Institutional racism

• the ethnocentric curriculum

  • the term ethnocentric describes an attitude or policy that gives priority to the culture and viewpoint of one particular ethnic group while disregarding others
  • seen as an example of institutional racism as it builds a racial bias into the everyday workings of schools and colleges
  • it is not clear what impact the ethnocentric curriculum has for example while it may ignore Asian and Chinese pupils they have achievement above the national average
• assessment

  • Gillborn 2008 argues the 'assessment game' is rigged to validate the dominant cultures superiority
  • trying to stop black children from succeeding as if they do the rules will change to 're-engineer failure'
  • the result of this change was that overnight black pupils now appeared to be doing worse than white pupils
  • gillborn explains this reversal as a result of 2 factors: the foundation stage profile (FSP) is based entirely on teachers judgement whereas baseline assessments often used written tests as well and the change in the timing as the FSP is completed at the end of reception year whereas baseline assessments were done at the start of primary school
  • gillborn argues that both these factors increase the risk of teachers sereotyping affecting the results
• 'locked in' inequality

  • for critical race theorists such as Roithmayr 2003 institutional racism is a 'locked in inequality'
  • Gillborn applies the concept of locked in inequality to education
  • sees ethnic inequality as 'so deep rooted and so large that it is a practically inevitable feature of the education system'
  • see the education system as institutionally racist in several ways
• overview

  • Troyna and Williams 1986 argue that to explain ethnic differenes in achievement we need to go beyond simply examining individual teacher racism
  • we must also look at how school and colleges routinely and even unconsciously discriminate against ethnic minorities
  • they therefore make a distinction between
  • individual racism - results from the prejudiced views views of individual teachers and others
  • institutional racism - discrimination that is built into the way institutions such as schools and colleges operate
• critical race theory

  • sees racism as an ingrained feature of society
  • this means that it involves not just the intentional actions of indivduals but more importantly institutional racism
  • according to two of the founder of the black panther party in the USA Carmichael and Hamilton 1967 institutional racism is
  • less overt, more subtle, less identifiable in terms of specific individuals committing the acts
• marketisation and segregation

  • gillborn argues that because marketisation allows schools more scope to select pupils it allows negative stereotypes to influence decisions on school admissions
  • supported by Moore and Davenports 1990 American research
  • they show how selection procedures lead to ethnic segregation with minority pupils failing to get into better secondary schools due to discrimination
  • e.g. Primary school reports were used to screen out pupils with language difficulties, and the application process was hard for english as additional language (EAL) parents
  • these procedures favoured white pupils and disadvantaged those from ethnic minority backgrounds
  • Moore and Davenport conclude that this selection leads to an ethnically stratified education system
• marketisation and segregation research

  • the Commission for Racial Equality 1993 identified similar biases in Britain
  • noted that racism in school admission procedures means that ethnic minority children are more likely to end up in unpopular schools
  • the report identifies the following reasons
  • reports from primary schools that stereotype minority pupils
  • racist bias in interviews for school places
  • lack of information and application forms in minority languages
  • ethnic minority parents are often unaware of the waiting list system and the importance of deadlines
• examples of the ethnocentric curriculum include

  • languages, literature and music - Troyna and Williams note the limited provision for teaching Asian languages as compared with European languages
  • David 1993 describes the national curriculum as a 'specifically British' curriculum that largely ignores non-European languages, literature and music
• examples of the ethnocentric curriculum include

  • languages, literature and music - Troyna and Williams note the limited provision for teaching Asian languages as compared with European languages
  • David 1993 describes the national curriculum as a 'specifically British' curriculum that largely ignores non-European languages, literature and music
  • History - Ball 1994 criticises the national curriculum for ignoring ethnic diversity and for promoting an attitude of 'little Englandish'
  • for example the history curriculum tries to recreate a 'mythical age of empire and past glories' while ignoring the history of black and Asian people
• access to opportunities

  • the 'gifted and talented' programme - was created to try help disadvantaged pupils but official statistics show that white are over twcie as likely as black Caribbeans to be identified as gifted and talented and 5x more likely than black Africans
  • exam tiers - Tikly et al (2006) found despite schools aiming high (the initiate to help raise black Caribbean achievement), black Caribbean pupils were still entered for foundation exams at GCSE
• The 'New IQism'

  • Gillborn argues that teachers and policymakers make false assumptions about the nature of pupils 'ability' or 'potential'
  • they see potential as a fixed quality that can be easily measured and once a pupils potnetial has been measured they can be put into the 'right' set or stream, onto the gifted and talented programme and so on
  • note that secondary schools are increasingly using old-style intelligence tests to allocate pupils to different streams on entry
  • for Gillborn there is no genuine measure of 'potential' as a test shows what we can do now what we can do in the future
• Criticisms of Gillborn

  • criticisms of Gillborns view that ethnic differences in achievement are the result of institutional racism focus on two issues
  • the underachievement of some ethnic minority groups such as black boys
  • the 'overachievement' of Indian and Chinese pupils
• Black boys underachievement

  Sewell rejects the view that boys fail due to assessments or setting

  he does not believe racism has disappeared from schools he argues that it is now powerful enough to prevent individuals from succeeding

  rather in Sewells research we need to focus on external factors such as anti-school attitudes and the nurturing role of the father
• model minorities - Indian and Chinese

  • critics of the idea that the education system is institutionally racist say that if the education system is institutionally racist then how do Indian and Chinese pupils do so well
  • Gillborn responds by aruing that the image of Indians and Chinese as hardworking 'model minorities' performs an ideological function
  • it conceals the fact that the education system is institutionally racist
  • does this by making the system appearing fair and meritocratic
  • it justifies failure of other minorities
  • it ignores the fact that 'model minorities' still suffer racism in schools
• ethnicity, class and gender

  • Evans 2006 argues that to fully understand the relationship between ethnicity and achievement we need to look at how ethnicity interacts with gender and class
  • one example of how ethnicity intersects with gender to affect achievement is Connollys 1998 study on 5-6 years old in a multi-ethnic inner city primary school
  • shows how pupils and teachers construct masculinity differently depending on a childs ethnicity
  • teachers saw black boys as disruptive and underachievers and controlled them by punishing them more and channeling their energies to sport
  • the boys responded by seeking status in non-academic ways
  • Asian boys were seen as passive, conformist and academic
  • overall there is a bigger gap of achievement between white middle class an white working class than there is between black middle class and black working class