Class Differences in Achievement - internal [2]

Pupil Subcultures
1. Is a group of pupils who share similar values & behaviour patterns
2. Lacey's concepts of differentiation & polarisation to explain how pupil subcultures develop:
  1. Differentiation
    1. The process of teachers categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and/or behaviour
    2. Streaming is a form of differentiation
      1. Since it categorises pupils into separate classes
    3. Those deemed 'less able' and placed in low streams are given an inferior status
  2. Polarisation
    1. Is the process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite 'poles' or extremes
3. Pro-School Subculture
  1. Pupils placed in high streams (mainly M/C) tend to remain committed to the values of the school
    1. Gain their status in the approved manner, through academic success
      1. Working hard, respectable & wearing uniform
    2. Their values are those of the school: they tend to form a pro-school subculture
4. Anti-School Subcultre
  1. Lacey found those placed in low streams (mainly W/C) suffer a loss of self-esteem
    1. The school has undermined their self-worth by placing them in a position of inferior status
      1. This label of failure pushes them to search for alternative ways of gaining status
  2. Pupils form anti-school subcultures as a means of gaining status among their peers
    1. E.g. cheeking teachers, truanting, not doing homework, smoking, drinking or stealing
  3. Joining an anti-school subculture may solve the problem of lack of status, it creates problems for pupils involved
  4. Joining an anti-school subculture is likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy of educational failure
5. Abolishing Streaming
  1. Ball found that when the school abolished banding, the basis for pupils to polarise into subcultures was largely removed and influence of anti-school subculture declined
    1. However, teachers continued to categorise pupils differently and were more likely to label M/C pupils as cooperative and able
      1. The positive labelling was reflected in their better exam results, suggesting the self-fulfilling prophecy occured
  2. Since the Education Reform Act, there has been a trend towards more streaming and towards a variety of types of school
    1. This has created new opportunities for schools & teachers to differentiate between pupils on the basis of class, ethnicity & gender
6. Variety of Pupil Responses
  1. Pro and anti-school subcultures are two possible responses to labelling/streaming
  2. Peter Woods argues there are other possible responses:
    1. Ingratiation: Being the 'teacher's pet' (Pro-school)
    2. Ritualism: Going through the motions and staying out of trouble (Pro-school)
    3. Retreatism: Daydreaming and mucking about (Anti-school)
    4. Rebellion: Outright rejection of everything the school stands for (Anti-school)
7. Limitations of Labelling Theory
  1. Cultural deprivation theorists assume that schools are not neutral instituitions
  2. Has been accused of determinism
  3. It assumes that pupils who are labelled have no choice but to fulfil the prophecy and will inevitably fail.
    1. Marxists argue that labels are not merely results of teachers' individual prejudices but from the teachers' work in a system that reproduces class division
Marketisation & Selection Policies
1. Schools operate within a wider education system
2. Marketisation brought in:
  1. A Funding Formula - that gives a school the same amount of funds for each pupil
  2. Exam League Tables - that rank each school according to its exam performance * make no allowance for the level of ability of its pupils
  3. Competition - among schools to attract pupils
3. The A-to-C Economy & Educational Triage
  1. The changes explain why schools are under-pressure to stream and select pupils
  2. The policy of publishing league tables creates what Gillborn & Youdell call the 'A-to-C economy'
    1. This is a system where schools ration their time, effort & resources, concentrating on the pupils they perceive as having the potential to succeed - boosting the schools league table
      1. Gillborn & Youdell call this process 'educational triage'
        Triage means 'sorting'
    2. Schools categorise pupils into 'those who will pass anyway' , 'those with potential' & 'hopeless cases'
  3. Gillborn & Youdell's notion of 'triage' or sorting is very similar to Lacey's idea of differentiation
4. Competition & Selection
  1. Bartlett argues that marketisation leads to popular schools:
    1. Cream-skimming: selecting higher ability pupils, who gain the best results and cost less to teach
      1. Silt-shifting: off-loading pupils with learning difficulties, who are expensive to teach and get poor results
  2. Marketisation explains why schools are under pressure to select more able, largely M/C pupils who will gain the school higher ranking in the league tables
  3. An Image To Attract Middle Class Parents
    1. Schools have responded to marketisation bycreating a 'traditional' image to attract M/C parents and this has reinforced class divisions
    2. Marketisation and selection processes have created a polarised education system:
      1. Popular, successful, well-resourced schools with more able, largely M/C intake at one extreme
      2. Unpopular, 'failing', under-resourced schools with mainly low-achieveing W/C pupils ar the other

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Class Differences in Achievement - internal [2]

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