It's always a good idea to review where we've come from so here's a challenge...

Can you tweet (maximum 140 characters) a summary of the role of education?

Culturally biased - focused on white, middle-class culture so marginalises those who are not. Ethnocentric.

This can impact on achievement as some groups are already 'behind' before they have begun as they don't have access to the culture upon which the curriculum is based.

Ghevarughese - 1987: colonialism and European views ignore the contributions of non-European societies.

Values and norms taught 'beneath the surface' influences gender bias in subjects - this can be due to 'packaging' exams vs. coursework, encouragement from teachers based on perceived gender appropriate subjects.

Reinforces stereotypes in several ways, including vertical/horizontal segregation.

Primary dominated by women
Management dominated by men
Minority ethnic groups under-represented.

Reinforce stereotypes and aspirations.

Interactionism - sees understanding people and the meanings they place on events as important.

Education - focus on meanings, roles and power within the classroom, how do you see these words affecting education?

Labelling theory - the view that people 'label' each other according to assumptions about who they are. Sometimes these labels 'stick' and alter the experience and outcomes for an individual. These labels can come from stereotypes.

Speculation - guesses
Elaboration - test hypotheses
Stabilisation - fixed

Teachers then feel they 'know' the student and what will motivate them, all behaviour is seen as reflective of the label.

Labelling can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Gillborn & Youdell (2000) also found that teachers labelled students on the basis of their ethnicity. Black students were more likely to be negatively disciplined than white students.

Self-fulfilling prophecies - California, IQ tests

Teachers told a group were expected to perform 'better' at the end of the year, according to readministered IQ tests they had made greater gains than other students.

Schools organise students for teaching and learning generally in one of three ways:

Setting: sorted into classes by ability, subject by subject

Streaming: sorted into groups according to ability, attend all subjects in these groups

Mixed ability: sorted into classes which include students of all abilities

You need to think about the +/- of all these three systems - how might this affect achievement. Have a think about the types of organising you may have experienced - how did this impact you and others in the group?

Are there links here to labelling? Perhaps think particularly about Rosenthal & Jacobson - what about teacher assumptions about ability.

Anti-school subcultures:
Hargreaves interviewed boys inner-city schools, formed anti-school subcultures as a response to negative labelling. Gain status by being disruptive.

Anti-school too simplistic, 8 responses.
Total integration through to open rebellion.

Methods: overt participant obs, unstructured interviews, analysing notes from class

Female interactions reinforce socially constructed female stereotypes.

Subcultures formed as a response to a perception of limited opportunities. Leads to underachievement and reinforces original idea that they will not succeed. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

Learning to Labour - learning to deal with a potentially monotonous working life.

Our sense of identity can be quite complex, impacted both by how others see and us and how we see ourselves. Within a society this is impacted by gender, class, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, nationality. This sense of identity and how it is formed and affected is no different within education - some sociologists more recently feel that exploring the formation of a sense of identity is more important than considering teacher-student interactions or labelling.

Think about the ways a sense of identity might be formed through your experience of education. In your writing at the beginning of the year was there any exploration of your identity in relation to education?

Either you have just been or you are about to think about differential achievement i.e. the differences between low, under and high achievement; how class, ethnicity or gender may affect this.

That being the case there are other processes within schools which may impact on achievement - you should be able to identify a range of these in the meanwhile below some prompts to help you have a think...

What about:
timetabling
uniforms
examinations

Clearly all of this needs to be considered in tandem with internal/external factors impacting explicitly on achievement for different groups.

The ideas considered here would appear to emphasise the role of internal factors when considering achievement, however, there are issues with taking this view.

First of all - can you think of any challenges you could make to the mainly interactionist views expressed in this topic?

Secondly, make sure that you read all the information in the Collins book (referenced on the next slide) carefully as there is an excellent summary at the end of the chapter reflecting on the potential weaknesses of the ideas presented here.

CGP 22-23
Collins Year 1 56-67

You need to be sure that you read all of this very carefully and complete any written tasks you have been set.

Remember - there is a range of other textbooks available in your classrooms and in the Resources Centre. Use these to broaden your knowledge of the ideas presented here.