internal factors

What do Interactionists argue about internal factors affecting educational achievement?

Interactionists argue that processes within schools, such as labelling, teacher expectations, streaming and pupil subcultures, shape educational achievement and contribute to class inequalities.

What did Dunne and Gazeley investigate?

Dunne and Gazeley investigated how teacher labelling contributes to working-class underachievement by interviewing teachers in nine English state secondary schools.

What did Dunne and Gazeley find about teacher expectations?

Teachers accepted working-class underachievement as normal, believed little could be done to improve it, and were more likely to believe they could help underachieving middle-class pupils.

How did teachers explain working-class underachievement according to Dunne and Gazeley?

Teachers assumed working-class families were less interested in education, less likely to attend parents' evenings and less likely to provide educational resources.

How did teachers perceive middle-class families according to Dunne and Gazeley?

Teachers viewed middle-class families as supportive, involved in education and more likely to provide enrichment activities such as music lessons.

Evaluate Dunne and Gazeley's study.

It shows teacher expectations may reproduce class inequality by influencing opportunities and support, but it focuses mainly on teacher attitudes and may underestimate wider structural inequalities.

What did Ray Rist study?

Ray Rist studied teacher labelling in an American kindergarten to examine how perceived social background influenced teacher expectations.

How did Rist find teachers grouped pupils?

Teachers placed pupils into groups such as the "Tigers", "Cardinals" and "Clowns" based largely on perceived social class rather than actual ability.

How were the "Tigers" treated in Rist's study?

They were viewed as fast learners, sat closer to the teacher, received more encouragement, greater attention and more individual support.

How were the "Cardinals" and "Clowns" treated in Rist's study?

They received less encouragement, less teacher attention and were more likely to work in groups rather than individually.

What did Rist conclude about teacher expectations?

Positive teacher expectations encouraged higher achievement, while negative expectations limited opportunities and reinforced lower attainment.

What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?

A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when teacher expectations influence their treatment of pupils, leading pupils to internalise those expectations so the original prediction becomes true.

How does a positive self-fulfilling prophecy affect achievement?

Positive labels increase confidence, motivation and encouragement, resulting in higher educational achievement.

How does a negative self-fulfilling prophecy affect achievement?

Negative labels reduce confidence, lower teacher expectations and contribute to underachievement.

Why is the self-fulfilling prophecy important to Interactionists?

It demonstrates that beliefs about pupils can shape educational outcomes through everyday classroom interactions.

What is streaming?

Streaming is the practice of placing pupils into different ability groups based on perceived academic ability.

How do Interactionists explain the effects of streaming?

Working-class pupils are more likely to be placed in lower streams, receive negative labels and less encouragement, making movement between streams difficult and reinforcing class inequalities.

How does streaming create a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Middle-class pupils are often placed in higher streams where they receive positive labels and encouragement, while working-class pupils in lower streams receive less support, reinforcing differences in achievement.

What is educational triage?

Educational triage is the process by which schools categorise pupils according to their likelihood of achieving target grades and allocate resources strategically.

How are pupils categorised in educational triage?

Schools identify pupils who will definitely pass, those unlikely to pass and those close to passing who can be pushed over the grade boundary.

Why do schools use educational triage?

League table pressures encourage schools to concentrate resources on borderline pupils because improving these grades raises school performance measures.

Evaluate educational triage.

It may improve league table results by focusing on borderline pupils, but it disadvantages lower-achieving pupils who may need the greatest support.

What is differentiation in schools?

Differentiation occurs when teachers categorise pupils according to ability, behaviour or social background.

What is polarisation?

Polarisation occurs when pupils respond to teacher labels by forming subcultures that either support or reject school values.

What characterises a pro-school subculture?

Pupils accept school rules, value academic achievement, work hard and are often associated with positive teacher labels.

What characterises an anti-school subculture?

Pupils reject school values, challenge authority and may value rebellion, toughness and peer approval, often developing after receiving negative labels.

What is ingratiation as a pupil response?

Ingratiation involves pupils trying to gain teachers' approval by conforming to expectations.

What is ritualism as a pupil response?

Ritualism involves following school rules while showing little commitment to academic success.

What is retreatism as a pupil response?

Retreatism involves rejecting school goals while avoiding open confrontation with authority.

What is rebellion as a pupil response?

Rebellion involves rejecting school values and attempting to replace them with alternative values.

What did Andy Furlong argue about pupil responses?

Furlong argued pupils can move between different responses depending on the teacher, situation and context, showing responses are flexible rather than fixed.

Evaluate labelling theory.

Labelling theory highlights the importance of classroom interactions but is criticised for being too deterministic because pupils can reject labels, overcome expectations and succeed despite disadvantage.

How do Marxists criticise Interactionist explanations of educational achievement?

Marxists argue Interactionists focus too much on teacher behaviour while ignoring the capitalist education system that creates and reproduces class inequality.

Why do Marxists argue teacher prejudice is not the main cause of inequality?

They argue schools operate within capitalism and reproduce the interests of the dominant class regardless of individual teacher attitudes.

What is Bourdieu's concept of habitus?

Habitus refers to the learned values, behaviours and ways of thinking developed through social background that shape how individuals experience education.

How does habitus affect educational achievement?

Middle-class pupils possess a habitus that more closely matches school expectations, making it easier for them to succeed.

What is symbolic capital?

Symbolic capital is the status and recognition given to valued forms of knowledge, behaviour and cultural competence within schools.

Why do middle-class pupils possess more symbolic capital?

They are more likely to have confidence, language skills and cultural knowledge that schools reward and value.

What is symbolic violence?

Symbolic violence occurs when schools present middle-class culture and values as normal and superior while treating working-class culture as inferior.

How does symbolic violence affect working-class pupils?

Working-class pupils may view school culture as unfamiliar, feel pressured to change their speech, appearance or identity, and experience educational disadvantage.

What did Louise Archer study?

Archer and colleagues examined working-class identities and how they influence educational experiences.

What are Nike identities?

Nike identities are working-class identities based around branded clothing that provide status, confidence and belonging but often conflict with school expectations.

Why do working-class pupils develop Nike identities?

They create alternative sources of status because they feel schools and wider society devalue their social background.

How did Archer explain hyper-feminine identities?

Some working-class girls developed identities centred on attractiveness and heterosexual relationships, with failure to conform risking bullying or social exclusion.

Do Nike identities show rejection of education according to Archer?

No. Archer argues they reflect the belief that higher education does not fit pupils' desired lifestyles or appear realistic rather than a rejection of learning itself.

What did Gill Evans investigate?

Evans studied working-class girls considering applications to elite universities such as Oxbridge.

What did Evans find about working-class students and elite universities?

Many working-class girls hesitated to apply because they felt they did not belong and experienced hidden barriers within elite higher education.

What is self-exclusion?

Self-exclusion occurs when working-class students avoid applying to elite universities because they feel socially or culturally out of place.

How does Evans support Bourdieu's ideas?

Her findings show that working-class students may exclude themselves because elite universities value middle-class culture and symbolic capital.

Evaluate internal factors affecting educational achievement.

Internal factors demonstrate that schools are not neutral institutions and show how teacher interactions, labelling and school organisation contribute to inequality using detailed qualitative evidence.

What are the main criticisms of internal factor explanations?

They are criticised for being too deterministic, exaggerating teacher power and ignoring wider structural inequalities such as class, poverty and capitalism.

How does Bourdieu explain class differences in educational achievement?

Middle-class pupils possess habitus and symbolic capital that align with school culture, while symbolic violence disadvantages working-class pupils.

Compare Dunne and Gazeley with Rist.

Both show teacher expectations shape achievement through labelling, but Dunne and Gazeley focus on secondary schools and class assumptions, whereas Rist examined classroom grouping in a primary setting.

Compare Interactionist and Marxist explanations of educational achievement.

Interactionists argue classroom processes such as labelling create inequality, whereas Marxists argue these processes reflect wider capitalist structures that reproduce class inequality.

How does Archer build on Bourdieu's theory?

Archer explains how working-class pupils create alternative identities, such as Nike identities, to gain status when schools devalue their cultural capital, reinforcing Bourdieu's ideas about symbolic violence.

Assess the importance of teacher labelling in explaining class differences in educational achievement.

Teacher labelling can influence expectations, streaming and pupil identities through self-fulfilling prophecies, but its effects are limited because pupils can resist labels and wider structural inequalities also shape achievement.

Evaluate the view that schools reproduce class inequality through internal processes.

Interactionists provide evidence that labelling, streaming, symbolic violence and pupil identities contribute to inequality, while Marxists argue these school processes reflect the wider capitalist system rather than acting independently.