Ethnicity and education

• Cultural deprivation- intellectual and linguistic skills 


  Bereiter and Englemann

  Language spoken by low income black American is inadequate for educational success

  Tend to us disjointed phrases and incapable of expressing abstract ideas
• Cultural deprivation attitudes and values 


  Sugarman

  Ethnic minorities more likely to be w/c

  Black children in particular are socialised to fatalistic attitude and believe there little to do to change it
• Cultural deprivation family structure and parental support- AsIan families

  Lupton

  Adult authority in Asian families is similar to in school

  Children socialised into strong sense of of respecting authority figures

  Asian parents very supportive of school policies

  Leads to conformity at school and pro school attitude

  Pryce

  Culture is more resistant to racism giving them greater confidence and self worth

  Carries over in to school

  But black Caribbean families less resistant creating lower self esteem
• Cultural deprivation- family s and parental support- black families 


  Moynihan

  Black families are more likely to be headed by single mother

  Children more likely to be deprived of adequate care

  No role models for boys to look up to or discipline them

  These children become inadequate parents

  Swell

  lack of fatherly figure providing though-love and nurture sons means the struggle with adolescence

  Means they turn to street gangs in search for father figure

  Often anti-school and promote rebellious behaviour
• Material deprivation

  Flaherty

  Pupils form Pakistani Bangladeshi heritage 3x more likely than whites to be poorest

  Unemployment is 3x higher for African Bangladeshi Pakistani people

  15% ethnic minority households live in overcrowded conditions

  Pakistanis 2x likely to be in unskilled jobs
• Racism in wider society

  Wood

  Study- sent matched job applications to 1000 vacancies

  Applicants associated with different ethnic groups

  1/16 ethnic minority applications were offered interviews

  1/9 white British applicants

  This leads to higher levels of unemployment for e/m groups having to take low paid jobs

  Has knock on effect with material deprivation
• Teacher labelling and racism

  Interactionists

  Studies show that teachers see black and Asian pupils as being far from ideal pupil

  See black pupils as disruptive

  See Asian pupils as passive

  These labels lead to teachers treating these students differently

  Gillborn and Youdell- A-C economy results in e/m pupils being streamed

  They also tend to be entered for lower exam ties
• Pupil identities 1

  Archer

  teachers dominant discourse defines typical e/m pupil as lacking ideal pupil

  Three types of pupil

  The ideal pupil identity

  The pathologised pupil identity

  The demonised pupil identity
• Pupil identities 2

  Archer

  E/m pupils likely to be seen as pathologised or demonised

  Black pupils demonised as loud , challenging aggressive and excessively sexual

  Those that do well can be pathologised

  Seen as achieving success in the wrong way

  They work hard and conform rather than succeeding through natural ability

  Means they can never be ideal pupil

  Successful e/m only be seen as over-achievers as proper-achievers are the ideal pupil
• Pupil responses and subculture 1

  Fuller

  students can reject labels teachers give them

  Mirza

  Racist teacher tried to discourage black pupils from being ambitious

  Found black students focused on avoiding impact of negative teacher labels

  Most found strategies- being selective to which teachers they asked for help, not taking part in group tasks

  But these not always successful and hard to avoid consequences of negative labelling
• Pupil responses and subculture 2 


  Mirza

  three types of Teacher racism

  The colour blind

  see pupils as equal but don’t change racist behaviour

  The liberal chauvinist

  Sees black pupils as culturally deprived and have low expectations

  The overt racist

  Sees students as inferior and actively discriminate
• Pupil responses and subculture 3


  Swell

  The rebels- rejected school, black macho lad, small group

  The conformists- largest group, keen to succeed, accept rules, don't want to be stereotyped

  The retreatists- small minority, isolated themselves, not liked by others

  The innovators- second largest, pro education, anti school
• Institutional racism

  Troyna and Williams

  Not just individual racism but institutional racism

  Unconscious discrimination as part of how school operates

  Critical race theory- sees racism as ingrained feature of society

  Means involves individual and institutional racism

  Roithmayr- institutional racism is locked in inequality

  Racism is so built in it no longer need to be conscious

  Gillborn- applies critical race theory to education

  Ethnic inequalities so deep rooted and large in education it’s practically inevitable feature
• Evaluation of institutional racism 


  Swell

  Racism is not as powerful in schools so not institutionalised

  Internal racism is not strong enough to stop individuals succeeding

  Also Chinese and Indian students statistically do better in schools

  Should focus on external factors
• Institutional racism- Marketisation and segregation 


  Gillborn-

  As select pupils, allows negative stereotypes to influence decisions

  Moore and Davenport

  Study- primary schools screened out pupils with language difficulties and applications difficult for non English speakers

  Commission for racial equality

  E/m ended up in worse schools because

  -primary schools stereotype e/m

  -racist bias in school interviews

  -lack of information and application forms in e/m languages

  -e/m parents unaware of how waiting list system works
• Institutional racism ethnocentric curriculum 


  Troyna and Williams

  European languages more widely taught than Asian

  David

  National curriculum is specifically British and ignored non-European cultures

  Ball

  NC ignores ethnic diversity and promotes ’little Englandism’

  Coard

  Produces Underachievement

  Image of black people as inferior reduces self-esteem
• Institutional racism- Assessment

  Gillborn

  assessment game is rigged to validate dominant cultures superiority

  If black children succeed rules will be changed to reengineer failure

  e.g. Baseline assessments to foundation stage profile

  Black students at disadvantage as FSP involves observations so stereotypes can interfere
• Institutional racism Access to opportunity 


  Gillborn

  Whites 2x more likely to be selected as black Caribbeans to be selected as gifted and talented

  Tikly

  30 schools in aim high initative to raise black Caribbean achievement where still more likely to be entered into lower exam tiers than whites

  Strands

  White-Black achievement gap in maths and science tests at 14

  Result of black pupils being systematically underrepresented in entry to higher exam tiers
• Institutional racism new IQism 


  Gillborn and Youdell

  Teachers and policymakers make false assumptions about nature of pupils ability and potential

  They see potential as fixed quantity and once measured pupil is put into ’right’ stream

  schools using old style of testing (IQ) to allocate pupils streams

  This is not measure of potential