1: Ethnicity and Educational Achievement Sociologists Flashcards
Material Deprivation
Palmer argues ethnic minorities such as Pakistani and Bangladeshi tend to be among the poorest in the UK and lack the finances to buy the stationary/equipment needed for achievement in school which is referred to as ‘the cost of free schooling’ by Bull. This is usually because traditional attitudes of these groups include women not working which means there is only income to support the family.
Cultural Deprivation - Language skills
Bereiter and Engelmann argue the language spoken at home by black students causes them to underachieve. Students that come from a black family are inadequate for educational success as they use the restricted code which is ungrammatical, disjointed and incapable of expressing abstract ideas. As schools use the elaborated code in lessons and exams, students are put at a disadvantage.
Family Structure (Asian students)
Sewell argues that Asian students do much better in education than black students because they are brought up in supportive and close-knit families which put high value on education and have an Asian work ethic.
Family Structure (Black students)
Moynihan (New Right) argues that many black e/m children are being brought up in lone parent families in which they are deprived of adequate care because the mother has to struggle financially in the absence of a male role model.
This is supported by Murray who argues that black family structure causes black students to underachieve. He believes that the lack of positive male role models in black matrifocal families causes the underachievement of students, especially boys. Murray sees this deprivation as a cycle of disadvantage where poorly socialised children grow up and become inadequate parents themselves so the process is repeated for their children.
Attitudes and Values
New Right sociologists argue that the lack of motivation in black ethnic minority children causes them to underachieve. They believe that ethnic minority children are socialised into subcultural values such as fatalism, collectivisation and immediate gratification that promotes attitudes that don’t value education. These children are therefore not encouraged to work hard at school which stunts their progress. Scruton further argues that because of these attitudes and values, black students fail to integrate into mainstream British culture which causes them to underachieve.
Criticism of Family Structure
Sewell argues that black fathers are not absent, but it is the black fathers’ ‘tough love’ that causes black boys to struggle to overcome emotional difficulties and turn to gangs for male role models who give them anti-school attitudes leading them to underachieve.
Racism in Society
Wood et al found that applicants with an English sounding name were more likely to be invited for interviews after sending identical job applications for the same job except with fictitious names associated with a particular ethnic group. It is clear that applicants were chosen from already set prejudices based on their ethnic group and were at a disadvantage compared to white applicants.
Teacher Labelling
Gillborn and Youdell state ethnic minorities underachieve due to labelling and teacher racism. This is because teachers misinterpret the behaviour of black boys as challenging their authority. Teachers also hold the racialized expectation of black students having behavioural problems making them more likely to discipline black boys even for minor offences which makes pupils react negatively and form an anti-school subculture. This theory can be further supported by Wright who found teachers see British culture and the English language as superior to all cultures. This leads to them labelling Asian Students as lacking english language skills which further leads to the marginalisation of Asian students when they are excluded from class discussions.
Ethnocentric Curriculum
Coard argues that it is actually the ethnocentric curriculum (a prime example of institutional racism) in british schools that produces underachievement. The lack of Black role models and the underminement of black’ culture in the curriculum causes children to underachieve due to low self esteem.
Criticism of Attitudes and Values (Cultural Deprivation)
Keddie critics this theory for being racist/ Ethnocentric and assuming black culture and values are inferior and different to the mainstream culture when in fact many black families support and encourage hard work
Criticism of Ethnocentric Curriculum
Maureen Stone criticises this theory by stating that Black children do not in fact suffer from low self esteem and other factors instead contribute to their underachievement
Access to opportunities
According to Gillborn white students have more access to opportunities whereas ethnic minority groups are discriminated against by teachers and this causes underachievement. This is seen through many instances, for example in programmes such as ‘Gifted and Talented’ where white students are more likely to be chosen to join. This theoretical perspective is further reinforced by Tikly who found ethnic minority students are more likely to be placed in lower sets and entered into foundation tier exams based on teacher assumptions based on student background and behaviour instead of their actual ability.
Marketisation
Moore and Davenport argue that minority pupils underachieve because they fail to get into better schools as a result of Marketisation. This is because schools use primary school reports to ‘screen out’ ‘problem students’ and because Non-English speaking parents may not understand the application processes of some of the better schools (e.g grammar schools) in the country causing them to send their children to normal comprehensive schools
