‘I got rejected’: investigating the status of ‘low-attaining’ children in primary-schooling

Abstract

This text makes a significant contribution to the debate on within-class attainment grouping in primary schools, by portraying the views and perspectives of children themselves, labelled as "low-attaining". Extensive, active individual interviews plus observations over three terms of schooling facilitated rich insights into whether, and if so, how 23 "lowattaining" primary-school children assimilated cultural values designating them as having subordinate status to other children. We consider the implications of our findings for social justice, employing an innovative analysis framework which takes Nancy Fraser's conceptualisation of justice as "parity-of-participation". Our research illustrates that these children had absorbed some values about "success" that posed considerable obstacles to them, which led to feelings of isolation and lack of social participation. In particular, the children found some aspects of attainment grouping obstructive to social interaction.Reactions to these discomforts sometimes led them towards subtly subversive behaviour or alternatively to flat denial of difficulty.

Intervention culture, grouping and triage: high-stakes tests and practices of division in English primary schools

“…Similar relations between testing and practices of setting and streaming have also been found in secondary education (Francis, Taylor, and Tereshchenko 2019) Internationally, high stakes tests are seen as having particularly significant effects on children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those from minority ethnic groups (Hamre, Morin, and Ydesen 2018;Jennings and Sohn 2014). Grouping practices are similarly seen as particularly detrimental to these students, as lower expectations results in mis-placement in groups and lower self-esteem (Archer et al 2018;Campbell 2015;Francis et al 2020;Hargreaves, Quick, and Buchanan 2019;McGillicuddy and Devine 2020). McGillicuddy and Devine, in reference to primary classrooms in Ireland, describe: the fixity of failure among those pupils assigned to lower ability groups (girls, African and Traveller children) who, over the course of four years, became entrapped within a socially constructed matrix of space characterised by lower social and academic status (2020,569).…”

“…This research demonstrates how this connection operates in relation to the statutory tests at the end of primary schools, SATs, in their revised form in the late 2010s. The pressure to improve SATs results means that schools group or set children in English and particularly in Maths, with all the attendant impacts on self-esteem and confidence (Archer et al 2018;Campbell 2015;Francis et al 2020;Hargreaves, Quick, and Buchanan 2019;McGillicuddy and Devine 2020). They also use systems of triage, which prioritise children who might achieve the benchmark of ARE given extra help, and in some cases, a more complex version of 'double triage' which focuses on children on both the cusp of ARE and the cusp of GD.…”

“…These practices of setting operate despite the increasing awareness of the disadvantages of setting, as presented in recent research projects (Francis, Taylor, and Tereshchenko 2019;George 2019;Hargreaves, Quick, and Buchanan 2019), and despite teachers' reluctance to use setting, as found in studies on grouping in Key Stage 1 and early years (Bradbury 2018). Several headteachers expressed their concerns about setting in interviews, relating it to their moral stance on education: on a sort of moral level, I'm opposed to setting, although that's exactly what I have in Year 6, but not just two or three sets, on a daily basis there might be six sets.…”

“…As discussed, there is extensive evidence of the problems associated with grouping by ability or attainment (Campbell 2015;Francis, Taylor, and Tereshchenko 2019;Hargreaves, Quick, and Buchanan 2019; McGillicuddy and Devine 2020), which are reflected in these headteachers' concerns about children being 'written off ' and the impact on their 'mindsets' . Several headteachers referred to the research in this area; for example the head at School C commented 'research shows that that's not always effective' .…”

The Effect of Stratified Teaching on Students Self-efficacy

“…This can negatively impact students in the low-ability group, affecting their academic achievement, learning attitudes, self-concept, and interpersonal relationships. As a result, the gap between students at different levels may widen [6,7]. Oakes suggests that skill or ability grouping will inevitably result in the separation of higher-achieving students from lower-achieving ones and children from affluent families from less affluent families [8].…”