ethnic differences in achievement - external

• Ethnic group

  Culture, things that are learned, shared and valued by a social group
• On average, white and Asian pupils do better than black pupils
• Factors outside the school


  • Home
  • Family
  • Culture of the child
  • Impact of wider society
• Cultural deprivation theory

  Underachievement of some ethnic groups is the result of inadequate socialisation in the home
• Language

  Lack of linguistic skills acts as a major cause of underachievement for some ethnic minority groups leaving them poorly equipped for school
• Critics strongly reject the claim that the language spoken by black Caribbean families is inadequate for educational success, saying it is 'linguistic violence' labelling some language as inferior just because white mainstream English dominates the educational system
• Children whose first language is not English in fact perform slightly better than those who only speak English at home
• Attitudes and values

  Cultural deprivation theorists claim lack of aspiration is a major cause of underachievement and that some minority ethnic group children are socialised into a subculture that installs a fatalistic attitude and does not value success
• Studies have shown that minority ethnic groups tend to have higher aspirations than their white counterparts and Archer et al found that minority ethnic group students identify racism rather than low aspirations as a major barrier to achieving their goals
• Family structure and parental support

  Cultural deprivation theorists argue that the failure to socialise children adequately is the result of a dysfunctional family structure
• In the late 1990s, 57% of Black Caribbean families with dependent children were headed by a single parent, compared to only 25% of white families
• Cultural deprivation theorists argue that because many black families are headed by a lone mother, their children are deprived of adequate care because she has to struggle financially in the absence of a male breadwinner
• Cultural deprivation theorists argue that the father's absence also means that boys lack an adequate role model of male achievement
• Sewell's view

  The problem is a lack of fathering nurturing that leads to black boys underachieving, and in the absence of the influence of a nurturing father, street gangs of other fatherless boys offer them loyalty and love
• Sewell is accused of downplaying the impact of racism, and Gillborn argues it's not peer pressure or an absent father but institutional racism in education that produces the failure of a large number of black boys
• Asian families

  In Sewell's view, Indian and Chinese pupils benefit from supportive families that have an 'Asian work ethic' and place a high value on education
• Some sociologists argue that adult authority in Asian families is similar to the model that operates in schools, and found that respectful behaviour towards adults was expected from children, which had a knock-on effect in school as parents were more likely to be supportive of school behaviour policies
• White working class families

  White working class pupils often underachieve and have lower aspirations, with teachers blaming this on lower levels of parental support and the negative attitude that white working class parents have towards education
• A survey of 16,000 pupils found that minority ethnic group pupils are more likely to aspire to go to university than white pupils
• Minority ethnic group parents were more likely to see education as 'a way up in society'
• Criticisms of cultural deprivation theory

  Keddie sees cultural deprivation as a victim-blaming explanation, arguing that ethnic minority children are culturally different, not culturally deprived, and that they underachieve because schools are ethnocentric: biased in favour of white culture and against minorities
• Labelling theory

  The cause lies not in the low aspirations of the minority ethnic group pupils but in the teachers' racist stereotypes and low expectations of them - negative labelling = self-fulfilling prophecy
• Material deprivation

  Lack of those physical necessities that are seen as essential for life in today's society
• Almost half of all ethnic minority children live in low-income households, as against a quarter of white children
• Ethnic minorities are almost twice as likely to be unemployed compared with whites
• Ethnic minority households are around three times as likely to be homeless
• Many ethnic minorities live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wage rates, and cultural factors may prevent women from working outside the home, while a lack of language skills and foreign qualifications not being recognised by UK employers, as well as racial discrimination in the labour market and housing market, all contribute to these inequalities
• Racism in wider society

  Racial discrimination leads to social exclusion and worsens the poverty faced by ethnic minorities, with discrimination in housing and employment meaning that minorities are more likely to be forced into substandard accommodation and less likely to be offered job interviews than white people of the same class
• Only one in 16 'ethnic minority' applications were offered an interview, as against one in nine 'white' applications
• This helps to explain why members of ethnic minorities are more likely to face unemployment and low pay, and this in turn has a negative effect on their children's educational prospects