Ethnicity – Institutional Racism

KEY INFORMATION:

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

• Institutional racism: discrimination that’s built into the way institutions such as schools and colleges operate.

• How does critical race theory see racism?

  • As an ingrained feature of society and so it involves intentional actions and institutional racism.

• What is meant by locked-in inequality?

  • The scale of historical discrimination is so large that there no longer needs to be any conscious intent to discriminate – inequality is self-perpetuating; it feeds on itself.

• How did Gillborn describe locked-in inequality in education?

  • Issue is so large that it’s an inevitable feature of education.

• Critical race theorists see schools as institutionally racist for several reasons.

MARKETISATION AND SEGREGATION:

• Moore and Davenport found in America selection procedures led to ethnic segregation with minority pupils failing to get into better high schools due to discrimination.

  • E.g Primary reports were used to screen out pupils with language difficulties, while application process was difficult for non-English speaking parents to understand.

• Commission for Racial Equality found similar patterns in Britain. Racism in admissions procedures meant ethnic minority pupils often went to unpopular schools.

• This identified the following reasons:

  • Reports from primary schools stereotype minority pupils.

  • Racist bias in interviews for school places.

  • Lack of information and application forms in minority languages.

  • Ethnic minority parents often unaware of how waiting list system works and the importance of deadlines.

• This suggests that selection processes in school are racist and favour white students.

• Therefore Bangladeshi, Pakistani, African-Caribbean groups are unlikely to be picked for better schools.

• This reflects the locked-in theory that institutional racism is self-perpetuating because if you go to an unpopular school this would then pass down the generations.

• As schools don’t offer application forms in other languages or make appeals easy to understand, it suggests that school aren’t willing to accept ‘unideal’ students easily and make it harder for them in covert ways.

THE CURRICULUM:

• Some argue the curriculum disadvantages ethnic minority pupils.

• Knowledge they encounter at school may not connect with their own cultural experiences.

• Ethnocentrism resulting from out-of-date material could be potentially offensive by reflecting old colonial values and racial stereotypes.

• Geography emphasises Britain’s positive contribution to rest of world, rather than negative consequences of unfair trade and employment practices.

• Tickly et al, in their study of 30 comprehensive schools, found a significant number of African-Caribbean pupils noted their invisibility in the curriculum.

• When black history was acknowledged in the curriculum, many students were frustrated with the tendency to focus on slavery.

• Coard showed that the only acclaimed people were white.

  • Black music culture and art largely ignored.

  • Led to low self-esteem among black pupils.

EVALUATION OF THE CURRICULUM:

• Chinese and Indians do well in education.

• This suggests representation in the curriculum can make impacts on most ethnic minorities by discouraging their involvement.

• Swann report and Stone criticise this as it can’t explain all underachievement, disputed low self-esteem as, despite feeling discriminated sometimes, African-Caribbean pupils managed to maintain self-image.

• 1970s onwards more multicultural – acknowledges the contributions of all world’s cultures.

  • Was criticised for focusing on ‘samosas and saris’ – only focuses on external factors and ‘symbols’ of what it means to be those people; failing to address real problem of racism.

• Most recent curriculum back to nationalism and British values – e.g support and respect for liberties of all within the law, support for equality of opportunity for all; respect for and tolerance of different faiths and religions and other beliefs.

ASSESSMENT:

• Primary school: baseline testing was replaced with foundation stage profile (FSP) in 2003.

• Led to overnight change of black pupils now appearing worse than white pupils.

• One local authority in 2000, Black pupils were the highest achievers (20% above average), by 2003 all were below white pupils on all six development areas of FSP.

• FSP based entirely on teachers’ judgement, baseline assessments often used written tests too.

• A change in timing: FSP completed at end of reception year, baseline tests done at start of primary school.

• Sanders and Horn found for GCSE, where more weight is given to teacher assessed work, gap between scores of different ethnic groups widened.

• Gillborn believes ‘assessment game’ is rigged as teacher-assessed work holds more weight, teachers could mark based on ethnicity – done to suit dominant culture’s superiority.

ACCESS TO OPPORTUNITIES:

• Gillborn – official statistics show whites over twice as likely as Black Caribbeans to be identified as gifted and talented; five times more likely than Black Africans.

• Tikly found in 30 schools in ‘Aiming High’ initiative to raise Black Caribbeans’ achievement, blacks were nevertheless more likely to be entered for lower tiered GCSEs.

• Strand analysed large scale data from Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE).

  • Found white-black achievement gap in maths and science tests at age 14.

  • Was a result of black pupils being entered systematically for lower tier tests.

• Labelling a child gifted and talented would help through schooling as it contributes to self-fulfilling prophecy and therefore child works hard to fulfil it.

• Lower tiers can discourage hard work.

THE NEW IQISM:

• Gillborn argues teachers and policymakers make false assumptions about the nature of pupils’ ability or potential.

• See potential as easily fixed or measured, once pupil is measured they can be put in right set or stream, onto Gifted and Talented scheme, etc.

• Youdell and Gilborn: schools increasingly using old style IQ tests to allocate pupils to different streams on entry.

• SATs give predicted grades when entering secondary school.

• Performance can’t be fixed and measured – depends on subject, topic, teacher and a bunch of other factors.

EVALUATION:

• Gilborn argues against idea of schools not being institutionally racist because Indian and Chinese pupils do well.

• Claims that image of Indian and Chinese as hardworking ‘model minorities’ performs ideological function – conceals fact that education system is institutionally racist:

  • Makes system appear meritocratic.

  • Justifies failure of other groups – they didn’t make the effort.

  • Ignores fact these groups still experience racism – Chinese students report similar levels of harassment as African-Caribbean students.

• Students underachieving is likely a mix of interaction between internal and external factors – should be seen as individuals rather than categories.