Research Ideas and Outcomes :
Short Communication
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Corresponding author: Richard Coppell (richard.coppell@leedscitycollege.ac.uk)
Received: 11 Nov 2020 | Published: 13 Nov 2020
© 2020 Richard Coppell
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Coppell R (2020) Revisiting the Concept of the Anti-Role-Model for Social Learning Theory in UK Education. Research Ideas and Outcomes 6: e60683. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.6.e60683
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The concept of the anti role model has had much less attention than the role model in modern social learning theory. The anti role model differs in that it describes an individual whose negative behaviours influence another peer or relative to practice the opposite behaviours in order to avoid a negative outcome. It may have become a neglected term because it does not exhibit as significantly in promotion based cultures which appear predominant in western liberal societies. However, in the United Kingdom, poorer socioeconomic subsets of students are now having to complete academic study to a higher standard up to the age of 18 and so these less promotion-based, more collectivist portions of society have become a more important concern for the education system. As such the anti role model concept may be reconsidered with regards to practice and research pertaining to these students and their social backgrounds.
Social learning theory, role models, Bandura
I wish to reintroduce the concept of "anti model" (
However, in the UK certainly, there is a new focus in post-16 education to raise levels of English and Mathematics in particular where students have failed previously to reach a minimum standard before the age of 16 (e.g.
This idea was borne out of discussions in a group of trainee teachers (including the current author) from working-class backgrounds, discussing role model influences in social learning theory. They recognised that several of the group observed general behaviours in important family members that made a long-lasting negative impression and motivated a general resolve to respond positively rather than let bad influences from the role model lead to more bad outcomes for the recipient of those behaviours. Furthermore, this is not mentioned widely in the educational psychology literature. From this, I developed the arguments in this paper to conclude that the anti role model concept in UK Further Education settings is an extension of Bandura’s and Lockwood et al.'s theories that bears reintroducing to the research agenda in UK education.
I thank Amber Barnitt (tutor) and Tyrone Gottshalk (fellow teaching student) (both at the University Centre, Leeds City College) for discussions on Social Learning Theory and Anti Role Models.