Social class

Howard

• External.

• Material.

• Poor diet = poor education.

• Bad educational achievement = more likely to be on child protection register.

Reay

• External.

• Material.

• Working class children go to local university due to costs. 

Sugarman

• External.

• Cultural.

• Working class = subculture.

• Fatalistic = accepts rather than try and improve.

• Present-time oriented.

• Immediate gratification = pleasures now rather than making sacrifices.

• Collectivism = value being in a group.

Douglas

• External.

• Cultural.

• Based on longitudinal questionnaires given to 5000 parents.

• Blames primary socialisation.

• Middle class receive more attention and encouragement.

• Middle class more likely to go to parents evening and encourage further education.

Bernstein

• External.

• Cultural.

• Class difference in language.

• MC = elaborate code of speech/ bourgeoisie parlance.

• WC = restricted code of speech.

Bourdieu

• External.

• Cultural.

• MC = had cultural capital.

• Cultural capital = knowledge, skills, values, language, and tastes that education system values.

• Matches the culture of the teachers.

• WC = lack cultural capital so are at a disadvantage.

Gewirtz

• MC parents are more likely to look at OFSTED reports, visit school and look at league tables.

• MC = privileged skilled choosers.

• Ambitious WC = semi-skilled choosers.

• WC = disconnected local choosers.

Becker

• Internal.

• Interactionist.

• Teachers judge based on their ‘ideal pupil’ stereotype based on 60 interviews he did.

• Ideal pupil = hard working, well-behaved, neat in appearance and middle class.

• Teachers would often see MC pupils as a better fit to this image compared to WC.

• Labelling theory = teachers labelling students in their heads on who they are and represent.

• Affects the teachers attention, difficulty of work set or discipline given.

• Self-fulfilling prophecy = students may internalise their label and live up to it.

• Positive labels = higher expectations and better performance.

• Negative labels = lower expectations and underachievement. 

Rosenthal and Jacobson

• Internal.

• Interactionist.

• Investigated how teachers expectations could affect a pupils’ performance.

• Pygmalion in the classroom.

• Method = US primary school, pupils give an IQ test but teacher was told that some children were expected to make rapid progress which were student chosen at random.

• End of the year = the children who were said to have rapid progress had greater IQ gains than other pupils.

• Showing how teacher expectations influence pupil performance.

• Labelled as bright, had more attention, encouraged more and challenged more.

• Evidence for self-fulfilling prophecy.

• Labelling within schools can lead to class or group inequalities. 

Ball

• Internal.

• Ball studied a comprehensive school that used banding (grouping students by ability).

• He found that teachers had different expectations of pupils depending on their band.

• Top-band students = seen as able and better behaved.

• Lower-band students = labelled as less able or troublesome.

• These labels affected teachers’ interactions with students.

• Led to self-fulfilling prophecies, where students performed in line with their labels.

Gillborn and Youdell

• Internal.

• Studied teacher labelling and streaming in secondary schools.

• Found that teachers judged pupils’ ability and potential largely based on stereotypes related to social class and ethnicity.

• Under marketisation, schools face pressure to achieve good exam results (to climb league tables).

• This led to educational triage — teachers prioritised some pupils over others based on their perceived likelihood of success.

Archer 

• Internal.

• WC seek other ways to gain social status and self worth.

• E.g. through consumption of brands.

Hargreaves et al

• Internal.

• Analyses how students are classified.

• Interviews with teachers and school observations in schools.

• Speculation = appearance, conformity, enthusiasm, relationship with other kids.

• Elaboration = hypothesis confirmed or denied.

• Stabilisation = pupils actions will be evaluated based on what they appear and assume to be like.

• Leads to self-fulfilling prophecy and labelling.

Rist

Bourdieu