SociologyExchange.co.uk Shared Resource

Lesson Objectives

• Examine the different types of school subculture identified by sociologists

• Outline studies which investigate subcultures within school

Starter

1. What will there attitude of school be?

2. What set would they be in?

3. How would they behave in school?

4. What would their status be in school?

Pupil Subcultures

• A group of pupils who share similar values and behaviour patterns

• Emerge as a response to labelling and streaming

Where have we come across a

subculture before so far in

education??

So what subcultures do

we have in school?

So what impact do subcultures have within school?

Creates • inequalities• Class differences • Achievement differences• Self fulfilling prophecy

Colin Lacey (1970)

• DIFFERENTIATION “ Process by which teachers categorise pupils

according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and/or behaviour”

• How? setting/streaming Most able= high status= top setLeast able= inferior status= bottom set

Which theorists would agree/

disagree with this?

Colin Lacey (1970)

• POLARISATION“ pupils respond to streaming by moving towards

one of two opposite poles or extremes”

• Hightown boys grammar school study- streaming polarised boys into a Pro-school and Anti-school subculture

• Participant/ non-participant observations

Role play time....

You have 3 minutes to come up with a sketch which you think depicts a pro-social or anti-social school subculture

Pro-school subculture

• High streamed• Middle class• High status- successful• Committed to values of the school

Anti-school subculture

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezYEZRHTK8s

Anti-social subculture

• Low streams• Working class• Failure=• Low self esteem- school has undermined

them, reinforcing inferior status

How would this make you feel?

How would you react to this inferior

status?

Anti-social subculture

• Inverting school values of hard work, obedience and punctuality

• “sabotage the system”

• Form anti-social subculture to gain status

Anti-social subculture

BUT.....• Impact on achievement= self fulfilling

prophecy of educational failure

• “ all successful at primary school- amongst 15% of towns pupils who passed 11+ to get into grammar school”

David Hargreaves (1967)

• Interviewed boys in secondary modern schools

• Subculture formed due to triple failures= failing 11+Low streamsLabelled worthless louts• Found high status went to those who flouted

the school rules!

Peter Woods (1981)

• Division between pro and anti-school subculture is simplistic

• Variety of pupil responses to the culture of the school....

Woods- Pupil responses

• Ingratiation: follows schools norms and values, “teachers pet”

• Ritualism: going through the motions and staying out of trouble

• Retreatism: daydreaming and mucking about• Rebellion: Outright rejection of school

“ Furlong (1984)- not committed to one response, act differently to diff teachers and subjects!”

Evaluation

• Do all pupils who are part of these subcultures fail? Deterministic! What about people who are part of positive

subculture who still fail? IQ?• Would Marxists agree with subcultures? Ignore wider structures of power within which

labelling takes placeNot based on teachers individual prejudices but

system of class division

Pic ‘n’ mix!!

• a pupil may respond to school by following schools norms and values, “teachers pet”

• Process in which pupils respond to streaming by moving towards one of two opposite extremes

• Attach a meaning or definition to someone• Categorise pupils into separate classes

Pic ‘n’ mix!!

• Pupils placed in high streams, committed to values of school, successful

• A pupil may respond to school by out-rightly rejecting everything the school stands for

• Pupils placed in low streams, inverting schools values, failure

• Carried out study at Hightown boys grammar school and explained how pupil subcultures develop through polarisation and differentiation

Pic ‘n’ mix!!

• The phenomena by which labels attached to pupils become true, regardless of their accuracy

• Carried research into secondary moderns and found a triple failure in anti-social school subculture

• A pupil may respond to school by daydreaming and mucking about

• A group of individuals who share similar vales and behaviour patterns

Pic ‘n’ Mix

• Studied counter-school culture of the working class ‘lads’ in the transition between school and work

• Process of categorising pupils according to how they perceive their ability, attitude and/or behaviour

• A pupil may respond to school by going through the motions and staying out of trouble