EDUCATION - INTERNAL Ethnic differences in achievement

Question 1

LABELLING AND TEACHER RACISM

Brief outline

Answer 1

Teachers can label students as uncooperative, bright or stupid.

Interactionist studies found that teachers often see Black and Asian pupils as not being the ideal pupil.

These labels create self-fulfilling prophecies in addition to disadvantaging them in terms of teacher treatment.

Question 2

LABELLING AND TEACHER RACISM

Black Pupils:
Gillborn and Mirza

Answer 2

Found that teachers were far quicker at disciplining black pupils than other ethnicities for the same behaviour.

these radicalised expectations meant that teachers expected black pupils to present more behavioural issues and they often felt their authority was challenged more… conflict was furthered when the students challenged the telling off (which was actually misperception)

Question 3

LABELLING AND TEACHER RACISM

Black Pupils:
Jenny Bourne 1994

Answer 3

Found that black boys were perceived as a threat at school and so they were labelled negatively

This led to exclusion… affects achievement because only 1/5 excluded pupils achieve 5 GCSE passes.

Question 4

LABELLING AND TEACHER RACISM

Black Pupils + Streaming:

Gillborn and Youdell

Answer 4

G+Y also found that teachers dedicate more time to students who they feel will get between a-c and so this process of educational triage means that the negative stereotypes of black students affect their ability to be placed in higher sets… they are often placed in lower sets and streams.

Question 5

LABELLING AND TEACHER RACISM

Asian Pupils:
Wright

Answer 5

She did a study on multi-ethnic primary schools and found that Asian pupils are also victims.

teachers holding ethnocentric views meant that they believed that English culture and standard English was superior to other cultures.

they assumed that Asian students spoke poor English, and mispronounced their names.

Girls were predominantly marginalised and could not participate fully.

Question 6

LABELLING AND TEACHER RACISM

Asian Pupils stats

Answer 6

Highest achieving ethnic group? Chinese and Indian Asian. They are more likely to stay on in Education and enter university than all other ethnic groups.

2018-2019, Chinese pupils achieved 64 point score out of 90 for attainment.

Average: 47

Gypsy and Roma: 19, the lowest score.

** stats are positivist and can only show you so much… they can hide wide variations in individual achievement.

Question 7

PUPIL IDENTITIES

What are the three ways in which the dominant discourse constructs three different pupil identities?

Answer 7

1. IDEAL - white, M.C, masculine identity with heteronormative sexuality. The pupil is right and has natural initiative.
2. PATHOLOGISED - Asian, feminised identity, asexual or oppressed sexuality, this the conformist over-achiever who is successful because of hard work and not natural talent.
3. DEMONISED - black OR white, W.C, hyper-sexualised, unintelligent, peer-led and culturally deprived.

Question 8

PUPIL IDENTITIES

Farzana Shain

Answer 8

found in 2003, that Asian girls now challenge this stereotype but often are treated more severely following their challenge.

Question 9

PUPIL IDENTITIES

Chinese Pupils:
Archer

Answer 9

believes that minority pupils who are successful academically, can also be pathologies - they can be seen as abnormal.

though successful, they were successful through the wrong means…. Chinese pupils were hardworking and conformism and so they did not fit the ideal pupil

Chinese pupils face the negative-positive stereotype - they were thought to be M.C but passive because of different culture.

Question 10

PUPIL SUBCULTURES AND RESPONSES

Tony Sewell: Loose Cannons… the negative responses

Answer 10

this study focuses on absent fathers, influence of street culture and peer groups to seek an explanation for the underachievement of black boys.

1. REBELLION - the most visible and influential, they were the smaller minority of black pupils and were often excluded from school… they rejected the goals of the school AND the rules of the school. anti-authority, anti-school black, macho, lad stereotype. They thought masculinity = having a strong sex drive. They dismissed effeminate white boys.
2. RETREATISM - a small minority of isolated black individuals who were disconnected from the school and the black subculture… they were despised by the rebels.

Question 11

PUPIL SUBCULTURES AND RESPONSES

Tony Sewell: Loose Cannons… the positive responses

Answer 11

1. CONFORMISTS - largest group, keen to succeed, accepted the goals and had friends from multiple ethnic groups, not part of a subculture and were anxious in avoiding stereotypes by teachers or other students.
2. INNOVATORS - the second largest group who were pro-education but anti-school. They valued success but did not seek teacher approval… they distanced themselves from the conformists and allowed to maintain possible connection with the rebels.

Question 12

PUPIL SUBCULTURES AND RESPONSES

rejection of negative labels - Fuller 1984

Answer 12

Her study of black girls in year 11 in a London comprehensive school were untypical because they were high achievers in a school where black girls were usually placed in lower streams - an example of a rejected label.

Fuller explores how the girls rejected the negative stereotypes and channelled their anger into their educational success…. they did not seek approval of their teachers… they regarded them as racist.

They were friends with who they wanted to be… they showed deliberate lack of concern about school routines and they relied on their own efforts and impartiality of external exams to be successful.

1. pupils can succeed even without conforming
2. negative labelling does not equate to automatic failure.

Question 13

PUPIL SUBCULTURES AND RESPONSES

rejection - Mac an Ghaill 1992

Answer 13

study of black and asian a-level students at sixth form college reached similar conclusions with Fuller’s study.

students who believed teachers had labelled them negatively did not accept the label - their responses differed based on their ethnic group and gender. some girls believed their all-girl schools gave them greater academic commitment which helped them overcome negative labels at college.

Question 14

PUPIL SUBCULTURES AND RESPONSES

rejection but still a negative outcome - Mirza

Answer 14

she studied ambitious black girls who were subject to teacher racism. they were selective about the staff they asked for help, they did not participate and they chose certain options which restricted their opportunities, to avoid the racist teachers.

racist teachers discouraged black pupils from being ambitious through advice about careers and uni options.

1. COLOUR BLIND - I don’t see colour but I allow racism to happen.
2. LIBERAL CHAUVINISTS - it’s not my fault, they are culturally deprived.
3. THE OVERT RACISTS - white is right

Question 15

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM

The Commission for Racial Equality 1993

Answer 15

this identified biases in relation to ethnicity and education -

1. racist bias in enrolment interviews.
2. lack of info available in minority languages
3. minority parents often unaware of the enrolment procedures.

Question 16

Office for National Statistics 2019

Answer 16

86% of teachers were white

Question 17

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM

Critical Race Theory
Gillborn

Answer 17

Sees racism as an engrained feature of our society which means that it is not always individually intentional but can also seep into our institutions

They find that institutional racism is locked into our society… there is no conscious effort to discriminate, but the inequality is self-perpetuating.

Gillborn applies this concept to education because he sees ethnic inequality as a deeply-rooted feature of our education system… it is inevitable.

Question 18

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM - ways education is

Marketisation + segregation

Gillborn
Moore and Davenport

Answer 18

Gillborn argues that because marketisation gives schools more scope to select pupils, it allows negative stereotypes to influence school admissions.

M+D’s American Research supports Gillborn’s ideas - the selection procedures lead to ethnic segregation and so minority pupils fail to get into better secondary schools.

HOW? e.g., primary school reports were used to screen out pupils with language difficulties and the application process itself was difficult for non-English speaking parents to understand. These procedures favoured white pupils.

Question 19

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM

Ethnocentric curriculum

Miriam David - parentocracy woman
Ball - parentocracy is a myth man

Answer 19

the attitude of policy that prioritises one culture over another culture’s viewpoint.

this is usually the dominant culture…

LANG+LIT+MUSIC - Miriam David believes that the system is specifically British.

HISTORY - Ball believes the national curriculum promotes an attitude of Little Englandism. The history curriculum described the empire as a form of past glory which often ignores the awful things that the Black and Asian communities had to endure.

Question 20

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM

How does the ethnocentric curriculum produce underachievement?

Bernard Coard

Answer 20

The history curriculum, for example, may be presented as bringing civilisation to the primitive people the empire colonised… seeing certain ethnic minorities may play on ethnic student;s self-esteem etc.

Also, having a curriculum geared to one culture, it disregards the culture of others and so it makes it more difficult to engage and participate in e.g., family history in the war might be difficult for first-generation immigrants in this country.

Question 21

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM

Ethnocentric curriculum

Evaluation

Answer 21

There is no clear distinction between the Asian community’s academic success being above the national average.

Question 22

2022 APRIL REPORT - Commission on Young Lives in England

Answer 22

report found that black children are more likely to face tougher punishments in school because they are viewed as ‘less innocent’ and more ‘adult-like’ (adultism)

this leads to black children being disciplined more harshly, including being more likely to be excluded.

this report follows the case of Child Q who was strip-searched in school over drugs (which she was not in possession of) - she was asked to remove her sanitary towel.