External - ethnic
External factors and ethnic differences in achievement
1.Cultural deprivation
Cultural deprivation theory sees the underachievement of some ethnic groups as the result of inadequate socialisation in the home - has 3 main aspects =
Intellectual & linguistic skills
Attitudes & values
Family structure & parental support
Intellectual and linguistic skills
Many children from low-income black families lack intellectual stimulation & enriching experiences
Leaves them poorly equipped for school - they have not been able to develop reasoning & problem solving skills
Bereiter & Engelmann = consider the language spoken by low-income black American families as inadequate for educational success - see it as ungrammatical, disjointed and incapable of expressing abstract ideas
Official statistics show that this is not a major issue → 2010= pupils w/ english as their first language were only 3.2 points ahead those w/o english as their first language
Gillborn and Mirza = points out that Indian pupils do very well despite not having english as their first language
Attitudes and values
Lack of motivation = major cause of the failure of many black children
Most children are socialised into the mainstream culture - instils ambition, competitiveness and willingness to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve long-term goals
Equips them for success in education
Some black children are socialised into a subculture that instals a fatalistic ‘live for today’ attitude - does not value education & leaves them unequipped for success
Family structure and parental support
Daniel Moynihan = argues that because many black families are headed by a lone mother, their children are deprived of adequate child care because she has to struggle financially in the absence of their male breadwinner
Fathers absence also means boys lack an adequate role model of male achievement
Sees cultural deprivation as a cycle where inadequately socialised children from unstable families go on to fail at school & become inadequate parents themselves
Charley Murray = argues that a high rate of lone parenthood & a lack of positive male models led to the underachievement of some minorities
Roger Scruton = sees low achievement levels of some ethnic minorities as resulting from a failure to embrace mainstream British culture
Ken Pryce =
Claims that Asians are higher achiever because their culture is more resistant to racism & gives them a greater sense of self worth
Black Caribbean culture is less cohesive & less resistant to racism
Due to result of the different impact of colonialism - slavery was culturally devastating → being transported & sold into slavery meant that they lost their language, religion & entire family system
Sewell : fathers, gangs & culture
Argues that it is not the lack of male role models that lead to black boys underachieving, rather the lack of fatherly nurturing/ ‘tough love’
Results in black boys finding it hard to overcome the emotional & behavioural difficulties of adolescence
Street gangs offer fatherless boys loyalty and love - the are presented w/ a media inspired role of anti-school black masculinity
Chris Arnot - describes their ideal as ‘the ultra-tough ghetto superstar, an image constantly reinforce through rap lyrics and MTV videos
Many black boys are subject to powerful anti-educational peer group pressure - speaking in standard english was seen as ‘selling out’ to the white establishment
Argues that black students do worse than their Asian peers due to cultural differences in socialisation & education
Gillborn = argues that it is not peer pressure but institutional racism within the education system itself that produces the failure of black boys
Asian families
Sewell =Asian work ethic - place a high value on education
Ruth Lupton = argues that adult authority in Asian families is similar to the model that operates in schools - respectful behaviour was expected
White working class families
Andrew McCulloch = survey of 16,000 pupils
Found that ethnic minority pupils are more likely to aspire to go to uni that white british pupils
Low level of aspiration & achievement - result of lack of parental involvement
Lupton = studied 4 mainly w/c schools - 2 predominantly white, 1 largely Pakistani, 1 ethnically mixed
Teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour in the white w/c schools, despite less children being on FSM - blamed on low levels of parental involvement
Gillian Evans = argue that street culture in white w/c areas can be brutal & so young people have to learn how to withstand intimidation & intimidate others
Criticisms of cultural deprivation theory
Geoffrey Driver = criticises for ignoring the positive effects of ethnicity on achievement
The black caribbean family provides girls w/ positive role models of strong independent women - why black girls are more likely to succeed
Errol Lawrence = challenges Pryce’s view that black pupils fail because their culture is weak & they lack self-esteem →black pupils underachieve because of racism
Keddie = sees cultural dep as a victim-blaming explanation
Ethnic minority children are culturally different, not deprived
They under-achieve because schools are ethnocentric - biased in favour of white culture & against minorities
These critics oppose contemporary education - they see it as an attempt to impose the dominant white culture on children who already have a coherent culture of their own
Propose 2 main alternatives =
Multicultural education = a policy that recognises & vales minority cultures and includes them in the curriculum
Anti-racist education = a policy that challenges the prejudice & discrimination that exists in schools & wider society
2.Material deprivation & class
Material deprivation = a lack of physical necessities that are seen as essential or normal for life in today’s society
w/c people are more likely to face poverty & material deprivation
Ethnic minorities are more likely to suffer from poor housing & low income
Guy Palmer =
Almost ½ of all ethnic minority children live in low-income households (¼ of white children)
Ethnic minorities are 2x as likely to be unemployed
Ethnic minority households are around 3x as likely to be homeless
Almost ½ of Bangladeshi & Pakistani workers earned under £7 an hour (¼ of British)
Ethnic minority workers are more likely to be engages in shift work - Bangladeshi & Pakistani women are more likely to engage in low-paid housework
Reasons for this :
Many live in economically depressed areas w/ high unemployment & low wage rates
Cultural factors such as tradition of purdah in some Muslim households - prevents women from working outside the home
Lack of language skills & foreign qualifications not being recognised by UK employers - are more likely to affect recently arrived groups, many of whom are refugees - most members of established minority groups are fluent in English
Asylum seekers may not be allowed to take work
Racial discrimination in the labour market & housing market
Inequalities are reflected in the proportion of children from different ethnic groups who are eligible for FSM
Indian pupils are likely to be from better-off background
2x as likely to attend private schools than white kids & 5x as black kids
Does class override ethnicity?
Fail to consider ethnic groups - danger we may overestimate the effect of cultural deprivation & under-estimate the effect of poverty & material deprivation
HOWEVER - Indian & Chinese pupils who are materially deprived still do better than most
E.g in 2011 - 86% of Chinese girls who received FSM achieved 5 or more higher grades GCSEs, compared w/ only 65% of white girls who were not receiving FSM
Suggests that mat dep & social class do not completely override the influence of ethnicity
Modood = 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
3.Racism in Wider Society
Poverty is the result of another factor - racism
David mason = “discrimination is a continuing persistent feature of the experience of Britain’s citizens of minority & ethnic origin”
John Rex = racial discrimination leads to social exclusion & worsens the poverty faced by ethnic minorities
E.g housing = discrimination means that minorities are more likely to be forced into substandard accommodation that white people of the same class
Wood et al = discrimination in employment
Sent 3 closely matched job applications to each of almost 1000 job vacancies
Names of the applicants came from those associated w/ different ethnic groups
Found that only 1 in 16 ethnic applicants were offered an interview, against 1 in 9 white applicants
Helps to explain why they are more likely to face low paid jobs