Education – topic 3: relationships and processes in schools.

Labelling & the SFP - Becker

teachers judge pupils according to how closely they fitted to an image of the ‘ideal pupil’. M/c children closest to this ideal.

Labelling & the SFP - Hargreaves

Halo effect - where a teacher's initial positive impression of a student based on non-academic factors (appearance, behavior, manners) leads them to assume other positive traits like intelligence or high motivation

Labelling & the SFP - Rist

‘tigers’, ‘cardinals’ and ‘clowns’ – primary school - representing how teachers divide students into groups based on social background and appearance

Labelling & the SFP - Dunne & Gazeley:

teachers normalise the underachievement of w/c pupils

Labelling & the SFP - Rosenthal & Jacobson

field experiment showed evidence of the SFP - teacher expectations can act as a self-fulfilling prophecy, where high expectations lead to improved student performance, and low expectations lead to lower performance

SETTING AND STREAMING - Douglas

found that children placed in a lower stream at age 8 had suffered a decline in their IQ score by age 11.

SETTING AND STREAMING - Lacey:

steaming causes differentiation. Students polarise into 2 outcomes. pro school sub culture typically made by mc students and anti school subculture typically made by wc students

Subcultures - Hargreaves:

boys in secondary modern school formed subcultres due to failing 11+, being labelled as worthless and being placed in low streams.

Subcultures - Ball

Beachside Comprehensive study. When streaming was abolished, the influence of the anti-school subculture declined.

Pupils’ class identities

Schools place a higher value on m/c habitus. m/c pupils gain symbolic capital. For w/c pupils – symbolic violence.

Pupils’ class identities - Archer

Nike identities - found that working-class pupils invest in ‘nike’ identities, leading to self-exclusion from education because it does not fit their identity and way of life; they see it as unrealistic (it is for richer and cleverer people) and they also see it as undesirable (it does not suit their habitus).

Labelling - Gilbron and Youdell (Internal factor)

racialised expectations. Black boys seen as a threat, more likely to be excluded, because teachers were scared of their behaviour as threatening.

Labelling - Wright: (Internal factor)

Asian primary school pupils were stereotyped and treated differently. Teachers used simple language because they assumed they would speak poor English and became frustrated when pupils pronounced their names incorrectly.

Labelling - Fuller (Internal factor)

Fuller found that high achieving black girls maintained a positive self-image by rejecting teachers' stereotypes. They did not seek teacher approval, but valued education.

Labelling - Mirza (Internal factor)

found that black girls' strategies for dealing with teacher racism still disadvantaged them. For instance, they would not ask for help.

THE ETHNOCENTRIC CURRICULUM

Troyna and Williams state that the British curriculum prioritises white culture and the English language, for example through holidays in line with the Christian calendar, and a focus on white leaders in History. 

External factors for ethnic differences in achievement (external factors)

LINGUISTIC SKILLS - some students dont speak the same language and so have language barriers

FAMILY STRUCTURE - black families led my Mum no father role model so no discipline

ATTITUDES AND VALUES

MATERIAL DEPRIVATION - racism leads to low paying jobs

Equal opportunities policies

GIST and WISE. The National Curriculum.

Positive role models

Increase in female teachers and heads.

GCSE and coursework - Mitsos & Browne

Mitsos & Browne: girls are more successful in coursework because they are more conscientious than boys.

Teacher attention - French

French and French found that teachers paid boys and girls similar amounts of attention for academic reasons, but boys received more attention overall because they were disciplined more often.

CHANGING GIRLS AMBITIONS - Sharpe

interviewed girls and found that their ambitions in the 1970s were to marry and have children, and saw their future in terms of a domestic role. However, in the 1990s, the girls priorities had changed to careers and wanting to be independent.

Selection and league tables

High achieving girls are attractive to schools.

Identity and girls’ achievement - Archer

w/c don’t do as well because of hyper-heterosexual feminine identities, boyfriends and being loud. They gain symbolic capital from their peers.

TEACHER ATTENTION - Swann

found that boys dominate class discussions, whereas girls are better at listening and cooperating. Teachers respond more positively to girls and give them more encouragement.

Feminisation of education - Sewell

schools do not nurture masculine traits. There are a shortage of male primary school teachers.

Feminisation of education - Francis

Francis found 2/3 of 7-8 year olds did not care about gender of teacher.

Laddish subcultures - Epstien

W/c boys are more likely to be harassed, labelled as ‘sissies’ and subjected to homophobic verbal abuse if they appear to be swots.

This supports Francis’ findings that boys were more concerned than girls about being labelled by peers as swots

because this label is more of a threat to their masculinity than it is to girls’ femininity.

Laddish subcultures - Francis

Laddish subculture is more wide spread because girls are going into masculine areas, boys respond by becoming more “laddish”

Gendered subject images - Kelly

science is seen as a boys’ subject – teachers are more likely to be male.

Gendered subject images - Colley

computer studies is defined as masculine because it involves machine work

(part of male gender domain) and tasks are often abstract and independent which

males prefer, whereas females like group work.

Gendered career opportunities

Employment is highly gendered. Jobs tend to be sex-typed as ‘men’s’ or ‘women’s’.

Women are concentrated in a narrow range of occupations including childcare and

nursing. This sex-typing of occupations affects boys’ and girls’ ideas about what kinds

of job are possible or acceptable. Thus, for example, if boys get the message that

nursery nurses are female, they will be less likely to opt for a course in childcare.

Gender role socialisation - Norman:

from an early age boys and girls are dressed differently, given different toys to play with and encouraged to take part in different activities.

Gender role socialisation - Browne and Ross:

children’s beliefs about ‘gender domains’ are shaped by their early

experiences and the expectations of adults. E.g., mending a car is seen as falling into

the male gender domain, but looking after a sick child is not.

Double standards - Lees

identifies a double standard of sexual morality in which boys boast about their own sexual exploits, but call a girl a ‘slag’ if she doesn’t have a steady boyfriend or if she dresses and speaks in a certain way. Males gain status by this but if girls do this they get judged and labelled.

The male gaze - Mac and Ghaill

the male gaze as a form of surveillance through which dominant

heterosexual masculinity is reinforced and femininity devalued. It is one of the ways boys

prove their masculinity to their friends and is often combined with constant telling and

retelling of stories about sexual conquests. Boys who do not display their heterosexuality in

this way run the risk of being labelled gay.

Male peer groups - Mac and Gahill

Study of Parnell School examines how peer groups reproduce a range of

different class-based masculine gender identities. The w/c ‘macho lads’ were dismissive of

other w/c boys who worked hard and aspired to m/c careers, referring to them as the

‘dickhead achievers’.