Ethnicity in education

Describe the cultural deprivation theory according to ethnicity

It sees the underachievement of some ethnic groups as the result of inadequate socialization in the home. The explanation has 3 main aspects

Intellectual and linguistic skills

Attitudes and values

Family structure and parental support

Describe attitudes and values

Cultural deprivation theorists see lack of motivation as a major cause of underachievement Most children are socialised into the mainstream culture which instils ambition and a willingness to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve long term goals. This equips them for success in education. By contrast cultural deprivation theorists argue that some black children are socialised into a subculture that instils fatalistic attitude that doesn't value education.

but studies have shown that minority ethnic group pupils tend to have higher aspirations. Platt and Parsons found that among 7-14 year olds, minority ethnic group girls and boys had higher career aspirations than their white counterparts and were more likely to aspire to highly paid jobs. this shows that minority group families are not socialising their children into low aspirations. Platt and parsons found that the gap was particularly large between minority group girls and white girls.

archer et al found that minority ethnic group students identified racism rather than low aspirations as a major barrier to achieving their goals.

Describe intellectual and linguistic skills

Cultural deprivation theorists see the lack of intellectual and linguistic skills as a major cause of underachievement. They argue that children from low income black families lack intellectual stimulation and enriching experiences. This leaves them poorly equipped for school due to the lack of developed problem solving schools.

Bereiter and Engelmann consider language spoken by low income black families as inadequate for educational success and see it ungrammatical.

but critics such as labov reject this view and see it as perfectly logical.

There is also concern that children who do not speak English at home may be held back educationally. But official statistics on attainment 8 scores show that in 2018 pupils whose first language is not English perform slightly better (47.2 points) than those who speak english at home (46.5).

describe linguistic violence

Bell sees views such as Bereiter and Engelmann's as "anti-black linguistic racism" which labels black language as inferior and white as superior.. she argues they are equally valid but white mainstream english dominates in the education system and wider society. she describes this as linguistic violence.

criticism of the language factor

language may not be as important in explaining underachievement as some claim. for example. demie and Mclean found that language barriers and literacy levels for black Caribbean students came well behind internal factors such as teacher expectations.

describe family structure and parental support

cultural deprivation theorists argue that this failure to socialise children adequately is the result of a dysfunctional family structure. for example Moynihan argues that because many black families are headed by a lone mother their children are deprived of adequate care as 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.

Moynihan sees cultural deprivation as a cycle where inadequately socialised children from unstable families go on to fail at school and become inadequate parents themselves.

criticism of family structure and parental support

Driver criticises cultural deprivation theorists for ignoring the positive effects of black family structures on achievement. he shows that the black Caribbean family, far from being dysfunctional, provides girls with positive role models of strong independent women. Driver argues that this is why black girls tend to be more successful in education than black boys.

Describe sewell's deficit view

He argues that the problem is a lack of a fatherly nurturing or "tough love" which results in black boys finding it hard to overcome the emotional and behavioural difficulties of adolescence.

On the absence of the restraining influence of a nurturing father, street gangs of other fatherless boys offer black boys "perverse loyalty and love" these present boys with a media- inspired role model of antischool black masculinity reinforced by mtv videos and rap

What did Sewell find was the biggest barrier to success

Most of the academically successful black Boyd that Sewell interviewed felt that the greatest barrier to success was pressure from other boys.

Speaking in standard English and doing well in school were often viewed with suspicion by their peers and seen as "selling out" to the white establishment.

What does Sewell claim as reasons why black students do worse than their Asian counterparts

Due to cultural differences in socialisation and attitudes to education. He puts it as one group is nurtured by mtv the other is clocking up educational hours. Sewell concludes that black children particularly the boys need to have greater expectations placed on them to raise their aspirations.

Criticism of Sewell

He is accused of downplaying the impact of racism. For example critical race theorists such as gillborn argue that it is not peer pressure or absent fathers but institutional racism in the education system that systematically produces the failure of large numbers of black boys.

Describe Asian families

In Sewell's view Indian and Chinese pupils benefit from supportive families that have an "Asian work ethic" and place higher value on education.

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

However there is a danger of overgeneralising about Asian success

Describe white working families

White working class pupils often underachieve and have lower aspirations, McCulloch found that minority ethnic group pupils are more likely to aspire to go to university than white pupils.

This low level of aspiration and achievement may be the result of a lack of parental support. Lupton found that teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline in the white working class schools despite the fact that they had fewer children on free school meals. Teachers blamed this on lower levels of parental support and the negative attitude white working class parents had to education. In contrast minority ethnic groups were likely to see education as "a way up in society"

What did Evans argue about street culture in white working class areas

They can be brutal and so young people have to learn how to withstand intimidation and how to intimidate others. 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 people to succeed

Describe compensatory education

The main policy approach adopted to tackle cultural deprivation has been compensatory education. For example the aiming higher scheme focused on increasing the participation of minority ethnic groups in higher education

Archer et al note its emphasis was on "fixing" individuals' supposedly low aspirations such as through learning mentors

Criticisms of cultural deprivation theory

• Keddie argues that w/c children are not culturally deprived, but they are culturally different.- victim blaming situation. They underachieve as schools are ethnocentric: biased in favour of the dominant white culture

○ Many think they are culturally deprived is because they are put in a disadvantage.

• Troyna and William (1986) argue that school's attitudes is the problem, particularly the speech hierarchy.

• Blackstone and Mortimore (1994) argue that w/c parents attends fewer parents evening because of inadequate educational knowledge or the job hours overlaps the hours of parents evening.

• Critics argue that many w/c children do have the motivation to work hard and have educational success but they are labelled a certain way - defer gratification.

what is material deprivation

· Material deprivation is the lack of physical necessities that are seen as essential in society. Working class are more likely to face poverty.

They view educational failure as resulting from factorssuch as housing and income. Ethnic minorities are often more likely to experience these problems

what does palmer say about material deorivation and ethnicity

· According to palmer:

1. almost half of all ethnic minority children live in low income households which contrasts a quarter of white children.

2. Ethnic minorities are almost twice as likely to be unemployed compared with whites.

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

Also ethnic minority workers are more likely to be engaged in shift work, and Bangladeshi and Pakistani women are more likely than others to be engaged in low paid homeworking

why are some ethnic minorities at greater risk of material deprivation

· A lack of language skills, and foreign qualifications not being recognised by uk employers. These are more likely to affect recently arrived groups, many of whom are refugees. Most members of established minority groups are fluent in English.

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

Racial discrimination in the labour market and housing market

how are these inequalities reflected

the proportion of children from different ethnic groups who are eligible for free school meals. On average Bangladeshi, black African and Pakistani students are the most entitled to free school meals. With 45% of Bangladeshi students receive fsm.

describe class and ethnicity

· Even those Indian and Chinese pupils who are materially deprived still do better than most. In 2011, 86% of Chinese girls who received FSM achieved 5 or more higher grade GCSEs compared with only 65% of white girls who weren't receiving FSM.

This suggests that material deprivation and social class factors do not completely override the influence of ethnicity. For example Modood found 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.

describe racism in wider society

· Some sociologists say that poverty is itself the product of another factor- racism.

· Rex shows how racial discrimination leads to social exclusion and how this worsens the poverty faced by ethnic minorities. Such as for housing discrimination means that minorities are more likely to be forced into substandard accommodation than white people of the same class.

· In employment there is evidence of direct and deliberate discrimination. Woods et al found that only 16 ethnic minority applications were offered an interview as against one in nine "white" applications.

· This explains 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.

describe internal factors- labelling identities and response

· Mirza and Gillborn stated that black children were the highest achievers on entry to primary school (20 percentage points above local average) but by the time it came to GCSE they had the worst results of any ethnic groups- 21 points below average

· Strand's analysis of over 530000 7-11-year-olds show how many black pupils fall far behind after starting school. He found that black Caribbean boys not entitled to FSM made significantly less progress than their white peers.

describe labelling

· Interactionists focus on the different labels teachers give to children from different ethnic backgrounds.

· Their studies show that teachers often see black and Asian pupils as being far from the "ideal pupil". For example, black pupils are being seen as disruptive and Asian pupils as passive.

· Negative labels may lead teachers to treat ethnic minority pupils differently. This disadvantages them and may result in their failure.

describe black pupils and dsicipline- gillborn and youdell

· Gillborn and Youdell found that teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviours.

· Gillborn and Youdell argue that this is the result of racialised expectations. They found that teachers expected black pupils to present more behavioural problems and misinterpret their behaviour as threatening. When teachers acted on this misperception the pupils responded negatively, and further conflict resulted. In turn black pupils felt teachers underestimated their ability and picked on them. Gillborn and Youdell concluded that most conflict is a result of racial stereotypes teachers hold rather than the pupil's actual behaviour.

· This may explain the higher level of exclusions from school of black boys. Bourne found schools tend to find black boys as a threat and to label them negatively which results in exclusion.

what does osler say about black boys and exclusion

- in addition to higher rates of official exclusion black pupils appear more likely to suffer from unrecorded unofficial exclusions and from internal exclusions when they are sent out of class

describe black boys and streaming

· Foster found that teachers' stereotypes of black pupils as badly behaved could result in them being placed in lower sets than other pupils of similar ability. Streaming black pupils on the basis of negative steretypes about their ability or behaviour can result in a SFP of underachievement.

describe asian pupils

· Wright found that Asian pupils can also be the victim of teachers' labelling. She found that despite the school's apparent commitment to equal opportunities, teachers held ethnocentric views: they took for granted that British culture and Standard English were superior.

· This affected how they related to Asian pupils. Asian pupils also felt isolated when teachers expressed disapproval of their customs or mispronounced their names. Teachers didn't see them as a threat but as a problem they could ignore. The effect was that Asian pupil, especially the girls were marginalised and prevented from participating fully.

describe pupil identities

· Teachers often define pupils as having stereotypical ethnic identities. According to Archer, teachers' dominant discourse defines ethnic minority pupils' identities as lacking the favoured identity of the ideal pupil.· Archer describes how the dominant discourse constructs three different pupil identities:

what is the ideal pupil identity

The ideal pupil identity- a white, middle class, masculinised identity with normal sexuality. This pupil is seen as achieving in the right way through natural ability and initiative

what is the pathologized pupil identity

The pathologized pupil identity- an Asian, "deserving poor", feminised identity, either asexual or with an oppressed sexuality. This pupil is seen as a plodding conformist and culture bound "over- achiever" who achieves through hard work rather than natural ability

what is the demonised pupil identity

Ø The demonised pupil identity- a black or white w/c, hypersexualised identity. This pupil is seen as unintelligent, peer led, culturally deprived underachiever.

how does archer view the pupil identities

· For Archer, ethnic minority pupils are likely to be seen as either demonised or pathologized pupils. Archer also found that teachers stereotyped Asian girls as quiet, passive or docile.

what does shain say about when asian girls challenge the stereotype

· Shain notes when Asian girls challenge this stereotype by misbehaving, they are often dealt more severely than other pupils.

describe chinese pupils

· Archer argues that even those minority pupils who perform successfully can be pathologized such as Chinese students were simultaneously praised and viewed negatively by teachers who saw them as passive and quiet.

· Despite being successful, Chinese students were seen as achieving success the "wrong way"- through hardworking, passive conformism rather than natural ability.

· This meant they could never actually achieve the title of an "ideal pupil"

· Archer and Francis sum up the teachers' view of them as a "negative positive stereotype"

· Teachers stereotyped Chinese families as "tight" and "close" and used this to explain the girls' supposed passivity. Teachers also tended to wrongly stereotype their Chinese students as middle class.

Archer notes that the successes of ethnic minority and female student will only be seen as "over achievement" as "proper" achievement is seen to be the natural preserve of the privileged, white, middle class ideal pupil

describe pupil resposnes and subcultures

· Research shows that students may respond to labelling in a variety of ways. This includes becoming withdrawn and disruptive or pupils may refuse to accept the label they have been given and prove it wrong.

describe rejecting negative labels- Mac an ghaill and fuller

Fuller and Mac an Ghaill: rejecting negative labels

· Fuller (1984): Black girls in year 11 of a comprehensive school. Rejected labels and channelled their anger in to educational success. They worked hard, but gave the appearance that they were not. They did not seek approval of teachers and relied on their own efforts.

· Mac an Ghaill (1992): study of Black and Asian A level students. They did not accept their labels. Rather they developed 'survival strategies' e.g. helping one another with work.

describe failed strategies to avoid racism

· Girls were held back by the misguided behaviour of most of the teachers, and in particular the power the teachers could exercise over them. They tried to avoid racist teachers and got on with their work without asking for help which had a negative impact on their achievement.

what are the 3 types of teacher racism

· Mirza identified 3 types of teacher racism:

· The colour blind- teachers who believe all pupils are equal but in practice allow racism to go unchallenged.

· The liberal chauvinists- teachers who believe black pupils are culturally deprived and have low expectations of them.

The overt racism- teachers who believe blacks are inferior and actively discriminate against them

what did sewell identify as how black boys respond to steretypes

· Rebels- were the most visible and influential group but were only a small minority of black pupils. They were often excluded from school and rejected their goals and morals. They expressed this through peer group membership, conforming to the stereotype of the anti-authority, anti-school "black macho lad". The rebels believed in their own superiority based on the idea that black masculinity equates with sexual experience and virility. They were contemptuous of white boys who they saw as unmanly.

· Conformists- were the largest group. These boys were keen to succeed, accepted the school's goals and had friends from different ethnic groups. They were not part of a subculture and were anxious to avoid being stereotyped by teachers or peers.

· Retreatists- a tiny minority of isolated individuals who were disconnected from both school and black subculture and were despised by the rebels.

· Innovators- the second largest group and are pro education but anti school. They value success but did not seek the approval of teachers and conformed only as far schoolwork was concerned. This distanced themselves from the conformists and allowed them to maintain credibility with the rebels while remaining positive about academic achievement.

what does sewell note about the label of the black macho lad

Sewell notes that only a small minority of boys fit the 'black macho lad' however teachers see them in this way, and it contributes to the underachievement of many boys. He argues factors OUTSIDE school are more important such as street culture and the lack of a nurturing father figure

strengths of the labelling and pupil response

Doesn't blame background and explores how teachers' stereotypes can be a cause of failure

limitations fo labelling and pupil response

· Assume stereotypes are individual teachers' prejudices, rather than of racism in the way that the education system is run e.g A-C economy which leads to large numbers of black and working-class pupils being placed in lower streams or entered for lower-tier exams.

· Assumes that once labelled, pupils automatically fall victim to the self-fulfilling prophecy and fail

· As Mirza shows although pupils may devise strategies to try and avoid teacher racism these too can limit their opportunities.

· Ignores external factors such as cultural deprivation and racism in society.

describe internal factors - institutional racism

Troyna and Williams (1968): argue that explanations of ethnic differences in achievement need to go beyond individual teacher racism and look at schools and colleges as a whole discriminate against ethnic minorities.

Individual Racism - result of prejudiced views of individual teachers.

Institutional Racism -Discrimination built into the way institutions such as schools and colleges operate.

what is the critical race theory

· Sees racism as an ingrained feature of society- it involves not only the intentional actions of individuals but institutional racism.

Institutional racism is viewed as less overt, more subtle and less identifiable

describe locked in inequality

· Critical race theorists see institutional racism is a "locked in inequality": the scale of historical discrimination is so large that there no longer needs to be any conscious intent to discriminate.

· Gillborn applies this to education and sees ethnic inequality as "so deep rooted and so large that it is a practically inevitable feature of the education system".

describe marketisation and segregation

· Marketisation is used to refer to a trend in education policy from the 1980s where schools were encouraged to compete against each other and act more like private businesses rather than institutions under the control of local government.

Gillborn (1997) argues that marketisation has given schools greater scope to select pupils and this puts ethnic minorities at a disadvantage due to stereotypes influencing decisions on school admissions

how is the marketisation and segregation view supported by

· This view is supported by Moore and Davenport's American research (1990). Their study focuses on how selection procedures lead to ethnic segregation, with minority pupils failing to get into good schools.

· They found that the application process favoured white, middle-class pupils thus leading to an ethnically stratified education system.

what is the commission for racial equality

The Commission for Racial Equality (1993) notes that racism in school admissions procedures means that ethnic minority children are more likely to end up in unpopular schools.

They identified 4 reasons for this

· Reports from primary schools that stereotype minority pupils.

· Racist bias in interviews for school places.

· Lack of information and application forms in minority languages.

· Ethnic minority parents are often unaware of how waiting list system works.

describe the ethnocentric curriculm

· 'Ethnocentric' means an attitude or policy that gives priority to the culture and viewpoint of one particular ethnic group whilst disregarding others.

· An ethnocentric curriculum is a curriculum that only reflects one ethnic group- this is an example of institutional racism as it creates racial bias in everyday life.

· Example: History- Ball criticises the national curriculum for ignoring ethnic diversity and promoting an attitude of "little englandism" such as the history curriculum attempting to recreate past glories whilst ignoring Asian and black history.

· Bernard Coard (2005)explains how the ethnocentric curriculum may lead to underachievement, e.g. if it presents black people as inferior, this undermines black children's self-esteem and leads to their failure.

· However, it is not clear what impact the ethnocentric curriculum has as Chinese, Indian and Asian pupils achieve above the national average.

describe assessment and how it links to ethnicity

· Gillborn argues that the "assessment game" is rigged so as to validate the dominant culture's superiority. If black people succeed as a group the rules will be changed to "re-engineer failure. Such as in the past primary schools used baseline assessments which tested pupils when they started compulsory schooling. But this was replaced by FSP- foundation stage profile.

· The result of this change was that overnight, black pupils now appeared to be doing worse than white pupils.

· Gillborn explains this reversal as a result of 2 factors : The FSP is based entirely on teacher judgements but baseline assessments involved written tests. A change in timing: the FSP usually occurred at the end of the reception year whilst the baseline assessments were done at the end of primary school.

· Gillborn argues that both these factors increased the risk of teacher stereotyping affecting the results.

describe access to opportunities

· Gifted and Talented Programme: Created to support more able pupils in inner-city schools, it appears to disproportionately favor white students. According to Gillborn (2008), white pupils are over twice as likely as Black Caribbean pupils and five times more likely than Black African pupils to be identified as "gifted and talented."

· Exam Tiers : Tikly et al. (2006) found that Black Caribbean pupils, despite initiatives like "Aiming High," were more likely than white pupils to be entered for lower-tier GCSE exams due to placement in lower sets. This restricted their maximum possible grade to a C.

Steve Strand's Study: An analysis of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (2012) revealed a persistent white-Black achievement gap in maths and science at age 14. Strand attributes this to systematic under-representation of Black pupils in higher-tier tests, often reflecting teachers' low expectations and perpetuating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

describe the new iqism

· highlights how access to opportunities like higher sets or the Gifted and Talented programme relies heavily on teachers' assessments of pupils' ability.

· Teachers base these decisions not only on prior attainment but also on disciplinary concerns and perceptions of pupils' attitudes. Gillborn and Youdell found that teachers hold "racialised expectations" that Black pupils are more likely to pose discipline problems.

· Gillborn describes this approach as "the new IQism," where teachers and policymakers make false assumptions about pupils' "ability" or "potential.

· They treat potential as a fixed quality, easily measurable, and use it to sort pupils into sets, streams, or gifted programmes. Secondary schools are increasingly using outdated intelligence (IQ) tests for these decisions.

· Gillborn argues that tests cannot genuinely measure "potential," only what someone has already learned or can do now

what does gillborn conclude from his analysis of school assessment methods

· From his analysis of school assessment methods and gifted programmes, Gillborn concludes that the education system is "institutionally racist," routinely disadvantaging ethnic minority pupils. In his words: "Race inequality is a constant and central feature of the education system. Racism [is] a fundamental defining characteristic of the education system."

criticism of gillborn

· Focuses on 2 aspects: the underachievement of some ethnic groups such as black boys and the overachievement of Indian and Chinese pupils.

describe black boys underachievemnt

Sewell argues that Gillborn focuses too much on the internal factors, and although he doesn't believe racism has disappeared entirely, he does argue that it is not powerful enough to prevent individuals from succeeding. He says we should focus more on external factors such as boys' anti-school attitudes, the peer group and the nurturing role of the father

describe model minorities- chinese and indian achievment and gillborn's response

· Indian and Chinese students perform better than the white majority. If these two groups do so well, then how can there be institutional racism in education, as critical race theorists claim?

Gillborn's response

· The image of Indian and Chinese as hardworking "model minorities" performs an ideological function. It conceals the fact that the education system is instirutionally racist:

· It ignores the fact that "model minorities still suffer racism in schools.

· Makes the system appear fair and meritocratic- that Indians and Chinese succeed as they make the effort and take advantage of opportunities given to them.

how does ethnicity interact with gender and class

· Connolly (2006) notes that there is an 'interactions effect': class and gender interact differently with ethnicity depending on which ethnic group we are looking at. For instance, there is a bigger gap between the achievements of white middle-class and white working-class pupils than there is;kpg between black middle class and black working-class pupils.