Internal Factors

Ball - Sets + streams

• Depending on the band that the student was in, they could be treated differently and would have stereotypes based on this

• These expectations caused them to be taught accordingly and have varying expectations

• Strong link between banding, performance + social class

• Working class were usually lower bands + had more behavioural issues

Keddie - Sets + streams

• Knowledge was not given to all students equally

• People in higher classes were given different/more advanced information

• ‘Bright’ pupils were given higher status knowledge

• Lower band students were seen as less willing + made irrelevant contributions to the classroom

Lacey - Anti-school subcultures

• Anti-school subcultures were made by pupils for pupils to go agaisnt the schools values because they couldn’t fit in so they used this to boost their self-esteem

• Breaking school rules are a way for students to resist negative labels given to them

• Black caribbean + white british working class males are most likely to create an anti-school subculture

• Anti-school subcultures typically have a hierarchy within them + are seen as the popular/disruptive people

Rosenthal + Jacobson - Self-fulfilling prophecy

• Teacher’s definitions of pupils can have a great impact. After selecting random students and labelling them positively, they indeed did better

• If a student is consistently labelled in a certain way, they are more likely to believe the label that they have been given

• The experiment shows that there is a strong link + significance to labelling + the self-fulfilling prophecy with attainment

Fuller - Self negating prophecy

• Criticism of labelling

• A group of girls that were constantly labelled rejected the negative labels + worked harder in order to probe them wrong

• There can be a more deterministic view of labelling where they go against the label

Hargreaves - Criticism of self-fulfilling prophecy

• Factors that can affect the effectiveness of the label include:

  1. frequency of labelling

  2. if the pupil values the teacher’s opinion

  3. If others support the label

  4. The context of the labelling

Willis - consequence of labelling

• Did a study on the ‘12 lads’ who went against the main ideas + themes of the school as they had already seen through the class system + accepted that they would not be anything more

• They were more focused on messing around + having fun

Becker - Ideal pupil

• Teachers generally have an ideology of an ideal pupil and indirectly label students as this

• The ideal pupil was highly motivated, intelligent + well behaved but the students closest to this were often middle-class students

• Working-class students were seen as the complete opposite as ideal and were often labelled as having discipline issues, lack of motivation + least likely to succeed