewer opportunities to demonstrate their abilities. For example, they had to read as a group, not as individuals.

Labelling in secondary schools:

Mairead Dunne and Louise Gazeley (2008)

They argue that schools persistently produce working class underachievement because of the labels and assumptions of teachers. They interviewed teachers in nine state schools and found that teachers normalised working class underachievement and were unconcerned by it, whereas they believe that they could overcome middle class underachievement.

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A major reason for this difference was the teachers’ belief in the role of pupils’ home backgrounds: they labelled working class parents as uninterested in their children’s education, but labelled middle class parents as supportive.

This led to class differences in how teachers dealt with pupils they perceived as underachieving. They set extension work for underachieving middle class pupils, but entered working class pupils for easier exams. Teachers also underestimated working class pupils’ potential and those who were doing well were seen as overachieving.

The self-fulfilling prophecy:

Read the six muddled up components of self-fulfilling prophecy and labelling theory below, number them 1-6 in the correct order and write them into the diagram:

Student’s actions are a reflection of what the teacher expects

Teacher’s interaction with the pupils is influenced by the label/definition attached to the student. Eg. Teacher may expect higher quality work from or give more encouragement to a bright pupil.

Based on this definition, the teacher makes predictions / prophecies about pupil’s behaviour / grades.

Prophecy is fulfilled – predictions made by the teacher have come to pass.

Pupil’s self-concept becomes shaped by teacher’s definition/expectation of them. Pupil acts accordingly and begins to see him/herself as such.

Teacher labels / defines pupil eg as bright, dull and troublesome.

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Robert Rosenthal and Leonora Jacobson (1968)

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that comes true simply by virtue of it having been made. Interactionists argue that labelling can affect pupil’s achievement by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In their study of Oak community school, a Californian primary school, Robert Rosenthal and Leonara Jacobson (1968) show the self-fulfilling prophecy at work. They told the school that they had a new test specially designed to identify those pupils who would ‘spurt’ ahead. This was untrue, because the test was in fact simply a standard IQ test. Importantly, however, the teachers believed that they had been told.

The researchers tested all the pupils, but then picked 20% of them purely at random and told the school, again falsely, that the test had identified these children as ‘spurters’. On returning to the school a year later, they found that almost half (47%) of those identified as spurters had indeed made significant progress. The effect was greater on younger children.

Rosenthal and Jacobson suggest that the teachers’ beliefs about the pupils had been influenced by the supposed test results. The teachers had then conveyed these beliefs to the pupils through the way they interacted with them – for example, through their body language and the amount of attention and encouragement they gave them.

This demonstrates the self-fulfilling prophecy: simply by accepting the prediction that some children would spurt ahead, the teachers brought it about. The fact that the children were selected at random strongly suggests that if teachers believe a pupil to be of a certain type, they can actually make him or her into that type. The study’s findings, illustrate an important interactionist principle: that what people believe to be true will have real effects – even if the belief was not true originally.

The self-fulfilling prophecy can also produce under-achievement. If teachers have low expectations of certain children and communicate these expectations in their interaction, these children may develop a negative self-concept. They may come to see themselves as failures and give up trying, thereby fulfilling the original prophecy.

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Streaming:

Streaming involves separating children into different ability groups or classes called ‘streams’. Each ability group is then taught separately from the others for all subjects. Studies show that the self-fulfilling prophecy is particularly likely to occur when children are streamed.

As Becker shows, teachers do not usually see working class children as ideal pupils. They tended to see them lacking ability and have low expectations of them. As a result, working class children are more likely to find themselves put in to a lower stream. Once streamed it is usually more difficult to move up to a higher stream; children are more likely to be locked into their teachers’ low expectations of them. Children in the lower streams get the message that their teachers have written them off as no hopers.

Douglas found that children placed in a lower stream at 8 had suffered a decline in their IQ score by age 11. By contrast, middle class pupils tended to benefit from streaming. They are likely to be placed in higher streams, reflecting teachers’ views of them as ideal pupils. As a result they develop a more positive self-concept, gain confidence, work harder and improve their grades. Douglas found that children placed in a higher stream at age 8 had improved their IQ score by age 11.

Research task –

Summarise the work of Stephen Ball here (tip….google Banding at Beachside Comprehensive)

Stretch yourself – how useful was this study?

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The A-C economy and educational triage:

Schools are under increasing pressure to stream and select pupils. For example, schools need to achieve a good position in the league tables to attract pupils and funding. However, this can widen the class gap in achievement within a school.

The policy of publishing league tables creates what Gillbourn and Youdell call the ‘A-C’ economy. This is a system in which schools ration their time, effort and resources, concentrating them on those pupils they perceive as having the potential to get five grade Cs at GCSE and so boost the schools league table position.

Gillbourn and Youdell call this process ‘educational triage’. Triage literally means sorting. The term is normally used to describe the process on battlefields or in major disasters whereby medical staff decide who is to be given scarce medical resources. Medics have to sort out casualties into three categories:

The walking wounded – who can be ignored because they will survive Those who will die anyway – who will also be ignored Those with a chance of survival – who are given treatment in the hope of saving

them

Schools categorise students into those who will pass anyway, those with potential and hopeless cases. Teachers do this using notions of ability in which working class and black pupils are more likely to be labelled as lacking ability. As a result they are likely to be classified as hopeless cases and ignored.

Competition and selection

Schools are also under pressure to select more able, largely middle class pupils who will gain the school a higher ranking position in the league tables. Those schools with a good league table position will then be better placed to attract other able/middle class pupils. This will further improve the school’s results and make it even more popular. This will allow them to be increasingly selective.

However, less popular schools are obliged to take ‘difficult’ students, they get worse results, become less popular still and see their funding further reduced.

Question – what two factors within schools will affect a schools position in the league tables?

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Stretch yourself – Why is the position of a school in the league tables important in the interactionist debate on labelling?

Pupil subcultures:

Stephen Lacey (1970)

A pupil subculture is a group of pupils who share similar values and behaviour patterns. Pupil subcultures often emerge as a response to the way pupils have been labelled, and in particular as a reaction to streaming.

A number of studies have shown how pupil subcultures may play a part in creating class differences in achievement.

Lacey uses the concepts of polarisation and differentiation to explain how pupil subcultures develop:

Differentiation – is the process by which teachers categorise pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and behaviour. Streaming is a form of differentiation, since it categorises pupils into separate classes. Those that school deems more able are given higher status by being placed in a high stream

Polarisation – on the other hand, is the process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite poles or extremes

The pro-school subculture are those placed in high streams (largely middle class) tend to remain committed to the values of the school. They gain their status in an approved manner, through academic success. Their values are those of the school, they tend to form a pro-school subculture.

The anti-school subculture are composed of those in the lower streams (largely working class). They suffer a loss of self-esteem, the school has undermined their self-worth by placing them in a position of inferior status. This label of failure pushes them to search for an alternative status hierarchy as a means of gaining status. Usually this involves turning upside down the schools values of hard work obedience and punctuality and rebelling against these.

Lacey’s study shows the power of labelling and streaming in creating failure. The boys had been successful in primary school and had managed to secure a place in the local grammar school, in which they had to pass a test to get in. Once there, however, the competitive atmosphere and streaming meant that many boys were soon labelled as failures and many

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showed extreme physical reactions such as insomnia. By their second year, many boys had become distinctly anti-school.

Stephen Ball (1981)

He explored mixed-ability groups as a way of preventing polarisation described by Lacey. Nevertheless, although pupil polarisation had decreased, teachers continued to categorise and differentiate between pupils, labelling middle-class pupils as more cooperative and able. This was reflected in better exam results amongst the middle class students.

Draw two flow charts to outline the educational journey of a pupil in a pro-school subculture and an anti-school subculture:

Pro-school:

Anti-school:

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Pupils’ class identities and the school:

Sociologists are also interested in how pupils’ class identities that are formed outside school interact with the school and its values to produce educational success and failure.

Louise Archer et al (2010)

She focused on the interaction between working class pupils’ identities and school, and how this produces underachievement. To understand this relationship they draw on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus.

HABITUS – this refers to the learned, taken-for-granted ways of thinking, being and acting that are shared by a particular social class.

It includes their tastes and preferences about lifestyles and consumptions (such as fashion and leisure pursuits), their outlook on life and their expectations about what is normal or realistic for ‘people like us’. A group’s habitus is formed as a response to its position in the class structure.

Although one class’s habitus is not intrinsically better than another’s, the middle class have 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 and so on.

Identify in the grid below what kind of leisure activities would fit the middle class habitus and which would fit the working class habitus:

Middle class habitus Working class habitus

Because schools have a middle class habitus, pupils who have been socialised at home in to middle class tastes and preferences gain symbolic capital – or status and recognition from the school. By contrast, schools devalue the working class habitus, so that working class pupils’ tastes are deemed to be tasteless and worthless.

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Bourdieu calls the withholding 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 class in their place. Working class students may experience the world of education as alien and unnatural.

For example, Archer found that working class pupils felt that to be educationally successful, they would have to change the way they talked and presented themselves. Thus, for working class students, educational success is often experienced as a process of losing yourself.

Linking to the programme ‘White Working Class Boys’ that we watched, how does the boy Lewis exemplify this?

‘Nike’ identities

Many pupils 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 values. They did so by constructing meaningful class identities for themselves by investing heavily in ‘styles’, especially consuming branded clothing such as Nike.

Wearing brands was a way of ‘being me’: without them they would feel inauthentic. Pupils’ identities were also strongly gendered; for example, girls adopted a hyper-heterosexual feminine style.

Style performances were heavily policed by peer groups and not conforming was ‘social suicide’. The right appearance earned symbolic capital and approval from peer groups and bought safety from bullying. However, it led to conflict with the school’s dress code. Pupils who adopted street styles risked being labelled by teachers as rebels.

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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 pupils may choose self-elimination or self-exclusion from education. In other words, 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 in with their identity or way of life.

Working class identity and educational success:

Nicole Ingram (2009)

She highlighted that working class boys had to give up their identities if they wanted to succeed in school. She studied two groups of working class catholic boys in Belfast and found that the working class identity that they had was tied up with their neighbourhood and locality.

Those boys who passed the 11+ exam and went onto the grammar schools, found a tension and conflict between the habitus of their working class neighbourhood, and their middle class school, with one boy being ridiculed for coming into school on non-uniform day in a track suit. By opting to fit in with his neighbourhood habitus, he was made to feel worthless by the school’s middle class habitus.

In pairs, note down why adopting a branded identity like ‘Nike’ would lead to marginalisation in school and self-exclusion from education?

How do schools try to enforce the middle class school habitus?

Think higher – How would Davis and Moore view this marginalisation?

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Class identity and social exclusion:

Despite the class inequalities in education, many more working class people now go on to university. Even here, however, the clash between working class identity and the habitus of higher education is a barrier to success. This is partly due to a process of self-exclusion.

Sarah Evans found that working class girls were reluctant to apply to elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge and the few that did apply felt a sense of hidden barriers and not fitting in. The girls she studied had a strong attachment to their locality. Only four of the twenty-one girls she studied wanted to move away. Self-exclusion from elite or distant universities narrows the options of many working class pupils and limits their success.

The relationship between internal and external factors:

We cannot look at internal and external factors in isolation, because in reality they are often inter-related. For example;

Working class pupils’ habitus and identities formed outside school may conflict with the schools middle class habitus, resulting in symbolic violence and pupils feeling like education is not for them

Working class pupils using the restricted speech code (external factor) may be labelled by teachers as less able which leads to the self-fulfilling prophecy (internal factor)

As Dunne and Gazeley show, an internal factor – what teachers believe about working class pupils’ home background (external factor) actually produces underachievement

Poverty – an external material factor – may lead to bullying and stigmatisation by peer groups – an internal process within school.

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Theory cards:

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NAME

KEY CONCEPTS

KEY FINDINGS

KEY CRITICISMS

NAME

KEY CONCEPTS

KEY FINDINGS

KEY CRITICISMS

NAME

KEY CONCEPTS

KEY FINDINGS

KEY CRITICISMS

Key Concepts:

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NAME

KEY CONCEPTS

KEY FINDINGS

KEY CRITICISMS

NAME

KEY CONCEPTS

KEY FINDINGS

KEY CRITICISMS

NAME

KEY CONCEPTS

KEY FINDINGS

KEY CRITICISMS

KEY CONCEPT DEFINITIONInteractionism

Labelling

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Streaming

Marketisation

Pupil subcultures

Habitus

Nike identities

Symbolic capital

Symbolic violence

Exam technique:

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Outline the difference between labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy (4 marks)

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Outline three in-school factors that cause underachievement of working class students (6 marks)

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•

Item A

There are many factors within the school that affect social class differences in educational achievement.

Some argue that those who dislike school and the values of the school may fail in education. Others argue that teachers don’t treat everyone fairly and that is why they fail.

Applying material from item A, analyse two internal factors that may affect the social class differences in educational achievement (10 marks)

POINT ONE

POINT TWO

Item B

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Teachers’ expectations of their pupils are often based on stereotypes about pupil’s ethnicity, gender and social class background. They may then subsequently judge and classify pupils in various ways, for example as bright or slow learners, as trouble makers or as ideal pupils, or as hard working or lazy.

This process of classification has been shown to affect the performance of pupils and the progress they make in school. These and other processes within schools influence who succeeds and who fails in education.

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate the claim that factors inside the school are the main cause of working class underachievement (30 marks)

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Topic summary:

Some explanations of class differences in achievement focus on ……………………. factors within school. ………………………………………….. argue that school create inequality through labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy. Teachers make ……………….. about the students and they come true simply by virtue of it having been made. As a consequence of these labels working class pupils are often put in lower sets or ……………………….. Working class children are then locked into their teachers’ low expectations of them. As a result a process of …………………………… occurs and children in the top sets enter in to pro-school subcultures, whereas the pupils in the bottom set enter in to ……………………… subcultures.

Conflicts between the school’s habitus and pupils’ identities may also lead to ………………………………………… and self-exclusion. Many pupils are conscious that society and school look down on them and so seek alternative ways to create self-worth, status and value. They do so by constructing meaningful class identities by investing heavily in styles, especially through consuming branded clothing such as ……………….

anti-school polarisation steams predictions Interactionists internal

symbolic violence Nike

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Quick Check Questions:

1. Explain the difference between labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy

2. Explain the difference between differentiation and polarisation

3. Identify two characteristics of a pro-school subculture

4. Suggest one reason why anti-school subcultures develop

5. State two criticisms of labelling theory

6. Explain what is meant by habitus

7. Explain what is meant by symbolic capital

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Independent Study Checklist:

Activity Tick when doneComplete an A3 revision sheet for this topic

Create revision cards/key cards for the concepts in this topic

Complete the theory cards for all the main studies looked at in this booklet

Create a quizlett or a kahoot quiz for this topic

Write a newspaper report outlining and detailing the growth of ‘Nike identities’

Research task: read the following report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and create a one page fact sheet summarising the key aspects of ithttps://www.jrf.org.uk/report/tackling-low-educational-achievement

For more resources and articles see: www.aqusociology.weebly.com

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