Ethnic diffrences in achievment

Ethnicity = shared culture , identity and history 

Ethnic group = group of people who see themselves as a distinct group based on religion , geography or language 

Ethnic minority group = eg diffrent skin colour from the majority

Deciding who is in what ethnic group is a problem

eg should all asians be classified together or in catagories such as nationalities and regions 

Black and pakistani  = worse 

Chinese and indians = best

White = close to national avergage  as they form the greater majority of school population 

External factors = outside of school

• cultural deprivation
• material deprivation
• racisim in wider society

Internal factors = inside school 

• labeling
• pupil subcultures
• ethnocentric and institutional racism 

Some ethnic groups underachivement is caused by indequate socalisation in the home 

Two main aspects...

• intelectual and language skills
• attitudes, values and family structure 

children from low income families lack intelectual stimulation and therefore fail to develop problem solving skills

Bereiter and Englmann = language of poorer black american families is ungramatical and disjointed as a result children are unable to express abstract ideas

children who do not speak english at home may be held back educationly 

Diffrences in attitudes and values towards education may be the result of diffrences in socalisation 

Most are socalised into mainstream culture equipping them for for sucesses in education 

• Fatalism and immediate gratification 
• lack of male role model 
• culture of povety 
• impact of slavery 
• asian families
• fathers , gangs and culture 

The subcuture in which some black children are socalised is faalistic and focused on immediate gatification 

results in lack of motivation to suceed 

For many african - carabiean boys , home may encourage them to turn anti educational gang culture.

New right thinker - Murray argues high rate of lone parenthood and a lack of positive male role model leads to underachievment

Moynihan = argues absece of male role model produces inadequaly socalised children who fail at school

Become inadequate parents themselves and perpetuate a culture of poverty 

Price  = black caribean culture is less resistant to racism because of the experience of slavery 

As a result , many black pupils have low self esteem and therefore under achievment 

Sewell  = chinese and indian pupils benifit from supportive families with an Asian work ethic 

Sewell = Lack of fatherly nurthuring leads to black boys underachievment 

Street gangs offer them alternative perverse loyaltiy and love

Acedemicaly sucsessful black boys felt greatest barrier to sucsess was peer pressure 

Speaking standard english and doing well at school was seen as selling out 

Lower aspirations  , lack of parental support 

Lupton - studdied 4 mainly WC schools with diffrent ethnic compositions

Techers reported poorer levels of behaviour and dicipline in the white WC school  which they linked to lower levels of parental support and negative attitudes of WC parents towards education

Evans - Street culture in white WC areas can be brutal and is brought into school

Results in strong pressure to rejcet education

An educational policy that aims to counter the effects of cultural deprivation

Operation head start - USA . compensate children for the cultural deficit they are suffering due to deprived backrounds

sure start - Uk , aims to support development of pre- school children in deprived areas 

• Victim blaming -  Keddie  = culturaly diffrent not deprived

• cultural exclusion - Ball - less aware how to negotiate the british education system. cultural exclusion not deprivation 

• Culturl domination - compensatory education imposes the dominant white MC culture on minority ethnic groups 

Lack of physical or econmoic resources essential for normal life in society 

Explanation of ethnic diffrences in achoevment argue that educational faliure is a result of material factors such as housin ans low income 

Ethnic minorities are more likely to face these problems...

• 1/2 of ethnic minority children live in low income house holds
• ethnic minorities are almost twice as likely to be unemployed
• minorities face discrimination in the housing and labour markets 

members of minority ethnic groups face direct and indirct discrimination at work in the housing market 

As a result they are more likely to have low pay or be unemployed 

This affects their childrens educational policies 

interactionalists = focus on small scale face to face interactions eg between pupil and teacher

Intrested in impact of labels from diffrent ethnic backrounds

black = distuptive 

asian = passive

As a result of lables teachers may treat pupils diffrently

creating a selffulfilling prophecy 

Gilborn and Mizra = found in one area , black children were the highest achievers on entering primary school

20 points above average 

However when it came to GCSES they had fallen to 21 points below average 

this suggests its internal not external factors 

Gilborn and Youdell = teachers had radicalised expectations about black pupils and expected more disciplinary problems and saw their behaviour as threatening

Black = more likely to be punished for same behaviour

Gilborn and Youdell = concluded conflict is due to racist steryotypes 

Cause under achievment as....

• higher levels of exclusion of black boys
• black pupils being placed in lower streams

Wright = found asian primary school pupils were steryotyped by their teachers and treated diffrently 

• assumed they had poor grasp of english
• mispronounced childrens names
• saw them as a problem they can ignore 

as a result asians especialy girls were prevented from participaiting fully 

connoly = primary school teachers saw asians as passive and conformist 

Asian boys = feminine , vulnerable and less likely to protect themself 

pupils can react in diffrent ways to the label including forming pupil subculures

Sewell = black boys adopted a rage of responses to labeling

conformists - largest group , keen to sucseed  , acceoted schools goals  , friends from diffrent ethnic groups 

innovators = second largest, pro - education , anti-school  , valued sucsess but not teachers approval

Retreatists - tiny minority , isolated , disconected from school and subcultures

Rebels - small , highly visible minority of black pupils  , rejectd school and confromed to the black steryotype

Some remain commited to suceeding despite the negtive label

fuller - studied a group of high achiving black girls in year 11 of a london comprehencive school

girls remained positive self image by rejecting teachers steryotypes of them 

They recognised and valued education and were detrmined to achieve 

worked hard without showing they were

didnt seek teachers aproval and were friends with girls in lower streams

Mac and Ghaill  

study of black and asian A level students 

didnt accpet tachers labels , felt all girls school they previosuly attended gave them greater accidemic commitment 

discrimination against ethnic minorties that is built into the school 

sees instituntional racsim as deep - rooted , locked in feature of the education system 

Critical race theorists see the education system as institutionaly racist in several ways

attitudes or policies that prioritises the culture of one particular ethnic group

Troyna and wiliams - Gives priority to white culture and english language

David -national curriculum is specificaly brittish

Ball -history curriculum creates a mythical age of empire and past glories , ignores black asian history 

Makes ethnic minorities feel there cultue and identity are not valid in education 

Gilborn - becuase marketisation gives schools more scope to select pupils , negative steryotpes can influence decisions about admissions

Moore and davernpot = american research shows how selection procedures leads to ethnic segregation

Gilborn = assesment is rigged to validate dominant white culture

Whits are 2 x more likely than blacks to be identified as gifted and tallented

Tilky and strand = found blacks were more likely to be entred for lower exam tiers 

secondary schools are increasingly using old stye IQ test to allocate pupils to diffrent streams on entry 

based on false assumptions that potential fixed qualities that cant be messured

Black pupils are more likely to be placed in lower streams as a result