Sociology -ethnicity

• There are clear inequalities between ethnic groups. For example, white and Asian pupils on average do better than black pupils and this is due to a range of external and internal factors.
• a key external factor is cultural deprivation. Some CD theorists see the underachievenment in education as a result of inadequate socialisation. This is through 3 main aspects: linguistic skills, attitudes + values and family structure.
• The first CD factor is linguistic skills. CD theorists argue black pupils from low income backgrounds lack the intelectual skills and experiences to succeed. As they are poorly equipt and have not developed reasoning and problem solving skills.
• CD-linguistic: bereiter and engelmann consider the language spoken by low income black families as inadequate for educational success. However there is also CD theorists who consider pupils who do not speak english at home a concern but statistics prove this wrong. For example, in 2010 pupils who had English as a first language were only 3.2 points ahead of those who did not have English as a first language ( 55.2%-52% ) when it came to attaining 5 GCSES.
• CD- attitudes and values: most children are socialised into main stream culture, installing ambition , competitiveness and thoughts of long term goals. By contrast CD theorists argue some black children are socialised into a subculture that is fatalistic, a "live for today" attitude that does not value education.
• CD- family structure:CD theorists believe failure to socialise children adequately is due to disfunctional family structures. For example, Maynihan argues many black families are typically headed by lone mothers who are unable to provide adequate care as she struggles financially in the presence of a bread winner. Single mothers also means their child has a lack of a fatherly role model and so Moynihan sees CD as a cycle where inadequately socialised children fail and become inadequate parents themselves.
• The new right has a similar view to Maynihan, arguing the high rate of lone parenthood and the lack of a parental role model is a key reason for some minority children under achieving
• Culturally devastating

  Being sold and transported took away their language, religion and family system
• Colonialism


  Affected the two groups differently
• Asians and black Carribeans

  • Asians achieve higher educationally than black Carribeans due to their resistance of racism
• The experience of slavery was culturally devastating for black Carribeans
• Black Caribbean culture


  Less cohesive and less resistant to racism
• Sewell: argues against murray and believes its not the absence of fathers as role models that leads to black boys underachieving but is the lack of fatherly nurturing "tough love" ( firm and fair discipline).

  In the absence of a nurturing father, street gangs offer black boys perverse loyalty and love. This gives black boys an anti-school black masculinity whose ideal self according to Annot is a "ultra tough ghetto superstar" rienforced through rap and mtv videos.
• sewell found due to the pressure of a anti school subculture. Black boys saw a barrier between success in school and pressure from other boys to act a certain way. for example speaking standard english and doing well in education is seen as weird and suspicious or " selling out" to a white estabishment. Sewell says "the biggest pressure facing black boys is black peer pressure".
• sewell argues black students do worse than asian students due to cultural differences and attitudes on education. As while one is being nurtured by MTV the other is clocking up educational hours and so according to sewell black boys need more expectations put on them in order to achieve. However the critical race theorists argue such as gillborn argue its not peer pressure but institutional racism.
• Asian families- while black pupils do underachieve in sewells view asian students exel through supportive families. Their parents place high value on education and so have an "asian work ethic".

  Lupton- agrees believing adult authority in asian families is similar to schools. ie respectful behaviour towards adults is expected in asian families and asian families are more likely to agree with school codes.
• white WC families- on average only 60% of white students achieve 5 or more gcses. Compared to nearly 80% of asian pupils.
• white wc families- mcculloch: did a survey of 16,000 pupils and found ethnic minority pupils are more likely to aspire to go to university.

  evanns: similary argues street culture in white wc areas is so brutal that they have to learn to withstand intimidation and learn to intimidate others. this power game is then translate to schools making it hard to succeed without the fear of bullying.
• white wc families- Lupton: studied 4 wc schools, two predominantly white, one Pakistani and one ethnically mixed. She found teachers reported lower behaviour levels in white wc schools even though less children are on free school meals. These teachers blamed this on low level parental support and the negative attitude wwc parents have towards education compared to ethnic parents who see the education system as a "way up" in society.
• Conpensatory education- a policy adopted to tackle CD. Ie operation head start was to compensate children for cultural deficits.
• Critisms of the CD theory- driver: CD theory ignores the positive effects of ethnicity . ie lone parenting black caribbean families provide girls with positive role models of strong breadwinning women.He believes this is why black girls do better than black boys
• Critisms of the cd theory- Lawrence: challenges pryces view that black pupils fail due to weak culture but it is due to racism.
• Critisms of CD theory- Keddie: sees CD as victim blaming, arguing ethnic minority children are culturally different not deprived. They underachieve due to ethnocentric schools biast to the whole culture .
• Cristisms of CD theorists- they all oppose the dominant white culture being forced on children from other cultures and instead propose 2 alternatives: multicultural education( a policy that includes minority cultures in the curriculm) and anti racist education( a policy that challenged discrimination in schools wider society)
• Material deprivation and class- some sociologists see MD as the main cause of underachievement. Seeing educational failure as a result of low income and substandard housing and ethnic minorities are more likely to lack these physical necessities.
• material deprivation - palmer: found almost half of minority children live in low income households compared to 1/4 white.

  • minorities are 2x more likely to be unemployed
• Reasons why ethnic minoritiess are at great risk of MD:

  • many live in economically depressed areas
  • cultural factors like traditions of some Muslim households, which prevent women from working
  • racial discrimination in labour and housing
• Inequalities in education are reflected through which minoritlies are are eligible for fsm. For example, Indian pupils tend to achieve higher (only 10% arenn by on fsm) compared to (45%) of BangladeshI students who on average achieve lower.
• Class or ethnicity- failing to take in class positions on ethnic groups could over estimate CD while under estimating the effect of poverty and MD

  • however Chinese pupils who are MD still on average do better ie In 2011 86% of Chinese girls who received fsm achieved 5 or more GCSES compared to 65% of white girls not on fsm. so md and social class factors do not override the influence of ethnicity.
• Racism in wider society- some sociologys believe Md and poverty is the result of racism

  • mason: puts it as “ discrimination is a continuing and persistent feature of the experience of Britain’s citizens of minority ethnic origin “
  • rex- shows how discrimination leads to social exclusion and how it worsens poverty ie employment
  • Wood et al- for each job application she submitted one from a white person and two from members of the minority and found only 1/16 ethnic minority applicants were offered an interview compared to 1/9 of white applicants.
• Internal factors

  • Gillborn and mirza- black children were the highest achievers on entry to primary schools but by gcse they were the worst results of an ethnic group.
  • Strands- did a study on 530,00 7 to 11 yr olds and found upon entry black boys were the highest achievers but when leaving for high school they became the lowest. this challenged CD theorists as factors within the school must play a major part in the shift of achievement.
• Labelling and teacher racism- interactionists focus on the label ( meaning or definition) placed on pupils from ethnic minorities. They show that teachers often see black and Asian pupils as being far from the ‘ideal pupil’ And that these labels of negative stereotypes ie passive or distruptive can lead to teachers treatinf the pupil a certain way.
• oke aspect of labelling is Black pupils and discipline-

  • gillborn and youdell- found teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils that others and argue this is due to “ radicalised expectations”
  • they found teachers expected black pupils to have more disciplinary problems and saw their behaviour as “ threatening “ resulting in pupils responding negatively and leading to more conflict. concluding that the conflict between white teachers and black pupils is the negative stereotypes placed on the pupils.
• Labelling black boys - bourne found black Boys are more likely to get excluded from school due to teachers percieving their behaviour as a threat. This effects achievement as only 1in5 achieve GCSEs
• another aspect of labelling is black pupils and streaming- Gillborn and youdell: found that in the ‘ a to c economy’ teachers focus on pupils most likely to achieve a c At GCSEs this is called the educational triage. due to the negative labels of black pupils they are more likely to be given the stereotype of a low achiever or “ hopeless case” and be placed in a low stream.
• Another aspect of labelling is Asian pupils-

  • Wright: studied a multi- ethnic primary and found Asian pupils can be victims of labelling. she found teachers hold ethnocentric views, taking the British culture for granted and seeing standard English as superior. This effects Asian pupils achievenment as teachers are oils assume they had a poor grasp of English and left them out of class discussions or would use simple , non challenging language.
• • teachers Don’t see Asian pupils as a threat like black pupils but view them as a problem to ignore. Teachers marginalise Asian pupils preventing them from participating and effecting their educational achievement.