Pupil Subcultures and responses

• • Mirza studied ambitious black students who faced teacher racism - these teachers discouraged black girls from being ambitious.
  • She found there were three types of teacher racism that impacted students:

  'Colour blind' Teachers, Liberal Chauvinists and the Overt Racist
• 'Colour Blind' Teachers

  Teachers who believe all pupils are equal but let racism go on in practice
• The Liberal Chauvinists

  Teachers who believe black pupils are culturally deprived and have low expectations of them.
• The Overt Racists

  Teachers who believe black pupils are inferior and actively discriminate.
• The girls that Mirza studied tried to avoid racism by being selective about which staff to seek help from and avoiding certain subjects with racist teachers. This ultimately restricted the girl's opportunities for success, leading to their failure.

  This can be used as AO3 to Fuller's study because the girls rejected the labels but didn't successfully achieve the scores they needed.
• Sewell studied black working class boys and argues there are a variety of ways. Some responses lead to success and others lead to failure, so we cannot make sweeping generalisations about pupil responses.
• Outline the different responses highlighted by Sewell:

  • Conformists: Largest group of black boys. Keen to success and accept the school's values, usually mixed with other ethnic groups and are anxious about being stereotyped.
  • Retreatists: Tiny minority of isolated black boys. Disconnected from both school and black subcultures.
  • Rebels: Most visible and influential group. Rejected school values and conformed to the anti-school 'black macho lad' identity.
  • Innovators: Anti-school but pro education (e.g. Fuller's girl's). They valued success but not the approval of teachers.
• Sewell noted that while only a minority of black boys were rebels, teachers tended to stereotype all black boys this way, contributing to their underachievement.
• Strength 😊: Sewell acknowledges that there is a range of responses, acknowledging free will and avoiding determinism even more than Fuller and Mirza.
• Weakness 😭: It only considers black students, failing to explain the underachievement of other ethnic groups. e.g. Bangladeshi students.
• Weakness 😭: As Mirza and Fuller's studies have contradicting results as one group failed and the other succeeded, this suggests that simply rejecting a label isn't enough and other factors may play a role, for instance parental input and economic situation.