Social Class & Achievement: Internal Factors (AQA A Level Sociology): Revision Note

Labelling & the self-fulfilling prophecy

• Internal factors focus on what happens within schools that leads to working-class underachievement

• Internal factors affect teacher expectations, student experiences, and educational outcomes

  • These include

    • labelling

    • streaming

    • pupil subcultures

    • class-based identities

Labelling theory

• Interactionist sociologists focus on small-scale interactions between individuals, like those between students and teachers in the classroom

• Interactionist Howard Becker (1971) argues that teachers often label pupils based on class-based assumptions rather than actual ability, e.g.,

  • middle-class pupils are more likely to be seen as the 'ideal pupil' (motivated, polite, high-achieving)

  • working-class pupils are often labelled as disruptive or less able

• These judgements and resulting labels have little to do with the intelligence or ability of the student

Self-fulfilling prophecy

• A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that becomes true simply because it has been made

• Interactionists argue that teacher labelling can influence a pupil’s achievement by shaping how they are treated and how they begin to see themselves, e.g.,

  • a teacher labels a student based on non-academic factors

  • they may be positively labelled as high-achieving and given more attention and encouragement

  • the student, internalising this label, works harder and performs well, fulfilling the original label

• Therefore, teacher expectations influence outcomes – if a pupil is labelled negatively, it can lower motivation and performance, reinforcing underachievement

Research methods in context

• Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) used a field experiment to test the self-fulfilling prophecy by falsely telling teachers that 20% of their class were high achievers after giving them an IQ test

  • These pupils were in fact randomly selected

  • The students were referred to as 'bloomers'

• A year later, these students made significantly more progress

• Rosenthal and Jacobson concluded that teachers’ expectations influenced their behaviour, giving more support to the ‘bloomers’, who in turn worked harder and performed better

Evaluation

• Ethical concerns

  • The study raises ethical issues due to its deceptive and covert nature

  • Researchers did not obtain informed consent from teachers, parents, or pupils, as participants were misled about the purpose of the IQ test

• Questionable reliability

  • Rosenthal and Jacobson did not observe teacher-student interactions, so their claim that the 'bloomers' received more attention remains unverified

  • Without direct evidence, it's difficult to assess whether pupil progress was due to teacher behaviour

• Overlooks external factors

  • The study failed to consider external influences on pupil achievement

  • E.g., home background, parental support, or socioeconomic status could have contributed to the progress made by the ‘bloomers’, independently of teacher expectations

Streaming & setting

• Streaming or setting, is where students are allocated to classes based on their ability and are taught in these classes for most subjects

  • Students are normally placed in classes based on their attainment in subjects such as English, maths and the sciences

• Interactionists view streaming as a form of institutionalised labelling

• Ball (1981) found that grouping by ability leads to greater social class inequalities

• Working-class pupils are disproportionately placed in lower sets

  • Creates low self-esteem and leads to self-fulfilling prophecies of failure

• Keddie (1971) found that pupils in the bottom streams had limited access to high-level knowledge

  • Less was expected of bottom-set students in terms of ability

Pupil subcultures

• Pupils often form subcultures in response to labelling and streaming

• Pro-school subcultures are:

  • found in high sets.

  • mainly middle-class pupils who value academic success and conform to school rules

• Anti-school subcultures:

  • are found in lower sets, mostly working-class pupils

  • reject school values, misbehave, and gain status from defying authority

  • can lead to further academic failure and marginalisation

• Students who develop a negative self-image may turn to deviant subcultures in compensation

  • However, this confirms their failure in the eyes of the school (Lacey, 1970)

Evaluation of labelling theory in education

• Highlights the role of school-based inequality

  • Labelling theory is valuable because it challenges the assumption made by cultural deprivation theorists that schools are neutral institutions

  • Instead, it shows how teacher–pupil interactions can reinforce social class inequality within the classroom

• Deterministic approach

  • Labelling theory often implies that once a pupil is negatively labelled, they are doomed to underachieve due to a self-fulfilling prophecy

  • However, this isn’t always the case—some students actively reject negative labels, and research such as Fuller’s study (1984) of black girls in London shows they can work harder to disprove stereotypes

• Ignores wider power structures

  • Marxists argue that labelling theory ignores the wider structures of power within which labelling takes place

  • Teachers may label students in ways that reflect the school’s role in reproducing class divisions

• Overemphasis on teacher bias

  • Labelling theory blames individual teachers’ biases and actions without asking why teachers label some pupils in the first place

  • Marxists argue that these labels are not simply personal prejudices—they reflect the pressures and priorities of an education system that serves capitalist interests

Pupils' class identities

• Sociologists, such as Archer et al. (2010), are interested in the interaction between working-class pupils' identities (formed outside of school) and school and how this produces underachievement

• They draw upon Bourdieu's concept of habitus

Habitus

• Habitus is a way of thinking, being and acting that is shared by a particular social class

• It includes tastes and preferences about lifestyles, fashion, leisure pursuits, outlook on life and expectations about what is normal for people like them

• A group's habitus is formed as a response to its position in the class structure

• The middle-class has the power to define its habitus as superior

• Therefore, schools possess a middle-class habitus, as they value middle-class tastes, which is why school gives middle-class pupils an advantage

Symbolic capital and symbolic violence

• Because school has a middle-class habitus

  • middle-class pupils are rewarded for their cultural styles and values (e.g., language, appearance, ambition)

  • whereas working-class pupils experience symbolic violence, where their values and tastes are seen as inferior

    • This reinforces the class system and limits opportunities for people from lower social classes to move upward in society

• Consequently, this leads to self-exclusion, where students reject school or high-achieving pathways to protect their identity

• Working-class students may reject elite universities or academic success because it feels ‘not for them'

• They often prefer local universities and feel uncomfortable in middle-class spaces

Research methods in context

• Young (2007) surveyed 3,000 15-year-old students across 22 Scottish schools

• He found evidence of a distinct working-class subculture known as ‘Neds’ (Non-Educated Delinquents)

• His findings help illustrate how pupil identities can be shaped by class, peer groups, and wider social conditions:

  • Negative school attitudes: Neds generally viewed school as pointless and often truanted

  • Deprived backgrounds: Most came from economically disadvantaged areas with limited prospects for employment, shaping a sense of disillusionment with education

  • Rejection of school values: Instead of aspiring to middle-class success, they developed a counter-school identity

  • Working-class pride: Some students actively embraced the Ned identity as an expression of working-class pride and resistance

  • Peer status: The label ‘Ned’ carried social capital among peers—it was seen as ‘cool’ and brought group respect

• This study shows how working-class pupils may form identities in opposition to school expectations, reinforcing a self-image that distances them from academic success

• It supports interactionist views on how pupil subcultures and labelling influence educational outcomes