Education - Ethnic Differences in Achievement - Internal Factors Flashcards
Labelling - Black Pupils
Gillborn and Youdell found that teachers had racialised expectations of black pupils and expected more discipline problems and saw their behaviour as threatening. Black pupils were more likely than others to be punished for the same behaviour as white pupils.
Fuller found that high achieving black girls maintained a positive self-image by rejecting teachers’ stereotypes. They did not seek teacher approval, but valued education.
Mirza found that black girls’ strategies for dealing with teacher racism still disadvantaged them. For instance, they would not ask for help.
Labelling - Asian Pupils
Wright found that Asian primary school pupils were stereotyped and treated differently. Teachers used simple language because they assumed they would speak poor English and became frustrated when pupils pronounced their names incorrectly.
Pupil Subculture
Sewell found that black boys developed a range of responses to teachers racist labelling:
Conformists: keen to succeed, accepted the school’s goals.
Innovators: pro-education, but anti-school. Valued success, but not teacher’s approval.
Retreatists: disconnected from the school and black subcultures outside of it.
Rebels: rejected the school’s goals, and conformed to the stereotype of the ‘black macho lad’.
Ethnocentric Curriculum
Troyna and Williams state that the British curriculum prioritises white culture and the English language, for example through holidays in line with the Christian calendar, and a focus on white leaders in History.
