Ethnic Differences

External factors

Cultural Deprivation – Intelligence &Linguistic skills – ethnic minority pupils lack the intellectual stimulation Engelmann – language spoken within black households is inadequate for educational success, it is ungrammatical, disjointed and incapable of expressing complex ideas. Not speaking English within the home also sets pupils back. Attitudes & Values – ethnic minority pupils are

socialised into a live for today attitude that doesn’t value education.

Family structure & Support – Moynihan Female LPF structure, mother struggles to support children financially, boys lack a positive male role model of achievement. Pryce – AC pupils are more likely to underachieve compared to Asian pupils as their culture is less cohesive and less resistant to racism. Resulting in low self-esteem. Father, gangs & culture – Sewell Lack of tough love means boys don’t overcome emotional and behavioural difficulties. Gangs offer loyalty and love in absence of fatherly love; boys have lots of pressure from anti-school peer groups to not ‘sell out’ to white establishment. Asian pupils outperform because they have high value for education and not an ‘MTV’ lifestyle. Asian Families – Lupton Adult role models within the home reflect schools. White W/C families – McCullohEthnic minorities are more likely to aspire to university than W W/C. This is due to a lack of family support. Lupton – whilst W W/C had fewer free school meals in comparison to Pakistanis but teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline among W W/C. Evans – W W/C street culture of intimidating others, happens within schools. Indian pupils do well despite not having English as a

first language. Theory of slavery affecting educational achievement

is outdated and makes incorrect assumptions that Asians weren’t affected by colonialism when they were – and more recent.

Gilborn – it is systematic racism that produces failure.

Parent blaming, especially on LPFs.

Driver - Black girls are given a positive role model of strong and independent women.

Cultural deprivation is victim blaming.

Material deprivation – Palmer½ ethnic minority pupils live in low-income homes2x as likely to be unemployedWork more lower wage jobs than whitesMore likely to live in economically deprived areasCultural traditions prevent women from workLack of language skills and foreign qualifications not recognised in the UK. Does class override ethnicity? - ModoodEven materially deprived Indian and Chinese girls managed to achieve a higher rate of A-C grades at GCSE in comparison to white girls (86% - 65%). Material deprivation has less impact on ethnic minorities.

Internal factors - Labelling & racism

Black pupils and discipline – Gilborn & YoudellTeachers are quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviour. This is a result of teacher’s ‘racialised expectations’, teachers expected and misinterpreted behaviour resulting in a SFP. Bourne – more exclusion among black minorities as schools find them more of a threat leading to SFP. Osler – more internal exclusions. Streaming – Gilborn & Youdell A-C economy, teacher’s racialised expectations resulted in putting black pupils in low sets. This also leads to SFP. Asian Pupils – WrightTeacher’s labelling impacts Asian pupils, they are left out of class discussions, teachers spoke to them childishly. Teachers saw them as a problem they could ignore rather than a threat. This caused Asians, especially, girls to feel marginalised. Pupil identities - ArcherIdeal pupil – White, M/C, masculine, achieving through ability. Pathologised – Asian ‘deserving poor’, feminine, culture bound overachiever. Demonised – black/white W/C, unintelligent, peer led, culturally deprived. Chinese pupils – Archer Achieved success in the wrong way, by being passive conformists rather than natural ability. Teachers wrongly stereotyped based on culture. Pupil responses and Subcultures – Fuller & GhaillFuller – black girls in London comprehensive school who used their labels to strive towards achieving, they did

not seek approval from teachers, relied on their own efforts. Ghaill – black and Asian A level students also rejected their negative labels. How they responded was based on their previous experiences and ethnic group. Failed strategies for avoiding racism – Mirza Teachers discouraged ambition through the advice the advice they gave about careers and options. Three types of teacher:Colour blind – races are equal, won’t challenge racism.Liberal chauvinists – black pupils are culturally deprived and have low expectations.Overt racists – believe white is superior.This meant that pupils picked which teachers to ask for help from and who’s lessons to take part in. Boy’s responses – Sewell Rebels – stereotype of anti-school, anti-authority, superiority based on sexual experiences. Conformists – conformed to schools values, keen to succeed, anxious to avoid stereotypes. Retreatists – disconnected from school and black culture, despised by rebels.Innovators – pro-education, anti-school, maintain credibility with rebels whilst remaining pro-school.

Rather than blaming background, focuses on how schools impact success.

Danger of seeing teachers as racist and not the whole school system.

Not all pupils internalise and accept their labels. Focuses heavily on responses of black pupils rather

than all ethnic minorities. Peer-pressure will make it hard to research

responses. Sewell argues that external factors are more

important e.g. peer groups, street culture, fathers.

Internal factors – institutional racism

Critical race theory – Carmichael & HamiltonRacism is an ingrained feature of society; it involves the intentional and unintentional actions. Locked-In inequality - Roithmayrthe scale of historical discrimination is so large that there no longer needs to be any conscious attempt discriminate. Marketisation and segregation – GilbornMarketisation gives schools the ability to ‘cream skim’ the best pupils, which aren’t ethnic minorities. This means they fail to get into better schools.

Moore & Devonport – primary school reports were used to screen out pupils with language difficulties and the application process was hard for non-English speaking parents. Ethnocentric curriculum Languages, literature and music – Troyna & Williams, lack of teaching Asian languages compared to European. History – Ball, ignoring ethnic diversity, only teaching English history whilst ignoring black and Asian history. Coard – history of colonialism to the ‘primitive’ may give black pupils low self-esteem. Assessment – GilbornAssessments are rigged to validate the dominant culture’s superiority. The baseline test given at 5 ranked black children as performing above average, by 2003 the new Foundation Stage Profiling, had black children ranked lowest in the 6 categories it measured. These ranks were based on teacher judgments. Access to opportunities ‘Gifted and talented’ – whites were 2x likely to be identified than Black Caribbeans. Exam tiers – Tikly, blacks were more likely than whites to be entered into lower tier exams. Strand – entry exams also reflected teacher expectations. New IQism – Gilborn Teachers and policy makers make false assumptions about the nature of pupil’s ability or potential. They see ability as something measureable e.g. IQ tests. Gilborn argues that there is no genuine measure for ability, a test only measures the past and now, not the future.

Sewell, racism is not strong enough within schools to prevent pupils from achieving.

Overachievement of other minorities – how does this suggest there is racism? If there was then all minorities would underachieve.

Gilborn responds saying that ethnic minority model students perform ideological functions making the education system seem fair.

Ethnicity, class and gender Evans – need to look at all factors rather than just ethnicity and culture.Connolly – pupils and teachers composed masculinity based on ethnicity e.g. teachers saw black boys as disruptive underachievers and pushed them towards sports. Whilst Asians were seen as immature and feminine who needed protection from bullying. Class and gender interact differently with different ethnic groups producing different responses.