Internal Factors

• Labelling And Teacher Racism

  Labelling – attaching a meaning or definition to a person, which may lead to a self fulfilling prophesy.

  This is where a label or prediction about a person comes true, simply because it has been made.
• Black Pupils And Discipline

  Gillborn (2000)

  •Schools are institutionally racist and have racialized expectations•E.G. Black pupils will offer more behavioural problems, be threatening, challenge authority, get excluded.•Teachers interpret school policy in a way that disadvantages black pupils e.g. setting (lower sets), G & T (less likely to be black pupils).
• Black Pupils And Discipline

  This leads to them being placed in bottom sets – the streaming of black pupils based on negative stereotypes about their behaviour.
• Black Pupils And Discipline

  Gillborn and Youdell (1990)

  African Caribbean pupils are more likely to be given detentions due to the (mis)interpretation that these pupils were challenging their authority with the way they spoke, dress and manner.

  The students find it unfair and respond in accordance to their labels!
• Asian Pupils

  Wright (1992)

  Teacher expectations of Asian pupils – they will have a poor grasp of English.

  Consequences: These pupils were often left our of class discussions or teachers used simplistic, childish language when speaking to them.

  Asian pupils were not seen as a threat and were often ignored.
• Pupil Identity

  Pupil Identities: Archer (2008)

  A teachers dominant discourse (their way of seeing something) defines and constructs three types of ethnic minority pupils’ identitie
• The ideal pupil identity-A white, middle class, masculine identity with a normal sexuality, this pupil achieves in the “right” way; through natural ability and intuitive.
• The pathologised pupil identity

  An Asian ‘deserving poor’, feminised identity, either asexual or with an oppressed sexuality, this pupil is ‘plodding’ and a conformist, a culture bound ‘over achiever’ who achieves through hard work, not a natural.
• The demonised pupil identity

  A black or white pupil, working class, hypersexualised, unintelligent, peer-led, cultural depriver, under achiever.
• Chinese pupils – Pathologised –

  “They would just work until you told them to stop” (Ms Lynch, teacher, Chinese pupils study).

  They achieved in the ‘wrong’ way.
• Labelling Dosent Always Lead To Self Fullfilling prohnecys
• Fuller's study of high-achieving black girls in a London comprehensive school

  • They channelled their anger into the pursuit of educational success
  • They did not seek the approval of teachers, many of whom they saw as racist
  • They were friends with other black girls regardless of sets
  • They worked hard, but were unconcerned about appearing to do so or school routines - disregarding teachers' approval in favour of success in external exams
• This study shows two important points:
• 1. pupils can still succeed when they refuse to conform
• 1. negative labels do not always lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy
• Black girls are anti-school but pro-education.

  Mirza (1992) notes how some black girls openly reject the help from teachers at school, which they see as being patronising and misguided e.g. careers advice especially – teachers discouraging them from perusing professional careers.
• Critical race theorists

  Would argue we should not see this as individual racism on the part of a few teachers, but institutional racism in the way the whole system operates
• Pupils can resist racist labels and succeed


  BUT Mirza's study shows that this is not always simple and some strategies to avoid teacher racism fail
• Institutional racism is a “locked-in inequality”:

  The scale of discrimination is so large that there no longer needs to be any conscious intent to discriminate – the inequality becomes self perpetuating: it feeds on itself
• Discrimination is not intentional –it is so deep rooted that it is an inevitable feature of the education system
• Institutional Racism

  Marketisation and Segregation

  The increase in marketisation means that schools have more scope to be selective with their intake – which means negative stereotypes may influence decisions about school admissions.
• Moore and Davenport (1990) American research

  The admissions procedures favoured white pupils over ethnic minorities e.g. secondary schools would use the primary school reports to screen out pupils with language difficulties, difficult application forms/process to deter non-English speaking parents
• Institutional Racism

  Marketisation and Segregation

  By making the application to decent schools much more difficult for non-English speakers it will lead to ethnic segregation, with minority groups failing to attend the decent schools.
• In Britain, racism in the school admissions meant that ethnic minority children are more likely to end up in unpopular schools.

  •Primary school reports that stereotype ethnic minority students•Lack of admissions forms in minority languages•Racism bias in enrolment interviews for school places.•Minority parents are often unaware of enrolment procedures.
• The Ethnocentric Curriculum

  Sociologists such as Troyna & Williams (1986) & David (1993) argue that the National Curriculum is ‘Specifically British’ & focuses only on White culture, ignoring non-European languages, literature & music.Ball (1994) uses the term ‘Little Englandism’ to describe the way the curriculum focuses on White British culture & tries to recreate ‘a mythical age of empire & past-glories while largely ignoring the history of Black & Asian people’.Coard (1975, 2005) highlights how Black culture & history is taught to be primitive & how White people civilised such groups.
• The Problem

  May lower self esteem and undermine Black pupils – could lead to failure (fatalism?)

  Not feeling as though they are good enough so they give up trying.
• Assesment, Access And IQISM

  “The ‘assessment game’ is rigged to such an extent that if Black children succeed as a group, despite the odds being stacked against them, it is likely that the rules will be changed to re-engineer the failure”

  •

  Racism and Education: Coincidence Or Conspiracy? (Gillborn 2008)

  ••E.G.:•Black primary school pupils and baseline testing vs foundation stage profile•Ethnic minority pupils do worse on average in subjects with more teacher assessed components (coursework)•
• •Access – black pupils are less likely to be entered on gifted and talented programmes, and more likely to be entered for lower tier examinations, limiting them to a C or below.•The ‘New IQism)’ (judging pupils based on so-called ‘potential’) disadvantages black pupils because teachers are less likely to label them as having unlocked potential, and more likely to place them in lower sets as a result.
• Criticis Of Gilbourn

  According to Sewell – although racism has not disappeared from schools, it is not powerful enough to prevent individuals from succeeding.

  To deal with Black boys’ underachievement we need to deal with the external factors e.g. anti school attitudes, peer groups/gangs, fatherless boys.
• Criticism Of Gillbourn

  Critics point to the fact that as well as ethnic underachievement and institutional racism (e.g. in black pupils)  there is also ethnic overachievement by other “model minorities”.Gillborn (2008) suggests that this image of Indian and Chinese pupils being ‘hardworking, model minorities’ performs an ideology function – it actually conceals the fact that schools are institutionally racist by the following….
• Criticism Of Gillbourn

  •Its makes the system seem fair and meritocratic – these pupils succeed because they put in the effort.•As a result it justifies the failure of other minority groups – they failed because they did not make the effort.It ignores the fact that model minorities will also suffer from racism in school e.g. pathologising