Ethnicity External Factors

• • Chinese and Indian pupils perform above average
  • Black Caribbean pupils perform below average
  • White pupils perform within average range
  • In all ethnic groups middle class do better than working class
• Intellectual and linguistic skills

  • Many children from low income black families lack intellectual stimulation leaving them poorly equipped for school as they have not been able to develop problem-solving skills
  • Bereiter and Englemann consider the language spoken by these children as inadequate for educational success - ungrammatical and disjointed
  • In some Asian households, English is not the first language used and is a significant problem for some people. Amongst women in a PSI study, 1/5 of Pakistanti's and Bangladeshi's were not fluent
• Evaluation of intellectual and linguistic skills

  • Gillbourn and Mirza point out that the very high attainment of Indian pupils suggests that having English as an additional language is not a barrier to success
• Attitudes and values

  • Rather than being socialised into the mainstream culture which instills ambition and deferred gratification cultural deprivation theorists suggests black children are socialised into their own subculture
  • It instills a 'live for today' attitude that does not value education and leaves them unequipped for success
• Family structure and parental support

  • Moynihan - many black families are headed by lone mothers and lack adequate care due to financial struggle which leads to long work hours. Males also lack a male role model for achievement
  • Children therefore fail and school and the parenting cycle continues
  • Murray and Scruton support this theory
  • HOWEVER - Driver argues positive effects of ethnicity on achievement are ignored. Black caribbean families provide girls with strong independent women figures which explains why they overachieve in comparison to boys
• Sewell - black boys underachievement

  • Absence of 'tough love' makes black boys find it difficult to overcome the emotional and behavioural difficulties of adolescence
  • They turn to street gangs and Arno states they develop an 'ultra-tough ghetto superstar' image reinforced through the media such as rap lyrics and MTV
  • They are subject to powerful anti-educational peer group pressure
  • Successful black boys that Sewell interviewed felt that the greatest barrier to success was pressure from other boys
  • Doing well at school was seen as 'selling out' to the white establishment
• Ken Pryce

  • Asians are more resistant to racism and have higher self worth
  • Black caribbean culture is less cohesive and less resistant
  • The impact of slavery has been culturally devastating with people losing their language, religions and family structure - produces low self esteem and consequent underachievement
  • HOWEVER - Lawrence argues black pupils underachieve not because of low self esteem but due to racism
• Driver and Ballard - South Asian parents have high aspirations for their children's education despite having little formal education themselves
• Pilkington - cohesiveness of Asian families

  • Assists educational achievement
  • African caribbeans may have family cultures that are not as conductive to educational support
  • HOWEVER - Gillbourn and Mirza argue that research shows that African-Caribbean pupils receive greater encouragement to pursue further education than other ethnic groups
• Lupton - white working class students

  • Lowest achievers with lowest aspirations
  • Teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline in white working class schools - blamed on lower levels of parental support and their negative attitudes towards education
  • In contrast, many ethnic minorities see education as a route to upward social mobility
  • Street culture can be brutal and young people have to learn to withstand intimidation and intimidate others - reproduced within schools
• Palmer - ethnic minorities more likely to experience material deprivation

  • 1/2 live in low income households
  • Twice as likely to be unemployed compared to whites
  • Three times more likely to be homeless
  • Bangladeshi and Pakistani women more likely to be engaged in low paid home working
• Why do ethnic minorities face material deprivation?

  • They live in economically depressed areas
  • Some cultural traditions prevent women from working outside the home - purdah
  • Lack of language skills and foreign qualifications
  • Asylum seekers not allowed to work
• Evaluation of material deprivation

  • Those who are ethnic minority and on FSM achieve higher than white British pupils not on FSM
  • Material deprivation and social class factors do not completely override the influence of ethnicity
• Racism in wider society

  • Mason - discrimination is a continuing and persistent feature of the experience of Britain's citizens of minority ethnic origin
  • Rex shows how racial discrimination leads to social exclusion and worsens poverty faced by ethnic minorities
  • Wood - study of direct and deliberate discrimination in employment - 3 closely matched job applications to employers and only 1 in 16 ethnic minority applicants were offered an interview compared to 1 in 9 white applicants