ABSTRACT
Ethnicity and gender are socio-cultural categories, not biological ones. Whilst these biological characteristics may enable status groups, in some cases, to identify their own members they do not, of themselves, determine the consciousness of a status group. It is only comparatively that the status 'factors' of gender and ethnicity have been considered as worthy of analysis. Even then there has been little attempt to interrelate the status factors of gender and ethnicity within a social class group. The social composition of Rockfield School is particularly appropriate given its coeducational and multi-ethnic intake of pupils. Moreover, its perceived working class composition allows us to consider the effects of pupil gender and ethnicity within a working class school setting. The chapter deals with ethnically-based status groups among the pupils. Educational research has paid considerable attention to the 'halo effect' whereby teachers are said to confuse a pupil's social attributes with his intellectual ability.
