Labelling and Stigma

1. In what ways are categories (labels) typically used in education? Can you give examples?

*most common
1. Patterns of functioning relevant to education*
Reading difficulty
Math difficulty
Also immigrant kids who has problems with the second language.
2. Underlying disorders or disabilities*
Down syndrome
ADHD
3. Kinds of placement or provision
Special school
Special class
4. Teaching approaches - design and content
Early intervention
Vocational training

2. What is a stigma and what are its central components?

A label is a term which describes a group of people and it is always grouped with a definition
and an expectation. We always categorizes people and stigmatizes them.
Some definitions
an attribute that is deeply discrediting and reduces the bearer from a whole and usual
person to a tainted, discounted one (Goffman, 1963) reduce the person to nothing
the mark or label, the linking of the label to negative stereotypes, or the propensity
to exclude or otherwise discriminate against the designated person
Stigma can be the color of your skin, a disability, being poor / rich, label related sigma,
the people you spend time with (criminals, drug dependent,), homosexuality A
stigma is always connected to a negative stereotype.
Its a stigma to say You are a criminal and it carries a stigma if you are in jail.
Who does the stigmatizing? The society the people around you and it happens every
time.
It is very important in which context you live. If your family is racism and you have a
black boyfriend because you are not racism your family will stigmatize you.
You always need two persons for stigmatizing. The one who creates the sigma and the
victim.
Components
1. People distinguish and label human differences
2. Dominant cultural beliefs link labeled persons to undesirable characteristics (negative
stereotypes)
3. Labeled persons are placed in distinct categories to separate us from them (poor
vs rich, immigrant vs nationals,)
4. Labeled persons experience status loss and discrimination that lead to unequal
outcomes e.g. I will never get a job in kindergarten as a man. I forgot my medication
so Im not able to behave (ADHS).

3. Why do people stigmatize?

Exploitation and domination: One reason people might stigmatize others is to create
an inequality that benefits them (e.g. Immigrants are taking our jobs OR inequality
between men and women OR different income OR apartheid in South Africa OR racism
black and white OR religious aspects vgl. world war the second).
Enforcement of social norms: Social disapproval makes subsequent misbehaviors less
likely. People around the norm violator are kept in by learning the boundaries of
acceptable behavior (e.g. homosexuality in youth OR everyone is cheating at the exam
and one girl not and she gets stigmatized OR why are you drinking no alcohol). Social
norms are always relative and depends in the culture and the group!
Avoidance of disease: an evolutionary perspective (eugenic, Lepra commune take all
people with lepra to one place)

4. What are the positive effects of labelling? Advantages? Disadvantages?

Positive discrimination (Hitting hurts other children):

1. pupil commits deviant act
2. pupil experiences labelling of act by teacher (or other)
3. pupil receives positive discrimination as a result
4. pupil's needs met
Negative labelling (you are a bad boy):
1. pupil commits a deviant act
2. pupil experiences labelling of the person
3. pupil internalizes deviant label
4. "secondary" deviance develop
How do we know we are doing one or another?

5. Do we need categories (labels)? Why? Why not?

Basis for voluntary organizations (parents)

Basis for research
Monitoring and planning education
Teacher preparation connected to labels
Without some system of categories there would be no system of special or additional
education (Norwich, 2014, p. 35)
Its impossible to remove labels because without them you cant communicate. You have to
describe things and people! One of the reasons why terms are changing every time is that we
want to pull ourselves away from the labels.

Presumed advantages of labels

society
call attention to certain problems (funding, prevalence)
basis of communication (e.g., research)
a structure for the welfare system
individual
an admission ticket
presumed means of treatment (parallels medicine)
presumed relief of personal stress

Critique of labels (categories) (adapted from Norwich, 2014)

society / system
when funding is tied to category there is a reward for over-diagnosing (perverse
incentives)
slows down preventative approach
individual
seen as an excuse for not meeting expectations
sends message that the problem is within child
low validity (not always accurate, overlap one another)
guilt blame for child, parents, teachers, etc.

6. What does it mean that a diagnosis is a social construction?

"if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences" (Thomas &
Thomas, 1928, p. 571). If I define you as a child who cant sit still you cant sit still. If I
define you as a child who gets good grades you get a good mark. If I define you as a
criminal you get criminal.
Meaning is constructed through social interaction and knowledge itself is considered
contextual. (The police focus on how they catched the criminal the criminal focus in
his prize I focus in the dangerous attack)
Disability can be seen as a social construct and is therefore best understood as a
product of human interaction and choices. Often we create a problem where no
problem is.
There is a class with deaf children and the all can speak in sign language. If I come in
this class and Im not able to speak sign language I have the disability.
If you have power /authority it is very easy to create stigma (vgl. Milgrams obedience
experiments 1963 1974 How far people will go in hurting other people?)

7. Be able to explain categorical drift and give an example of it?

We drift from one label to another. A possible reasons for this is that we orientate on what is
modern and what is the trend now.

Example increase in prevalence of autism:

In the last twenty years there was an
enormous increase in people with autism.
Possible reasons for this drift can be better
diagnosis now, the pharaindustry wants to
make money by selling pills, crazy people
are today more divided into different
groups,
8. What is the connection between diagnosis and treatment in special education (also called
the diagnosis by treatment interaction)? What is its historical significance?

The higher the precision of diagnosis is, the

better treatment you get.