labelling

a) Ideal Pupil – Becker

Becker carried out an important interactionist study of labelling. Based on unstructured interviews with 60 high school teachers, he found that they judged pupils according to how closely they fitted an image of the ideal pupil.

He found that pupils’ work, conduct and appearance were key factors influencing teachers’ judgements and therefore the labels they applied.

ideal pupil is pupil who is smart, neat and dedicated and focused on education

Becker found that teachers saw middle class pupils as closest to the ideal pupil, and lower working class pupils as furthest away from this image.

Evaluation

1. Becker only based his research on 60 high school teachers, therefore his work is not representative of all schools and learning environment, meaning we cannot generalise his findings.

2. Hammersley argued not all teachers are ‘middle class tyrants’ who label working class pupils negatively. Many teachers will come from working class backgrounds and even if they don’t are able to empathise with the lives of working class children. Rather than label them, they may offer greater support and encouragement.

b) Self-fulfilling Prophecy – Rist

Rist believed that labelling occurs from the outset of a child’s educational career. He found that teachers used information about a child’s home background and appearance to place them in different groups or streams.

· Those judged as fast learners were labelled as tigers and tended to be middle class. They sat nearest to the teacher and given greater encouragement.

· Those judged as less able were labelled as clowns, and tended to be working class. They were given lower-level books and seated further away from the teacher.

Both Becker’s and Rist’s study show how teacher labelling can result in pupil teacher interactions that result in the student living up to that label. This is called the self-fulfilling prophecy

Evaluation

1. Rist only studied one classroom, therefore his work is not representative of all schools and learning environment, meaning we cannot generalise his findings.

2. gender and ethnicity might be more important factors

Middle Class - over achieve Working Class - under preform

c) Self-fulfilling Prophecy – Rosenthal & Jacobson

A self-fulfilling prophecy refers prediction a teacher makes of a pupil which may come true as a result of the teachers’ behaviour based on the label attached and the response of the pupil to the teacher.

Rosenthal’s and Jacobson’s study proved the self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) happened within the school.

They told the school that they had a new test specifically designed to identify those pupils who would “spurt” ahead. BUT this was untrue – the test was a standard IQ test.

All pupils were tested, but 20% were randomly chosen as “spurters” and the school falsely told who they were. Returning to the school, a year later, they found that half of those randomly chosen as “spurters” had made significant progress. They felt that this demonstrated that the SFP happened in schools – by making a prediction that some pupils would spurt ahead, the teachers’ behaviour towards the pupils made it come true.

Evaluation

1. Rosenthal & Jacobson can be criticised for being too deterministic. It is assumed all individuals are passive and accept labels given. However, not all students do accept labels given; many will resist and reject labels given.

  1. Fuller- black girls in london reject these labels and do pretty well

  2. Within a classroom setting today we see variation in labels given. Labels given by different teachers may be inconsistent and also vary by the same teacher on a different day which can reduce the effectiveness of the label given. Furthermore, teachers are subject to a high level of professional scrutiny therefore negative labelling would be unlikely in light of this.