Class and Achievement: Internal Factors
Labelling is basically when teachers stick mental tags on students - calling them 'bright', 'troublemaker', 'hardworking' or 'thick'. Here's the problem: research shows teachers often make these judgements based on stereotypes about your family background rather than your actual ability.
Becker's study found that teachers had a mental image of the 'ideal pupil' in their heads. Middle-class students fitted this image perfectly, whilst working-class students were seen as furthest from it - often just because teachers thought they'd misbehave.
Jorgensen discovered something interesting when comparing two primary schools. In the working-class school, teachers valued quiet, obedient behaviour above everything else because they saw discipline as their biggest challenge. In the middle-class school, teachers focused on personality and academic ability instead.
Key Point: Teachers' expectations aren't just about your work - they're shaped by assumptions about your background that you can't control.
Dunne and Gazeley found that teachers made different assumptions about parents too. They labelled working-class parents as uninterested, but middle-class parents as supportive. This led to totally different treatment - middle-class underachievers got extension work, whilst working-class students got entered for easier exams.
