Outline and assess the view that teacher labelling causes social class differences in educational achievement
The labelling theory suggests that teachers judge pupils by their characteristics that relate to class, gender and ethnicity. For example teachers are likely to label middle class pupils as bright and more able to achieve in education, whereas, teachers would see working class as less able pupils. The attachment of labels has important consequences for how others see a person and how he/ she comes to view themselves. Because the teacher judges pupils by their characteristics, the functionalist theory argues that the working class lack culture, which includes values, norms and language. Once labelled a deviant the label can attach to the whole identity of the student, not just the deviant act. Teachers perceive the ‘ideal pupil’ to be one who conforms to middle class standards of behaviour, which, according to Dune and Gazeley note that teachers tend to perceive the ‘ideal pupil’ as middle class. However there are other school factors which cause social class differences in educational achievement, such as, the self-fulfilling prophecy, streaming and pupil subculture. Interactionist sociologists have carried out studies on the effects of labelling. Interactionist sociologist’s study-small case, face-to-face, interactions between individuals, such as the classroom or the playground. Interactionist theories of education focus towards looking at what goes on inside education. They examined the way in which labelling is linked to other processes within schools that result in class differences in achievement, these processes include self-fulfilling prophecy and polarization into anti and pro school cultures. This in turn leads to students developing a negative opinion of themselves through low teacher expectations and negative labelling. Ray Rist carried out a