Differential Educational Achievement by Ethnicity - Parental Support

Trends in ethnicity:

• Chinese and Indian students overachieve in comparison to other groups

• Asian students: differences between Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani achievement

• Black students: variation between black African and black Caribean

• White students have only slightly higher achievement than black students (as a group)- the gap is closing

Parental support:

Asian families:

• Basit (2013)- Indian and Pakistani families have a culture of promoting educational capital to obtain social mobility

• Bhatti (1999)- parents were more supportive of children’s education and had high levels of interest

• Modood (2006)- even amongst the working class, Asian families promote staying on in education

Chinese families:

• Francis (2007) high value placed on education by both parents and children regardless of social class

• Additional resources (money and time) are given to students to achieve the goal of attending university

• Modood (2004) states that parental cultural capital from previous occupations are passed on to their children

Black families:

• Greater support network of extended family and friends in black African families that promote educational achievement

• Sewell- lone parent families- 24% of black children from lone parent families vs 19% mixed and 10% white

• Vincent et al (2011) black middle-class parents had a high level of interest in their child’s education

Evaluations:

• Intersectional nature of students’ experiences- class and gender also influence achievement

• Some research is dated- based on generalisations of groups

• Still differences in life chances for Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black students- e.g. unemployment, average earnings, representation at universities