differential education achievement: ethncity (external factors) Flashcards
ethnicity
a social group that shares a common and distinctive culture, religion, language or the like. this is different to race which is related to biology
Trends in ethnicity and achievement
- Only 24% of White male pupils who were on free school-meals gained 5 A- C Grades.
- White & Asian pupils on average achieve higher than Black pupils.
- Amongst Asians, Indians do better than Pakistanis & Bangladeshis
Trends in ethnciity and educational achievement
Hastings
White pupils make less progress between the ages of 11-16 years-old compared to
Black or Asian pupils.
If current trends continue then White pupils will become the lowest performing ethnic group in the UK.
Trends in ethnciity and educational achievement
M/C compared to W/C
Within every ethnic group,
M/C pupils do better than
W/C pupils.
Among all groups except Gypsys and Roma what gender does better?
Girls.
3 factors of cultural deprivation
- Language
- Family structures and support
- Attitudes and values
Language
- Suggest many ethnic minority groups lack adequate stimulation and linguistic development through socialisation.
- Bowker - education of coloured immigrants - lack of standard English created a barrier to UK education.
- Ballard and Driver - language problems cease to be a problem by the age of 16.
- Swan report 1985 - language differences had little impact on achievement.
Family structures and support
- Many sociologists argue ‘dysfunctional’ family types are to blame for the underachievement of certain ethnic groups.
- Murray - African carribean lone parents to blame - lack of male role models means mothers struggle to socialise children.
- Scranton - low achievement i the result of ethnic minorities failing to embrace and conform to British culture.
- Pryce - Asian culture in the UK is more cohesive than Black culture ad as sch they can ignore racism more effectively and aren’t effected by it as much e.g. low self-esteem leading to educational failure.
- Hall - ‘culture of resistance’ - slavery meant much of black culture has lost its language, religion, ancestry etc. the black culture are therefore less likely to integrate and assimilate with white m/c UK>
- Driver and Ballard - Asian families have a more ‘pro school’ attitude than black families. Asian families also are rarely lone parenthood which means T hey offer a bigger support network for Chilean.
- Lupton suggests the ‘adult authoritrian’ Asian family matches that of the school.
- Keddie says to blame culture is to blame victims of educational failure.
Attitudes and values
- Suggest different ethnic groups are socialised into different attitudes and values.
- Arnot - media have created a negative anti-school role model for black pupils in particular which he describes as the ultra tough ghetto superstar reinforced through rap lyrics and MTV videos.
- Driver - highlights how ethnicity can be an advantage in education e.g. African Caribbean girls do very well in school.
Material deprivation overview
- Flaherty:
- Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are 3x more likely than whites to be the poorest 1/5 of the population.
- Africans, Pakistanis and Bangaladeshis are 3x more likely to be unemployed than whites.
- 15% of minority groups live in overcrowded homes (2% for whites).
- Pakistanis are 2x more likely to be in semi/ unskilled jobs compared to shites.
- Swan Report 1985 - social class differences account for a high proportion of differces in achievemnt between ethnic groups.
- This argument is paradoxical - we cant tell if these groups underachieve within education because they are w/c or if they end up being w/c because other factors lead them to fail in education.
Racism in wider society overview
- Mason - discrimination is a continuing and persistent feature of the experience of Britain’s citizens of minority ethnic origin.
- Rex - racism leads to social exclusion and accordingly poverty. This is shown in housing, employment and education. Racism also leads to discrimination both inside and outside the classroom.
- Noon - sent identical eaters to the top 100 UK companies but switched between the name ‘Evan’ and ‘Patel’ - replies to the white candidate were more informative and helpful.
- Tronya and Carrington - argue descriptions of some cultures are a little more than racist stereotypes.
- Cultural research can be used against certain groups - Sivanandan argues Afro carribean culture is used by some right wring groups to justify the view that they are a problem for society
What did Bereiter and Engelmann claim?
That black w/c families speak in a restricted code which hinders educational success.
What did Gillborn and Mirza find?
Indian students (many who speak English as a second language) outperform white British students so language isn’t always a barrier.
What did Moynihan find?
Black Caribbean families are more likely to be lone-parent households leading to financial struggles and a lack of male role models.
What does Murray argue about high rate of lone-parent families in Black communities leads to?
Poor socialisation and underachievement.
What does Arnot argue?
That media promotes a gang culture among black youth which can lead to anti-school attitudes.
What did Lupton find?
Asian families have strong parental discipline similar to school authority which helps students succeed.
Palmer
- Almost 50% of EM children live in low-income households compared to 25% of white children.
- EM are more likely to live in overcrowded housing making it harder to study.
What did Gillborn and Mirza find?
That even when controlling for class, Black students still perform worse than white peers, suggesting racism also plays a role.
Mason
Discrimination in wider society affects minority students aspirations.
Wood et al
Found EM face job market discrimination which can lower family income and affect education.
Rex
EM experience worse housing and job opportunities leading to material deprivation.
