EDUCATION- Ethnicity

ETHNICITY

Lawson and Garrod- people who share common history, customs and identity, as well as, in most cases, language and religion, and who see themselves as a distinct unit”.

Higher levels of achievement

  • Chinese pupils are the highest achievers at GCSE- Indian pupil also perform above the national average.

  • Students who are from mixed ethnicity backgrounds tend to perform above the national average at GCSE.

Lower levels of achievement

  • Fewer black pupils get 5 grade 9-4 passes at GCSE than any other major ethnic groups.

  • Roma, Gypsy and white students are the least likely to continue into higher education.

  • DfES 2010- 23% of White boys on FM gained 5 9-4 grades at GCSE.

  • Hastings- White pupils make less progress between 11-16 than Black or Asian pupils.

Reasons

External Factors- Cultural Deprivation

  • Intelligence is inherited- IQ tests.

  • HOWEVER- INCREDIBLY BIAS AND OUTDATED- test of cultural knowledge not brains.

  • Swann Report 1985- social and economic factors are more of a reason, no difference between IQ between ethnic groups, but were differences between socioeconomic factors.

  • Language can be a barrier for children from immigrant families when they first arrive in the UK.

  • Bowker- “Education of Coloured Immigrants”- A lack of standard English creates a huge barrier to UK education.

  • Berieter and Engelmann- Suggested the language spoken in low- income Black American families is inadequate for educational success.

  • AGAIN- OUTDATED- Swan Report for Eval.

  • In 2006- 57% of Bangladeshi pupils achieved the benchmark against 58% of white pupils.

  • Indian and Chinese pupils consistently outperformed the White British average by twice the average.

  • April Baker- Bell- sees Engelmann and Berieter’s view as examples of “anti-Black linguistic racism”, labelling black speech codes as inferior and White speech codes as superior. “Linguistic violence”.

  • 2018- Official Attainment 8 scores show that on average, children who do not have English as their first language perform slightly better then those who only speak English at home. (47 v 46 points).

  • However, though language may not be a barrier, if could influence teacher expectations and negative labels (institutional racism).

  • Attitudes and values- Moynihan- African lone parent families lack a male role model so mother struggles to socialise boys properly causing them to not conform to norms and values. Links to parental support too.

  • Screwton- low achievement in other ethnic minority groups is due to them not wanting to conform to British values and traditions.

  • HOWEVER- Parson- found that among 7-14 year olds, MEG girls and boys had higher career aspirations than their White counterparts and where more likely to aspire for high- paying jobs. NOT SOCIALISED TO HAVE LOW ASPIRATIONS.

  • Parental support- Lupton- lower levels of aspiration is due to lack of parental support, not linked to ethnicity but social class- 68% of White pupils go to university vs 80% MEGs.

  • Sewell- lack of “tough love” from absence of fathers in Black family households, therefore boys look towards street gangs or other fatherless boys.

  • Annot- Media has created a negative anti- school role model for Black pupils, particularly through rap lyrics and MTV videos.

  • Thus subject to powerful anti- educational peer group pressure.

  • Black pupils do worse than East Asian families due to East Asian families having higher aspirations, more positive attitudes towards schools, and less peer group pressure.

  • Evans- links street culture as the why white, working class children are not motivated to achieve.

  • McCulloh- survey of 16,000 pupils- found that MEG pupils are more likely to aspire to go to higher education.

  • EVAL- Gillborn- not peer pressure or absent of fathers but institutional racism in the education system.

  • How to fix CD- COMPENSATORY EDUCATION

  • Operation Head Starts- 1960s

  • Educational Action Zones- 1990s

  • Sure Start 2000s

  • Archer- emphasis on “fixing individuals” supposedly low aspirations.

  • EVAL EVAL- Keddie- Victim blaming- MEGs are culturally different, not deprived, underachieve due to ethnocentric curriculum biased in favour for the dominate White culture.

  • Critical race theorists- Institutional racism is the main cause.

  • Raz- accuses CP theory of being politically useful by deflecting attention from the real causes of underachievement, such as poverty and racism- allows governments to avoid taking responsibility.

External Factors- Material Deprivation

  • Palmer- Almost half of MEG children live in low-income households vs a quarter of White children and minority households are 3x more likely to be homeless.

  • Palmer- Almost half of Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earned under £7 and hour, vs a quarter of White workers.

  • A lack of language skills and foreign qualifications not being recognised by UK employers can be seen as a reason for MD.

  • 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. (MEGs still better than White pupils under MD).

External Factors- Racism in Wider Society.

  • Mason- Discrimination is a continuing and persistent feature in Britain.

  • Rex- Racism leads to social exclusion thus poverty.

  • Wood et al- sent identical letters to 100 top UK companies but alternated between “Evans” and “Patel” as surnames. The more “White” sounding candidate were more helpful and informative.

Internal Factors- Labelling and Teacher racism

  • Teachers have different expectations of different MEGs.

  • Gillborn and Mirza- found that Black children were the highest achievers on entry in primary school (20 points above average), but in GCSEs they had the worst results of any ethic groups (21 points below average).

  • Gillborn- teachers sometimes negatively label black students, seen to challenge school authority- myth of the black challenge.

  • Interactionists- different MEGs are labelled differently- Black pupils labelled as disruptive and Asian pupils being labelled as passive.

  • Gillborn and Youdell- “racialised expectations”- teachers quicker to discipline black students.

  • Osler- Black pupils tend to suffer more from unrecorded and unofficial exclusions including “internal exclusion”- being sent out of class

  • Foster- teacher’s stereotype Black pupils with bad behaviour, place them into lower streams, making them create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  • Pupils identities- Archer- ideal pupil- White, middle class, pathologized pupil- deserving poor, Asian, oppressed sexuality, demonised pupil identity, White or Black, working class, hyper-sexualised identity.

Internal Factors-Institutional Racism

  • Troyna and Williams- go beyond individual teacher racism:

  • Individual racism results from the prejudiced views of individual teachers and others.

  • Institutional racism- discrimination that is built into the way institutions work.

  • Locked- in inequality- Roithmayr- Institutional racism is a “lock- in inequality”.

  • Gillborn- Ethnic inequality is so deeply rooted and at large that it is a practically inevitable feature of the education system.