Ethnicity

Murray

• Cultural.

• External.

• Murray argued that the growth of the “underclass” — people dependent on welfare benefits — has led to poor socialisation of children.

• Children from these backgrounds often lack discipline, motivation, and respect for authority, which affects their educational achievement.

• The bell curve of IQ.

• ‘Chinese students do better due to higher IQ’ and ‘black people have a lower IQ’.

Bourdieu

• External.

• Cultural.

• Cultural capital may be low for ethnic minorities.

Ballard

External.

Cultural.

Brixton uprising 1981.

Swan report 1985 = some minorities have greater parental support.

E.g. Asian families are close knit with high parental involvement.

Sewell

Internal. 

Looked at strategies for black pupils to deal with racism.

Teachers stereotyped black boys to be misbehaved, rebellious and anti-school.

Conformists = largest group, keen to do well and succeed.

Rebels = most visible group who were mostly excluded, rejected goals of the school and those who shared goals with the school.

Retreatists = small minority of individuals that are disconnected from school and black subcultures.

Innovators = second largest group who were pro education but anti-school, valued success but did not seek for teacher’s approval, conformed as far as school work went.

Bernstein

• External.

• Cultural.

• Restricted code of speech.

• Elaborate code of speech.

Troyna and Williams

• Internal.

• ‘Black speech’ = Jamaican patois.

• Seen as slowest level of speech.

Gillborn and Youdell

• Internal.

• Racist labelling in classrooms.

• Teachers are quicker to discipline black students.

• Gillborn = schools screen out individuals with language difficulties for marketisation and selection.

David

Internal.

Ethnocentric curriculum.

English uniform, European languages, history, Christian holidays, sports, food. 

Wright

Internal.

Studied multi-ethnic primary schools.

Shows how Asian students can be victims of labelling.

Teachers assume they have poor grasp of English so are left out of discussions.

Pupils felt isolated when teachers showed disapproval of their customs or mispronounced their names.

Not a threat but ignored.

Archer

Internal.

Teacher’s dominant discourse constructs 3 different identities.

Ideal pupil = MC, masculine.

Pathologised pupil = Asian, feminine, high achievement due to hard work not ability.

Demonised pupil = Black or WC, unintelligent and culturally deprived.