Pupil Identities

Pupil identities (Archer, 2008)

AO1:

Teachers use dominant discourse → ethnic minority pupils are seen as lacking the “ideal pupil” identity.

Three constructed identities:

1. Ideal pupil: White, middle-class, masculinised, normal sexuality. Achieves through natural ability & initiative.

2. Pathologised pupil: Asian, “deserving poor”, feminised, asexual/ oppressed sexuality. Succeeds via hard work, culture-bound, plodding.

3. Demonised pupil: Black or white, working-class, hyper-sexualised, unintelligent, peer-led, under-achiever.

AO2:

Black students demonised: loud, challenging, hypersexual, home culture seen as ‘unaspirational’.

Asian girls pathologised: quiet, passive, docile; misbehaviour punished more severely (Shain, 2003).

AO3 / Links:

Links to labelling theory & teacher racism → self-fulfilling prophecy.

Explains ethnic differences in streaming, exclusions, and participation.

Connects to cultural capital: only middle-class, white ways of achieving are valued.

Chinese pupils and “negative positive stereotypes” (ARCHER & FRANCIS)

AO1:

Successful minority pupils may be pathologised → success is seen as “wrong” way.

Chinese pupils: quiet, hardworking, passive → praised but seen as abnormal.

Boys positioned as effeminate and subordinate; girls seen as passive due to “tight family”.

AO2:

Teachers see Chinese success as over-achievement, not natural ability.

Viewed as middle-class, conformist, obedient → can never be “ideal pupil”.

Archer & Francis (2007): “negative positive stereotype”.

AO3 / Links:

Links to ethnocentric school culture: middle-class white norms define legitimate success.

Connects to self-fulfilling prophecy and teacher expectations: success devalued → may affect confidence and identity.

Shows how even high-achieving minorities face systemic bias, complementing evidence from labelling, streaming, and pupil subcultures.

Key implications

AO1 / AO2:

Ethnic minority pupils’ achievements are filtered through teachers’ stereotypes, affecting how they are treated and recognised.

Asian girls, black students, Chinese pupils → treated differently, disciplined differently, praised differently.

AO3 / Links:

Reinforces internal school factors as contributors to ethnic differences in achievement.

Links to Archer 2008, 2010; Shain 2003; Archer & Francis 2007.

Connects to external factors: even with supportive home background, pupils still constrained by teacher perceptions and school culture.

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