Ethnicity

• Ethnicity

  2024, the highest performing groups at GCSE were Chinese and Indian groups

  by contrast the lowest performing groups were Roma, Gypsy and Irish traveller groups
• Ethnicity. gov report

  Swann report 1985

  concluded that the primary issue was not how to educate EM children specifically but to educate all children within a multicultural society by addressing racism and stereotypes
• Ethnicity cultural deprivation

  argues that many children from low income ethnic minority households lack intellectual and linguistic skills - leaves them ill equipped for school because they are unable to develop reasoning and problem solving skills
• Ethnicity linguistic deprivation

  Bereitner and Englemann

  consider the language spoken by low income Black American as being inadequate for educational success

  Keddie argues that EM children are culturally different not deprived, they underachieve because schools are ethnocentric
• Ethnicity linguistic deprivation

  Bowker

  identifies people of colour's lack of standard English as being a major barrier to progress in education
• Ethnicity evaluation of linguistic deprivation

  Gillborn

  notes that Indian pupils who do well at school, rarely speak English as their 1st language at home

  Chinese students who often do not speak English as a first language and are the group most likely to be on pupil premium however they outperform all groups
• Ethnicity family structure - Tiger parents

  Ballard and Driver

  argue that the Asian family structure brings benefits - have a positive attitude towards education and high hopes and so they are supportive but strict
• Ethnicity family structure

  Lupton

  adult authority in Asian families is similar to the model that operates in schools - respectful behaviour towards adults was expected as a norm

  this has a positive knock on effect at school

  Khan describes Asian families as 'stress ridden' bound by tradition with a controlling attitude towards their children, particularly girls
• Ethnicity cycle of deprivation

  Moynihan

  argues because many black families are headed by a lone mother, their children are deprived of adequate care because she has to struggle financially in the absence of a male breadwinner

  sees cultural deprivation as a cycle where inadequately socialised children go on to fail at school and then become inadequate parents in the future
• Ethnicity lone parent families

  Charles Murray

  argues that the high rate of lone parenthood and lack of positive role models leads to underachievement - the young male does not receive the 'tough love' needed from their absent father to do well at school and avoid criminality

  Murray has been criticised for victim blaming - other reasons as to why young black men underachieve
• Ethnicity critical race theory

  Gillborn

  argue that it is not peer pressure but institutional racism within the education system itself that systematically produces the failure of a large number of black boys
• Ethnicity lack of tough love

  Sewell

  it is not the absence of fathers as role models that leads to black boys underachieving, instead the problem is a lack of tough love - this results in black boys finding it hard to overcome emotional and behavioural difficulties of adolescence

  in the absence of a nurturing father, street gangs and the media present a role model of anti-school black masculinity
• Ethnicity criticism of LPF

  Driver

  criticises for ignoring the positive effect of ethnicity - shows that the Black Caribbean family far from being dysfunctional, provides girls with positive role models of strong independent women - argues this is why black girls tend to be more successful than their male counterparts
• Ethnicity family structure

  Scrutton

  sees the low achievement of EMGs as a result from a failure to embrace mainstream British culture
• Ethnicity family structure - resistance to racism

  Pryce

  claims that Asian are high achievers because their culture is more resistance to racism and this give them high self worth - believes that Black Caribbean culture is less cohesive/resistant to racism and as a consequence they underachieve
• Ethnicity criticism of Pryce

  Lawrence

  challenges Pryce's view that pupils fail because they lack self esteem - believes black pupils underachieve because of the racism in the school system
• Ethnicity. White WC families

  Sutton Trust

  found 80% of 11-16 year olds EMG pupils wanted to go to uni compared to only 68% of white wc pupils
• Ethnicity White WC families

  Lupton

  studied 4 mainly wc schools - 2 mainly white, 1 mainly Pakistani and 1 ethnically diverse

  found teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline in the white WC schools despite the fact they had less pupils on free school meals - teachers blamed this on a lack of parental support
• Ethnicity Class

  Palmer

  Black students likely to suffer due to more likely to be poor over 50% of children live in low-income families, as against a quarter of white children

  3x more likely to be unemployed than a white person aged 16-24 2023

  However, Chinese children do substantially better than black children despite similar levels of poverty
• Ethnicity racism

  Rex

  racial discrimination leads to social exclusion and how this worsens poverty faced by EMGs - for example in housing, discrimination means that minorities are more likely to be offered sub standard accommodation than white people of the same social class
• Ethnicity labelling - racialised expectations

  Gillborn and Youdell

  found teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils than other groups for their behaviour which leads to racialised expectations

  found teachers expected black pupils to present more discipline problems and misinterpreted their behaviour as a challenge to authority - pupils then responded negatively leading to conflict

  much of the conflict between white teachers and black pupils stems from racial stereotypes rather than pupils actual behaviour

  this can explain higher levels of exclusions
• Ethnicity black labelling

  Bourne

  found that schools tend to see black pupils as a 'threat' and labelled them negatively often leading to exclusion
• Ethnicity unrecorded exclusions

  Osler

  in addition to higher rates of official exclusions, black pupils often appear more likely to suffer from unrecorded unofficial exclusions and from 'internal' exclusions where they are sent out of class
• Ethnicity Asian labelling

  Wright

  study of a multi-ethnic primary school shows that Asian pupils can be the victim of teacher labelling - teachers held ethnocentric views

  they took for granted that British culture and standard English were superior - this affected how teachers related to Asian pupils
• Ethnicity EMG labelling - pupil identities

  Archer

  1. Ideal pupil identity: a white, mc identity. This pupil is seen as achieving in the 'right' way through natural ability and initiative
  2. Pathologized pupil identity: an Asian, deserving poor. This pupil is seen as a conformist and culture bound 'over achiever' - a slogger who succeeds through hard work rather than ability
  3. Demonised pupil identity: most likely EMGs, for example in interviews with teachers, black pupils were demonised as being 'loud, challenging' whilst Archer found Asian girls stereotyped as 'quiet, passive'

  Archer found that even with Chinese pupils who do well were often labelled as abnormal as they were successful in the 'wrong way' - through hardworking rather than natural ability
• Ethnicity Positive Pupil response to labelling

  Fuller

  study of a group of black girls in Yr 11 - these girls were untypical because they were high achievers in a school were most students were in lower sets- describes how instead of accepting negative labels, the girls channelled their anger about being labelled into the pursuit oof educational success
• Ethnicity Positive Pupil response to labelling

  Mac an Ghaill

  study of black and asian pupils at a sixth form

  students who believed teachers had labelled them negatively did not necessarily accept the label - how they responded was based on ethnicity, gender and nature of former schools

  e.g some girls felt attending an all girl school gave them greater academic commitment and helped them overcome negative labels at college
• Ethnicity Pupil response to labelling

  Mirza

  studied ambitious black girls who faced teacher racism - the girl failed to achieve their ambitions because their coping strategies restricted their opportunities

  found that racist teachers discouraged the girls from being ambitious about careers - much of the time spent by the girls was spent trying to avoid the effects of teacher's negative attitude by being selective around the staff they asked for help, getting on with their own work during lesson without taking part

  this restricted their opportunities
• Ethnicity types of teacher racism

  Mirza

  1. The Colour blind: teachers who believe all pupils are equal but in practice allow racism to go unchallenged
  2. The Liberal Chauvinists: teachers who believe that black pupils are culturally deprived and have low expectations of them
  3. The Overt Racists: teachers who believe all black pupils are inferior and actively discriminate against them
• Ethnicity Pupil response to labelling

  Sewell

  looked at how black boys coped with racism - found that many teachers had a stereotype of 'black machismo' - which sees black boys are rebellious, anti authority and anti school
• Ethnicity Sewell categorisation of black boys response to labelling

  Sewell

  One effect of this stereotyping is that black boys are more likely to be excluded - categorised the boys response

  1. the rebels: smallest group- often excluded from school and rejected both the goals and rules of school and expressed their opposition through peer group membership, conforming to the stereotypes
  2. the conformist: largest group- boys keen to succeed, accepted the school's goals and had friends from different ethnic groups, were anxious to avoid being stereotyped
  3. the retreatist: tiny minority of isolated individuals who were disconnected from both school and black subcultures
  4. the innovators: second largest group, they were pro-education but were anti school - valued success but did not seek the approval of teachers and conformed only as far as schoolwork
• Ethnicity Ethnocentric curriculum

  describes the policy that gives priority to the culture and viewpoint of one particular ethnic group whilst disregarding others
• Ethnicity ethnocentric curriculum

  Tronya and Williams

  describes the curriculum in British schools as ethnocentric because it gives priority to white culture and the English language
• Ethnicity ethnocentric curriculum - 'specifically British'

  Miriam David

  describes the national curriculum as 'specifically British' that teaches the culture of the host community, whilst ignoring many non-european languages and literature
• Ethnicity Ethnocentric curriculum - 'little Englandism'

  Stephen Ball

  criticises the National curriculum for ignoring cultural and ethnic diversity and promoting an attitude of what he calls 'Little Englandism'

  for example, the history curriculum tries to recreate a 'mythical age of empire and past glories' whilst ignoring the history of black and asian people
• Ethnicity ethnocentric curriculum

  Coard

  explains how the ethnocentric curriculum may produce underachievement - for example in history the British are presented as bringing civilisation to those who were colonised - this image of EM people being inferior undermines self esteem and leads to failure
• Ethnicity ethnocentric curriculum - criticism of Coard

  Stone

  argues black children do not in fact suffer from low self esteem
• Ethnicity institutional racism

  Trona and Williams

  see the meagre provision of teaching Asian languages as institutional racism because it is an example of racial bias being built into the everyday workings of schools
• Ethnicity failure to deal with racist behaviour

  Hatcher

  found schools gave low priority to race issues and failed to deal with pupils racist behaviour - found there were no formal communication between school governors and EM parents
• Ethnicity marketisation and segregation - admissions

  Gillborn

  argues marketisation has given schools greater scope to select pupils and this puts EM pupils at a disadvantage - this is because selection gives more scope for negative stereotypes to influence decisions about school admission