External Factors And Ethnic Differences In Achievment

What does cultural deprivation theory see the underachievement of some ethnic groups as the result of?

Inadequate socialisation in the home.

What are the three main aspects of the cultural deprivation explanation?

• Intellectual and linguistic skills.

• Attitudes and values.

• Family structure and parental support.

What do cultural deprivation theorists argue about the lack of intellectual and linguistic skills?

It is seen as major cause of underachievement of many minority children. They argue that many children from low-income black families lack intellectual stimulation and enriching experiences, leaving them poorly equipped for school because they have not been able to develop reasoning and problem-solving skills.

Similar, what do Bereiter and Engelmann consider the language spoken by low-income black American families as?

Inadequate for educational success. They see it as ungrammatical, disjointed and incapable of expressing abstract ideas.

What concerns have there been for children who do not speak English at home?

Concerns that they may be held back educationally. However, official statistics show that this is not a major factor. For example, in 2010, pupils with English as their first language were only 3.2 points ahead of those without English as their first language when it came to gaining five GCSE A* - C passes including English and maths.

What do Gillborn and Mirza note?

That Indian pupils do very well despite often not having English as their home language.

What do cultural deprivation theorists see lack of motivation as?

A major cause of the failure of many black children.

What culture are most children socialised into?

Mainstream culture, which instils ambition, competitiveness and willingness to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve long-term goals. This equips them for success in education.

What do cultural deprivations therists argue some black children are socialised into?

A subculture that instils a fatalistic, ‘live for today‘ attitude that does not value education and leaves them unequipped for success. Cultural deprivation theorists argue that this failure to socialise children adequately is the result of a dysfunctional family structure.

What does Moynihan argue?

That because many black families are headed by a lone mother, their children are deprived of adequate care because she has to struggle financially in the absence of a male breadwinner. The father’s absence also means that boys lack an adequate role model of male achievement.

What does Moynihan see cultural deprivation as?

A cycle where inadequately socialised children from unstable families go on to fail at school and become inadequate parents themselves.

What does Murray argue?

That high rate of lone parenthood and lack of positive role models leads to the underachievement of some minorities.

What does Scruton see the low achievement levels of some ethnic minorities as resulting from?

A failure to embrace mainstream British culture.

What does Pryce see as contributing to the underachievement of black Caribbean pupils in Britain?

Family structure. From a comparison of Black and Asian pupils, he claims that Asians are higher achievers because their culture is more resistant to racism and gives them a greater sense of sef-worth. By contrast, he argues that black Caribbean culture is less cohesive and less resistant to racism. AS a result, many black pupils have low self-esteem and underachieve.

What does Pryce argue?

That the difference is the result of the different impact of colonialism on the two groups. He argues that the experience of slavery was culturally devastating for black people. Being transported and sold into slavery meant that they lost their language, religion and entire family system. By contrast, Asian family structures, languages and religion were not destroyed by colonial rule.

What does Sewell argue?

That it is not the absence of fathers as role models that leads to black boys underachieving, instead, he sees the problem as a lack of fatherly nurturing or ‘tough love‘ (firm, fair, respectful and non abusive discipline). This results in black boys finding it hard to overcome the emotional and behavioural difficulties of adolescence.

In the absence of the restraining influence of a nurturing father, what do street gangs offer fatherless boys?

‘rPeverse loyalty and love‘. These present boys with a media inspired role model of anti-school black masculinity, whos ideal Arnot describes as the ‘ultra-tough ghetto superstar, an image constantly reinforced through rap lyrics and MTV videos‘.

What are many black boys subject to?

Powerful anti-educational peer group pressure: most of the academically successful black boys that Sewell interviewed felt that the greater barrier to their success was pressure from other boys. Speaking in standard English and doing well at school were often viewed with suspicion by their peers and seen as ‘selling out‘ to the white establishment.

What does Sewell argue about Black students doing worse than their Asian counterparts?

He argues that black students do worse than their Asian counterparts because of cultural differences in socialisation and attitudes to education. As he puts it, while one group is being nurtured by MTV, the other is clocking up the educational hours. Sewell concludes that black children, particularly the boys need to have greater expectations placed on them to raise their aspirations,

What do critical race theorists such as Gillborn argue?

That it is not peer pressure but institutional racism within the education system itself that systemically produces the failure of large numbers of black boys.

While many black families have absent fathers, in Sewell’s view, what did Indian and Chinese pupils benefit from>

Supportive families that have an ‘Asian work ethic‘ and place a high value on education.

What does Lupton argue?

That adult authority in Asian families is similar to the model that operates in schools. She found that the respectful behaviour towards adults was expected from children. This had a knock-on effect in school, since parents were more likely to be supportive of school behaviour policies.

What has most research focused on black families as?

Possible causes of underachievement, however white working class pupils often underachieve and have lower aspirations.

What did a survey of 16,000 pupils by McCulloch find?

That ethnic minority pupils are more likely to aspire to go to university than white British pupils.

What may the low levels of aspirations and achievement in WC pupils be a result of?

A lack of parental support. For example, Lupton studied four mainly WC schools - two predominantly white, one second a largely Pakistani community and the fourth drawing pupils from an ethnically mixed community.

What were the findings of Lupton?

Teachers supported poorer levels of behaviour in the white working-class schools - despite the fact that they had fewer children on FSM. Teachers blamed this is lower levels of parental support and the negative attitude that white working-class parents had towards education. By contrast, ethnic minority parents were more likely to see education as ‘a way up in society‘.

What does Evans argue?

That street culture in white working-class areas can be brutal and so young people have to learn how to withstand intimidations and intimidate others. In this context, school can become a place where the power games that young people engage in on the street are played out again, bringing disruption and making it hard for pupils to succeed.

What is the main policy thta has been adopted to tackle cultural deprivation?

Compensatory education.

Why does Driver criticise cultural deprivation theory?

For ignoring the positive effects of ethnicity on achievement. He shows that the black Caribbean family, far from being dysfunctional, provides girls with positive role models of strong, independent women. He argues this is why black girls tend to be more successful in education than boys.

What does Lawrence challenge?

Pryce’s view that black pupils fail because their culture is weak and they lack self-esteem. He argues that black pupils underachieve not because of low self-esteem, but because of racism.

What does Keddie see cultural deprivation theory as?

A victim blaming explanation. She argues that ethnic minority children are culturally different, not deprived. They underachieve because schools are ethnocentric: biased in favour of white culture and against minorities.

Why do critics oppose compensatory education?

Because they see it as an attempt to impose the dominant white culture on children who already have a coherent culture of their own, they propose two alternatives.

What are the two alternatives proposed by compensatory education critics:

• Multicultural education.

• Anti-racist education.

What is multicultural eucation?

A policy that recognises and values minority cultures and includes them in the curriculum.

What is anti-racist education?

A policy that challenges the prejudice and discrimination that exists in schools and wider society.

What does material deprivation mean?

A lack of those physical necessities that are seen as essential or normal for life in today’s society.

In general, what are ethnic minorities more likely to face?

Problems with material deprivation, according to Palmer:

• Almost half of all ethnic minority children live in low-income households, as against a quarter of white children.

• Ethnic minorities are around three times as likely to be unemployed compared with whites.

• Ethnic minority households are around three times as likely to be homeless.

• Almost half of Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earned under £7 an hour, compared with only a quarter of white British workers.

In addition, what are ethnic minority workers more likely to be engaged in?

Shift work, and Bangladeshi and Pakistani women are more likely than others to be engaged in low-income homeworking.

What are some of the reasons why some ethnic minorities may be at greater risk of the material deprivation that results from low pay, unemployment and overcrowding?

• Many live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wage rates.

• Asylum seekers may not be allowed to take work.

• Racial discrimination in the labour and housing market.

• A lack of language skills, and foreign qualifications not being recognised by employers.

What are such inequalities reflected in?

The proportion of children from different ethnic groups who are eligible for FSM. The material deprivation explanation argues that such class differences explain why Pakistani pupils tend to do worse than Indian and White pupils. Indian pupils, whose achievements are generally above average, are likely to be from better-off backgrounds.

If we fail to take the difference class positions of ethnic groups into account when we compare their educational achievements, what is there a danger of?

That we may over-estimate the effect of cultural deprivation and under-estimate the effect of poverty and material deprivation. However, even those Indian and Chinese pupils who are materially deprived still do better than most. For example, in 2011, 86% of Chinese girls who received FSM achieved five or more higher GCSE grades, compared with only 65% of white girls who weren’t receiving FSM.

What does Chinese students excelling regardless of material deprivation and social class suggest?

That material deprivation and social class factors do not completely override the influence of ethnicity.

What did Modood find?

That while children from low-income families generally did less well, the effects of low income were much less for other ethnic groups than for white pupils.

While material deprivation and poverty has an impact on the educational achievement of some ethnic minority children, what do some sociologists argue?

That poverty is itself the product of another factor - namely, racism. As Mason puts it, ‘discrimination is a continuing and persistent feature of the experience of Britain’s citizens of minority ethnic origin.‘

What does Rex show?

How racial discrimination leads to social exclusion and how this worsens the poverty faced by ethnic minorities. In housing for instance, discrimination means that minorities are more likely to be forced into substandard accommodation than white people of the same class.

In employment, what is there evidence of?

Direct and deliberate discrimination. For example, Wood et al (2010) sent three closely matched job applications to each of almost 1,000 job vacancies. These came from fictitious applicants using names associated with different ethnic groups. For each job, one application appeared to come from a white person and two from members of minority groups. Wood et al found that only one in 16 'ethnic minority' applications were offered an interview, as against one in nine 'white' applications.

This helps to explain why members of ethnic minorities are more likely to face unemployment and low pay, and this in turn has a negative effect on their children's educational prospects.