Factors Impacting Educational Achievement (Week 5)

Question 1

Internal Factor

What is Labelling?

Howard Becker

Answer 1

• Labels can be positive or negative
• Becker interviewed 60 Chicago teachers and found they shared a picture of the ideal pupil
• Used a a benchmark to judge the pupils
• ideal pupil - motivated, intelligent, well behaved
• Pupils judged closest to this - usually middle-class

Question 2

Internal Factor

What is the interactionist perspective of factors impacting educational achievement?

Hargreaves

Answer 2

• There is negotiation within roles
• Hargreaves: examined how teachers and pupils negotiate a ‘working consensus’ in the classroom.
• Teachers offer compromises for good work/behaviour or rewards/punshiments
• Students negotiate by comparing their treatment with other pupils or setting teachers against each other
• Relationships are negotiated - if successful consensus is reached in the classroom

Question 3

Internal Factor

What is meant by the Self-fulfilling Prophecy - Labelling

Answer 3

Definition: a prediction that, by being made, comes true.
* Pupils see themselves as the label they are given
* Pupils will fulfill the prophecy others have made about them.
* Hargreaves(1975) aruges whether or not the label ‘sticks’ depends on;
1) How often the pupil is labelled
2) Whether the student sees the teacher as someone who counts
3) The extent to which others support the label
4) The context that the labelling takes place (public or private)

Question 4

What factors determine wheather or not a label sticks?

Hargreaves

Answer 4

1) How often the pupil is labelled
2) Whether the student sees the teacher as someone who “counts”
3) extent to which others support the label
4) context labelling takes place (public or private)

Question 5

Internal factors

What are the Different types of labels?

Bird, Nash

Answer 5

• some labels are more accepted than others.
• Bird- pupils more likely to accept ‘academic’ labels than ‘behavioural’ labels.
• Nash- teachers predictions about success of a student is academically affects the behaviour and success student

Question 6

Internal Factors

What is Group Labelling?

Gerwirtz

Answer 6

• Whole groups or schools labelled
• Private schools = positive labels
• Comprehensive schools in poor areas = negative labels
• Gerwirtz- the school you attend can create a self-fulfilling prophecy of success or failure even before a student enters a classroom

Question 7

Internal Factors

Critisims Of Labelling

Answer 7

• A negative label often stems from exsisting low educational achievement
• Labelling/ self-fulfilling prophecy too deterministic
• Some students work against labels e.g. Mirza - black girls

Question 8

Internal Factor

How does Ability Grouping impact educational acheivement?

Setting, streaming, banding

Answer 8

• Children allocated to different year groups or streams based on academic ability
• Streams ranked in hierarchy
• students are assigned to same or different stream each year
• Streaming can reinforce educational inequalities and differential achievements

Question 9

Definition

What is Streaming?

Answer 9

Allocating children to different year groups or streams within the school on the basis of academic ability.

Question 10

Definition

What is Banding?

Answer 10

Students are allocated bands when they enter secondary school on the basis of reports from teachers in their primary school.

Question 11

Definition

What is Setting?

Answer 11

students are streamed on a subject-by-subject basis.
eg. top set for Physics, bottom set for English

Question 12

Internal Factor

Streaming & Class differences

Hargreaves (1976) - Study of Lumley school

Answer 12

• Boys were streamed on the basis of academic ability
• After first year of secondary school - impossible for boy in bottom stream to move into top stream
• correlation between social class and streaming
• middle class children = top
• Working-class children = bottom
• the experience of streaming made each child feel like they were a ‘success or a failure’.
• Lack of movement between streams encouraged development of student subcultures

Question 13

Internal Factor

What are 2 Pupil Subcultures identified by Lacey?

Answer 13

1) Subculture of success – develops in middle-class top stream. Pupils work hard, well behaved, respect, praised by teachers
2) Subculture of failure – in working-class lower stream, pupils developed an anti-school subculture. Denied respect from teachers, defined as failures. They gained prestige from their peers for not listening to the teachers, refusing to do homework.

Question 14

Internal Factor

What are 3 Male Working-class Subcultures identified by Mac an Ghaill?

Study of Yr11 students in comprehensive school in wesst midlands 1990s

Answer 14

1) Macho Lads: in bottom two sets for all subjects. Academic failures, seen this way by teachers. They rejected school values and teacher authority. Their concerns were having a laugh, acting tough, looking after their mates. Teachers made constant demands on their behaviour.
2)** Academic Achievers:** saw hard work and educational qualifications as route to success. In top sets, received preferential treatment. From upper levels of working class.
3) New Enterprises: different route to success > focused on vocational subjects e.g. business/technology. Looked forward to a future in high-skilled areas of the labour market.

Question 15

Internal Factor

What are Compensatory education Programmes?

Answer 15

• Give working-class children more equal opportunities
• Education Action Zones: groups of primary and secondary schools joining forces with parents, councils and local businesses to improve educational services.
• Sure Start Programmes: designed to improve services to the poorest pre-school children and families to prevent truancy and increase achievement.

Question 16

External Factor

What is factors of Material Deprivation that give W.C students disadvantages?

Answer 16

• Poor diet/nutrition – unable to concentrate
• Lack of private study facilities and resources
• Need to work to supplement family income
• More vulnerable to illness/disease > miss school
• Area they live in > lack of community facilities, presence of crime/ drug abuse

Question 17

External Factor

What are Cultural Explanations for why W.C students have lower educational achievement?

Douglas

Answer 17

• Parental attitudes: levels of encouragement/interest in child’s education
• Family size: larger W.C. families = fewer parental resources for each child
• Position within the family: older children tend to achieve more than younger members of large families
• Limited care of babies in large families = fewer resources to devote to their care and upbringing

Question 18

External Factor

Cultural Deprivation - What are Speech Codes?

Bernstein (1971)

Answer 18

• Restricted codes - used by all social classes
• Elaborated codes - used by middle classes & schools
• working class children have to learn elaborated codes before they can learn the knowledge taught

Question 19

External Factor

Characteristics of the Restricted Code

Answer 19

• Simple
• Concrete
• Predictable
• Collective
• Context dependent
• Exclusive

Question 20

External Factor

Characteristics of Elaborated code

Answer 20

• Complex use of vocabulary
• range of meanings
• Abstract
• Individual
• Context independent
• Inclusive

Question 21

External Factor

How do Speach Codes of Parents lead to issues?

Answer 21

• Working class parents can feel excluded from education system
• Parents feel intimidated in engaging with staff due to insecurity about the way they speak.
• effect child’s view of school, willingness to engage in school life

Question 22

External Factor

Immediate Gratification

Answer 22

involves taking something as soon as it is offered
* Associated with Working-class

Question 23

External Factor

Deffered Gratification

Goodman and Greg

Answer 23

Involves not taking something immediately in the hope that by waiting you will receive something better.
* Associated with middle-class
**Goodman & Gregg **(2010) found 80% of the most affluent mothers assumed their child would go to university whilst 40% of less affluent mothers ‘hoped’ their child would go to university.