Internal
Internal factors (1) labelling, identities & responses
Gillborn & Mirza = in 1 education authority, black children were the highest achievers on entry to primary schools (20 percentage points above average),but by GCSE they had the worst results of any ethnic groups (21 points below)
Steve strand’s = black Caribbean boys not entitled to FSM (especially the more able pupils), made significantly less progress than white peers
1. Labelling and teacher racism
Black pupils and discipline
Gillborn & Youdell = found that teachers were quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviour
Argue that this is the result of teacher’s radicalised expectations - found that teachers expected black pupils to present more discipline problems & misinterpreted their behaviour as threatening or a challenge to authority
Teachers would act on this & pupils would respond negatively
Black pupils felt teacher’s underestimate their ability & picked on them
Results from racist stereotypes
Jenny bourne = high levels of pupil exclusion
Schools tend to see black boys as a threat and label them negatively leading to exclusion
Only 1 in 5 achieve 5 GCSEs
Osler = black pupils suffer from unrecorded unofficial exclusions & internal exclusions
Also more likely to be placed in pupil referral units that exclude them from mainstream curriculum
Black pupils and streaming
G&Y = ‘A-C economy’
Negative stereotypes about black pupils means they are more likely to be placed in the lower sets
Peter foster = teacher’s stereotypes of black pupils as badly behaved could result in them being placed in lower sets than other pupils of similar ability
Results in a self-fulfilling prophecy of underachievement
Asian pupils
Cecile Wright = study of multi-ethnic primary school
Shows that Asian pupils can also be victim of teacher labelling - teachers would hold ethnocentric views & took for granted that British culture & standard english were superior
Assumed asian pupils would have a poor understanding of english and leave them out of class discussion and use simplistic language
Asian pupils also felt isolated when teachers expressed disapproval of their customs or mispronounced their names
Teachers actually saw them as a problem they could ignore
Leads to marginalisation
2.pupil identities
Archer = 3 different pupil identities
The ideal pupil identity = a white m/c masculised, heterosexual identity
The pathologised pupil identity = asian ‘deserving poor’ feminised identity
The demonised pupil identity = a black or white w/c hyper-sexualised identity
Ethnic minorities are either pathologised or demonised pupil identities
Teachers stereotypes Asian girls as passive & quite
Farzana Shain = when Asian girls challenge this stereotype by misbehaving, they are often dealt w/ more severely than other pupils
Chinese pupils
Archer = argues that even those minority pupils who perform successfully can be pathologised
Seen to achieve success in the ‘wrong way’ - through hardworking passive conformity rather than neutral individual ability - they could never legitimately occupy the identity of ‘ideal pupil’
Archer & francis = sum up the teachers’ view of them as ‘negative positive stereotype’
Chinese families are stereotyped as ‘tight’ and ‘close’ - used to explain why girls are passive
Wrongly assume they are m/c
Even the successes of the ethnic minority will only be seen as ‘over-achievement’
3.Pupil responses and subcultures
Pupils respond to negative labels in different ways
Disruptive or withdrawn
Refusal to accept the label and ‘prove it wrong’
Fuller & Mac an Ghaill : rejecting negative labels
Fuller = study of a group of black girls in year 11 of a london comprehensive school - were untypical because they were high achievers in a school where most black girls were placed in low streams
Channelled their anger about being labelled negatively into their work
Confirmed only as far as schoolwork was concerned - gave the appearance of not working & showed a deliberate lack of concern
Sees the girl’s behaviour as a way of dealing w/ the contradictory demands of succeeding at school while remaining friends w/ black girls in the lower streams & avoiding ridicule of black boys - able to maintain a positive image by relying on their own efforts
Highlights 2 points =
Pupils may still succeed even when refusing to conform
Negative labelling doesn’t always lead to failure
Mac an Ghaill = study of black & asian A level students
Students who believed teachers had labelled them negatively didn’t accept the label
How they responded depended on factors such as ethnicity and gender
E.g girls felt their experience of attending an all girls school gave them greater academic commitment that helped them to overcome negative labels
Mirza : failed strategies for avoiding racism
Mirza = studied ambitious black girls who faced teacher racism
Racist teachers discouraged black pupils from being ambitious through the kind of advice they gave them about careers
Identifies 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 chauvinist = teachers who believe black pupils are culturally deprived & have low expectations of them
The overt racists =teachers who believe black pupils are inferior & actively discriminate against them
Most of the girl’s time was spent trying to avoid the effects of teacher’s negative attitudes - strategies included =
Being selective about which teacher they ask for help from
Getting on w/ their own work in lessons w/o taking part
choosing certain options to avoid teacher
Places them at a disadvantage by restricting their opportunities
Sewell : the variety of boys responses
Identities 4 potential responses to underachievement =
The rebels = the most visible & influential group, but they were only a small majority of black pupils
Often excluded from school
Rejected both the goals & rules of school
Expressed their opposition through peer group membership - conforming to the stereotype of the anti-authority, anti-school ‘black macho lad’
Rebels believed in their own superiority based on the idea that black masculinity equates w/ sexual experience & virility
The conformists = the largest group
Keen to succeed
Accepted the schools’ goals & had friends from different ethnic groups
Not part of a subculture & were anxious to avoid being stereotyped by teachers or peers
The retreatists = tiny minority of isolated individuals
Disconnected from both school and black subcultures
The innovators = 2nd largest group
Pro-education but anti-school
Valued success but did not seek the approval of teachers & conformed only as far as schoolwork was involved
Allowed them to maintain credibility and achieve academically
Teachers tend to see all black boys as the ‘black macho lad’ - contributes to underachievement
HOWEVER - s recognises that racist stereotyping of black boys disadvantages them & can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy - argues that external factors are more important in producing underachievement
Evaluation of labelling and pupil responses
Shows how labelling theory shows how teacher stereotypes can be a cause of failure
Danger in seeing these stereotypes as simply the product of individual teachers’ prejudices, rather than of racism in the way that the education system as a whole operated
Danger in assuming once labelled, pupils automatically fall victim to the self fulfilling and fail
Internal factors (2) institutional racism
Troyna & williams = argue that to explain ethnic differences in achievement, we must look at how schools routinely discriminate against minorities - make a difference between =
Individual racism = result from the prejudiced views of individual teachers & others
Institutional racism = discrimination that is built into the way institutions such as schools & colleges operate
Critical race theory
Sees racism as an ingrained feature of society - means that it involves not just the intentional actions of individuals, but institutional racism
Stokley Carmichael & charles hamilton = institutional racism is less overt & originates in the operation of established & respected forces in society
Locked in inequality
Daria Roithmayr = institutional racism is a ‘locked in inequality’ - the scale of historical discrimination is so large there no longer needs to be any conscious intent to discriminate
Gillborn = sees ethnic inequality so deeply rooted & large that it is a practically inevitable feature of the education system
Marketisation and segregation
Gillborn = argues because marketisation gives schools more scope to select pupils, it allows negative stereotypes to influence decisions about schools admissions
Moore and Davenport = show how selection procedures lead to ethnic segregation w/ minority pupils failing to get into better secondary schools due to discrimination
E.g they found that primary schools reports used to screen out pupils w/ language difficulties
Application procedures favoured white pupils
Commission for racial equality = identified similar biases in Britain
Noted that racism in school admissions procedures means that ethnic minority children are more likely to end up in unpopular
Identifies the following reasons =
Reports from primary schools that stereotype minority pupils
Racist bias in interviews for school places
Lack of information & application forms in minority languages
Ethnic minority parents are often unaware of how the waiting list system works & the importance of deadlines
The ethnocentric curriculum
Ethnocentric = describes an attitude or policy that give priority to the culture & viewpoint of 1 particular ethnic group while disregarding others
Thus a curriculum that reflects the culture of 1 ethnic group - usually the dominant culture
Examples of the ethnocentric curriculum include =
Languages, literature and music →
Troyna & Williams = note the meagre provision for teaching Asian languages as compared w/ European languages
Miriam David = describes the national curriculum as a ‘specifically british’ curriculum that largely ignores non-european languages, lit and music
History →
Ball = criticises the national curriculum for ignoring ethnic diversity & for promoting an attitude of ‘little englandism’
Bernard Coard = explains how the ethnocentric curriculum may produce underachievement
In history, the british may be presented bringing civilization to the ‘primitive people’ they colonised
Argues this image of black people as inferior undermines black children’s self-esteem
Ignores the achievement of asian pupils
Assessment
Gillborn = argues the ‘assessment game’ is rigged to validate the dominant culture
If black pupils succeed as a group ‘the rules would be changed to re-engineer failures’
E.g primary schools used ‘baseline assessments’ which tested pupils when they started compulsory schooling - replaced by the foundation stage profile (FSP) →resulted in black pupils doing worse than white pupil
Explains this reversal as a result of 2 related institutional factors =
FSP is based entirely on teacher’s judgement - baseline assessment used written tests as well
A change in the timing = FSP is completed at the end of reception year, baseline assessments done at the start
Argues that both these factors increase the risk of teacher’s stereotyping affecting the results
Sanders & Horn = found that where more weighting was given to tasks assessed by teachers rather than by written exams, the gap between scores of ethnic groups widened
Access to opportunities
The gifted and talented programme - created w/ the aim of meeting the needs of more able pupils in inner-city schools - seem to benefit bright pupils from minority groups
Gillborn = points out that OS show white students are over 2x as likely as black caribbeans to be identified as gifted and talented
Exam tiers = Tikly et al - found that in 30 schools in the ‘aiming high’ initiative to raise black caribbean pupils achievement, they are more likely to be entered for lower tier GCSE exams
Steve strand = analysis of large scale data from the Longitudinal Study of Young people in england shows a white-black achievement gap in maths & science tests and 14
Found this to be the result of black pupils being systematically under-represented in entry to higher tier tests
Suggests that ethnic differences in entry to test tiers reflect teacher’s expectations, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy
The ‘new IQism’
Access to opportunities e.g Gifted and Talented programme, depended on teachers’ assessment of pupils ability works against black pupil
Teachers place students in sets not only on the basis of prior attainment, but on disciplinary concerns & perceptions of their attitude
Found that teachers had ‘racialised expectations’ that black pupils would pose more discipline problems
New IQism = argues that teachers and policymakers make false assumptions about the nature of pupils ‘ability’ or ‘potential’
See potential as a fixed quality that can easily be measured, they can be put into the ‘right’ set or system
Gillborn & youdell = note that secondary schools are increasingly using old-style intelligence (IQ) tests to allocate pupils to different streams on entry
HOWEVER there is no genuine measure of ‘potential’ - all a test can do is tell us what a person has learnt already or can do now
Criticisms of Gillborn
Black boys underachievement
Critical race theorists argue that institutional racism is the main cause of under-achievement
Argue that internal factors within the education system produce large numbers of ethnic minority pupils, especially black boys
Sewell = reject this view
Although he does not believe racism has disappeared, he argues it is not powerful enough to prevent individuals from succeeding
We need to focus on external; factors such as boys’ anti-school attitudes, the peer group and the role of the father
Model minorities : indian and chinese achievement
Critics argue that if other minority groups are succeeding than institutional racism is not the main factor in ethnic differences in achievement
Gillborn = responds - argues the image of Indians & Chinese as hardworking ‘model minorities’ performs an ideological function - conceals the fact that the education system is institutionally racist
Makes the system appear fair and meritocratic - the indians & chinese succeed because they make the effort & take advantage of the opportunities offered to them
Justifies the failure of other minorities, such as blacks - they fail because they are unable or unwilling to make the effort, due to their ‘unaspirational home culture’
Ignore the fact that ‘model minorities’ still suffer racism in schools
Ethnicity, class and gender
Gillian Evans = argues that to fully understand the relationship between ethnicity & achievement - need to look at how ethnicity and achievement, we need to look at how ethnicity interacts w/ gender & class
E.g claims that in examining black children’s achievement, sociologists tend to look at their culture & ethnicity
Paul connolly = study of 5 and 6 year olds in a multi-ethnic-inner-city primary school
Shows how pupils & teachers construct masculinity differently depending on the child’s ethnicity
Teachers saw black boys as disruptive under-achievers and controlled them by punishing them more by channeling their energies into sport - responded by seeking status in non academic circumstances
Notes that there is an ‘interactions effect’ - class and gender interact differently w/ ethnicity depending on which ethnic group we are looking at