Interactionist explanations of education

Interactionism is a social theory that focuses on small-scale, face-to-face interactions in schools rather than the structure of society as a whole. Looks at how meanings, labels and teacher-student interactions shape educational outcomes.

Key concepts

1. Labelling theory-

• Teachers label students based on stereotypes, class, gender, ethnicity, behaviour or appearance

• Labels influence how teachers treat students, leading to Self-fulfilling prophecy

• Becker- Teachers judged pupils based on how close they fit the ‘ideal pupil’ (middle class)

• Rosenthal and Jacobson- Study randomly labelled students as ‘spurters’ and they made more progress

2. Self-fulfilling prophecy

• A student internalises the study that they’ve been given

• E.G. A student labelled as disruptive may behave sadly

• A student labelled as ‘bright’ may try harder and achieve more

3. Streaming and setting

• Placing students in different ability groups

• Gillborn and Youdell- Teachers focus on borderline students due to league tables (educational triage)

• Working class and ethnic minority students often put in lower sets, limiting opportunities

4. Pupil subcultures (from labelling and streaming)

• Willis- ‘The lads’ formed an anti-school subculture, rejecting school values

5. Ethnomethodology and negotiation of meaning

• Pupils and teachers negotiate meanings in the classroom

• Education isnt a top down process- Influenced by how roles and rules are interpretated

• Ball- When streaming was removed in school, polarisation reduced

Strengths-

• Focuses on individual experiences in school

• Reveals the hidden processes within school (teacher bias)

• Highlights how class, ethnicity and gender impact outcomes via teacher interactions

Criticisms-

• Dosen’t explain where labels come from (ignores wider structures like capitalism)

• Ignores material deprivation and out of school factors

• Overemphasises the power of teacher labelling- some students reject labels