Ethnicity in Education

Language skills

Low income black families lack intellectual stimulation, so underachievers. Lacking fluent English is a barrier to education

Family structure

Lack of parental support, boys raised without father, Asian parents push kids harder

Sewell theory

Black families with only mother struggle financially and boys lack male role model, don’t value education

Cultural attitudes

Sewell, Cultural differences lead to black boys not valuing education. Black children more likely to have a fatalities POV

Ballard theory

Asian families have higher expectations of children

Material deprivation, Palmer

½ ethnicity minority children live in low income housing, 2x likely to be unemployed, 3x likely to become homeless

Racism in wider society

Ethnic minorites face discrimination at work, housing etc. Noon, Evans vs Patel job application

Genetic factors, Murray and Hernstein

The bell curve, white Americans have higher IQ that black Americans

Murray theory

High rates of low parent families lead to lack of male role models and boys having no motivation

Bourdieu theory

Ethnic minorities lack white MC cultural capital, so underachieve

Bernstein theory

Speech, People with English 2nd language more likely to use restricted code, limits achievment

External factors

Factors outside of school

Labelling of Ethnic minorities

Black pupils as unintelligent and rebellious, Asian pupils as successful down to parents

Pupils subculture, Sewell

Conformists-Keen to succeed, follow school values

Innovators

Retreatists

Rebels-Reject school values, conform to black macho stereotype

Marketisation, Gillborn

Schools select high achieving students to make themselves look better, mostly white.

Ethnocentric curriculum, David

National Curriculum only teaches white British culture, makes other feel inferior

Example of ethnocentric curriculum

White/European languages taught, British History taught.

Selection and Segregation, Gillborn

Ethnic minorities less likely to be identified as gifted and talented

New IQism, teqchers base sets on behaviour and ability

Fuller study

Yr11 Black girls in London, disproved labels given to them and achieved highly.

Archer theory

Teacher treatment, Ideal pupils (White MC), Pathologised pupils (Asian, feminine), Demonized pupils (Black White WC)

Wright study

Asian primary school kids stereotyped as having poor English and as being a problem

Gillborn and You dell study

Studied black students, Primary school were ahead average, GCSE were behind

Ethnic minority group that achieves best

Chinese and Indian