LABELLING THEORY

LABELLING - attaching a meaning/definition to someone/something e.g. teachers may label a student as smart/thick

BECKER carried out research using interviews.He found that teachers labelled students based on how closely they fitted an image of the 'ideal student'. Factors influencing teachers' judgements include:

• social class
• behaviour
• punctuality
• college potential

RIST found that tecahers used info about childrens' home background & appearance to place them in separate groups, seating each group at a different table. Learners were labelled as TIGERS, CARDINALS & CLOWNS. The smarter they were, the closer…