Education- Ethnicity and Differential Achievement

Question 1

Who are the highest achievers at GCSE?

Answer 1

Chinese pupils

Question 2

How do Indian pupils perform in education?

Answer 2

Above the national average

Question 3

How do students from mixed ethnicity groups perform?

Answer 3

Above the national average

Question 4

Who have some of the highest rates of students entering higher education?

Answer 4

Female black and male Asian groups

Question 5

Who are least likely to continue into higher education?

Answer 5

Roma, white and Bangladeshi students

Question 6

What may be a reason for these statistics?

Answer 6

Some say that intelligence is inherited

Question 7

What did Gillborn find about labelling theory?

Answer 7

Teachers sometimes negatively label black students which could result in a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure

Question 7

What did Gillborn find about labelling theory?

Answer 7

Teachers sometimes negatively label black students which could result in a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure

Question 8

How can the school curriculum be seen as ethnocentric?

Answer 8

Languages in the national curriculum are mainly European and assemblies, school holidays and history lessons may not fit with culture and history of particular groups

Question 9

What does it mean that the curriculum is ethnocentric?

Answer 9

It might fit the mainstream, white, middle-class culture better than other ethnicities

Question 10

What does it mean by schools being ‘institutionally racist’?

Answer 10

Where policies and attitudes unintentionally discriminate against ethnic minority groups

Question 11

What did Wright find about institutional racism?

Answer 11

Even though members of staff said they were committed to equal opportunities, Asian girls got less attention from teachers and felt their cultural traditions were disapproved of, African-Caribbean boys were more likely to be punished and sent out of class

Question 12

What could labelling, curriculum and prejudice lead to in ethnic minorities?

Answer 12

Low self-esteem

Question 13

What did Mirza say about low self-esteem?

Answer 13

Black girls actually had positive self-esteem and high aspirations so it wasn’t low self-esteem affecting their achievement and rather being unwilling to ask for help or unwilling to choose certain subjects

Question 14

How can language be a barrier to immigrant families?

Answer 14

They may not speak the language when they first arrive in the UK

Question 15

What did the Swann report find?

Answer 15

Language didn’t affect progress for later generations

Question 16

What did Driver and Ballard find?

Answer 16

• Asian children whose first language wasn’t English were as good at English as classmates by age 16
• Close-knit extended families and high parental expectations increase levels of achievement in Asian communities

Question 17

What would labelling theory say about language?

Answer 17

It may not be a barrier but dialects or having an accent might influence teacher expectations and lead to negative labelling

Question 18

What did Archer and Francis find?

Answer 18

Chinese parents saw education as hugely important and this seemed to create a desire for achievement in Chinese families

Question 19

What do some sociologists say about high levels of divorce and single-parenthood in African-Caribbean households?

Answer 19

It could result in material deprivation, however many parents who do not live with their children are still heavily involved in their children’s lives

Question 20

Who are more likely to be in lower class positions?

Answer 20

Pakistani, Bangladeshi and African-Caribbean groups, this may result in poor housing, unemployment, poverty and material deprivation

Question 21

Who are more likely to be in higher class positions?

Answer 21

Chinese, African Asian and Indian groups so are less likely to experience material deprivation