LABELLING
You attach a meaning to a person when you begin to label them. Teachers are known to label students regardless of their abilities, they base their views on a stereotype on their class background such as a working class child is shown in a negative light and a middle class pupil is positive one. A Interactionist sociologist study the face to face interactions between individuals within the classroom and are intrigued by the labelling that goes on within the education system and how this has a big effect on other children.
Howard Becker (1971) did a study on labelling and interviewed 60 school teachers and through his findings found that they do label and judge pupils to how they fit the image of an ideal pupil. One of the major factors that did influence the teachers was the way a child was dressed and how neat and tidy their work was. They saw middle class children as the 'ideal pupils' and working class children as the ones that were badly behaved. Howard Becker's study is linked with Cicourel and Kituses's (1963) who conducted a study in a high school that showed labeling effects on working class students and the disadvantages that it gave them. Both of these theorists were educational counsellors and they were the ones that played a role in deciding the fate of a child getting onto a course and preparing them for the world of higher education. All children were judged on their ability and even students that had similar grades they would still label a middle class student as being college material and placing them on the higher level courses.
Other studies show how labeling can be applied to the knowledge that is taught to children. Neil Keddie (1971) found that both pupils and the knowledge they are taught are labelled as either high or low status's. She observed a comprehensive school which were tested by ability. She found that teachers believed that they teach pupils in the same way but were giving high status knowledge to middle class students and low status knowledge to working class students which increases the class differences in achievement.
You attach a meaning to a person when you begin to label them. Teachers are known to label students regardless of their abilities, they base their views on a stereotype on their class background such as a working class child is shown in a negative light and a middle class pupil is positive one. A Interactionist sociologist study the face to face interactions between individuals within the classroom and are intrigued by the labelling that goes on within the education system and how this has a big effect on other children.
Howard Becker (1971) did a study on labelling and interviewed 60 school teachers and through his findings found that they do label and judge pupils to how they fit the image of an ideal pupil. One of the major factors that did influence the teachers was the way a child was dressed and how neat and tidy their work was. They saw middle class children as the 'ideal pupils' and working class children as the ones that were badly behaved. Howard Becker's study is linked with Cicourel and Kituses's (1963) who conducted a study in a high school that showed labeling effects on working class students and the disadvantages that it gave them. Both of these theorists were educational counsellors and they were the ones that played a role in deciding the fate of a child getting onto a course and preparing them for the world of higher education. All children were judged on their ability and even students that had similar grades they would still label a middle class student as being college material and placing them on the higher level courses.
Other studies show how labeling can be applied to the knowledge that is taught to children. Neil Keddie (1971) found that both pupils and the knowledge they are taught are labelled as either high or low status's. She observed a comprehensive school which were tested by ability. She found that teachers believed that they teach pupils in the same way but were giving high status knowledge to middle class students and low status knowledge to working class students which increases the class differences in achievement.