DEMOGRAPHICS - KEY PEOPLE

Question 1

Sue Sharpe

Answer 1

Girls attitudes overtime’s changed from wanting to marry to being more career focused

Question 2

Carol Fuller

Answer 2

Carol Fuller studied 700 girls in British High Schools, in Years 10 and 12. She found that girls sorted themselves into three groups, based on a variety of factors.
1. Low aspirers: have low self-esteem and few goals for the future. They also don’t view education as a means to success, and teachers have low expectations of them. Careers departments encouraged them to move to low-skilled, heavily gendered work.
2. Middle aspirers: focused on vocational, skilled work, and viewed education as the means to achieving this. Aimed to work in heavily gendered industries such as hair and beauty, travel & tourism, and early years child care.
3. High aspirers: ambitious and focused on the future. They sought out new experiences, wanted to move away from home, and were less concerned about uncertainty. They often had high expectations from themselves

Question 3

McRobbie

Answer 3

Bedroom culture

Question 4

Ringrose

Answer 4

Popularity is essential to girls

Question 5

Mitsos and Browne

Answer 5

spend more time completing coursework and take greater care of schoolwork outside of the classroom

Question 6

Francis

Question 7

Swann

Answer 7

Language not the major factor in underachievement

Question 8

Norman

Answer 8

Argued that subject selection is based on the way that boys and girls are educated- they are socialised in different ways, so have differing expectations.

Question 9

Ross

Answer 9

Supports this argument, saying that school subjects ‘fit’ into gender domains, the expectations of certain activities that we view to be male or female.
Because children copy what they see adults doing, they view certain skills or activities as being ‘male’ or ‘female’, and replicate this in their own lives.

Question 10

Colley

Answer 10

Argued that computing and engineering attract boys because:
1. There is machinery
2. Teaching is formal; instructions are given, and then followed.

Question 11

Paetcher

Answer 11

Interviewed students in Y10 and 12 to find why they had chosen their subjects, and found that:
1. Girls were pressured not to choose to study sport, as their friends told them it would make them ‘manly’.
2. Boys were encouraged by their peers to choose subjects that were perceived to be easy, rather than the more academically stimulating subjects.

Question 12

Flaherty

Answer 12

Argues that:
1. Unemployment is three times higher for African, Bangladeshi and Pakistani people than for white people..
15% of ethnic minority households live in overcrowded conditions, compared to only 2% of white households.
2. Bangladeshi and Pakistani women are more likely to be engaged in low paid home working,
Educational success seems to be linked to the economic status of these ethnic groups. This may explain why Bangladeshi and Pakistani students do less well than Indian and white students.

Question 13

Bereiter and Englemann

Answer 13

Consider that the language spoken by low income black American families is inadequate for academic success. They see it as ungrammatical and disjointed.

Question 14

Gilborn and Mirza

Answer 14

Note that Indian students do well in spite of the fact that English is not always their home language.

Question 15

Moynihan and Murray

Answer 15

Claim that many black families are headed by a lone mother and do not have adequate funding. The absence of the father also means that boys lack a role model for male achievement.

Question 16

Pryce

Answer 16

Sees family structure as contributing to the underachievement of black students.

Question 17

Driver & Ballard

Answer 17

Also argue that Asian family structures bring educational benefits. Asian families have a more positive attitude towards education and high aspirations for their children’s futures.

Question 18

Lupton

Answer 18

Studied 4 working class schools - 2 white working class, one predominantly Asian and one serving an ethnically mixed community. She found that teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline in the white working class schools. Teachers blame this on the negative attitudes of white working class parents to education.

Question 19

Driver

Answer 19

Criticises cultural deprivation for ignoring the positive effects of ethnicity on achievement. For example, black girls are often successful in the education system (more than boys) because African-Caribbean women often provide strong role models.

Question 20

Lawrence

Answer 20

Says black pupils fail not because of home factors but because of racism.

Question 21

Keddie

Answer 21

Says this theory blames the victims – she argues that children from ethnic minorities are ethnically different, not ethnically deprived.

Question 22

Gilborn & Youdell

Answer 22

Point out that in one local authority they researched, African Caribbean children were the highest achievers when they entered the school system, but the lowest by the time they left it. This suggests that something happens, during their time at school, to drastically impact their achievement. Found that teachers were quicker to discipline black students for the same behaviour as white students, and teacher behaviour was found to be based on stereotypes and not actual behaviour. Gilborn and Youdell found that teachers operated with racialised expectations – they expected black students to misbehave, and often misinterpreted behaviour.

Question 23

Wright

Answer 23

Points out that Asian students are also victims of teacher stereotypes. She found that Asian students were assumed to have problems with language, and that when teachers mispronounced names they felt marginalised and excluded (especially the girls).

Question 24

Mirza

Answer 24

Also studied a group of ambitious black girls but found different
results. She found that the views of racist teachers held back the girls’
potential. She identified 3 types of teacher:
1. The colour blind – these teachers believed students were equal,
but didn’t challenge racism.
2. The liberal chauvinists – teachers who believe black pupils suffer cultural deprivation and have low expectations of them.
3.The overt racists – teachers who actively discriminate.
However, although these students chose which teachers to talk to and got on with their work even when they did not receive help, these strategies were not enough to stop their potential being affected. Although they had high self esteem, the girls found that teachers’ attitudes did restrict their opportunities.

Question 25

Troyna & Williams

Answer 25

argue that explanations of ethnic differences in achievement need to go beyond simply examining individual teacher racism to look at how schools and colleges routinely discriminate against ethnic minorities. They make a distinction between:
1. individual racism - the prejudice of individuals
2.institutional racism – the discrimination and racism in the way schools operate.

Question 26

Sewell

Question 27

Merton