Internal Factors - Ethnicity

Ethnic Differences in Educational Achievement

What are the internal factors of ethnic differences in educational achievement?

• labelling & responses

• institutional racism

What are the aspects of labelling & responses?

• teacher labelling

• pupil identities

• pupil responses to teacher racism & labelling

What are the three types of pupil identity (Archer)?

• ideal pupil

• pathologised pupil

• demonised pupil

What is the “ideal pupil” identity?

• White

• middle class

• achieves in the “right” way

What is the “pathologised pupil” identity?

• Asian

• achieves through hard work rather than natural ability

What is the “demonised pupil” identity?

• Black or White

• working class

• unintelligent

• culturally deprived

What are the three groups of teachers (Mirza)?

• the colour blind

• the liberal chauvinists

• the overt racists

What are the pupil responses to teacher racism & labelling (Fuller & Mirza)?

• rejection of labels (Fuller)

• failed coping strategies (Mirza)

What is the ethnocentric curriculum?

• ethnocentricity is an attitude or policy that prioritises one ethnic group

• an “ethnocentric curriculum” reflects one culture while neglecting others

• non-European culture, literature, and music are ignored

• Black students’ self-esteem is undermined when Black people are presented as inferior as as victims in history

What are the aspects of institutional racism?

• critical race theory

• marketisation & segregation

• ethnocentric curriculum

• assessment/FSPs

• access to opportunities

• new IQism

• exclusions/behaviour policies

• uniform policies

What is critical race theory?

a longstanding academic field that is interested in how institutions have a role in reproducing racial inequality

What is marketisation & segregation?

• competition between schools has increased

• parents have been treated as “consumers” who chose their children’s schools

• schools now have the power to be selective about the students they allow to study at their school

• ethnic minority students tend to be excluded by schools’ selectiveness

• information about admission procedures often is not available in languages other than English, making it not accessible for many ethnic minority parents