3.1 Ethnicity & External factors

• How can we see if class overrides ethnicity?

  In 2011, 86% of Chinese girls who received FSM got 5 in GCSEs compared to 65% of white MC girls

  Modood said that the effects of low income are much less for MEGs than white pupils
• What factors that MEGs face cause underachievement?

  Deprived areas —> unemployment

  Language & foreign qualifications ≠ recognised

  Asylum ≠ work

  Discrimination= labour & housing
• What proportion of MEG children live in low income households?

  1/2 compared to 1/4 white
• What are the criticisms of cultural deprivation & ethnicity?

  Victim blaming- Nell Keddie (different culture)

  Impact of class & gender

  Creates negative stereotypes

  Ignores internal factors
• What can we do about the underachievement of MEG students?

  Compensatory education e.g. operation head start

  Aiming high scheme focuses on increasing MEG participation in higher education
• What did ___ say to agree with Sewell?

  (Lupton)

  -She said that adult's authority is key and respect to adults is expected in Asian families

  -Authority in families is similar to that of school so had a knock on effect
• What did ___ say about Asian family structures?

  (Sewell)

  He said that Indian & Chinese students especially benefit from supportive families with an 'Asian work ethic' that value education
• What did ___ say to criticise Sewell?

  (Gillborn)

  He criticised Sewell for downplaying the influence of institutional racism
• What did ___ say about Black family structures?

  (Sewell)

  -He said that Single Black mothers can't discipline their sons properly which leads them to join gangs & underachieve in education
• What did ___ say about family structures?

  (Driver)

  He said that the explanation ignores positive effects of Black family structures on achievement and provides role model of strong independent women which could explain higher achievement for Black girls vs boys
• What do some sociologists think are the attitudes and values of MEGs?

  -They think that they have a lack of aspiration causing underachievement for certain ethnic groups

  -They also think that the MEG subcultures socialise them into having fatalistic and immediate gratification attitudes

  -However, it's not supported by research: Platt & Parsons found that MEG students had higher aspirations and the gap was especially large between MEG & white girls
• How did the attainment 8 scores disprove the idea that children from MEGs are more likely to underachieve due to not speaking English at home?

  -47.2 on average for EAl students

  -46.5 on average for students who only speak English at home
• Linguistic violence

  White speech codes dominate education & society leading to Black pupils having an internal conflict over speech
• What did ___ say to criticise Bereiter & Engelmann?

  (Baker-Bell)

  She argued that this is an example of 'anti black linguistic racism' by labelling black speech codes as inferior
• What did ___ say about language?

  (Bereiter & Engelmann)

  They said that Black American families use ungrammatical & disjointed language which leads to under achievement
• MEGs

  Minority ethnic groups
• Ethnicity

  People who share common history, customs & identity and in most cases language & religion who see themselves as a distinct unit
• What did Murray say about why Black pupils underachieve?


  He said that Black people have a lower IQ which causes underachievement