Ethnic differences

• Language - Bereiter & Engelmann

  • Language spoken by low-income Black families is inadequate for educational success as it is ungrammatical and disjointed
• Language - Criticism

  • Baker-Bell: says this is an example of 'anti-Black linguistic racism' which labels Black speech codes as inferior . She argues that they are in fact equally valid but that 'White mainstream English' dominates the education system and wider society - this is known as 'linguistic violence'
  • Official statistics on Attainment 8 scores show on avg those whose first language is not English perform slightly better (2018)
• Attitudes & values

  • Cultural deprivation theorists argue that it is a lack of aspiration that causes underachievement
  • Most children are socialised into mainstream culture which instils aspiration, competitiveness & willingness to sacrifice to achieve long-term goals
  • Some ethnic minorities are socialised into subcultures that instil a fatalistic attitude
• Criticism - Attitudes & values

  • Platt & Parsons:found among 7-14, ethnic minorities girls and boys had higher career aspirations than their White counterparts and aspired high-paid jobs
  • Ethnic minority families are not socialising their children into low aspirations
  • Archer: racism is a major barrier to achieving their goals rather than low aspirations
• Family structure & parental support

  • Moynihan: because many Black families are headed by a lone mother their children are deprived of adequate as she has to struggle financially due to the absence of a male breadwinner
  • Boys then lack a role model of male achievement
  • This creates a cycle where inadequately socialised children from unstable families fail at school and then become inadequate parents themselves
• Criticism - Family structures

  • Driver: Black Caribbean families are far from dysfunctional and provide girls with a positive role model of a strong, independent woman
  • This is why Black girls tend to be more successful in education than Black boys
• Father, gangs and culture - Sewell

  • Lack of fatherly nurturing or 'tough love' which results in Black boys finding it hard to overcome the emotional and behavioural difficulties of adolescence
  • Street gangs of other fatherless boys offers these Black boys 'perverse loyalty and love' which presents boys with a media (MTV) inspired role model of anti-school Black masculinity
  • Black boys greatest barrier to success is pressure from other boys
• Critcism - Sewell

  • Sewell downplays the impact of racism
  • Gillborn: argues it is not peer pressure or absent fathers but institutional racism in the education system that produces failure of large numbers of black boys
• Asian families - Lupton

  • Argues that adult authority in Asian families is similar to the model that operates in schools
  • Respectful behaviour towards adults was expected from children which has a knock-on effect in school since parents were more likely to be supportive of school behaviour policies
  • Criticism: 'Asian success' is often over-generalised
• White W/C families

  • McCulloch: surveyed 16,000 pupils found that ethnic minorities are more likely to aspire to go to uni than White pupils
  • Lupton: studied 4 w/c schools (2 White, 1 Pakistani, 2 ethnically mixed) and that teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline in the White w/c schools
  • Teachers blamed it on lower levels of parental support and educational attitudes
  • Ethnic minority parents see education as 'a way up in society'
• Compensatory education

  • Aiming High scheme focused on increasing partcipation of ethnic minorities in higher education
  • Archer: it's emphasis was on 'fixing' individuals' supposedly low aspirations through learning mentors
• Criticism - Cultural deprivation theory

  • Victim blaming (Keddie): ethnic minorities are culturally different not deprived. They underachieve because schools are ethnocentric
  • Political distraction (Raz): government avoid taking responsibility and deflect real causes of underachievement as it would carry substantial financial and political costs
  • Intersectionality (Rollock et al) found m/c Black parents used their economic & cultural capital to support their children's achievement
• Material deprivation - Palmer

  • Almost 1/2 ethnic minority children live in low-income households compared to 1/4 of White children
  • Ethnic minorities 2X as likely to be unemployed compared to White people
  • Ethnic monoirity households 3X as likely to be homeless
  • Tradition of purdah in Muslim households prevents women to work outside the home
  • Asylum seekers may not be allowed to take work
  • Racial discrimination in the labour market
• Racism in wider society

  • Rex: racial discrimination leads to social exclusion worsend the poverty faced by ethnic minorities
  • More likely to be forced into substandard accomodation than white people in the same class
  • Wood et al: sent 3 closely matched job applications (1 White, 2 ethnic minorities) to almsot 1,000 jobs using fictitious applicants using ethnic names. Only 1 in 16 'ethnic minority' applicantions were offered an interview against 1 in 9 'white' appplications
• Labelling & teacher racism

  • Often see black and Asian pupils as far from the 'ideal pupil' - black pupils as disruptive and Asians as passive
  • Gillborn & Youdell: teachers quicker to discipline black pupils tahn others for the same behaviour. This is a reuslt of 'racialised expectations' as they are expected to present more discipline problems or a challenge to authority
  • Osler: more likely to suffer unrecorded exclusions and from 'internal exclusion' where they are sent out of class. More likely to be placed in pupil refferal uunits that exclude them access to the mainstream curriculum
• Black pupils and streaming

  • Gillborn & Youdell: 'A to C economy' focuses on students most liekly to achieve a grade C at GCSE (educational triage) - negative stereotypes of black pupils' ability means they are likely too be placed in lower sets
  • Foster: teachers' stereotypes of black pupils as badly behaved means they could be placed in lower sets than those of a simialr ability. This could result in a self-fulfilling prophecy of underachievement
• Asian pupils

  • Wright: study of a mutli-ethnic primary school shows Asian pupils can be victims of teachers' labelling. Teachers hold ethnocentric views of the British culture and Standard English as superior
  • Teachers assumed they would have a poor grasp of English so left them out of class discussions or used simplistic language wheb speaking to them
  • Asian pupils felt isolated when teachers expressed disapproval of their customs of mispronouced their names
• Pupil identities - Archer

  • Ideal pupil identity: white, m/c masculinised identity, achieving in the right' way through natural ability
  • Pathologised pupil identity: Asian, feminised, asexual or with an oppressed sexuality, plodding or conformist, over-achiever who succeeds through hard work rather than natural ability
  • Demonised pupil identity: black or white , w/c, hyper-sexualised, unintelligent and a culturall deprived under-achiever
• Chinese pupils - Archer

  • Seen as achieving success in the 'wrong' way through hardwork, passive conformism rather than natural individual ability - they can never legitmately occupy the identity of 'ideal pupil'
  • They're a 'negative positive stereotype'
• Rejecting negative labels - Fuller

  • Study of a group og Balck girls in Yr11 of a London comprehensive school. They were untypical because they were high achievers where most black girls were placed in low streams
  • These girls did not accept the negative stereotype but channelled their anger into the pursuit of educational success
  • They did not seek the approval of teachers or limit their choice of friends to other academic achievers
  • They were able to maintain a postive self image by relying on their own efforts
• 3 types of teacher racism - Mirza

  • Studied ambitious Black girls whose teacher's discouraged them from aspiring to professional careers
  • Colour-blind: teachers who believe all pupils are equal but in practice allow racism to go unchallenged
  • Liberal chauvinists: teachers who believe Black pupils are culturally deprived and have low expectations of them
  • Over racists: taechers who believe Black pupils are inferior and actively discriminate against them
  • The girls in response where selective about which teachers they asked for help from, got on with their own work in lessons w/o taking part
• Criticism - Mirza's teacher racism

  • Although the girls had high self-esteem these strategies put them at a disadvantage by restricting their opportunuties
• Boy's responses - Sewell

  • Rebels: excluded from the school, rejected goals & rules of school, conformed to anti-school 'Black macho-lad'. Believed in their own superiority as Black masculinity equates w/ sexual experience & virility
  • Conformists: largest group, keen to succeed, accepted school's goals, anxious to avoid being stereotyped by teachers or peers
  • Retreatists: isolated, disconnected from school and Black subcultures
  • Innovators: pro-education and anti-school. Valued success but did not seek approval from teachers and conformed only as far as schoolwork itself was concerned
• Criticism - Boy's responses Sewell

  • Teacher racist stereotyping of Black boys disadvatages them but external factors such as street culture and a lack of a nurturing father are more important in producing underachievement
• Criticism - Labelling & pupil responses

  • Gillborn & Youdell: policy of league tables creates an 'A to C economy' and leads to large numbers of Black and w/c pupils being placed in lower streams or being enterred into lower-tier exams
• Definintion of racism - Troyna & Williams

  • Individual racism: results from prejudiced views of teachers and others
  • Institutional racism: is discrimination that is built into the way institutions such as schools operate
• Critical race theory

  • Race is an ingrianed feature of society
  • Two founders of the Black Panther party in the USA institutional racism is 'less overt, more subtle, less identifiable in terms of specific individuals committing the acts'
• Locked-in inequality - Gillborn

  • Ethnic inequality is 'so deep rooted and large that it is a practically inevitable feature of the education system'
• Marketisation - Gillborn

  • Markestisation allows schools more scope on selecting pupils and allows negative stereotypes to influence decisions about school admissions
  • Commission for Racial Equality noted that racism in school admissions means that children from ethnic minorities are more likely to end up in unpopular schools
  • The reoprt identified: racist bias in interviews for school places, lack of application in minority languages &minority ethnic group parents are often unaware of how the waiting list works and the importance of deadlines
• Ethnocentric curriculum

  • David: describes the National Curriculum as a 'specifically British curriculum' that largely ignores non-European languages, literature & music
  • Ball: criticises the Ntional Curriculum ffor ignoring ethnic diversity and promoting an attitude of 'little Englandism'. History curriculum tries to recreate a 'mythical age of empire and past glories' ignoring the history of Black and Asian
  • Coard: In history the British are presents Black people as inferior which undermines their self-esteem and leads to theor failure
• Criticism - Ethnocentric curriculum

  • Whilst it ignores Asian cultures and languages, Indian and Chinese pupils' achievement is above average
  • Stone: Black children do not suffer from low self-esteem
• Assessment - Gillborn

  • Describes it as rigged and so validates British superiority
  • 'Baseline assessments' were replaced in 2003 by the foundation stage profile (FSP)
  • Black pupils now appeared to be doing worse than White people
  • Example: in one local authority where Black pupils in 2000 had been the highest achievers ,by 2003 the new FSP had Black children lacked lower than White in all developmental areas
• Access to opportunities

  • The 'Gifted & Talented' programme created to meet needs of more able students. Gillborn concludes White pupils are 2X likely as Black Caribbean to be identified as suitable (5X more likely than Black African)
  • Exam tiers (Tikly) found that in 30 schools in the 'Aiming Higher' initiative to raise Black pupils' achivement they were more likely to be entered for the lower GCSE tier than White
• 'New IQism' - Gillborn

  • He argues that teachers & policymakers make false assumptions about the nature of pupils 'ability'
  • Secondar schools are increasingly sed IQ tests to allocate pupils to streams
  • However, there is no genuine measure of potential and all the test can do is tell us what a pupil already knows or can do , not their potential in the future
  • Therefore, an environment in which minority ethnic groups are routinely disadvantaged
• Model minorities - Gillborn

  • Argues that the model of Chinese & Indian pupils as hardworking 'model minorities' performs an ideological function as it conceals instituitional racism
  • It ignores that they still suffer and report similar levels of harrassment to Black Caribbean
  • Makes the system seem fair and meritocratic
• Ethnicity, class & gender - Connolly

  • Intersectioanlity pf ethnicity and gender: study of 5/6 year olds in a multi-ethnic primary. Shows how teachers construct masculinty dependenton childs ethnicity
  • Black boys as disruptive underachievers and controlled them by punishing them more and chanelling them into sport. Boys responded in a non-academic way (playing kiss & chase)
  • Asian boys seen as passive, conformist & academic and when they misbehaved were seen as immature not threatening. Teachers say Asian boys as more 'feminine', vulnerable & in need of protection from bullying