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Social Class and Education. (Interactionism) Explaining class differences …
Social Class and Education. (Interactionism) Explaining class differences - Internal
Banding and streaming
Rist 1970
Students were labelled based on their social class. Children are seated permanently at three separate tables (table 1 = fast learners, table 2 and 3 = less able). These weren't based on ability but how far the child conformed to the teachers middle class standards (eg neat/clean appearance). Working class students labelled 'clowns' and sat at the back of the class. Middle class students labelled 'tigers' and sat at the front of the class.
Ball 1981
Banding - less rigid form of streaming, students placed into bands. Ball found that factors other than ability influenced the bands eg those with fathers who were non manual workers were likely to be in the top band. Ball saw behaviour deteriorate as a result of the stereotyping of bands. Ball highlighted a link between banding and performance and banding and class. The student of different bands experienced different teaching. Low band students developed an anti-school subculture which made the class difficult to teach (a self-fulfilling prophecy due to labelling)
Subcultures
Woods 1979
Suggests that pupil's ways of dealing with school life depend on whether they accept or reject the aim of academic success. Pupils accept/reject goals and means with greater or less enthusiasm (and for different reasons). Identified 8 different modes of adaption:
Ingratiation - pupils eager to please teachers
Ritualism - pupils attend school but no enthusiasm
Retreatism - pupils daydream (do not challenge authority)
Rebellion - reject schools goals (deviance)
Lacey 1970
Pupil subcultures emerge as a response to streaming (placing pupils in fixed ability groups). Subcultures develop through the following process:
Differentiation - teachers categorise pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude or behaviour
Polarisation - pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite 'poles' or extremes
As students polarise, they form one of two subcultures:
Pro school subculture - the largely middle class who are placed in high streams from a pro school subculture gaining status through academic success
Anti school subculture - the largely working class who are placed in low streams suffer a loss of self-esteem, pushing them to gain status amongst their peers, usually creating an anti-school subculture
Labelling
Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968
Pygmalion in the classroom. Field experiment (manipulating a real social situation). Performed an 'IQ test' and then randomly identified certain pupils (20% of the class) as 'spurters'. A year later, 47% of those pupils had more significant progress. Teacher's expectations can affect a pupil's performance and create a Self-fulfilling prophecy - a prediction that comes true (positive or negative)
teacher labels student
teacher treats the pupil accordingly
pupil internalises the teachers expectations which becomes part of their self-concept
prediction comes true (fulfilled)
Hargreaves et al 1975
Deviance in classrooms - study looked at how pupils are classified in the classroom, noting three stages of classifying students:
Speculation - appearance, how far they conform to discipline, their ability, their enthusiasm for work, their likability, their relationships with others, etc
Elaboration - hypothesis confirmed or contradicted, classification becomes refined
Stabilisation - teachers feel they know the pupil and can make sense of them
Becker 1971
Labelling theory suggests that the way a person acts and sees themselves can be changed by the ways that others perceive them. Teachers attach labels towards pupils act on this basis. Teachers also have an 'ideal pupil' - middle class, hard working and quiet as opposed to a loud, working class student who has fun
Marketisation
Gillborn and Youdell
Marketisation (when schools have to compete against other schools to gain student numbers) explains why schools are under pressure to stream and select pupils. For example schools need to achieve a good league table position if they are to attract pupils and funding. 'A* - C economy' - schools ration their time, effort and resources to concentrate on students who will get 5 C's at GCSE (so will boost the schools league table position)
They call this process 'Educational triage'. Walking wounded (will survive so can be ignored), those who will die anyway (so will be ignored) and those with a chance of survival (so will be helped). The idea of triage from the battlefield is used to show how students are treated depending on whether or not they will fail. These 3 groups are those who will pass anyway, those with potential and the hopeless cases. Working class and back pupils are labelled as lacking ability so left to fail - which produces a self-fulfilling prophecy
Bartlett
Pressure from marketisation leads to
Cream skimming - selecting higher ability students who gain the best results and cost less to teach
Silt Shifting - offloading students with learning difficulties who are expensive and get poor results
Pupil identities
Bourdieu - habitus
Claims that the middle class have the power to define their habitus as superior and are able to impose it on the education system. The education system therefore has a middle class habitus which matches the habitus of middle class students therefore they gain 'symbolic capital' or status from the school through academic success. The school devalues the working class habitus so that working class pupils tastes are deemed to be worthless: 'Symbolic violence'. This reproduces the the class structure and keeps the working class in their place. Consequently, working class pupils feel that to be educationally successful, they would have to change how they talk and present themselves
Habitus refers to taken for-granted ways of thinking, being and acting that are shared by a particular social class. It includes their tastes and lifestyles. A groups habitus is formed as a response to their position in the class structure.
Archer - nike identities
Students find alternative ways to gain self-worth. They do this constructing their own identity through the consumption of brands such as nike. Working class pupils use 'nike' identities as a means of gaining symbolic capital, but teachers oppose certain dress codes and see them as a threat. The working class may actively choose to reject education because it does not fit in with their identity or way of life