Differential achievement - ethnicity

Differential achievement by ethnicity statistics

• girls from Chinese backgrounds do best followed by Indian girls

• Pakistani, Afro-Caribbean and Bangladeshi boys do least well in education

• Around 60% of students from Indian backgrounds gained 5 A*-C grades compared to 50% white students

• Almost ¾ of Bangladeshi parents had no qualifications

• Growing concern for white boys

Explanations of differential achievement by ethnicity (external)

• cultural deprivation

• Material deprivation

• Racism in wider society

Cultural deprivation (external)

• these theorists argue that underachievement is a result of poor socialisation at home. One major factor being the lack of intellectual and linguistic skills being taught and ethnic children are less likely to engage in activities that are enriching leaving them poorly equipped

• Language barrier for ethnic children - some argue though Indian children do just as well a white middle class students

• Also they argue black children don’t have the attitudes to promote educational achievement and black families instil fatalistic views which don’t value education.

• Other sociologists say that because black families are headed by lone parents they lack a male role model and therefore economical foundation

Cultural deprivation sociologists (external)

• Tony Sewell (2009) Fathers, Gangs and culture - his research found that street gangs often provided the “perverse loyalty and love” that was missing in their lives. The black masculinity status and respect achieved through street gangs helps to “plug the gaps” in their lives. Valuing education and speaking English is seen as selling out to white establishment

• Driver and Ballard (1981) - research shows that Asian family culture brings educational benefits as their parents have more positive attitudes towards education and career aspirations

• Lupton found that Asian families promote respect towards their elders which help with attitudes to figures of authority

Cultural deprivation evaluation

• Geoffrey Driver says that this theory ignores the positive effects of ethnicity on education for example black family structure can show a strong independent woman as a role model explaining why black girl achieve better than black males.

• Keddie argues that families are structurally different not deprived, they under achieve due to ethnocentric bias schools not family

Material deprivation - external

• ethnic minority groups are more likely to experience material deprivation in comparison to white groups especially as they often live In substandard housing and have low incomes

• 15% of ethnic minority households live in overcrowded conditions compared to only 2% of white households

• Pakistanis are nearly twice as likely to be in unskilled or semi skilled jobs compared to white

Material deprivation sociologists (external)

• often looking at who is entitled to FSM (free school meals) Bangladeshis have the highest rate and white British have the lowest rate

• Marilyn Howard (2001) - poor nutrition has a direct negative impact on children’s educational performance

Material deprivation evaluation

• Gilbourn and Mirza argue that social class factors do not override the effects of culture as even when social class has been accounted for ethnic differences in achievement still exist

Racism in wider society (external)

• many Afro-Caribean children don’t really fit in or become part of British culture because of racism inn wider society. They resist the culture of middle class, white society and see no point working hard to become educationally successful

Racism in wider society sociologists (external)

• John Rex - racial discrimination leads to social exclusion and poverty. Eg in housing ethnic minorities are more likely to be in poor accommodation. In employment they face extensive discrimination which leads to poor educational prospects

• Mike Noon (1993) - in his study he sent identical pairs of letter enquiries about future employment opportunities to the top 100 uk companies signed by “Evans” and “Patel” with the same qualifications and companies were more encouraging to “Evans”

Racism in wider society evaluation

Some students from Chinese and Indian backgrounds are also likely to experience racism in wider society and this doesn’t seem to impact their achievement

Labelling and teacher racism (internal)

• Gilbourn and Youdell (2000) - found that teachers treated black pupils differently as they held stereotypes about them, they were quicker to discipline them. Black students said that teachers “pick on them”. - explain why black pupils have the highest exclusion rate?

• Evaluation - although there is evidence of teacher racism there is less tolerance in society for discrimination and better teacher training on equality issues may mean that these problems identified are less prevalent

Labelling and teacher racism (internal)

• Louise Archer (2008) - borrows Beckers notion of the ideal pupil that teachers hold in their minds

• They hold these distinct views - “ideal pupil identity” white middle class where achievement is seen by intelligence and hard work, “pathologists pupil identity” hard work/oppressed sexuality/over achieving (Asian pupils are often considered to be model minorities), “demonised pupil identity” black or white pupils/working class/overly sexualised/ peer led

• Evaluation - classifications are simplistic and isn’t clear what evidence she has used to make this.

Teacher labelling and racism (internal)

• Tony Sewell (1998)

  1) the rebels - rejected everything that school stood for - embracing black masculinity and womanising and being macho were desirable

  2) the conformists - follow rules and work hard

  3) the retreatists - isolated individuals who didn’t have many friends at all

  4) the innovators - pro-education but ani-school. We’re interested in impressing teachers but wanted to be successful (most in this group)

• Not many fell into rebel category but this is how teachers stereotyped them

• Evaluation - research like this can create the impression that all teachers are racist but this isn’t the case some sociologists reject the claim that anti school pupil subcultures are an inevitable outcome of teacher labelling and racism and suggest that students ,any reject the label applied to them

Tony Sewell -black masculinities (internal)

• a relatively high proportion of black Caribbean boys are raised in lone mother households, with the father being absent - in the late 90s when he conducted his study 57% of black Caribbean families with dependant children were headed by a single parents to only 25% of white families

• Meaning many black boys lack a father figure to act as a role model and provide discipline while they were growing up which makes this group more vulnerable to peer pressure

• Young black men are disproportionately drawn into gang culture which emphasises an aggressive, macho form of masculinity - in this culture violence is used as a means to gain respect

Teacher labelling and racism (internal)

• Mary Fuller (1984) - her study shows how pupils reject the labels. She studied black girls in year 11 who rejected the labels teachers gave them by working hard and proving teachers wrong and succeeding for themselves

• Evaluation - isn’t clear what evidence the girls had for the negative labelling they received and it is now quite dated

Ethnocentric curriculum (internal)

• ethnocentric curriculum - giving priority to the culture and viewpoint of one ethnic group (usually the country being taught in) and so ignoring cultural diversity e.g school year is calendared around Christian festivals and celebrations

Institutional racism (internal)

• institutional racism - Troyna and Williams - schools discriminate in two ways - individual racism that results from prejudiced views and institutional racism which is discrimination within how schools operate

• Morris and Perry (2017) - conducted research in America which looked at differing punishments of students In relations to their race. The found that african-American girls were 3x more likely to be sent to the school office for punishment

Marketisation and selection (internal)

• Gilbourn argues that marketisation of schools gives schools more power to select pupils and this puts ethnic minorities at a disadvantage

The myth of underachievement (internal)

• The black girls in her study got better results than the white pupils and the black boys

• While other theories have suggested teacher racism and labelling undermines the self esteem of black girls, there was no evidence of this in her study

• While there was some evidence of teacher racism and labelling, the girls had particularly high self esteem eg half the black girls who responded to her questionnaire named themselves as the person they most admired

• The girls were conscious of racism and low expectations from some teachers but they responded to prove them wrong - self refuting prophecy

• Found that black girls were sometimes anti school but were generally pro education and wanted to get good qualifications and get on in life

• They formed a subculture in school it was one which helped them achieve well sometimes in the face of unhelpful teacher interactions