1.3 - Ethnicity and Education

• How does material factors affect underachievement?

  • individuals from minority ethnic groups are prone to living in poverty and are materially deprived
• What was Platts' study?

  • highest hourly rates for male employees in the UK were: Chinese ethnic groups
• What are the % ethnic groups assosciated with access to FSM?

  • Indian - 9.7%
  • Bangladeshi - 38.5%
• What was Gillbourn and Mirza's study?

  • looked at the effect of social class on ethnic groups
  • Data from Youth Cohort studies - demonstrate a strong correlation between social class and achievement in ALL ethnic groups
  • M/C students were more likely to perform better in education then w/c students
  • Found that AC boys were likely to perform worse with class taken into consideration
• What did Modood find out about cultural capital?

  • argues many ethnic minority parents have more cultural capital then expected.
  • if they have recently migrated to the UK, may not be able to get jobs reflective of their skills or experience. Could be due to the lack of familiarity with the british culture
• What are the differences in parental attitudes?

  • British chinese pupils are statistically better then any other ethnic group in the UK
• What did Basit find out about educational achievement?

  • cultural factors impacted educational achievement in British Asian communities
  • 3 generations: grandparents, parents and children
  • findings - viewed free education as a blessing, families are more likely to provide study space, internet and resources
  • grandparents passed down attitudes to children
• What does the DFE report say about black boys?

  1 - More likely to be permanently excluded

  2 - 1.5 times more to be identified with behaviour problems

  3 - Put in bottom sets

  4 - Less likely to be labelled as talented
• What did Sewell investigate?

  • Sewell suggests that underachievement is assosciated with relatively high proportion of AC pupils being raised in matrifocal lone parent families
  • this was caused due to the lack of tough love from father figure
  • results in a macho form of masculinity
• What is institutional racism?

  • a form of discrimination within organisations
• What did Strand find out about black pupils?

  • data from a longitudinal study of young people
  • found AC students did less well then british peers
  • were also likely to be put forward for higher level GCSES
  • more likely to be excluded
• What did Gillbourn find out about detentions?

  • AC pupils were more likely to recieve detentions
  • because of teachers misinterpreting their speech and dress code
  • creates a self fulfilling prophecy
• What was Jaspers' study?

  • suggests the expectations of white female teachers of AC pupils influence their pedagogy
• What was O'Donnell's study?

  • demonstrated how different subcultures reacted to racism
  • AC pupils would feel anger and reject the education system
  • Indian pupils were angry but took advantage of the education system
• What was Connolly's research?

  • studied the treatment of south asian boys
  • teachers tended to see them as immature rather then deviant
  • a lot of bad behaviour was unnoticed and unpunished
• What was Mirza's research?

  • black girls response to school failing was by rejecting the help of teachers
  • Fuller - black girls reject labels
• What is the curriculum?

  • a disadvantageous feature of education
  • ethnocentric
  • only focuses on the postive effects of britain (geography, white british culture)
• What was Bernard Coard's research?

  • content of education ignored black pupils
  • black culture, art and music was ignored
  • led to low self esteem
  • HOWEVER - Swann report - implied despite feeling discriminated, AC pupils had been able to maintain a positive self image
• What was Tikly's research?

  • 30 comprehensive schools
  • noted many AC pupils felt invisibility in the curriculum and felt it had a white european focus
• What did Connolly find about ethnicity?

  • the treatment of british asian studies tended to be more severe than AC pupils