Internal ethnicity

• Labelling and teacher racism - Black pupils

  • Gillborn and Youdell found teachers have 'racialised expectations as they expect black pupils to behave badly.
  • Teachers are quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviour.
  • Teachers see black pupils behaviour as threatening and a challenge to their authority.
  • Most of the conflict between white teachers and black pupils stems from the racial stereotypes that teachers hold and not the actual behaviour of children.
• Labelling and teacher racism - Black pupils

  • Osler found that black pupils are more likely to suffer from unrecorded unofficial exclusions.
  • They experience more internal exclusions, where they are sent out of the class.
  • They are more likely to be placed in pupil referral units (PRU) which in turn exclude them from access to the mainstream curriculum.
  • Only 1 in 5 excluded pupils achieve 5 or more GCSEs.
• Labelling and teacher racism - Asian

  • Cecile Wright found significant evidence of discrimination by teaching staff against Asian pupils.
  • She found that teachers often assumed they had a poor grasp of English and as a result left them out of class discussions.
  • Teachers used simpler language when relating to Asian students.
  • Teachers saw the British culture and standard English as superior.
  • Teachers felt that Asian students were a problem they couldn't ignore.
  • Teachers actions were also noticed by other pupils, this led to unkindest from other students.
• Pupil identities - Louise Archer

  • Teachers often define pupils as having stereotypical ethnic identities.
  • Archer defined 3 pupil identities:
  • Demonised pupil (black/white working class), loud, underachiever, unintelligent, culturally deprived.
  • Ideal pupil (white middle class) achieves through initiative and ability.
  • Pathologized pupil (Asian and Chinese), quite, passive, succeeds through hard world rather than natural ability. Could never be an ideal pupil as they have a 'negative positive stereotype'.
• Pupil responses and subcultures

  • Mary Fuller found although the boys tend to live up to their labels, girls didn't.
  • Found that the effect of teachers labelling pupils can either lead to a reaction of being disruptive or working harder to prove the label wrong.
  • Fullers study of year 11 girls proved the labels were wrong because they were high achievers in a school where most black girls are placed in lower streams.
  • Girls didn't seek approval from teachers, they only conformed to school as far as school work was concerned.
  • Negative labels don't always lead to failure.
• Pupil responses and subculture

  • Mirza studied ambitious girls with high self-esteem who faced teacher racism.
  • These girls failed to achieve their ambitions and underachieved because teachers discouraged them from being ambitious.
  • Mirza identified 3 types of teachers:
  • Colourblind - believe black pupils are equal but in practise allow racism to go unchallenged.
• Pupil responses and subculture - Mirza's 3 types of teachers

  • Mirza studied ambitious girls with high self-esteem who faced teacher racism. The girls failed to achieve their ambitions and underachieved because teachers discouraged them.
  • Colourblind - believe black pupils are equal but in practise 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 discriminate against them.
• Pupil responses and subculture

  • Tony Sewell identified 4 responses to black boys negative experience of schooling.
  • Rebels (18%) - often excluded and rejected school rules.
  • Innovators (35%) - pro education but anti school. Didn't seek approval from teachers but valued success.
  • Retreatists (6%) - disconnected from school and black subcultures.
  • Conformists (41%) - keen to succeed and accepted school rules. Weren't part of a subculture and were anxious about being stereotyped.
• Critical race theory

  • See racism as an ingrained feature of society.
  • Involves institutional racism and the intentional actions of individuals.
  • Assumption goes beyond simply looking at how teacher labelling and racism can affect achievement, but how schools routinely and unconsciously discriminate against ethnic minorities.
• Gillborn - critical race theory

  • Applied 'locked in inequality' to the school system.
  • Sees ethnic inequality as 'so deep rooted and so large it is practically a feature of the education system'
  • This can be due to the ethnocentric curriculum not valuing other cultures.
  • Concludes that the education system is institutionally racist, creating an environment in which ethnic minority pupils are routinely disadvantaged.
• Ethnocentric curriculum

  • Language in schools valuing white western language.
  • Uniform discriminates other cultures needs.
  • School holidays are to do with christianity, and don't value other cultures.
  • Curriculum is specifically British and ignores non European languages, music etc.
• Lawrence - critical race theory

  • Believed black pupils fail because of racism.
  • Critic of compensatory education and cultural deprivation as he sees it as an attempt to impose the dominant white culture on children who already have a culture of their own.
  • Proposed 2 alternatives: multicultural education and anti racist education
• Tony Sewell - critical race theory

  • Interviewed black Caribbean boys and they said the biggest barrier was pressure from other boys.
  • Speaking standard English and educational success was seen as 'selling out' to the white middle class establishment.
  • Any success in schools marks the black Caribbean boy out from his peers and is likely to make him a target of bullying.
  • Education failure becomes a badge to wear with pride. They choose to fail.
• Evaluation of ethnocentric curriculum

  • Many schools now have a multicultural approach.
  • This approach sees ethnic diversity as a positive aspect of society.
  • It encourages the celebration of diversity and on a practical level has schools embracing the variety of diets, religions and festivals of major ethnic groups.
• Mirza - black teachers

  • Believes that the government should be concerned not only by the low number of black teachers applicants but also the lack of success of those that do apply.
  • Only 7% of teachers are from ethnic minority backgrounds.
  • Mirza believes that there is significant evidence that discrimination is a major factor.
• Multicultural curriculum - Corbyn

  • Many schools now have a multicultural curriculum and celebrate black history month which helps focus on positive images.
  • However, many people, like Jeremy Corbyn, feel this has not gone far enough.
  • Corbin said the history of this should be part of what children learn all year round, not just in black history month.
• Assessments - Gillborn

  • Argues that the 'assessment game' is rigged to validate the dominate cultures.
  • He said that, where minority groups succeed, the 'rules will be changed to reengineer failure'
  • Found that in one local education authority black children were the highest achievers on entry to primary school - 20% above average.
  • By GCSE, they had the worst results out of all ethnic groups.
  • This suggests that these black children did arrive culturally deprived but school made them through stereotypes and expectations
• The new IQism - Gillborn

  • Uses the term new IQism when he talks about teachers making false assumptions about the nature of pupils ability or potential.
  • It sees potential as a fixed quality which can be measured to set or stream a pupil 'correctly'.
  • Gillborn believed there is no way of measuring potential. A test can give you where a pupil is not, but it doesn't tell you where the be at a later date
  • Access to opportunities depend heavily on teacher assessments. This works against black pupils because when asked to judge potential of students, teachers label them incorrectly.