ethnicity in education

• What is the relationship between ethnicity and GCSE performance?

  Pakistani, Black Carribbean and Roma Sinti are the only ethnic groups under the national average achievement of 5A*-C

  The highest achieving group is Chinese and Indian students
• What are the three main areas of cultural deprivation?

  intellectual and linguistic skills

  attitudes and values

  family structure and parental support
• External factors?


  cultural deprivation

  material deprivation

  racism in wider society
• Internal factors?


  labelling and teacher racism

  pupil identities

  pupil responses and subcultures

  institutional racism
• How do intellectual and linguistic skills influence achievement?

  suggests that many children from low-income black families lack intellectual stimulation and enriching families, leaving them poorly equipped for school because they have not been able to develop reasoning and problem solving skills
• How do attitudes and values influence achievement?

  Theorists cite lacking motivation as the major cause of failure for black children. Most children in mainstream culture are socialised to ambition, competitiveness and deferred gratification, whereas black children's culture socialises them into fatalistic 'live for today' attitudes that do not value education
• Intellectual and linguistic skills - sociologists?

  Bereiter and Engelmann: consider language spoken by low-income black american families as academically inadequate - ungrammatical, disjointed and incapable of expressing abstract ideas

  Gilborn and Mirza: note indian pupils do well despite not having english as a first language
• Intellectual and linguistic skills - statistics?

  2010: pupils with English as a first language were only 3.2 point ahead of those withouth (55.2% to 52%) when gaining 5A*-C GCSEs
• Family structure and parental support - sociologists?

  Moynihan - argues that because many black families are female lone parent families, children are deprived of care with the woman to be the breadwinner. They also lack a model of male achievement. This becomes cyclical.

  Murray - argues a high rate of lone parenthood/lack of a male role model leads to the underachievement of minorities
• What is institutional racism?

  discrimination that is built into the way institutions such as school and colleges operate
• What is critical race theory?

  Explains that racism is deeply ingrained into society through institutions not simply the actions of individuals
• Who defined institutional racism?


  Stockley Carmichael and Charles Hamilton
• What is the ethnocentric curriculum?

  The idea that our curriculum is centered around 'britishness', for example:

  teaching about British history

  learning European languages

  learning western music and sport

  having breaks for just Christian holidays
• The ethnocentric curriculum - sociologists?

  Troyna and Williams - the provisions for non-western languages is meagre

  Miriam David - describes the National Curriculum as 'specifically British' curriculum that largely ignores non-European language/music

  Ball - critcises the National Curriculum for ignoring ethnic diversity and for promoting an attitude of 'little Englandism'
• Marketisation and segregation - why may schools prioritise some ethnicities?

  Already prejudiced reports from primary schools

  racial bias at interviews for school places

  lack of information and application forms in foreign languages

  BEM parents may not be familiar with the system
• Marketisation and segregation - sociologists?

  Gillborn: argues marketisation gives schools more scope to select pupils, it allows negative stereotypes to influence decisions about school admissions

  Moore/Davenport: researched how selection procedures can lead to ethnic segregation, with minority pupils failing to get into better secondary schools due to discrimination. They found primary school reports were used to screen out pupils with language difficulties. The application was difficult to understand. They conclude it is an ethnically stratified education system.
• Who investigated marketisation and segregation?

  The commission for Racial Inequality
• Who did Mirza study?

  ambitious Black girls who didn't achieve their academic aims
• Who did Sewell (1998) study?

  studied Black boys' strategies to cope with racism, finding 4 categories
• Who did Fuller (1984) study?

  studied group of high achieving Black girls in London comprehensive
• What did Wright (1992) study?

  Brings awareness of how Asian pupils can be negatively affected by labelling
• What three types of teachers did Mirza find?

  Colourblind - believed all students were equal but allowed racism to go unchallenged

  Liberal Chauvinists - believed Black pupils are culturally deprived and have low expectations of them

  Overt racists - believed Black pupils are inferior and actively discriminate
• What four categories of pupils did Sewell find?

  The Rebels - small but influential group who openly hated school, often excluded

  The Conformists - largest group who tried to fit in/ avoid being stereotyped

  The Retreatists - smallest group, isolated from school and subcultures, despised by rebels

  The Innovators - second largest group, were anti-school but pro-educated
• What did Fuller find?

  These girls were the exception because most Black girls were in lower sets

  The girls challenged their labels by striving for educational achievement

  Unlike other high achievers, they didn't seek teacher approval
• What did Wright find?


  Her primary school study found that teachers often assumed a poor grasp o English, leading them to being talked to simplistically/left out of class discussions

  Teachers expressed disapproval of their customs and got annoyed when they mispronounced their names