Ethnic (external factors)

• English as first language pupils GCSE results in 2010


  only 3.2 points ahead of pupils without English as their first language
• Moynihan (family structure and parental support)


  many black families are headed by a lone mother, where boys do not have a male role model to look up to. Inadequate socialisation creates a cycle of underachievement
• Pryce's comparison of black and Asian pupils

  Asians are higher achievers because their culture gives greater sense of self-worth.

  Effect of colonisation - Asian families and languages less destroyed than black people's culture
• Sewell's anti-school black masculinity


  many boys he interviewed felt that the greater barrier was pressure from other boys who viewed academic behaviour as giving into the white establishment
• Lupton's study of white WC families

  found poorer behaviour in white WC schools despite having fewer on FSM due to less parental support. Ethnic minority parents view education as a way up.
• Palmer (2012)


  Almost half of all ethnic minority children live in low-income households, as against a quarter of white children
• Reasons for material differences in ethnicities

  -tradition of purdah preventing women from paid work

  -lack of UK qualifications

  -racial discrimination
• Wood et al study

  sent 3 closely matched job applications to almost 1,000 jobs using names associated with different ethnic groups. Found that only 1 in 16 ethnic minority applications were offered an interview compared with in 9 for the white applications.