Streaming in Flemish secondary schools: exploring teachers’ perceptions of and adaptations to students in different streams

Abstract

A rich body of research on streaming or tracking conducted mainly in the USA and UK suggests that teachers have lower expectations of students in lower education streams and adapt their curriculum and pedagogy in line with such expectations. Recent large‐scale quantitative research conducted in Flanders (Belgium) shows that teachers teaching in lower status technical/vocational streams share a lower ‘study culture’ and perceive their students as less teachable than teachers teaching higher status general education students, which in turn influences students’ educational outcomes. This research builds on these studies by using data from qualitative interviews with secondary school teachers in two Flemish secondary schools to explore teachers’ perceptions of students in different streams and their adaptations in terms of curriculum and pedagogy. In addition, the relationship between students’ educational achievement and stream allocation is analysed using survey data collected in these two Flemish schools. The results further support the findings of research in this area but also suggest that stratification occurs within streams. Furthermore, students from different streams are perceived to value different forms of cultural and social capital, suggesting the prevalence of social class cultures in different streams. The conclusions discuss implications for further research on streaming or tracking in (Flemish) secondary schools.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Andrew Parker, Bob Carter, Jonathan Tritter, Martyn Hammersley and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. We are grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council, the Royal Belgian Benevolent Society and the Scientific Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) for providing funding for the research on which this article is based.

Notes

1. General, technical and vocational education streams in Flanders differ in terms of objective status in that students can be allowed to pass the school year and enrol from general to technical or vocational education, or from technical to vocational education, but not the other way round. Furthermore, this article will show that the teachers interviewed attach a different subjective status to these streams. Hence, our use of ‘lower’ and ‘higher’ status streams is informed by the objective and subjective status differences attached to such streams and does not indicate that technical or vocational education streams are necessarily inferior or debilitating for students.

2. The names of the participating schools and individuals are pseudonyms.

3. A questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 70% of the students in both schools (Years 3–6 only). In addition, the researcher obtained information on students’ educational achievement through the school at the end of the school year. The survey data and school records allowed for a detailed description of the social composition of the student population and an analysis of the relationship between stream allocation and educational achievement. Students’ ethnicity was measured by asking students the country of birth of their grandmother. Socio‐educational background was measured by asking students the level of education completed by their father (six values, ranging from ‘no education’ to ‘higher education’).

4. Transcriptions are translated from Dutch. Readers are encouraged to contact the authors if they would like to read the transcripts in their original, Dutch format.

5. Analysis on a large, representative sample of secondary school students in Flanders shows that students in vocational education are more attached to rules than their peers in general education. For example, vocational education students appeared less permissive to deviance, are less positive toward ethnic diversity and liberal values and show a lower preference for critical and a higher preference for popular media (Elchardus et al., 1999; Pelleriaux, 2000a, b; Pelleriaux, 2001).