relationships and processes within schools

- as well as the formal curriculum of subject content, schools pass on a set of socal norms and values to their students. this is called the hidden curriculum

- turning up to lessons on time, dressing smartly in the correct uniform and working hard to achieve rewards are all part of the hidden curriculum

- they all teach students things they wil need in adult life

- the hidden curriculum is part of many areas of school life

- for example a hierachy og management staff, teaching staff and students teaches repect for authority. punishemnts for failing to do homework teach students the importance of following instructions

labelling theory was a very popular idea in sociology in the 1970's and 1980's

it states that people decide on the characters of others and treat them accordingly, wheather the label is fair or not

according to thsi theory labels are an important part of teacher-pupil relationships. if a student is labeled by their teacher as a trouble maker, they are disiplined more harshly than there class mates.

meanwhile a student labelled as a bright spark is given encoredgement to help them succeed even furhter

some studies ahve found that teachers label students based on ethnic, gender and class seryotypes

for example gillborn and youdell found that black pupils were more likely to be disiplined than there white classmates for the same behavior, and black students felt that their teachers has low expectations of them

streaming - students are sorted into classess acording to ability and they stay in there groups for all od their subjects

setting- studets are sorted into classses according to ability but on a subject by subject basis for exaple a student could be in teh top class for maths and the lowest class for music

mixed ability - students are sorted into classes that aren't based on ability, so that the highest and lowest achieving students are taught togeher

there are possible advantages and disadvantages with all of the systems in schools

the arguement in favor of setting and streaming is that students can work at theor own level and pace

one problem with streaming is that students are likely to be better at some subjects than others, so soem bottem stream students aren't challenged enough in certain subjects whilst some to stream students struggle in some subjects

both setting and streaming can lead to low self stream  for those in the lowest ability classes

ball- also found that teachers had high expectations for those in the highest ability classes these students recieved even more attention and encoredgement. lower classes suffered from negative labelling and perofrms poorly

setting and streaming can actually increase the differences in student achievement

mixed ability classes aviod worsing gaps. teachers still hold low expectations for lower ability students. and lower level of teaching suited tehm but work wasn't challenging anough for higher ability students

- a subculture is a group who share ideas and beavior patterns whith are different form the mainstream culture

- two of the most commonly discussed subcultures are pro-school and anti-school subcultures, but there are many different subcultures within school e.g sporty students, academic achievers or "lads"

- subcultures can have a positive or a negative effect on student achievement.

- streaming - lacey (1970) claimed that it was as result of streaming. he conducted his study in a grammer school. even though all pupils has been slected as bright at age 11 bottem stream pupils still formed an anti-school subculture, becuse they were labeled as failiure

- ethnicity- fuller (1984) looked at a group of black girls in year 11 at a comprehensive school. they were high ability, but felt that there teachers were racist, so they disn't work for there teachers approval. instead they formed a subculture alone and then succeedeed

- socai class - willis (1997) studied a group of boys who ahd forms an anto-school subculture. he found thast the "lads" deliberately desrupting lessons as a way of gainign respect from others within the subculture. he also observed that these boys were working class and likely to get manual jobs after school

they seemed to believe that school was of no use in the fruture

-factors such as labeling, slef forfilling prophacies, the organisation of teaching and subcultures all have an impact on the achievement of school pupils and it can be hard to work out the specific effects of each factors

- instead considering a puils identity can br a way of bringing togehter all of these factors and thinking about them alongside factors outside of school, such as parental attitude and wheather they're suffering from poverty

-for example if a male pupil identifies himself as non-adademic thus amy have begun with a teacher label but the biggest factor may now be a subculture of other like minded pupils, who are also non academic he may choose to take a physical education gcse becuse he thinks of it as a traditionally male subject and he's in allready a top ability set while adopting an anti-school attitude in english and history lessons. at home he may not have accrss to books that would help his english or history performance. overall the difference in his achievement in vatious subjects gets larger.

one disadvantage of studying pupils identifies is that they are very complex. if a sociologist wanta to study a spefic process in schools ideenty can make this difficult