Abstract:

The stigmatization in school education contradicts its humanistic “ideology”. Meanwhile, “labeling” still has remained in the structure of relations between various subjects of education. Researchers study stigmatization in the “pupil – teacher” and “pupil – pupil” relationships. Less often, the subject of study is the “pupil – parent” relationship. The assessment of the educational success is based on the intersection of the views of all these subjects of education. In addition, the institutional mechanisms of educational policy that support stigmatization in school education rarely come into research focus. The problem is that the negative “labels” placed at school can then be inherited by students of colleges and universities. They can negatively affect their success in the field of vocational education.

The aim of paper is to consider the stigmatization of Russian schoolchildren based on the criterion of educational success. In various types of schools, both unsuccessful and successful pupils are stigmatized. At the same time, the process develops not only at the personal, but also at the group level, acquiring a social scale.

The issues of the study are:
1. To present a theoretical framework for studying the stigmatization of successful and unsuccessful schoolchildren, based on sociological conceptions.
2. To consider the group, organizational and institutional context of modern school education, which contributes to the emergence of stigmatization of successful and unsuccessful schoolchildren.
The empirical basis of the paper is the data of interdisciplinary study “Transfer of human capital of educational communities: from failure to success” (2019-2021, Sverdlovsk region of Russian Federation). For this paper, we used empirical data collected using the method of in-depth interviews with teachers (n=20) and parents (n=15), as well as focus groups with schoolchildren and university students (4 focus groups with schoolchildren and 4 focus groups with students). An additional method of collecting empirical data was the analysis of the content of parent's forums and media publications devoted to the problems of school education.

Results of the study:
1. The author of the paper justified the productivity of the theoretical framework for studying the stigmatization of successful and unsuccessful schoolchildren, based on the classical conceptions of I. Hoffman and H. Becker. The author also showed that the sociological theory of social construction by P. Berger and T. Lukman makes it possible to reveal the communicative nature of school stigmatization. It is proved that P. Bourdieu's theory of symbolic power allows us to study the institutional context of stigmatization in education.
2. The article shows that the prerequisites for stigmatization of Russian schoolchildren based on the criterion of educational success are formed at three levels, but they have different powers of influence on the “labeling”. Strong prerequisites are formed at the group level in the “pupil – teacher” and “pupil – parent” communications. Weaker prerequisites are formed in the dyad “pupil – pupil”. In the organizational context, the stigmatizing factors are the low level of pedagogical culture and the cultivation of competition within the school for indicators of educational success. A strong institutional factor is the educational policy that focuses on successful pupils and excludes systematic support for unsuccessful schoolchildren.

Keywords:

Stigmatization in education, school, educational success, educational failure, social bases of stigmatization.