What is the first word which comes into your head when you see these images

What you have just done is an example of LABELLING

• Stereotyping or tagging someone with a set of characteristics based on biased perceptions

• This is important because labelling is a powerful sociological explanation for underachievement in education

Social Class And Educational Attainment

• Remember research has consistently shown that children from working-class backgrounds overall do not perform as well in school as those from middle and upper class backgrounds.

• ‘there is a long standing statistical correlation between social class and educational achievement’

• To explain this we should consider BOTH INTERNAL and EXTERNAL school factors

We have looked at many external factors relating to class and educational attainment.

Now we will be examining factors within the education system itself.

Internal Factors

Labels

Can we think of some examples of labels that teachers may give students?

By the end of today’s lesson you will be able to

• Assess the impact of labelling on the experience of students.

• Define interactionism and micro-sociology..• Summarise the findings of at least one study

of labelling.• Outline the self-fulfilling prophecy.• Explain Rosenthal & Jacobson’s findings about

self-fulfilling prophecies

Schools: labelling low/high ‑expectations

• Teachers inevitably label students and it has been suggested that working-class students are more likely to get negative labels.

• Schools are by their nature middle class teachers are middle ‑class because of their profession so working-class students ‑do not fit in as easily.

• If their behaviour is seen as bad they are likely to be labelled not only as badly behaved but also as not bright.

• Equally, well behaved children are thought of as bright and ‑ ‑are usually middle class.

Labelling

• How do schools and teachers label students?

• Students may be typecast on the basis of early impressions based on their appearance, manners, speech, and where they live

• Labelling a student as a ‘good trustworthy’ student is called the HALO EFFECT

Interactionism

Micro-sociology

Each group takes a different theorist and writes a brief note on their findings. Come together to share info from each group.

• GROUP 1 Becker page 103

• GROUP 2 Cicourel & Kitsuse page 103

• GROUP 3 Ray Rist page 103

• GROUP 4 Sharp & Green page 103-4

• GROUP 5 Nell Keddie page 104

• GROUP 6 Gilbourn & Youdell page 104

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Definition:A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that

directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to

positive feedback between belief and behaviour.

W.I. Thomas (1909)

• argued that if people define social situations as real, they become real in there consequences.

• This has now become known as the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy.’

• It suggests that the process of labelling and stereotyping of individuals by others is taken on board and becomes internalised resulting in the given label becoming true.

SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY

• When the prediction becomes the truth

• Teachers' expectations can have a real effect on how students achieve.

• Students who have been told they are not good at a subject are more likely to stop trying than to set out to prove the teacher wrong.

• Teachers give more time and attention to those students who they think will do better as a result.

THREE STEPS

POSITIVE LABELLING NEGATIVE LABELLING

STEP 1 The teacher labels a pupil as highly intelligent, as an achiever. On the basis of this label the teacher makes a prediction that the pupil will make outstanding academic achievement.

STEP 2 The teacher treats the pupil accordingly acting as if the prediction is already true. The teacher gives the pupil more attention and expects a higher standard of work from the pupil. This is known as the halo effect.

STEP 3 The pupil internalises the teacher’s expectation, which becomes part of their self-concept or self-image, so that they now actually believe in, and become the kind of pupil the teacher believed them to be in the first place. The pupil gains confidence, tries harder and is successful. The prediction is fulfilled.

Labelling theory and the self-fulfilling prophecy

• Labelling means attaching a ‘tag’ to pupils e.g. ‘bright’, ‘lazy’ , ‘dumb’ etc

• self-fulfilling prophecy = ‘what teachers believe about pupils, pupils achieve’

• Teachers labels kid bright pupil internalises label pupil becomes more enthusiastic, tries harder, ends up succeeding

• On other hand labelling as ‘thick’ can lead to underachievement

PygmalionPygmalion (1913) is a famous play by George Bernard Shaw. It tells the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics (study of speech) who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can successfully pass off a poor working class Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a refined society lady by teaching her how to speak with an upper class accent and training her in etiquette.

It was filmed as My Fair Lady

Rosenthal & Jacobson’s study of a Californian Primary School

• The most famous research into labelling was an experiment carried out by Rosenthal & Jacobson called ‘Pygmalion in the Classroom’.

• Teachers were told that certain pupils were high achievers based on previous assessment

• In fact this was a lie, they were chosen at random. • However one year later these pupils were achieving

high scores – teachers had taken greater interest in them believing them to be brighter, so their motivation and confidence were boosted.

By the end of today’s lesson you will be able to

• Assess the impact of labelling on the experience of students.

• Define interactionism and micro-sociology.• Summarise the findings of at least one study

of labelling.• Outline the self-fulfilling prophecy.• Explain Rosenthal & Jacobson’s findings about

self-fulfilling prophecies