labelling & self-fulfilling prophecy

what is labelling?

to attach a meaning or definition to someone. E.g. teachers may label a student as bright or thick

why might teachers label students?

less on actual abilities and more on the basis of stereotypes assumptions, e.g. class

who’s a sociologist who study’s labelling?

Howard Becker

what is his research?

Based on 60 chicago high school teachers, he found they judged pupils on work, conduct and appearance according to how close they were to the image of the ‘ideal pupil’

what was the result?

working class were the furthest away as they regarded them as badly behaved

what is the self-fulfilling prophecy?

The teacher labels a pupil (e.g. intelligent), and then treats the pupil accordingly. The pupil then internalises the teachers expectations and this becomes part of they self image

what is a case study for the self-fulfilling prophecy?

Rosenthal and Jacobson

what was this case study?

They told the school they had a new test specifically designed to identify ‘spurters’. The test was, however, simply a standard IQ test. The picked 20% of pupils at random and told the school they were the ‘spurters’.

what was the result?

On returning a year later, they found that 47% of these had made significant progress. this proves that if teachers believe a pupil to be of a certain type

what is streaming?

separating children into different abilities, groups or classes called ‘streams’. These are taught separately from others in all subjects.

who was more likely to be in lower streams?

the working class

what is a study of streaming?

• Gillborn and Youdell

• Study of 2 London secondary schools. They use stereotypical notions of ‘ability’ to stream pupils.

• They link this streaming to publishing of exam league tables, where they need a good position of attracting pupils

What’s the educational triage?

• There are 3 categories of pupils: Those who will pass anyway, borderline C/D pupils targeted for extra help, or hopeless cases