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Summary Internal factors affecting class differences in education
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- AQA
Providing in depth notes for internal factors that affect class differences in education. including sociologists names and what they say.
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Labelling: Ability grouping:Becker argues that teachers judged pupils according to how Douglas found that children placed in a lower stream at age 8 had suffered a decline in their IQ score by age 11
closely they fit the ‘ideal pupil’. Pupils work, conduct and and vice versa, children placed in higher streams at age 8 had improved IQ by age 11. This is because they have a more
appearance were key factors influencing teachers’ judgements. m/c positive self-concept, gain confidence, work harder and improve their grades.
students were closest to ‘ideal pupil’ and w/c students as furthest
away from ‘ideal pupil’ as they were considered badly behaved. Gillborn and Youdell argue that teachers are less likely to see w/c as having ability, so they are mor likely to be
Hempel-Jorgensen studied two different primary schools: placed in lower streams and entered for lower tier GCSEs. This denies them the knowledge needed to gain good
1. In the w/c school - ideal pupil was defined as ‘quiet, grades and widens the class gap in achievement. They link this to educational triage in which schools place people in
passive and obedient’. Defined in terms of behaviour sets in order to benefit the schools place on the exam league tables rather than for the benefit of the actual pupil.
rather than ability.
2. In m/c school – ideal pupil was defined in terms of EVAL:
academic ability and personality rather than being a non- Setting and streaming allow for higher ability students to be stretched and the lower ability students to be supported
misbehaving student. which can lead to higher achievement.
Dunne and Gazeley argue that schools persistently produce w/c
underachievement due to the labels and assumptions of teachers. Pupil subcultures:
Teachers normalised underachievement of w/c pupils and felt they Self-fulfilling prophecy:
Lacey uses the terms differentiation and polarisation
could do little to overcome it. However, teachers felt they could Rosenthal and Jacobson they told a school that they
to explain pupil subcultures:
overcome the underachievement of m/c pupils. The reason for this designed a test which would show who will spurt ahead.
1. Differentiation – process of teachers
was the teachers’ label of w/c parents as uninterested and m/c as This was untrue and the test was an IQ test. All pupils were
categorising pupils based on how they perceive
supportive. Therefore, teachers would help m/c (setting extra work) tested, but they told the school a random 20% of students
their ability and behaviour. Streaming =
and not help w/c (enter low tier exams). were spurters. A year later they returned, and they found
differentiation. ‘More able’ are put in high
EVAL: that those who had been called spurters had made
streams and given status, ‘less able’ = lower
Too deterministic as it focuses on the negative effects only. significant progress.
streams and inferior status.
Labelling theorists attributes too much importance to teacher They suggest that the teachers’ beliefs about the pupils
2. Polarisation – the process in which pupils
agency – structural sociologists would point out that schools had been influenced by the supposed results. Teachers
respond to streaming by moving to one of two
themselves encourage teachers to label students/ had relayed those beliefs to the pupils through their
extremes.
interactions. This demonstrated the SFP.
Lacey found that streaming polarised boys into a pro-
EVAL:
school or anti-school subculture.
Too deterministic.
Pro school high streams, committed to school values.
Pupil identities: Fuller did research on the rejection of a label.
Anti-school low streams, loss of self-esteem, this
Archer schools middle class habitus stigmatises w/c Comprehensive school in London and found that black girls
pushes them to find an alternative way to gain status
pupils’ identities. Whilst m/c see their ‘Nike identities’ were labelled as low achievers, but their response to this
which involves rejecting school values. They gain status
as tasteless, for the w/c this is a means of generating negative labelling was to knuckle down and study hard to
among peers.
symbolic capital and self-worth. W/c investment in ‘Nike prove the teachers and school wrong.
Ball when schools abolished streaming, polarisation
identities is not only a cause for their educational
was largely removed, and anti-school subculture
marginalisation, but also expresses their positive
declined. But differentiation continued. Teachers more
preference for a particular lifestyle. Thus w/c pupils may
likely to label m/c as able. This positive labelling
choose self-elimination or self-exclusion from education
reflected their SFP in exam results. This demonstrates
as it does not align with their identity.
class inequality can continue as a result of teacher
EVAL:
labelling even without the effects of streaming and
Postmodernists argue that class doesn’t have as much of
subcultures.
an impact on students’ identity anymore due to the pick
EVAL:
and mix culture.
Not all students become part of a pro or anti school
subculture.
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