New Right

Scruton (1986)

British culture and EM

• Some ethnic minorities underachieve due to failure to embrace mainstream British culture

Pryce (1979)

Underachievement of Black Caribbean pupils in Britain

• Contribuents:

  • Family structure

  • Culture

    • Less cohesive

    • Less resistant to racism

      • Black pupils then have lower self-esteem and underachieve

Asian ‘over’ achievement

• Asian students achieve higher as their culture

  • Is more resistant to racism

  • Gives a greater sense of self-worth

Differences between Black Caribbean and Asian pupils

• Impact of colonialism

  • Slavery was culturally devastating for Black people

    • Being transported and sold caused loss of language/religion/families

• Asian culture was not destroyed by colonial rule

CRITICISM:

• Asian people also suffered under colonialism in various ways even if they were not enslaved, which affected their religion, language and family structures

• Indian People

  • India faced severe economic exploitation under the British

    • Lead to famines and widespread poverty

  • Imposition of British culture undermined local traditions and disrupted social structures

• Japanese People

  • Affected by Western imperialism

    • Rapid modernisation that sometimes disregarded local customs and culture

• Filipino People

  • Forced conversion to Christianity by Spain and the USA

• Vietnam

  • Faced brutal French colonisation

    • Economic exploitation and cultural/lingual imposition