Teacher - Pupil Relationships

Evidence for the idea that teacher - pupil relationships are a major source of class discrimination (and hence a factor in differential educational achievement) comes from a variety of different writers. However, for the sake of illustration we can restrict ourselves to looking at a couple of examples of writers who have noted, in both America and Britain, the significance of teacher labelling and stereotypes on the academic performance of pupils.

In America, for example, Howard Becker, has highlighted the way teachers classify and evaluate their pupils on the basis of fairly crude stereotypes of different kinds of pupil, whereas, in Britain, writers such as David Hargreaves and Robin Nash have shown how teachers use their experience to label and categorise pupils.

These ideas - and evidence - relate to a concept frequently used by Interactionist sociologists, namely that of a "self-fulfilling prophecy". This is, the idea that by predicting something will happen we unconsciously take steps to ensure that it will happen. For example:

a. A teacher labels a pupil as "clever" or "stupid".

b. On the basis of this label (and its associated characteristics - a "stupid pupil" may also be stereotyped as lazy and poorly motivated, for example), the teacher predicts whether or not the pupil will succeed or fail educationally.

c. The teacher's interaction with the pupil will be based on the label and the kind of interaction process suggested above (how teacher's deal with children having difficulties) will take place. The "stupid" pupil will have the fact of his / her stupidity reinforced by the teacher. Conversely, the fact that the "stupid" pupil is having difficulty confirms to the teacher that the pupil was labelled correctly in the first place.

d. The pupil, because he or she is taking a cue from the teacher, comes to see him / herself in terms of the teacher's labelling. The "intelligent" pupil is encouraged, motivated and succeeds. The "stupid" pupil is discouraged, demotivated and fails...

This idea is frequently used to explain class differences in educational achievement (as well as gender and ethnic differences). The basic idea here tends to be that working class children, for example, are far more likely than their middle class peers to attract negative labels from teachers.

While the idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy can be used to explain educational success and failure (a classic example, being the study "Pygmalion In The Classroom" by Rosenthal and Jacobson), it is important not to assume that this process is an inevitable consequence of labelling. Although teachers may be significant others in a pupil's school life, there are other possible "significant influences" - the most obvious of which might a child's parents and friends.

Simply because a teacher tries to convince someone they are a certain type of pupil, it doesn't automatically follow that the individual concerned  will simply and automatically conform to their stereotype. When a teacher is critical of a child, a number of possible outcomes present themselves. For example, a small selection of possible responses might include:

a. You may conform to the teacher's expectations. You amend your behaviour in the light of the criticism.

b. You may ignore the criticism.

c. You may be inspired to prove the teacher wrong in their criticism.

d. You may be so depressed by the criticism that you give-up trying...