3. Labeling
• Labelling is attaching a meaning or definition to
someone based on a stereotype or on limited
knowledge of them.
• Teachers make judgements about the ‘type’ of
students they have in their classes and they attach
mental labels to them.
5. Howard Becker (1971)
• Found teachers judge how students fit into their
idea of the ‘ideal pupil’.
• Teachers labelled working class children as badly
behaved and further from the ‘ideal’
6. Cicourel and Kitsuse
(1963)
• American high schools
• Counsellors were not judging students according to
ability but were judging largely on class and race.
• Middle class students more likely to be placed on
high level courses.
7. Ray Rist (1970)
• American Kindergarten
• Pupils labelled as fast learners were seated close to
the teacher and given more attention
• The other groups were seated further away, got less
attention and less opportunity to demonstrate their
ability. (these were more likely to be working class.)
8. Nell Keddie (1971)
• Classes were streamed by ability
• All streams followed same curriculum.
• Top stream were given theoretical, high status
knowledge
• Bottom stream given much more descriptive, low
status knowledge
9. Self-fulfilling prophecy
• 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.
10. Self-fulfilling prophecy
• 3 stages
1. Teacher labels pupil and makes predictions about
him/her
2. Teacher treats pupil according to those
predictions
3. Expectation becomes internalised and becomes
part of his/her self-concept
11. Rosenthal and Jacobson
(1968)
• Pygmalion in the Classroom
• Used a test to predict the children who would make
academic progress
• Both the test and the predictions were not true
• One year later many of the children predicted to
do well, had made significant progress
12. Rosenthal and Jacobson
(1968)
• This study demonstrated the self-fulfilling prophecy
• The predictions the researchers had made had
changed the behaviour of the teachers
• They created a nicer environment for the chosen
pupils, they gave them more time and attention,
they called on them for answers more often and
they gave them more detailed feedback when
they got something wrong
13. Self-fulfilling prophecy
• Self fulfilling prophecies can have negative as well
as positive effects
• And as we have seen working class students are
often negatively labelled this may account for
some of the inequality of outcome
14. Streaming
• Streaming - splitting year groups into several
hierarchical groups that stay together for all lessons
• Setting – Putting groups of similar ability together just
for certain lessons
• Mixed ability – the practise of teaching all levels
together began in comprehensive schools
15. Streaming
• Studies show that self-fulfilling prophecy is
particularly likely to occur when children are
streamed
16. Streaming
• Once placed in a particular stream or set it is very
difficult to get moved
• Children in lower streams internalise the idea that
they will not achieve much
• This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy
17. Douglas
• Children placed in the lower stream at the age of 8
had suffered a decline in IQ by the age of 11
• Children placed in a higher stream at the age of 8
had improved their IQ by the age of 11
18. Pupil Subcultures
• A subculture is a group of people who share norms,
values and beliefs about something, usually in
opposition to the wider society
• Pupil subcultures often emerge in response to the
ways in which students are labelled or streamed.
19. Lacey (1970)
• Uses concepts of DIFERENTIATION and
POLARISATION to explain pupil subcultures
• Differentiation- process of categorisation eg.
Streaming
• Polarisation – Pupils respond to streaming by moving
towards opposite extremes
20. Pro-school Subculture
• Committed to the values of the school
• Gain status through academic success
• Values are those of the school
• High stream pupils
21. Anti-school Subculture
• Low self-esteem leads to different ways of
gaining status
• Rejects the system
• Gain status through: Drinking, smoking,
stealing, truanting, being cheeky to
teachers
• Becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure
22. Hargreaves (1967)
• Similar response to streaming as Lacey but in a very
different school.
• Pupils formed a group in which status could be
gained from rebelling against school rules.
• Delinquent subculture helped guarantee their
educational failure.
23. Stephen Ball (1981)
• When Beachside school abolished streaming the
anti-school subculture started to disappear
• Teachers still labelled pupils though
• Middle class pupils were still more often categorised
as cooperative and able.
• Class inequality continues even where streaming
and subcultures don’t
24. Criticisms
• Labelling theory could be accused of determinism.
Children who are labelled almost have no choice
but to fail, but this is not true.
• Marxists criticise the lack of focus on structures. This
theory seems to blame individual teachers for the
labelling rather than the system.
