Education - Social Class and Achievement

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  • Created by: scarina
  • Created on: 20-02-19 12:39
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  • Internal Factors
    • 1. Labelling and Self Fulfilling Prophecy
      • Labelling - when you attach a stereotype to a certain person and treat them differently because of it
        • Hempel-Jorgensen = the ideal pupil identity includes things like hardworking, concentratingand listening to teachers, performing well academically, good behaviour and conforming to rules.
        • Research into labelling:-               Becker interviewed 60 Chicago high school teachers and found that they judged pupils according to how closely they fitted the image of an 'ideal pupil.'  Pupils work, conduct and appearance were key factors influencing teachers judgements. teachers saw middle class children as closest to the ideal pupil
        • Sharp and Green = studied a child centred primary school. chidden were allowed to choose activities for themselves and develop at their own pace. teachers believed that those who weren't ready to learn should be engaged in 'compensatory play.' This means that middle class children who started reading earlier, gained the help they needed and working class children were ignored.
      • Stereotype - a negative label or judgement about someone based on little or no information.
      • Halo Effect - someone who is treated very positively due to their exam results
      • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy =  when an expectation about someone's behaviour comes true
        • Rosenthal and Jacobson's Study  =     They wanted to see whether labelling would have an effect on students so they gave an IQ test to students and divided them into 2 groups; one called 'Late Bloomers' and the other called 'Average.' They told this to teachers which resulted in teachers treating them differently according to the label they were given. For example, teachers would give higher access of work, give opportunitis for Late Bloomers to respond and elaborate on their answers while shaping it with them. A year later, the students were tested again and the 'Late Bloomers' did significantly better than the 'Average' kids so their prediction had come true.
        • when a Label has been given, teachers treat  students differently, which may cause students to believe that label and therefore act according to it, which results in a self-fulfilling prophecy
    • 2. Setting/ Streaming, Educational Triage and Subcultures
      • Setting = when students are split into different sets for certain subjects  based on their ability in those subjects
        • Stephen Ball = examined the process of banding and found that there were 3 bands in which students could be placed in. he found that factors other than academic criteria were influential in determining the band they were placed in. Pupils whose fathers were non-manual workers had a greater chance of being placed in top bands. The top stream was 'warmed up' and encouraged to achieve higher while lower streams were 'cooled out' and encouraged to follow vocational pathways and achieve lower
        • Nell Keddie looked at the operation of streaming in a single subject in a large London Comprehensive. She looked at the classification and evaluation of students as well as the ways in which knowledge was evaluated and classified. the knowledge made available to students depended on the teacher's assessment of their ability to handle it, thus those students who were defined as 'bright' were given greater access to highly valued knowledge. she concluded that classifications and evaluations of knowledge and pupils were socially constructed in interaction situations.
          • Ball and Keddie came to the conclusion from an interactionist perspective-pupils experience school in different ways. Not all students are able and willing to conform to the image of the 'ideal student.' If they fail to do so, pupils may form their own subcultures which reject the values of the school
      • Streaming  = when you are in the same set for all your subjects
      • Educational Triage: (Gilborn and Youdell) =       In the A-C Economy, teachers focus on students who  are most likely to achieve a grade C or higher at GCSE.
      • Subcultures = norms and values of a specific group that may differ to mainstream subcultures
        • Pro-School Subculture = usually middle class kids who are placed in high streams and are therefore committed to the norms and values of the school
        • Anti-School Subculture = when pupils are placed in low sets and are ignored, they feel rejected and undervalued by the school, therefore they rebel against the school and have norms and values that are opposite to the school in order to gain more attention, usually negative.
        • Wood said that there is a range of subcultures:-
          • 1. Ingratiation = pro school conformity and eagerness to please the teacher
            • 2. Compliance = conformity for exam success not because they like school
              • 4. Ritualism = lack of interest and engagement with schooling but appearing to conform to avoid trouble
                • 6. Colonisation =those who accept school for what it offers them, but rejects school for the things it forbids. such pupils take opportunitiesas they arise to have fun as long as they avoid getting in trouble
                  • 8. Rebellion = outright rejection of schooling and its values  and involved in anti school activity
                    • Weaknesses = too deterministic.Suggests that once a negative label is applied, it will always have a negative effect, and the self fulfilling prophecy will always come into effect but studies such as FULLER found that black girls subject to negative stereotyping and placed in low streams, rejected their labels and strived to prove teachers wrong so the prophecy wasn't fulfilled
                      • They don't pay enough attention to the distribution of power in society (marxist perspective)
                        • They don't pay attention to factors outside of school like the family
            • 3.  Opportunism = those who try to gain both teacher and peer group approval
              • 5. Retreatism = not actively opposed to school values but indifferent to them such as messing about in class and daydreaming
                • 7. Intransgience= troublemakers who are indifferent to school, and who aren't bothered about the consequences of non conformity
                  • Strengths = recognises the importance of what happens inside of schools (eg: labelling). It avoids putting blame for failure onto the family, pupils or cultural values

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