Education: Ethnicity and Achievement - Internal Factors

Question 1

Gillborn and Youdell

Answer 1

Teachers hold racialised expectations – they expect black students to present behavioural problems and misinterpret their behaviour as challenging to their authority. Therefore, teachers are more likely to discipline black boys even for minor offences for which white students were not disciplined. The pupils react negatively to this which leads to further conflict

Question 2

Wright

Answer 2

Studied a multi-ethnic primary school through observations of interactions between teachers and students. She found that teachers hold ethnocentric views – see British culture and English language as superior to all other cultures. This leads them to label Asian pupils as lacking English language skills, express disapproval of their customs and mispronounce their names. This marginalised Asian students e.g. excluded them from class discussions.

Question 3

Wright 2nd research

Answer 3

Interviewed teachers and Year 10 students in 2 comprehensive schools in the 1980s. She found that teachers had racialised expectations, i.e. they expected Afro-Caribbean students to be troublemakers. This led students to form anti-school subcultures.

Question 4

Foster

Answer 4

Found that teacher’s stereotypes of black students as badly behaved could result in them being placed in lower sets which can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of underachievement.

Question 5

Osler

Answer 5

Black pupils are the most likely group to be permanently excluded from schools, but also face unofficial exclusions such as being sent out of class (Seclusion). This reduces their opportunities to learn.

Question 6

Criticism of labelling and teacher racism

Answer 6

the theory is deterministic as it assumes that just because students are labelled, they will accept the label. However, Mac and Ghaill’s study shows the students can reject the labels. The sample in Wright’s study is too small to be representative.

Question 7

Archer

Answer 7

argues that teachers’ dominant discourse (way of seeing something) excludes e/m students from the image of the ideal pupil. These teacher attitudes create three different types of pupil identities:

The ideal pupil – white, middle class, masculinised identity, these pupils are seen as achieving as a result of natural ability.

The pathologised pupil – Asian, deserving poor, feminised identity, asexual or with an oppressed sexuality, these pupils are seen as conformist and culture-bound achiever who has to work hard to succeed.

The demonised pupil – back or white, working class, hyper-sexualised identity, these pupils are seen as unintelligent, per-led, culturally deprived underachievers.

e/m pupils, even those who are high achieving, are seen as either pathologised or demonised pupils. Archer calls this negative positive stereotyping.

Question 8

Mirza

Answer 8

Studied the strategies adopted by ambitious black girls for avoiding racism - racist teachers restricted the aspirations of black female students through the subject and career choices they suggested. Students tried to avoid teachers’ negative attitudes by choosing subjects not taught by racist teachers and by not asking for help. Thus the girls underachieved.

Question 9

Sewell

Answer 9

Teachers had a stereotypical view of black machismo – expect black boys to be rebellious and anti-school. Boys responded in 4 ways: rebels – opposed to school rules and goals, often excluded, formed anti-school subcultures, conformists – respected school rules, aimed for success, retreatists – isolated from school and the rebels, innovators – pro-education, but anti-school. However, even the conformists faced teacher labelling as well as bullying from their peers.

Question 10

Fuller

Answer 10

studied year 11 high-achieving black girls in a London comprehensive school. She found that black girls rejected negative labels applied to them and turned anger at being labelled into a pursuit of educational success, but the girls didn’t conform by seeking the approval of teachers and were friends with low-achieving girls. This shows that the self-fulfilling prophecy doesn’t always happen.

Question 11

Mac an Ghaill

Answer 11

Mac an Ghaill – studied Asian and black A Level students and found that students can reject the negative labels applied to them by teachers.

Question 12

Ethnocentric

Answer 12

Means regarding your culture as superior to all others

Question 13

Troyna and Williams

Answer 13

British curriculum gives priority to British culture and English language, it ignores non-European languages, music and literature.

Question 14

Coard

Answer 14

There is a lack of black literature, history, music and role models in the curriculum, e.g. History teaches that the British civilised the ‘primitive’ people they colonised – this may create low self-esteem among black students and lead to failure. Also, the association of the word ‘black’ with negative connotations may affect the self-esteem of Afro-Caribbean students.

Question 15

Evaluation of Ethnocentric curriculum

Answer 15

Indian and Chinese students’ achievement is high so there is little evidence that the ethnocentric curriculum has any effect on achievement.

Question 16

Gillborn on teacher assessments

Answer 16

Argues that e/m pupils underachieve especially when the assessments are based on teacher’s judgements, not on externally marked tests.

For example, prior to 2003, primary school students used to be tested at the very start of the Reception year using the baseline tests. At the time, e/m students did well, even better than white students.

However, in 2003 the system was replaced with foundation stage profiles, these are entirely based on teacher’s judgement of students and are carried out at the end of the year. Since this system was introduced, e/m students have been underachieving.

This shows that teachers’ stereotyping of pupils affects the results.

Question 17

Gillborn Institutional racism

Answer 17

refers to institutional racism as locked-in inequality – whereby the scale of discrimination is so large that there is no longer any conscious intent to discriminate as discrimination is fully built into the way schools operate.
For example, the abilities of Afro-Caribbean students are underestimated and they are directed into lower level qualifications, e.g. foundation tiers in GCSEs or into BTECs. This means these students can’t get more than C grades and therefore can’t study A Levels. These decisions are made by teachers and could be based on stereotypes.

Question 18

Gillborn Marketisation and selection

Answer 18

Marketisation of education has allowed schools to select students. This puts ethnic minorities at a disadvantage as negative stereotypes can affect admission decisions.

Question 19

Moore and Davenport

Answer 19

Moore and Davenport – minority pupils fail to get into better schools because these schools use primary school reports to ‘screen out’ ‘problem’ students. Also, Non-English speaking parents may not understand the application process. That puts ethnic minority students at a disadvantage.

Question 20

Evaluation of marketisation of education

Answer 20

It is possible that parents send their children to schools where most of the other students are of the same ethnic background as a way of protecting their children from racism. This then causes ethnic segregation between schools.