In this essay, the view that social class differences in educational underachievement are the result of school processes such as labelling will be assessed. Internal and external factors will be assessed with the use of researchers such as: Bernstein, Bereiter & Engelmann, Keddie and Howard.
Internal factors such as labelling have been shown to effect education achievement. To label someone is to attach a meaning or definition to them. Becker carried out a study on labelling on 60 Chicago high school teachers, and found that they judged pupils according to how closely they fit an image of the ideal pupil. The pupils work, conduct, and appearance were key factors to the teachers’ judgements. Becker found that middle class children were closer to the image of the ideal pupil whereas the working class children were furthest away and seen as badly behaved.
Cicourel & Kituse’s study of educational counsellors in an American high school shows how this labelling can disadvantage working class student. They found that the way in which counsellors would assess the student’s suitability for courses. They judged students on the basis of their class and/or race. Where students would have the same grades, they work more likely to label middle class pupils as having college potential and to place them on higher level courses.
Rist did a study on an American kindergarten and found that the teachers used information about the children’s home, background and appearance to place them in separate groups, seating them each at a different table. The first group were the ‘tigers’ which were known as the fast learners. These ‘tigers’ were middle class, had a neat and clean appearance and were seated nearest towards her and were also given more encouragement by the teacher. The other two groups, the ‘cardinals’ and the ‘clowns’ were more likely to be working class, and were seated