Ethnic DEA- external factors

Wood

Found evidence of racism in job selection processes and therefore poverty amongst ethnic minorities is the result of racism in the job market.

Mason

Poverty in ethnic minorities is a result of structural racism.

Archer

Chinese British students said that racism from peers was an everyday experience.

Iberi

Racism in wider society led to African students to strive for success at school.

Evaluation of racism in wider society

Arguably a 'March of Progress' has occurred- there is less racism/ increase in equality of opportunity- as a result of changes in social attitudes and anti-discrimination laws. This links to material deprivation.

Platt

For all ethnic groups, those on FSM do not achieve as highly as those not on FSM. Ethnic groups with higher average wages such as Chinese have higher educational achievement. Bangladeshis achieve highly despite lower average wages.

Iberi

For all African students poverty acts as a catalyst to do well in education. Ethnic minority students are 2x more likely to be living in poverty than white British students with Pakistani and Bangladeshi being the most likely to be in poverty- over 50% in poverty.

Criticisms of material factors

Material deprivation cannot explain all the Ethnic DEA, for e.g. Indian and Chinese pupils who are materially deprived do better than most. For example, in 2011 86% of Chinese girls on FSM achieve 5 or more higher grade GCSEs-higher than other ethnic groups, including those not on FSM.

Modood

Wealth has less of an impact on ethnic minorities achievement than white british as it is less of an indicator of the education of the parents.

Archer

Chinese parents place a high value on education and are competitive with other ethnicities

Basit

Indian and Pakistani parents saw free education as a 'blessing'- they placed a high value on children's education.

Sewell

Blames the lack of achievement amongst African Caribbean boys students on the lack of a father figure and high levels of single mums, he argues boys turn to gangs without the discipline from their fathers. He sees family structure and stability as important for a child's education.

Lupton

Teachers reported poorer behaviour from white working class students than other ethnic groups, this was blamed on a lack of parental support.

DfE

Students who speak English as a second language did better in the EBacc than students who had English as their first language.

Moon and Ivins

Parental involvement was much higher among ethnic minorities than white British as they did not see it as the schools responsibility. 24% of all university applications are from ethnic minority students despite making up 18% of the population. Ethnic minority parents are much better at pushing their children into higher education.

Criticisms of cultural factors

It is a victim blaming explanation for differences in educational achievement.

Sewell puts the responsibility of educational attainment on ethnic groups themselves and diverts attention away from the real causes of Ethnic DEA- a racist society, institutional racism in schools and material deprivation.