Ethnic Differences in Achievement - Internal Factors

TEACHER LABELLING/RACISM - GILLBORN & YOUDELL - found that teachers expected black students to be disruptive & threatening and treated them based on these labels, which led to conflict with the students, who felt picked on. This created a SFP & underachievement.

• WRIGHT found primary school teachers assumed Asian students couldn’t speak English well, leaving them out of discussions - also mispronounced their names & disapproved of their culture, making them feel marginalised and causing underachievement.

• AO3 - FULLER studied a group of black teenage girls who reject racist labels from teachers, formed a subculture & still achieved - shows negative labelling doesn’t always create a SFP/underachievement.

• AO3 - teachers have positive & negative views of Chinese & Indian students - they’re ‘model minorities’ who achieve because they’re hard-working, not ‘naturally’ smart - only white MC students achieve due to natural talent.

• AO3 - Chinese & Indian students are more likely to be from MC backgrounds than other ethnic groups, so the positive labels they get from teachers may be due to their class background rather than their ethnicity.

ASSESSMENT - when primary schools used ‘baseline’ assessments at the start of primary school, in one area black students = highest achievement levels when starting schools.…