ABSTRACT
An observational study by Rist (1970) provides a sobering account of how teachers come to think of children as
being of a certain kind. Rist wanted to study the processes whereby the teachers' expectations and social interactions
give rise to the social organisation of the class. For nearly three years Rist visited a nursery school twice a week for sessions of an hour or so. The school was situated in a 'blighted urban area' and both teachers and pupils were black. Only eight days after the children had entered school for the first time the kindergarten
teacher assigned children to streamed work groups which were to survive almost unchanged for the next three years. Initially, the teacher had no information on the children which related to their academic performance or potential. The children's record cards did contain social information about family structure, medical care, number of siblings, parents' occupation, possession of a phone and so on. This, and the teacher's own estimation of external
signs, standards of dress, cleanliness, appearance, social manners, dialect and such like, were sufficient, in the teacher's view, to allow her to stream by ability. Rist observed that (p.419):
Within a few days only a certain group of children were continually being called on to lead the class in the Pledge of Allegiance, read the weather calendar each day, come to the front for 'show and tell' periods, take messages to the office, count the number of child-
78 Chapter 7
ren present in the class, pass out materials for class projects, be in charge of equipment on the playground, and lead the class to the bathroom, library or on a school tour.
