Teachers and social class?

Question

I read somewhere that some teachers tend to treat middle class children better than working class children(like encouraging them more with their education,etc).

Is this true?

If so why?

Answer 1

The Social Internationalists believe this happens also, as well as Marxist theorists.

According to Becker (an internationalist) believed that teachers group children in education into three groupings, Where the upper middle class kids has "preferred" treatment as they are seen to be eager and intelligent by their teacher.  Then the lower middle classes, where Becker suggests that teachers have a they are nice kids, but not the brightest attitude.  Then the working class children, where there are seen as troublemakers, and not at all the brightest of sparks.

This was / is taken further with the Jacobsen and Rosenthal study in the 1970s where they looked into how children were labelled mostly due to social standing, and as such the children achieved less well, as teachers believed due to their class background, they to, were not or less able then their middle class counterparts, thus the labelling was the largest factor in a child’s success: The Self fulfilling Prophecy

This study is somewhat supported by a recent BBC article from London School of Economics and the University of Surrey for the Sutton Trust. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/714...

The research from the Internationalist would suggest it to be true, with little change over the years, which other studies have shown, for example “Schooling In Capitalist America” and  Ã¢Â€ÂœSchooling In Capitalist America: Revisited” (Marxist text). Where Bowles and Gintis “prove” that the working classes are subject to education which create the next set of low skilled workers, mostly down to the Hidden Curriculum and their correspondence Theory. So it it suggested that it doesn’t only happen in the micro, small scale interactions, but is down to society as a whole.

I guess we all label, even if we know we should not.  However it become dangerous when labelling is involved in education, where a child’s life chances are threaded, it’s all too sad.

Answer 2

Where did you read this? What source are you referring to? I have never treated any child differently because of social class and I don't know of any teachers that do. I am sure SOME people do...but don't generalize such things.

I push students harder when they are not doing their best, no matter what their parents do for a living. Teachers want their students to succeed, why would they give up on any of them? If the school district noticed a pattern of student failure in a teacher's classroom based on grades and test results the teacher would be questioned.  Showing favoritism or prejudice should get any teacher fired.

********************* What book exactly? Can I get the actual data? The reason I ask is because I want to know if it is a reliable source. I guess SOME teachers would, of course, but who knows why? Probably because they are jerks. Every profession has them!

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Morgan (sorry), of course I am defensive! I take my job very seriously. I can say that I have never done that personally, but some teachers do this. You can't judge a group of people for the behavior of some.  It goes both ways. My guess is that you are just a defensive child.  The question itself is faulty. It's the same as saying " I read that SOME teenagers smoke and do drugs. Is this true? If so why?"

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Morgan- YES exactly that is what I am trying to say. The question itself is flawed. There is no way to explain WHY certain people in certain groups behave a certain way. There are so many reasons that teachers do this. I actually sat and thought about this issue for a while and I think it's just being a bad teacher. Many of the studies people are referring to are old, outdated, and do not apply to education today.  Some of them are just theories.  However I know there are teachers that do not try at all, with ANY students. Being an elementary school teacher, I saw all of those teachers fired within their first year.  If a teacher is failing his or her students or not encouraging them it will be pretty obvious to the principal, parents, and staff. No Child Left Behind has made it a necessity for administrators to hire only top qualified people who are dedicated, especially in Title One Schools.  I have only taught in low income schools, so maybe that is also why I haven't noticed a discrepancy.

I think High Schools would be a better place to see these problems more, because of the sheer amount of students and teachers and staff. A lot can get lost in that mix. If I were you and I had heard a teacher speak ill of another student, I would have reported that teacher. That is completely wrong and unprofessional. Those are the people that give teachers a bad name and they drive me crazy. Like I said, I am dedicated and love my students. The teachers and staffs I have worked with have amazed me with their dedication. I spend many nights at school until 7 pm getting my classroom and activities ready so my students can achieve. That is the greatest joy in teaching.

I apologize for calling you a child, however I took great offense in being titled a "defensive teacher". It made it sound like teachers were "bad". Maybe you still think that, maybe you have had bad experiences, or maybe your Mother feels that way and has instilled that in you. I have no idea, but I do know that it does hurt when teachers are made to be bad guys. Most of us are dedicated, loving, and intelligent people that care very much for our students and communities.

Answer 3

YES it is true...the above is simply a defensive teacher.

My mother is an education lawyer and has read MANY studies where not only children's social class, but names (which is also attributed to class in some cases) can cause children to be ignored in a classroom. teachers gravitate to certain students.

as an example...

i dated a guy in high school that got suspended for tardiness. i attempted to help him out by going to his teachers to get his homework for him...several teachers said to me that he was BETTER OFF at home and refused to give me his work. other teachers said that if he didnt care about being there then they didnt care about him.

funny thing was that he was tardy because he had no support at home for school...and therefore no support in school for school. sad world.

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1. my name is not megan...

2. i'm not a child...i'm a 21 year old adult law student.

3. yes it is true that some teenagers do drugs...what is your point..? no question is intended to be geared toward an entire group as a whole. it is impossible for ALL of any group to do any thing.

Answer 4

In America the working class has always been the middle class.

Answer 5

I think you're referring to the works of the french marxist sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. He is a very prestigious and valuable sociologist. He did lots of research on how the notion of social class effect the lifestyles and the relations of the people.

I cannot exactly remember if the part considering the attitudes of the teachers towards the students is in his work entitled Distinction or not.

However I've checked the wikipedia and come up with this;

"In his theoretical writings, Bourdieu employs some terminology of economics to analyze the processes of social and cultural reproduction, of how the various forms of capital tend to transfer from one generation to the next. For Bourdieu, education represents the key example of this process. Educational success, according to Bourdieu, entails a whole range of cultural behaviour, extending to ostensibly non-academic features like gait or accent. Privileged children have learned this behaviour, as have their teachers. Children of unprivileged backgrounds have not. The children of privilege therefore fit the pattern of their teachers' expectations with apparent 'ease'; they are 'docile'. The unprivileged are found to be 'difficult', to present 'challenges'. Yet both behave as their upbringing dictates. Bourdieu regards this 'ease', or 'natural' ability--distinction--as in fact the product of a great social labour, largely on the part of the parents. It equips their children with the dispositions of manner as well as thought which ensure they are able to succeed within the educational system and can then reproduce their parents' class position in the wider social system.

Cultural capital (e.g. competencies, skills, qualifications) can also be a source of misrecognition and symbolic violence. Therefore working class children can come to see the educational success of their middle-class peers as always legitimate, seeing what is often class-based inequality as instead the result of hard work or even 'natural' ability. A key part of this process is the transformation of people's symbolic or economic inheritance (e.g. accent or property) into cultural capital (e.g. university qualifications) - a process which the logic of the cultural fields impedes but cannot prevent."

Hope it helped!

Answer 6

in America, our educational system is based on tracking.  meaning, from kindergarten to 12th grade, we seperate students into groups from basic skills to gifted and talented.  not all students are exposed to the same level of education.