EDUCATION: Ethnicity and education - Internal factors (institutional racism - Criticisms)

Question 1

Of Gillborns view

- How does Sewell reject this?

Answer 1

GILLBORN: Says internal factors - eg assessment - produces the failure of black boys
SEWELL: Rejects this as racism is not powerful enough to prevent people from succeeding - instead we need to focus on external factors like role of fathers

Question 2

Indian and Chinese achievement

- How does Gillborn respond to this

Answer 2

• Indian and Chinese pupils overachieve, so if these two groups do so well, how can there be institutional racism in education

GILLBORN: The image of Indian and Chinese pupils as ‘hardworking model minorities’ conceals the fact that the education system is systematically racist

• Makes the system seem fair - pupils achieve because they take initiative
• Justifies the failure of other minorities - black pupils fail because they are unwilling
• Ignores that ‘model minorities’ still suffer racism in schools - Chinese students report similar levels of harassment as Black Caribbeans

Question 3

Ethnicity, class, gender 
Connoly 
- What study did he conduct
- What did he find 
- How did teachers view black children 
- How did teachers view asian children 
- What does his study show about ethnicity, class and gender 

• What is the interactions effect

Answer 3

STUDY: 5 and 6 year olds in a multi ethnic inner city primary school
WHAT: Shows how pupils and teachers construct masculinity differently depending on a child’s ethnicity
BLACK: disruptive and they responded in non-academic ways
ASIAN: Passive and when they misbehaved, they were seen as immature rather than threatening
- Asian boys seen as more feminine
SHOWS: That we cant isolate class and gender from ethnicity

INTERACTIONS EFFECT: Class and gender interact differently depending on what ethnic background we are from
E.g there is a bigger gap between white WC and MC pupils than Black MC and WC pupils