Education

• Gilborn and Youdell (2000)


  Teachers were quick to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviour due to labels and racialised expectations, conflict between white teachers and black students stems from racial stereotypes teachers have rather than the pupils actual achievement, underestimated ability, higher exclusion rates for black boys, negative stereotypes about black pupils ability mean more likely to be put in lower sets or streams
• Wright (1992) study of a multi ethnic primary school


  Asian pupils can also be victims of labelling, despite schools apparent commitment to equal opportunities teachers held ethnocentric views

  Took for granted that British culture and standard English were superior

  Affected how they related to Asian pupils, assumed they had a poor grasp of English and left them out of class discussions, used simplistic childish language when speaking to them

  Asian pupils not seen as a threat (as black pupils were) but a problem they could ignore
• Archer - 3 pupil identities constructed by dominant discourse (how teachers see something)


  Ideal - white, m/c, normal sexuality, masculinised, achieved right way through natural ability and initiative

  Pathologised - Asian, 'deserving poor', feminised, over achiever, success through hard work, usually asexual or oppressed sexuality

  Demonised - black or white, w/c, hyper sexualised
• Archer - interviews with students and teachers

  Showed how black students are demonised as loud, challenging, excessively sexual and with unaspirational home cultures

  Chinese students seen as having achieved success in the wrong way, families stereotyped as 'tight' and 'close', used to explain girls supposed passivity

  Archer and Francis - negative positive stereotype
• Fuller (1984) - rejecting negative labels

  Study of a group of black girls in Y11 of a London comprehensive school, high achievers in a school where most black girls were placed in low streams, channelled anger about labels towards pursuit of educational success, did not seek teacher approval, who they regarded as racist, relied on their own efforts and impartiality of exams
• Mac an Ghaill (1992) study of black and Asian A level students at a sixth form college

  Did not accept negative labels, response depended on factors such as ethnic group, gender, nature of former schools (e.g some girls felt that their experience of having attended an all-girls school gave them a greater academic commitment that helped them to overcome negative labels at college)
• Mirza (1992) study of ambitious black girls who faced teacher racism


  Found that racist teachers discouraged black pupils from being ambitious through e.g through advice about careers and option choices, identified 3 types of teacher racism:

  Colour blind - believe all pupils are equal but allow racism to go unchallenged

  Liberal chauvinists - believe black pupils are culturally deprived and have low expectations of them

  Overt racists - believe blacks are inferior and actively discriminate against them
• Sewell 4 responses of black boys to school


  - Rebels - most visible and influential but were a small minority of black pupils, rejected school rules and goals, conformed to black macho lad stereotype

  - Retreatists - tiny minority, not in school or black subcultures, despised by rebels

  Conformists - largest, keen to succeed, accepted school goals, diverse friendships, not in subculture anxious to avoid stereotypes

  Innovators - 2nd largest, anti school, pro education, didn't seek teacher approval, conformed only as far as schoolwork
• AO3 of labelling and pupil responses


  - Danger in seeing teacher stereotypes as simply the product of individual teachers' prejudices rather than of racism in the way the education system as a whole operates

  - Students do not always internalise labels
• Gifted and Talented' Programme


  Created with the aim of meeting the needs of more able pupils in intercity schools

  BUT Gilborn 2008 - OS show whites over 2x as likely as Black Caribbeans to be identified as gifted and talented, and 5x more than Black Africans
• Tikly Et Al (2006): Exam Tiers


  Found that in 30 schools in the 'Aiming High' initiative to raise Black Caribbean pupils achievement blacks more likely than white to be entered for lower tier GCSEs due to lower sets
• Gilborn new IQism


  Argues that teachers and policymakers make false assumptions about the nature of pupils ability/potential, see it as a fixed quality that can be easily measured, then pupils can be put into right set/stream, onto G&T programme and so on
• Gilborn and Youdell new IQism cont.


  Secondary schools are increasingly using old style iq tests to allocate pupils into different streams on entry
• Gilborn AO3


  - Sewell rejects Gilborn + critical race theory argument that institutional racism is the main cause of underachievement - need to focus on external factors

  - Overachievement by model minorities e.g Chinese and Indian but Gilborn argues this conceals the fact that education is institutionally racist e.g justifies failure of other minorities, makes it appear fair and meritocratic
• Evans (2006)- ethnicity, class and gender


  -to fully understand relationship between ethnicity and achievement, we must look at how ethnicity, class and gender interact

  -e.g. notes that sociologists often look at culture and ethnicity when examining black children's achievement, but rarely look at class
• Connolly (1998) - gender, class and ethnicity

  Study of 5-6 yr olds in multi ethnic intercity primary, teachers saw black boys as disruptive underachievers and tried to control them through increased punishment and channeling their energies into sport
• Response of boys in Connollys study


  Sought status in non-academic ways e.g playing kiss chase and football
• Asian boys in Connolly's study


  Seen as passive, conformist, keen and academic, 'more feminine' and needed protection from bullying
• Interaction effect'


  Class and gender interaction differently with ethnicity depending on ethnic group
• Coard (ethnocentric curriculum)


  Explains how the ethnocentric curriculum may produce underachievement. E.g. in history, the British may be presented as bringing civilisation to the 'primitive' people they colonised, argues this image of black people as inferior undermines black children's self-esteem and leads to their failure.
• Stone 1981 AO3 (of Coard)

  Argues black children do not suffer from low self esteem
• Gilborn (2008) - Assessment


  'The assessment game' is rigged so as to validate the dominant culture's superiority, if black children succeed as a group 'the rules will be changed to engineer failure
• Gilborn Assessment Game example - baseline assessments


  Replacement of Baseline assessments that tested pupils when they started compulsory schooling to foundation stage profile (FSP)

  Black pupils did worse in all 6 developmental areas that it measured
• Gilborn FSP vs baseline, institutional factors

  - FSP based entirely on teachers judgement vs baseline assessments which often used written tests

  - FSP done at end of reception, but baseline was at start of primary school
• Troyna and Williams (1986) - explaining ethnic differences in achievement

  Must look at discrimination against minorities and distinguish between individual racism (prejudice by teacher and others) and institutional racism (discrimination built into the operation of institutions
• Critical Race Theory


  See racism as an ingrained feature of society, involving intentional actions of individuals and institutional racism
• CRT institutional racism + Gilborn


  Critical race theorists see institutional racism as a 'locked-in inequality' - inequality is self perpetuating, feeds on itself as scale of historical discrimination is so large

  Gilborn 2008 - sees ethnic inequality as "so deep rooted and so large that it is a practically inevitable feature of the education system"
• Gilborn (marketisation & segregation)


  Argues marketisation gives schools more scope to select pupils, allows negative stereotypes to influence decisions about school admissions
• Moore and Davenport selection procedures


  Lead to ethnic segregation with minority pupils failing to get into better secondary schools e.g primary school reports screened out pupils with language difficulties, and difficulty of application process for non-English speaking parents
• Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) 1993 - Biases in Britain and effect on EMs


  More likely to end up in unpopular schools due to to reports from primary schools that stereotype em pupils, racist bias in interviews for school places, lack of info and application forms in em languages, em parents are often unaware of how the waiting list system works and the importance of deadlines
• David (1993)- how is the National curriculum ethnocentric?


  Describes it as a 'specifically British' curriculum, largely ignores non-European languages
• Ball (1994) - Ethnocentric curriculum


  Criticizes National curriculum for ignoring ethnic diversity and promoting an attitude of 'little Englandism'

  E.g history curriculum - tries to recreate a 'mythical age of empire and past glories' while ignoring the history of black and Asian people